Tuesday 4 ~ Hello December

 Well, "Hello December" is our theme for this week's Tuesday 4 meme. So before I get into it, I need to do the calendar  roll call for December! I already shared one them last night HERE.  But I know you are all waiting to see the rest of them, right?  LOL.  So here we go:

Here's the John Sloane Country Seasons Calendar for December:

I just love all the details in this picture...trees for sale, the lit lantern, the horse ready to carry the man and his packages and Christmas tree back home.  The title is "Satisfied Customer", and he does look very pleased indeed. I would be too if I could shop at such a place...wouldn't you? Although it looks like it would be a chilly ride back home!

But not as chilly as it would be to live in one of these cabins!  Yikes! I do hope that snow doesn't fall off the roof on top of someone! I'm not sure that anyone is actually staying in these cabins right now...what do you think? It sure looks like a very bleak and cold place!  We were freezing here this morning in Florida at 34 degrees! And even though I have lived in the wintry north where there was a lot of snow and mountains, I was younger then, and I really don't think I would want to do that again at this stage in life!

But if I did live there, I might have to try and make some of this "Chocolate Mint Coffee", although I don't drink coffee, so maybe just a chocolate mint cocoa would be better! LOL.

This is the Susan Branch calendar...always something cute and fun. And yes, I guess the "Elves make their own magic."  They are such fun and mysterious little creatures, aren't they?  

Ah, now this is more my style! This is the Teapot Calendar for December...a child's Christmas tea set, with a gingerbread house and a teddy bear...looks like a happy little scene for the child in me...

Here's my little tea set that belonged to my grandmother! It is very similar in style to the one above, except that it is plain and not decorated for Christmas...and that little red-headed girl is having "Breakfast with Teddy" (that is the actual title on the card).  I've saved that little picture for years, because she reminds me of myself as a little girl.

Yes, Alice, "It's always tea-time." We just have to have a little imagination!

And now that we've gotten the calendar roll-call out of the way, let's move on to the Tuesday 4 for today and see what's happening there!

Hello December!

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and you may be looking forward to Chanukah and Christmas both of which are December 25th. Chanukah is the day the temple, which had been desecrated was rededicated and the huge light within was restored to earth! That light represented the presence of God on earth with man. Also winter begins in just a couple of weeks....


1. Do you have plans for the coming holidays?

As of right now, we do not have any particular plans for the Christmas holidays, except for our traditional Christmas activities with the church and family and friends. We do not plan to go anywhere special that we know of at this time.

2.What foods do you look forward to during these upcoming holidays?

We really haven't discussed what we will be having for  Christmas dinner yet.  Last year we had lasagna, (and we had some extra special friends here with us to enjoy that meal together)Click here for last year's celebration, and that actually will answer some of these questions!  This year, because Christmas is in the middle of the week, and the kids' work schedules are not quite as flexible as before, we may have a very scaled down Christmas day with just the immediate family here...and we still haven't discussed what we want to eat.  I do hope our son Scott will have time to bake some cookies. I really would like some of my Grandma Mursch's Sand Tarts again, but that takes a lot of time, and I don't know if he will have time to do it and I don't know if I want to tackle it alone. It's more fun with someone helping you! Maybe I can get Rose to help me, but she's working full time again, and putting in a lot of long hours, so I doubt she'll have any spare time. She did help me one year with this. You can read about that HERE. (and also see the recipe!) We'll see what develops.

3.Are there traditions for the holidays that you look forward to each year? Also, how do you spend the days ahead of the holidays.. shopping? Cooking? Listening to Music> Hallmark movies? Do tell!!!  

See the link above about the cookies.  Regarding the days ahead of the holidays, yes, shopping (but I do NOT enjoy that part of it. I am NOT a good shopper and it is always a difficult task for me.) Cooking? I like to bake cookies, but prefer to have someone else enjoy that tradition with me! 

Listening to music?  Yes, hubby and I both love to listen to Handel's Messiah during the Christmas holidays, as well as other classical Christmas music by Mozart and others. I enjoy regular Christmas carols and Christian Christmas music.  I also participate in our church Christmas cantata each year, and that takes a lot of practice and preparation.  We will present the cantata in the Sunday morning service before Christmas.  We also participate in a special Candlelight service at a neighboring church, where our choir sings some Christmas music along with other choirs. It's always a very special night! Also our Women in Faith group at our church always has a lovely Christmas luncheon that I look forward to attending and hopefully my DIL Rose will be able to go again this year.  Here is a LINK to all of these things from last year.  

As far as movies, we watch a few special Christmas movies throughout the season.  My favorite one is "The Bishop's Wife" (the original one with Loretta Young and Cary Grant). But we also enjoy the fun ones like A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, etc. 

4. What advice can you give for making the holidays memorable and bright?

Try to pace yourself and don't overdo it. Get plenty of rest! Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. All the other activities, although noble and fun and important, should never take away from or supersede spending time celebrating the Birthday of the King, Jesus Christ our Lord! That's why I love that our church celebrates the Advent season with the lighting of the candles on the Advent wreath each week, and sharing the Christmas story through the reading of God's Word.  It helps me to prepare my heart for welcoming the Christ-child into my heart and life anew and fresh each year...celebrating Him coming to earth to save us from our sins.  There are links on the right side margin of my blog for all aspects of the Advent season. If you want to know more about Advent.

Matthew 1:21 NKJV

21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Okay, now let's go see what others are doing during this most wonderful time of the year! Click HERE to join the fun!  Thank you, Annie, for another year full of fun and interesting Tuesday 4 posts.  You have carried on this tradition from our dear departed Toni Taddeo very lovingly and nobly.  I know Toni would be very very pleased.