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.

Friday Advent Window

 

A glorious sunrise greeted us this morning...

A chilly start to another lovely day...

I am running a bit behind in my posting, and usually don't get around to writing until later in the evening, so this "Friday" post will most likely not get seen until Saturday. Oh well! I should be doing my Christmas cards right now, but I just can't seem to get with the program, so I will sit here and write and maybe I will get inspired to write our annual Christmas letter.  We've sent out a Christmas letter for almost every year since I can remember. Oftentimes it was a way to let people know where we were and if we had a new address. I would try to send them out early enough so people would know where to send our Christmas cards! LOL.  Thankfully we have settled down (hopefully for good, but I never can promise anything...that's God's department, not mine), and our address should remain the same for many more years, Lord willing.  

I had to get some more printer ink before I could write the letter, and then I had to get some Christmas cards to put with the letter .  We went to Walmart the other day looking for boxes of Christmas cards, and they did not have a one! Not one box! They had some little packages of a few cards and single cards, but no boxes! I ran into several people also looking for cards, and we even had some interesting conversations about the issue...total strangers all with the same problem! Except for one dear lady who informed us when she overheard a couple of us ladies commiserating, that she ordered her cards months ago from some company that prints the signature and the return address on the envelope and all she had to do was put them in the envelopes and address them and put on the stamp, and she already mailed all her cards the day after Thanksgiving!  I wanted to say "Well bless your heart" to her, and of course mean it in a very sweet southern way, of course...but I refrained and thanked her for the kind information, because someone might misconstrue what I meant by "bless your heart".  It seems there's a double meaning for that here in the south...and truly I only want to express good will and Christmas joy wherever I go...

Well anyway, I digress. I came home and ordered cards online and they were delivered within two days. So now I need to get to work on them. I am learning about this online shopping. Pretty soon there will be no need for regular stores. Just order it and have it delivered.  It's all too convenient. I do appreciate it, but it isn't good for the small business people.  Although I do believe there will always be a need for places to shop. It's just a part of our culture and DNA.  

Okay, I am sorry if it seems as though I am writing a speech or something. It's time to slow down and have a moment of peace and rest.  How about you?  I know some of you may also feel the need to put everything on "pause" for a little while and just dwell in the quietness of the real meaning of Christmas...a little newborn Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger...a rustic cattle stall, because there was no room in the Inn.  (Luke 2:7)

Can you imagine with me how all of nature just stopped and knelt down in awe and wonder when that baby was born?  

I wonder if even the little woodland creatures knew that this was their Creator, wrapped in human flesh and lying in that manger? 

He was not just any Babe; this baby was sent to us to give us faith, hope, and love...and to "guide our hearts forever".  

This baby was Jesus,  "

The Wonderful Counselor, 

the Mighty God, 

the Everlasting Father, 

the Prince of Peace...

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end."

Isaiah  9:6-7

Matthew 1:22-23

"22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Here is a song I just discovered, "His Name is Wonderful", originally by Chris Tomlin. Kind of a nice way to finish this Advent Window for today...

And now to get those Christmas cards done...

Good Night friends...Have a blessed weekend...

'Twas four days before Christmas...

This lovely outdoor nativity scene will be explained later. I just wanted to start out with this lovely picture to help me get back into the right frame of mind and heart for writing tonight.

 Yes, it is only 4 days before Christmas, and all through the house a lot of creatures are stirring...maybe even a mouse! Well, not really, thank goodness!!! Although we do have some kind of critter that keeps digging holes in our yard and trying to burrow under the house.  We think it's an armadillo, but we haven't seen him with our eyes yet...just his holes in the ground. Anyway, that has nothing to do with Christmas, so let's move right along! LOL.

Speaking of our yard, our azaleas have been blooming for the past couple of weeks...they are so beautiful...

These are some of the plants I planted since we moved here 3 years ago.  The weather has been so warm lately that they have been blooming a bit early.  But the weather is about to change...freezing temperatures in the low 20's are on the way for the weekend! That may not seem so bad for many of you, but here in Florida that is very cold, and can be quite harmful to the economy of the citrus growers and ferneries and other agriculture in the state.  I know many places up north are going to be having blizzard conditions and sub zero temperatures, so we will definitely be praying for you as well. Please stay warm and safe.  I hope your Christmas plans won't be upset too much by the weather. 

Yesterday morning I had to have fasting lab work done (routine), and so when that happens we usually go out for breakfast afterwards.  We had begged off from working at Dixie Cottage yesterday so that we could also go do some shopping afterwards, and so we did.

Here's the place where we had breakfast:

I liked that little chrome tea pot full of hot water for my tea, so of course I took at picture:

I also liked that handsome man across the table from me drinking his coffee, so I had to take his picture too:

I liked the food we both were about to eat, so I had to take a picture of that as well! LOL.

And I also liked the fresh orange slices they gave us with our meal, so hubby took a picture of me about to eat mine:

It was a great breakfast, and then we did go do some shopping until time for lunch, so we headed home to eat and then rest up for a special evening last night.  And that is where that picture of the outdoor Nativity Scene comes in.

This is the indoor nativity scene inside the church we visited last night.

Last evening our church choir traveled to a neighboring community church and we had a Candlelight Christmas program with them and also another church choir joined us. Each choir sang a couple of songs from our Christmas cantatas, and then our pastor was the guest speaker.

This is the beautiful scene inside the church. We do this every year, and I've shared pictures from there before.

Here we are when it was our turn to sing. I am standing in behind the others to sing a solo in one of the songs, and needed the microphone.

Here's the rest of the choir...

We had such a great time. After the service we all processed out to that lovely outdoor nativity scene, holding our little candles and singing Silent Night, Holy Night. It was very moving.

Also during the program they had a guest organist play a medley of Christmas music on the church's new pipe organ. He was extremely gifted and truly blessed us with the music he played.

I spoke with him afterwards at the little reception/fellowship time in their fellowship hall, and learned that he also is an organ repairman!  I told him about the organ that we have at our house that used to belong to my parents and now it belongs to our son Scott, who loves to play it but he doesn't really read music. He loves to make up his own music and has always called it his "therapy".  Anyway, I told this man about the organ and that it needs some work done, but it is so old and out of date, one of those 1970's era synthesizer type organs, and he said he knew all about them as he used to sell them. Anyway, he said that perhaps sometime when he is coming back through our area to maintain some area church organs he will let us know and stop by to evaluate the organ to see if it is repairable or even financially feasible to do so.  I sent him some pictures of it this morning so he will know what he's looking at:

It does still work, but needs some "tweaking". We shall see what develops. It may be cost prohibitive and if so, Scott will just have to continue to enjoy it "as is".

This is a picture of Scott, when he was about age 10 or 11, playing the organ at my parents' home.

And a picture of Scott playing the organ while we were "in transit" (moving).

Today found me again out "shopping until I dropped"...I know, I know...most of you have had your shopping done for months or weeks or at least days.  And most of you have everything wrapped and neatly stacked under the tree already...and the cookies are baked and the house is immaculate and everything is under control.  I commend you all for it and I appreciate the organization and creativity you each possess when it comes to getting ready for Christmas.  I truly wish I were more like you, but I'm not. When it comes to shopping, I procrastinate until the last minute. I have a thing about shopping...I do not enjoy it.  I have meltdowns in aisle 5 or wherever I happen to be when I have finally had enough and just can't take one more step or look at one more cute thing that someone surely must want for Christmas. I don't even like to shop online. Too many decisions to make...too many comparisons...and I can't see it in person or feel the quality of it or make sure it really is true to size...yes, shopping is a literal nightmare for me. So there! Now you know it.   I would be SO happy if we could just be together and enjoy a nice visit over a cup of tea or coffee and some nice cookies or pie or some other goody that will eventually get baked, and spend time laughing and talking and sharing our life's stories with one another...no pressure...and whatever gifts are exchanged are gifts from the heart. 

Okay, rant over. Now let's move on to more pleasant subjects...LOL. Forgive me. I hope I didn't offend anyone here. It's just something I go through every year and at this age it's not likely to change. And yes, we will have a wonderful Christmas, full of the joy of the real gift of Jesus our Savior...and there will be many gifts exchanged and loved and cherished...no matter the cost or how big or small...it's the love between family and friends that matters most and that will be celebrated.

Speaking of gifts...You may not fully understand or appreciate this "gift", but it is an "early Christmas gifts".  While hubby and I were out shopping, I found this rolling drawer cabinet at Big Lots. I told hubby I wanted, no needed,  this particular item to help restore my sanity.  Let me explain.

Do any of you struggle with the myriads of plastic bowls and lids that accumulate in your cabinets? Now, we all know that we need plastic bowls and their matching lids (if they can be found) to store leftovers, etc.   Well, storing these items has become a matter of some frustration for me, because the only place I could put them was in a lower cabinet, where I had to literally sit down on the floor and search through the lids and bowls to find what I needed, and then try to get back up off the floor with said bowl and lid and hope it fits, etc.  Anyway, I've been saying for some time that I want some drawers to put these in so they can be more easily obtained. Since we no longer have a dishwasher, the space where it was is vacant. It would be a perfect spot to install a cabinet with some drawers big enough and deep enough to house these plastic bowls and lids.   I had mentioned this to my carpenter son some time ago, but since the start of Dixie Cottage all extra "projects" have been put on hold. 

Therefore, when I saw this plastic rolling cart of drawers for sale, I measured it, and knew it would fit and that it would work perfectly! We loaded it up and brought it home and voila! I am a happy Mama!

I know, it's plastic, but hey, it works. And if my son ever gets enough time to build a real cabinet, then this can be used for something else. But until then, I am very thankful to have found this.

The bottom drawer even had some room for some bottled water that had been sitting on the floor in that space before.

Okay dear friends. That's it for now. I hope you forgive my grumbling about shopping, etc. Actually, I love being able to give gifts to others...I just wish I was better at it.  Someday...

Let us not forget about what is the most perfect gift ever:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; 

it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Ephesians 2:8-9

Jesus, the perfect gift from God, given to us so that by believing in Him, we will have the gift of salvation...all it takes is faith in believing and accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord!  There can be no greater gift than that...and we don't have to go shopping for it, or spend lots of money to obtain it, or work hard to earn it.  It's a free gift...ours for the taking!  

Good night dear friends. And I pray you have a blessed and very Merry Christmas, filled with the joy of the best gift of all. Amen.

Thursday Thankfulness and Life in the Christmas Village

There's a full moon rising out there, and it is so beautiful. My little phone camera doesn't have the special features to really zoom in on the moon, but we can enjoy looking at it anyway and give thanks to the Lord for letting His Light shine on us so beautifully.  God placed the moon and the stars in the heavens for us to enjoy, and so I will give Him praise and thanksgiving for these gifts.

And while I was outside looking at the moon, I also enjoyed looking at our little grapevine Christmas tree on the front porch.  My son Benton and I made that little tree out of the wild grapevines found in our woods around our previous home in the Ocala National Forest. It was a job to do, but I'm so glad we did it.  This little tree has blessed our front porches ever since.

This is a close up of the little Nativity scene on the top of the porch tree. Jesus was born in a stable outside, so it is fitting that this is also outside...

And here's the lit up view of the stable...I'm so thankful for Jesus, that little Babe in the manger...aren't you?

Luke 2: 6-7

"6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

I am thankful for our kids and grand pups coming over to help us set up the train and village last night.

Sugar and Spice were quite curious about everything that was going on.  

Here's Benton putting together the train tracks...

And meanwhile Rose helped me set up all the little buildings for the village.

Our village is the old fashioned Lionel Plasticville type of buildings, and they are not very user friendly like the new cute little village buildings you can buy in the store. These are plastic, and have to be snapped together, and they really don't hold together very well anymore as they are quite old, so we have to tape the corners and carefully set them up on a flat surface and pray they don't fall apart before you can get them set up under the tree.  It's quite challenging, and I am happy Rose is patient and willing to help me with this project each year.

Meanwhile, Benton got the train engine running on the track, and Sugar and Spice went kind of crazy. They had never seen this before and they were very very excited and barking and somewhat afraid of that little black engine going around on that track.  

It took some doing to calm them down, but every time the train started up again, they were right there barking like it was the most exciting thing they'd ever seen. It was really quite funny. Their tails were wagging the whole time.

Finally we got most of the village set up, and then Benton and I tried to get the whole train moving on the track. It took some time and patience as we worked out the wrinkles...mostly the wrinkles in the sheet under the track that kept getting hung up on the train...

You can see the doggies are still quite interested in this project.

Another thing I am very thankful for is that I was able to get down on the floor with a little more ease than this time last year. AND, I was able to get back up without going through tremendous pain. (Still needed to figure out HOW to get back up,  but once I got myself moving in the right direction, it wasn't so terrible). Last year this time I was still recovering from neck surgery and had a very badly frozen shoulder and weak and painful arms. So trying to do this last year was almost impossible for me. But this year, even though I still have some shoulder/upper arm issues on both arms, it is not nearly as bad as before and I am VERY thankful to God for His continued healing.

And, I enjoyed being able to get down and "play" with the trains with our son. Sweet times. We missed having our son Scott here to help us with this,  as he is the more agile of the whole bunch, but we managed to get it done. When he comes home to visit he will be surprised!

This train and village is the same one that our kids played with when they were little boys. My dad, who was a toy train collector, gave them the train, and we accumulated the village buildings little by little over the years.  

Here is a link to the post I wrote about this a couple of years ago. This tells more of the history of the train set and village with our kids. We have a lot of precious memories with all three of our boys back in the day playing with the trains. 

So today I tried to finish setting up more of the village people.

It is a job to get down there on the floor and do this. Maybe one day we will figure out a way to put this up on a table...

But we only do this once a year, and it's definitely NOT done to perfection.  

But it brings back a lot of happy memories and we enjoy being a "child" again at Christmas time...

I try to envision myself living in this little village and putting myself in the place of those little tiny people going about their daily lives...going to church, the kids going to school, people coming and going at the train station...there's a big hospital where people go to get well when they are sick, and there's a skating pond for the kids to enjoy.  

It's just a microcosm of life in the world today...although we don't seem to be as dependent on the trains as we used to be.  That's kind of sad in a lot of ways...but life moves on.

I am thankful for our little village where we live now, and for the people who come and go and live and love and share their lives with us in various ways.

We are blessed to live in a free country...and I pray that never ever changes...may we never take these freedoms for granted...

Well, that's the tour of the Christmas village...Oh...Baby Elva and Lily Grace and their little friends Bailey and Boo Bear are enjoying the train and village too.  

One more thing...

One of our dear and very talented blogging friends paints a new Santa picture each year. Then she takes a picture of it and creates her own special Christmas cards.  I don't know if you know Linda Chapman or not,, from Linda's Life Journal, but I was so thrilled and blessed to receive this beautiful Christmas card from her in the mail and I was just awestruck! Truly she is very talented...and I love that this Santa is holding a snow globe in his hands that has a nativity scene inside of it. What a blessing! Thank you, Linda, for sharing your gifts with us. I feel so honored and blessed to have received this card from you! 

And now I know I need to get busy and send out some cards myself, but I honestly am not sure that I will be able to send a lot of them this year. I mostly send our cards to people that I don't get to communicate with as often throughout the year on social media, etc....some family and old friends who aren't necessarily computer savvy and thus they don't keep up with our daily activities like we all do here, but I want to stay in touch with them and Christmas is usually the only time.  So, please don't be hurt if you don't hear from me at Christmas time via the mail. "My spirit is willing, by my flesh is weak"...LOL.   But to those of you who do send out cards, I commend you and thank you for them. 

Each and every one of you is a blessing to me, and I look forward to hearing from you here in blogland and Facebook, etc., as often as possible! You are very special people indeed.

Okay, that's it folks. I need to call it a night. 

Oh, I forgot the most important thing I am thankful for this week...

my health! I am finally feeling so much better than I was for the past two weeks. I am very very thankful for that!! Praise God!

Okay,  Good night dear ones.

May God bless you each and every one.