Christmas Days Continue...

 Two days after Christmas...are these the "Twelve Days of Christmas"?  I believe they are, from December 25th until January 6th.  

Regardless of what we believe or don't believe about the 12 days of Christmas and what they represent,  these twelve days are special and somehow I just can't shut down "Christmas" too quickly. I am still enjoying the sweetness of the moments shared with loved ones and the happy memories made and the smiles on each face as we enjoyed the day together.

Today I didn't do a whole lot...just continuing to kind of clean up and put away things, washing up the new gifts that need washing...(any clothing articles, etc.) and simply enjoying the beauty of the twinkling lights on the tree and around the house. It was a rather dark and gloomy day, and we even had some light drizzly rain this afternoon.  I was thinking to myself that we haven't seen much of the sun or a sunset recently as the days have been rather cloudy. And then I looked out the window in my "room with a view" as I sat down to write...and this is what I saw:

The evening sun was breaking through the clouds and casting its reflection upon Still Waters Pond, brightening up the horizon and bringing a feeling of peace along with it.

One last look before the sun slipped down behind the trees and the clouds overtook it once again. 

Thank You, Lord, for smiling down upon us for a few brief moments. Sometimes we just need to see that!

I looked on my desk and saw this new coaster that I received as a little gift...it reminds me of my "One Word" for 2024..."Strength"...

And I was reminded that I also received this little card with this verse on it from a dear friend in Minnesota who sent some thoughtful gifts...I called her up when I opened this and asked her if she realized that strength was my "One Word" for 2024, and she said, "yes, I've read that in your blog".  (I didn't know she read my blog...she's not one of our blogging friends, but the sister of our dear daughter in law Rose, and a dear friend to us as well.) That really touched my heart.  It reminded me also that we do not know who all reads our blogs and just how far our words may be reaching!  I know of a couple of dear blogging friends from the Netherlands area, and one from New Zealand, but beyond that I am not sure.  But we just never know who is reading and what speaks to them.  A good reminder to always speak truth and life and light.

Going back to the coaster with Proverbs 31:25, "She is clothed in Strength and dignity..."   made me think about this very precious gift I received from my sweet daughter in law Rose...Bless her dear heart, she crocheted this for me! I asked her when did she have the time? She's been working long full time hours for the past several weeks, and I know she also has so much to do at home for their home business of creating and painting items that they sell on Etsy, etc. ...when did she find the time?  I am so blessed to have this dear girl for my daughter in love...

This is the back of it. Isn't it beautiful?  And it feels so nice and warm on my shoulders on these chilly, cloudy days.  What a thoughtful and beautiful gift from our thoughtful and beautiful daughter in love.

Back to special gifts...Here's another one created lovingly from our son and daughter in love:

I had seen a sign like that in a store and took a picture of it and told them that I liked it, and lo! and behold! They made it for me!

The "cozy up" theme seems to be catching on...

They also gave me this "cup of cozy" tea mug to go along with the sign and the cabin theme I am kind of developing here little by little.  

(the plate was something I found at our local flea market last year).

In my post HERE yesterday, I told you about the gift of the restored garden bench.  I thought there were some pictures taken of the boys with me after they set the bench down in the garden. They weren't in my camera,  so I asked Benton and Rose if they had them in their camera, and sure enough they did.

Thanks to Rose, who was standing up on the back porch taking these pictures, we do have them!

She was snapping pictures of Scott taking pictures of me on the bench: (LOL, look at him having fun with this)

Oh, we just discovered she was taking pictures...

Hi Rose! Come on down and join us!

I'm so thankful for these kids!

And thank you for praying for Rose. She is much better today finally, and hopefully will be able to go back to work tomorrow. And thankfully, none of the rest of us have gotten whatever bug she had. Praise God for that!! She was pretty sick! 

And I'm thankful for these "kids" too, happily playing with their new toys...

Talking about cozy, I took this picture looking inside the glass doors from out on the porch while I was watching the sunset.  I love how cozy the little train village looks beneath the tree...

Speaking of the train village, hubby and I received a couple of vintage Plasticville buildings to add to our little village from "Santa".  They are circa 1952 buildings, in their original very old and fragile boxes. Thankfully the buildings themselves are in excellent condition...

Hubby wanted the school house, and I do remember having that same building as a child in my parents' train village...

And this is a replacement for our train station building, because ours had a very badly cracked roof and the building was patched together with scotch tape and glue to keep it from falling apart.  

Here are the new buildings set up in the village:

The little red school house:

And the new train station:

Since I was down on the floor anyway, I decided to take a few more closeups of the other buildings in the village.  I had to scoot my way around the tree/village on the floor on my behind to get to all the places, and then, well, we won't talk about how much "FUN" it was for me to get back up again. Thankfully hubby wasn't holding the camera...

You can see some of these old buildings are still in need of some repair...but most of these are probably almost as old as I am, and I am in need of some repair too! LOL.

All is calm...all is bright...

I can almost see myself enjoying walking around in that peaceful little village. Wouldn't it be so nice?

"O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight

For Christ is born of Mary

And gathered all above

While mortals sleep, the angels keep

Their watch of wondering love

O morning stars together

Proclaim thy holy birth

And praises sing to God the King

And peace to men on earth

O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight"

Well, that's all for this third day of Christmas.  Tomorrow is another day, and maybe if I have time there will be something else interesting to share with you.  I've been enjoying getting around to reading what many of you have been sharing about your Christmas day. We are a blessed people. Very, very thankful, and praying for others who are struggling right now...the people in the mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee especially. May we not forget them,  and do whatever we are able to do to help financially or whatever we can.  

Friday Foto Friends! Decking the Halls...

 
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la la la! 'Tis the season to be jolly!

There's the "finished product", but still some tweaking to do on a few things on the village.

Hello Friends!  I know, it's Friday already, and I haven't written anything since Tuesday! What's this world coming to?  LOL.  Yes, I am still alive and kicking...but I've been quite preoccupied with getting our Christmas tree decorated and all of the trimmings around the house.  I managed to squeeze what should have been at least a week's job into three days.  My goal was to have it all done by Thursday evening, when our "kids" (a.k.a. Benton and Rose and the grandpups) were coming over to have supper and help set up the train and village under the tree. (Our new family tradition over the past three or four years, except this time Rose actually brought the food!! Yay!)  

We started out on Tuesday when Benton came over to help bring all the plastic totes of decor and the very heavy box with the tree into the house for us. That was a wonderful help.

I wish it was still this simple:

Those were simpler, happier days...

This is how far I had gotten on the tree on Tuesday:  Our tree is 20+ years old, and is the kind you have to insert every branch into the pole manually, and of course add your own lights. Every year I say we are going to get a new tree that is easier to work with, but every year we put this same tree back up. It still looks beautiful once it is put together, but the manual labor involved is becoming more than my back can handle, and it just never has been something hubby was involved in...so the days of doing this every year may be numbered...plus it is dropping as many needles as a dead pine tree...

I didn't get much else done on Tuesday as I had choir practice that night, and we are practicing for our Christmas Cantata, so that took care of that night as far as having any energy to do anything else goes!

Our carolers are practicing their Christmas songs...

"Joy to the World, The Lord is Come, Let earth receive her King!"...Let Heaven and Nature Sing...Let Heaven and Nature sing, Let Heaven, let heaven and nature sing!"

I did take this picture in the narthex of the church Tuesday night. Isn't this display beautiful? That is a manger at the foot of the cross, and on Christmas Eve the "Baby Jesus" will be placed in the manger.

I'm especially "proud" of this display because our son Benton built that cross for the church a few years ago so they would have it to use for displays at Christmas and Easter. So that makes it extra special to me to see it there. Our church secretary does an excellent job of decorating the church each year.

Our Baby Jesus in our Nativity scene at home is already in the manger...I guess some people don't put the baby in the manger until Christmas Eve, but I like having Him there to remind us that "Jesus is the Heart of the Holiday".

Wednesday morning I still didn't get much done on decorating at home as we both had lab appointments and that always means we go out to breakfast afterwards.  We ended up at a "deli/cafe'" in Palatka, but it wasn't our first choice of place because the one we wanted was packed and no place to park.  This place was also busy, but we did find a parking place, so in we went.

Hubby was happy with his breakfast...especially the biscuits.

I wish I'd gotten what he ordered. My potatoes were very dry and tasteless, the eggs were overcooked, and the toast really wasn't all that great either. And the place was freezing! 

(It was a rather chilly day for us here in Florida)

I sound like I'm really a complainer, don't I? I guess I was on this subject...the breakfast just wasn't very satisfying and it cost more than we wanted to spend. Next time we will come back to our own little town and eat at our local cafe'. Their food is always good!! And the price is better too!

However, I am thankful we were able to do this at all. I realize my problems are 1st world problems. I am also thankful to have my hubby to sit across the table from me and lovingly listen to my complaints without criticism. I am blessed to have him, and blessed to live in a place where we have these kinds of choices and places to go (or not go!) And also, the tea was nice and hot and holding the cup warmed my freezing hands! So that was a good thing to be thankful for.

Thinking about hot tea...This chrome (no it's not silver) tea set belonged to hubby's grandmother and was a special gift to her many years ago. I feel very blessed to have this, among many other things that belonged to her. She was a dear and precious Christian woman who had a profound impact on my hubby as well as on my life in the short time that I was privileged to know her.

It usually sits on the buffet, which also belonged to her (Nanny Martin), but has been moved to the kitchen so that the Nativity Set could be placed on the buffet.

Oh hello! I see I made a cameo appearance on this picture! LOL.

Speaking further about tea cups, here's the tea cup tree set up, along with some angels singing and little nativities and churches.

I had to move this lamp that usually sits on that table above to the guest room temporarily while the Christmas decorations are set up. It looks nice there, but I can't see it unless I go in there to look at it, so it will get moved back to the kitchen window after the holidays. 

But meanwhile, it makes me want to "visit" the guest room more often and just enjoy the view. However, very soon this room will be taken over with gifts waiting to be wrapped! The guest room becomes gift wrapping central in the weeks before Christmas!

Speaking of churches...Among those many totes of decorations was this beautiful little white church that lights up and has "snow" swirling around inside. It was a gift a couple of years ago.  Isn't it lovely?

So finally we make our way to Thursday:

The "kids" came to help set up the train set and village.  The grandpups Sugar and Spice are supervising Benton setting up the train tracks.

Hubby "Daddy" is also supervising:  (Remember, when you get old, you can't get down on the floor like you used to be able to, and if you DO get down on the floor, you may not get back up, so it's better to have some "younger folks" come do the on the floor stuff for us while they are still young enough to do it.  

And not only did Rose cook an amazing beef stew for our supper, she came and helped me "build" all these houses and buildings for the train village:

Even that is a labor of love, let me tell you!  These "Plasticville" buildings are probably older than I am, and they don't snap together anymore like they are supposed to do, (much like my old body! LOL) so we end up taping them to hold them in place. We could glue them, but then they would be harder to store and would get broken more easily. So we do the best we can with them. It's a "family tradition" passed down to us from my father from his father...a train village was always under their trees when my dad grew up. He collected Lionel trains and had quite an elaborate display at their house until he got too old to play with it anymore and sold most of it to collectors so the family wouldn't have to deal  with it.  I have mixed emotions about that, but it was for the best...

Click HERE for a previous post with  the history of trains in our family.

We finally got the village all set up, but for some reason Benton couldn't get the train to work properly. So we set it aside for now until Scott comes home on the weekend, and hopefully he can figure out what the problem is. He seems to have the electrical gene to figure things out.  

I still have some tweaking to do on the village, trying to get the lights inside the buildings without destroying the buildings, things like that.  It's hard to do when you can't get down on the floor and have an even harder time getting back up...but we already discussed that. LOL.

Finally all the decorating is done.  Sure, there will be little things here and there that get changed or moved around as needed, but the main work is done and now I can sit back and just enjoy the beauty of the lights and the little scenes of Christmas everywhere, and prepare my heart for the celebration of the birth of our Savior and Lord...  

As we said good bye to the kids last night on the front porch, I took pictures of the little grapevine tree that we put out there each year...

We don't go all out with lots of outdoor decorations because we just don't have the energy, the electricity connections out front, and besides, we prefer to keep it the simple real message of Christmas:

Tonight I went back outside to look at the lights, and saw a great light up in the sky above:

It's a crescent moon, but you can also see a star or planet off in the distance, and it is really beautiful.

I took this picture from the back porch:

Made me think about the Star of David over Bethlehem that led the Magi to find the child Jesus and bring him gifts.

"O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight

For Christ is born of Mary

And gathered all above

While mortals sleep, the angels keep

Their watch of wondering love

O morning stars together

Proclaim thy holy birth

And praises sing to God the King

And peace to men on earth

O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight"

Now, just for the fun of it, these are some "outtakes" of pictures that I accidentally took or blurred or something while trying to take all these pictures...mostly the ones outside. Not sure what was going on, but thought you'd enjoy seeing them anyway. Especially I thought our friend Sandra, "MadSnapper" would appreciate them.  She loves crazy stuff like this, right Sandra?   LOL.

The Angel Appeared to the Shepherds to announce Jesus' Birth, and they were "sore afraid".

The Heavenly Host of  Angels singing Glory to God in the Highest!

Use your own imagination to figure them out!

The Three Wise Men traveling across the desert for two years to find the Baby King that was born in Bethlehem

They followed the star to Bethlehem, and the star stood above the house where the child Jesus was, and they brought Him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh:

"God rest ye merry gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born on Christmas Day

To save us all from Satan's pow'r

When we were gone astray

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

God rest ye merry gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born on Christmas Day

To save us all from Satan's pow'r

When we were gone astray

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

In Bethlehem, in Israel

This blessed Babe was born

And laid within a manger

Upon this blessed morn

The which His Mother Mary

Did nothing take in scorn

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Fear not then, said the Angel

Let nothing you affright

This day is born a Savior

Of a pure Virgin bright

To free all those who trust in Him

From Satan's pow'r and might

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

God rest ye merry gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born on Christmas Day

To save us all from Satan's pow'r

When we were gone astray

Oh tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

Oh tidings of comfort and joy"

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Avriel Kaplan / Ben Bram / Kevin Olusola / Kirstin Maldonado / Mitchell Grassi / Scott Hoying / Traditional

So from our house to yours, Have blessed and beautiful Christmas/Advent season!