Carriage Rides & Balloons

We went to the Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers' Market this morning ~ it was kind of brisk but the sun was shining ~ it was a nice day to be outside. We picked some baked goods and candy, and we found some really nice looking produce. My father-in-law liked the looks of the New York strip steaks and bought four of them for dinner next Monday. He's been talking about beef for a couple weeks ~ he's really looking forward to his steak dinner.

When we left the market and headed out to the parking lot again, we ran into a carriage being drawn by a couple of beautiful horses. The shopping center was offering free carriage rides...

...with Santa, and a balloon artist was making and passing out...

...Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer balloons! They were very cute!

The horses were beautiful!

The rest of the day was very full ~ I did some decorating, more shopping and then all my children and the two grandbabies came to visit.
This is how my day ended up! Hugs with the babies!!

Our 1st Annual Ladies' Luncheon

Last Saturday we held our 1st annual Ladies' Luncheon at my church. We've been working on this for a few months. It was lovely ~ we had hostesses for each table and they brought in their china, linens and all kinds of decorations and set these beautiful tables!

Each table had it's own mini potluck ~ the hostess coordinated the meal. I took these pictures before the "party" began ~ that's why there's no people. But once everyone started arriving it was a party indeed!! Everyone had a wonderful time. It was an afternoon full of food, music, fellowship, fun and a wonderful message. Maybe we should try this again next year.....but don't tell anyone I said that.....I wouldn't want them to think I was volunteering or anything! : )

Oh Christmas Tree ~ Oh Christmas Tree.....

I love my tree this year ~ it has so many twinkle lights and so many memories. I had the best time putting it up. Here's a peek at some of the reasons I love it!

Here's my Mandy putting the tree skirt in place for me ~ her knees are much younger than mine!

Ta~da! The tree ~ I wish I had a better shot of the whole thing ~ but you get the idea!

This little fellow is known, lovingly, as the evil elf...kinda scary looking, isn't he? My husband bought the elf for his mom over 50 years ago. He also bought the cute beaded Santa in the next picture. These are two of our favorite ornaments. The calico links that you see are part of a fabric chain ~ like the red & green paper ones many of you must have made in school. I made this chain in 1980 ~ it's over 18 feet long!

This sweet plaid airplane was purchased for the Christmas tree that was at the grave site of my first child, Ronnie. He passed away in September of 1975 when he was 4 months old. In December my mom bought a little tree to take to the cemetery and I hung this airplane on it. It was there for all of a snowy December in Michigan. After Christmas I brought the airplane home and it's hung on our trees ever since. Every year I buy Ronnie a new ornament for the tree.

I think this next one is my most favorite ornament ~ my sister, Emily, gave it to me. I love how it looks (it's a shadow box kind of look) and I love that it's a special memento from her.

We each get new ornaments every year. I thought it would be a good way for my children's ornament collection to grow ~ three of them have married and have homes of their own, and they've taken a lot of the ornaments with them. Fortunately Mandy loves ornaments ~ she buys a few new ones for herself each year. When she moves out ~ half of what's on the tree will probably go with her. Here comes her special one for this year ~ isn't it sweet! She found it at Pier 1.

Even my flying pig got trimmed with an ornament this year! My mom loves this pig ~ no, not really ~ she thinks it's one of my odder pieces of decor.

Look, Charlotte found one she likes!

I put out a lot of other things too ~ but I don't want to bore you ~ I'll show them to you another time! Thanks for visiting!

I love Christmas!!

How about "a spot of tea"?

We're a little quiet at work today ~ so I took at peek at etsy. I thought I'd take a quick break and show you what I found here.

"a spot of tea"

Too cute!

Such a Lovely Day!

There's been so much going on lately ~ I didn't think I'd ever get around to doing some Christmas decorating ~ especially with not feeling well for a couple weeks! But, I feel better now AND I took a day off from work and got a bunch of stuff done....Yippee!

We got a new tree this year ~ it's pre-lit and it's beautiful. In the past my husband wound (very neatly) about 1200 lights on our tree. It always looked lovely and he always swore he'd never do it again! Well, this year he got his wish. He had this tree up in no time last night.

Pretty nice, don't you think? He also got the Christmas crates out for me so I could get right into decorating. There's eight crates all together ~ packed full of Christmas goodies! Here's six of them.

Come back and visit me late Thursday and see how I transformed the tree (and the rest of the living room too)! I love how it turned out!

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It wouldn't be Wednesday is I didn't show off some grandbaby pictures! Here's our sweet little Elijah. He spent most of Sunday with us while my son and his wife went out to dinner and the theater. He's been sick for a week or so and he wasn't his usual smiley self. This is him just before he left ~ Aunt Mandy was trying one more time to make him happy! He paid close attention ~ but no smile!

Charlotte came to visit us this evening. She is the wiggliest little thing these days. She hasn't mastered crawling yet ~ but boy, does she want to! I bought some large ornaments to use as props for baby pictures and Charlotte got to inspect them a bit tonight. She loved the red ones!

She also loved the tree ~ stay tuned for that!

It's A Wonderful Life!

My all time favorite Christmas movie is "It's A Wonderful Life" ~ actually it's my most favorite movie ~ period! I like the memories it stirs up and the truths it reminds me of.

I love to reminisce ~ especially when it involves simpler, sweeter times. That’s what this movie does for me. It turns my thoughts to my youth ~ black & white movies and TV (I loved the Donna Reed Show), it makes me remember fun times in the high school drama club (one of the musicals we did was “Harvey” ~ Jimmy Stewart starred in it). It reminds me of what really matters in our lives. So often we focus on finances, status, and material wealth ~ forgetting that it’s family and friends that really matter. It’s having others “to do unto” that brings happiness into our hearts. Life is all about people and how we treat them.

I wonder what my little part of the world would have been like had I not been in it? More to the point, since I have been in it, I hope I've impacted ~ for good ~ those in it with me. I hope I've made a difference in a positive way!

Did I mention that I love this movie? I really do ~ and I do believe it's time to watch it again!

What's your favorite holiday movie?

Fresh Out of Memories

I think the past week was one of the busiest weeks I've had in long time. There was something going on every night ~ plus our church's Ladies' Luncheon was Saturday and my office dinner was Sunday. My grandbabies visited and I'm still hanging on to some kind of cold. Most of the week was a lot of fun ~ but I'm worn out! I am too tired to remember much of anything, so no random Monday memories this week! I will share some pictures from the luncheon soon ~ it was great fun!

For now, please take a look at the cute little wooden mitten ornament I received from Bev at country frog creations. I love the curvy wire hanger! Bev and I are in a mitten swap (check it out here) and part of the group just did a mitten ornament swap. Bev included a couple really sweet little mitten graphics. "Note" to Linda at grace filled moments ~ I'm mailing your mitten ornament today!

Winter Wonderland Ornament Swap

I joined this swap (link's in my sidebar) a while back ~ never realizing that mailing out the ornaments would fall in the busiest week of December (for me anyway!) But I'm ready...my "winter wonderland" ornaments will be going out later today.

Here are the little pillow ornaments I made, using some sweet little girl images that are ironed onto fabric. The back of the pillow is a tiny red print. I trimmed them with some glittery snow and a tag full of joy!

I'm in a group of five (including myself) and will mail off four of these ornaments. I forgot to take some pictures until after I packaged up one of them. I hope that JoAnna, Robin, Angie & Yolanda like them!


I'm looking forward to receiving my ornaments too! Now, if only I could find time to put up the tree!! What a month it's been ~ and to think I've only experienced four days of it......

Pictures!!

Just getting to know each other....

Elijah enjoying a roll that Aunt Katie made.

Charlotte showing off her new teeth.

I love cameras ~ and (grand) babies!

Baby Shoes & Boxes

I have an opportunity to put some things in another Christmas home show this weekend ~ I had some items left over from the last one, so I thought why not! But there wasn't a lot left so I made about a half dozen new pieces to send along. I decided to try making some baby shoe pincushions. I've seen them on several blogs and I think they look so sweet. When I had my gift shop I used to make sugar bowls & creamers into pincushions and I loved making them. These are even better ~ because they're BABY shoes ~ and I love babies! I made three of them. I think they turned out pretty good. I do have a favorite. The one that says "bless" on it.

It was the best color of the three, probably the softest shoe, and definitely the oldest one.

I love the bottom of the shoe ~ it says "Pit-a-Pats". How sweet is that!

I also packaged up the first and second place prizes for my recent giveaway, tucked in a note and will mail the goodies off to their new homes tomorrow. I'm still waiting for one address and then I'll get the other mailed off.

***UPDATE***

Prize package #3 was also mailed on Wednesday!

I love sending presents!

Random Monday Memories

We've lived in the Washington D.C. area since 1990. In the eighteen years since then we've made numerous trips to our nation's capital. Every time we had guests from out of town we would do the tour guide thing and see the sights that D.C. had to offer. Our children had numerous school field trips to D.C. and hockey games, cherry blossoms and Christmas lights often drew us there.

The Washington Monument is always a highlight of our trips to Washington D.C.

It was built between 1848 and 1884 as a memorial to George Washington, first President of the United States. Its construction took place in two major phases, 1848-56, and 1876-84--the Civil War and a lack of funds causing the intermittent hiatus.

Weighing 90,854 tons, the Washington Monument stands 555' 5-1/8" tall. The walls of the monument range in thickness from 15' at the base to 18'' at the upper shaft. They are composed of white marble from Maryland and Massachusetts, underlain by granite, the whole supported by interior ironwork. A slight color change is perceptible at the 152' -level. A flight of 897 steps rises to the observation area. Inserted into the interior walls are 192 carved stones presented by individuals, societies, cities, States, and nations of the world. A 70 second elevator ride takes visitors to the top, where they can gaze over the city from the monument's windows. There are many great views once you reach the observation room. You can see the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol building, and much of Washington from the windows of the room.

Okay ~ now it's time for the random memory ~ I really can't believe I'm sharing this. During one of the tour guide type trips to D.C. (it was when we took my sister and her family to see the sights) we stood in line so we could go to the top of the monument and check out the view. We waited in line quite a while ~ but we knew the view would definitely be worth the wait. We finally got to the elevators and made the 70 second trip up. I'm not sure how long we were in the observation room, but we made sure everyone had plenty of time to look out the windows and try to identify all they saw. As we were rounding up everyone for the ride down ~ I said "Wait ~ I just want to look and see if I can find the Washington Monument from up here." My family looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I had, for a moment, because I was serious! I had totally forgotten where we were. Whoa! Almost immediately I realized what I had said and tried to laugh it off. To no avail ~ it's been at least 15 years since that happened. No one has forgotten ~ nor have they allowed me to forget!