The Joy of the Season

Good morning friends! It's been almost a month since my last post; I hate long interims between posts but it was a necessary one as catching up after Hurricane Sandy with everything I needed to do was a must. It really had quite an effect on us all because Thanksgiving arrived almost unexpectedly due to our isolation from the world! Sadly, what happened at Sandy Hook also made it sad to push on. If you scroll back in my posts to "Connecticut!" you will see how much I adore NewTown when I was there this last Summer. Broke my heart to see such a tragedy. I pray for them all.

I had started decorating the day after Thanksgiving, and we even put our live Christmas tree up a week earlier than we normally do. Our Christmas tree salesman said that if you buy a frasier fir (which I always do) and you add soda or sugar to the water, she will last, last, last. He was right! My tree has been up since the second week of December and she is looking good! I have my gingerbread tree in the foyer and several other small trees throughout the house. My Holly Hobbie tree stays up all year long in my parlor :) as I love Holly, and she reminds me of my happy childhood days growing up in the 1970's. Below is the mittens and hat box I purchased over the Summer in Stormville at the big flea market. I paired it with a mitten tree I bought at Christmnas Tree Shoppe in my foyer.

I will be hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day~~two big days with two big meals! Makes me pleased as punch to prepare it all. Yesterday was the last of my  food shopping trips to Best Yet Market and the hustle and bustle of the shoppers, while irritating to some, made me so happy! I love it! Everyone was nice, and I even got a few recipes from strangers! SO many "Have a merry Christmas" and "Enjoy your dinner!" remarks; it was so festive. As I was looking for puff pastry, I directed an elderly couple to the herring to which the lady replied "Thank you, I see it now. Oh, make sure you eat herring on New Year's Eve. It brings good luck in the new year!"  So sweet! Waiting at the deli counter for my prosciutto and soppresata for my appetizer platter, it reminded me of standing in the Italian specialty store in the neighborhood I grew up in with my Grandma and Grandpa. They ordered all kinds of good stuff that we ate only once a year. We would walk there and back and it was exciting to make those special food purchases. Christmas was here! My kids are very excited when they see our refrigerator packed with items to prepare our feasts. The house smells so good!

We have spent some nice days doing nice things this month as well. We attended the Christmas show at our church which was very good. It was a combination play/song/dance production so it really got you in the mood for the holidays. My Ladies Bible class held their Christmas brunch which was awesome! Ther are about 80 ladies in our group and it was a "bring a dish" brunch. Oh my! It was grand!More recipes! I brought my Mom with me and my good friend Christina brought her Aunt, and we had such a fun time.

The kids made gingerbread houses for our gingerbread area (the foyer) and we also made these adorable cardboard models of Santa's workshop and the Nativity scene. My son was thrilled when for the first time I unpacked my collection of Gurley Christmas candles. I have had them for quite a long time but never displayed them (why I don't know, I think because I just ran out of time!). I set the choir up next to our manger and it looks adorable. I have to photograph it and I will show it next post.

AND...my son put up our Christmas village! He set this up in basement and it looks amazing. I will leave you with those photos!  Have a blessed day! I must get cooking!