It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas !

 We've been decorating for Christmas.

 We're not finished, and I am already exhausted. But it is a happy kind of exhaustion, a Christmas festive kind of exhaustion.

 We still have to put the tree-topper on , after I finish making it.

We only put a few ornaments on the tree this year , and I left a lot of decorations in their boxes in the closet under the stairs. In spite of using far less decorations, and deciding not to put lights up around the house outside, we still seem to have Christmas decorations everywhere.

This week I'll address, write in, and send out Christmas cards & presents and then the baking begins . It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas !

A Quiet Evening Before Christmas

 This little church belonged to my husband's parents. I found it in the buffet he inherited from them. I remember them having it out on display during Christmas. There is a hole in the back of the little church so it can be put into the tree with a Christmas light inserted. Since the church is cardboard I am unwilling to risk the fire hazard it could be, but maybe once in awhile I'll put little fairy lights in it for a few hours. The light shining through the tiny faux stained- glass windows is so pretty.

 I am still not finished decorating our home. Maybe by December's end I'll be done, just in time to take it all down and pack it away. The fireplace mantle is always a challenge because we use the wood-stove all day , every day this time of the year and anything hanging below the mantle gets way too hot ( so must be fire-proof ) and also gets in the way of adding firewood and stoking the fire. We don't usually put our Christmas stockings out until Christmas Eve but I am thinking about new stockings for us this year and putting them up early. Yeah yeah, I know a few days before Christmas doesn't qualify as early for many of you who had your homes decorated and stockings hung the day after Thanksgiving, maybe next year I'll have it together . ( I say that to myself every year )

 Try decorating your mantle with all these furry nappers to maneuver around. My husband & I have a tradition of watching our collection of A Christmas Carol DVD's every December as the days draw close to Christmas but tonight the TCM network was showing them.( Our favorite versions are the ones starring George C. Scott & Patrick Stewart. ) My husband and I had a quiet evening tonight, and this is just what we have needed. He baked his Berry Butternut * cookies while I decorated and wrote Christmas cards, which will be mailed out on Monday, too late for Christmas delivery. I am so behind in my Christmas duties ....

...but as Tiny Tim says..." God bless us everyone " .

Christmas Goose Teapot & Cups

 This Christmas will be very different for our family. My husband's father passed on into eternity this past year and anyone who knew him knew he loved Christmas. My husband's parents' home had Christmas decorations throughout the house all year long, because the decorations made them happy. My father-in-law was also one to share his love of Christmas with his family. He often bought multiples of items he knew his 6 grown kids and their families might appreciate , and we were the beneficiaries of many beautiful Christmas ornaments, dishes, figurines ,books, or any other Christmas items he knew we had to have .The Christmas Goose mugs shown above were a gift from my husband's parents at least 20 years ago. I remember serving my children hot chocolate with whipping cream and marshmallows in these mugs. ( Sweet memories...) I am drinking peppermint tea while I decorate our home for Christmas.

 I have undertaken the now-daunting pleasure of setting up our Christmas village. Daunting because it takes at least a day ( I am on day #3 now )  to drag all the boxes out of our closet , and then we have to be creative enough in our display without compromising practical living space. As much as my husband & I enjoy the Christmas village vignettes we display, we still need space to entertain friends & family. Plus, I hate clutter. Our large Christmas village display is a challenge for sure.

 A little farm resides under our big fig tree. I had to move quite a few large plants from our sun-room to make space for our village and also my husband's train set. This fig tree is too large to move so I incorporated it into the decorating. It is now a large tree on a snow-covered hill with a wee farm nestled at the base. I haven't yet added the little people and accessories to the farms & village.

This teapot was among my mother & father-in-laws' possessions. Years ago he gave us a set of 8 mugs, now I have 8 more mugs and the teapot that goes with them. One of the first signs of Christmas in our home is the 'changing of the dishes' ,and the very first dishes I bring out are the coffee mugs. My grandchildren will hopefully remember the many years they have already used them as their hot cocoa mugs. Hot cocoa with whipped cream & marshmallows. Now I have the pot to fill with cocoa . Thank-you Dad B. We miss you especially during Christmas. The mugs and teapot were made in Japan and originally distributed by the Fred Meyer stores.

Please join these ladies for December Tea-Time festivities ~
Martha's favorites *
Artful Affirmations *
Rose Chintz Cottage *
Bernideen's Tea-Time Blog *
Antiques & Teacups *

Christmas Cabin & Give-Away

 Here are two Wee Little Sheep helping me announce my give-away. The little flock of 3 I am giving away will look similar to these two woolly sheep. The sheep are made using the wool fleece from my own flock of live sheep. The sheep are perfect for the Nativity scene with a 6" scale. The winner may choose to have the sheep wear bells, hearts, or no neck ornaments at all. All you have to do to get your name thrown into the bowl ( literally) for selection is leave a comment on a blog post. Your name will be entered every time you leave a comment.I will select someone to draw the name out of the bowl December 23rd, announce it December 24th and mail the little flock to the winner before the new year begins !Now, onto Christmas decorating, more specifically, our little Christmas Cabin.

 This log cabin sits atop an armoir between our living room & dining room. The cabin was built by my husband and 3 children years ago for a home-school history fair.It is furnished for my little Bear family now, and even decorated inside for Christmas. Outside the cabin it is the abode of a polar bear family and Santa Claus.

Thank-you for visiting, and please, don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a Wee Little Flock !

"In December the winter sun burns like white fire on the snow. Ice glitters on the cold side of the branches of the sugar maples, melts on the warm side and falls with a soft sound." Glady Tabor 'The Best of Stillmeadow'

It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas ~

The Christmas Village is up, and when evening sets in the lights of the village make it appear to be a living miniature town. Magical ! Must be getting close to Christmas.

Baking seems to occupy every bit of spare time, but the cold and rainy days outside cause the kitchen to call out to us.."come bake, be warm, and eat"! Must be getting close to Christmas .

My husband makes his traditional Berry Butternuts, something his father did, and still does, but with the many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren my dear Father-in-Law has, he cannot possibly bake these yummy cookies for everyone anymore, so it is a good thing his grown children continue this tradition. A yummy good thing~ Must be getting close to Christmas. I have already made several batches of lefse for two different occasions. For all my married life, 37 years and then some, I have made lefse for Christmas. Lefse is our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. I make it the night before , so all my Christmas Eves are spent making it, then cleaning the kitchen and setting the table , making sure there is butter to spread on the lefse, and also making sure there is a mixture of cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on it. Then the lefse is rolled up like a jelly roll and eaten. Hot coffee, rosettes, ( another Scandinavian treat ) and some cheese and fruit are all that is needed to complete this breakfast usually eaten after we open gifts and before we prepare for whatever else we will be doing Christmas Day. The lefse griddle is still out,ready for more use ~ as are the rolling pin and lefse turner...must be getting close to Christmas. "While lutefisk requires some getting used to, most people take an immediate liking to lefse, Norway's unleavened soft bread. Somewhat thinner than a commercially prepared tortilla, lefse rounds are also much larger and softer than the Mexican bread....While a great variety of lefse types exist in Norway, potato lefse dominates almost exclusively in the United States. Like lutefisk, lefse now serves as a badge of Norwegian ethnicity..." 'Keeping Christmas, Yuletide Traditions in Norway And The New Land' by Kathleen Stokker ~~~~ My Grandmother taught me how to make lefse many years ago, when I was a young girl and I am very thankful. I had no idea then of how precious this gift of teaching me how to make lefse was, but I know I need to teach this to my Grandchildren, just as I need to know and teach the real reason I celebrate Christmas. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David......" It must be getting close to Christmas!

Transition Tea

It is Tea Time Tuesday once again. My how the Tuesdays fly by. I am calling this my Transition Tea because I am in the midst of holiday transition, from autumn and Thanksgiving decorating to winter and Christmas decorating. We have been gone for almost a week and there is a lot of catching up on all the needful chores along with the fun of decking the halls with boughs of holly and baubles. Since I have not had time to bake, and no time to sit down for long, I made some tea in my new / old teapot, and sipped it out of one of the accompanying teacups. ( Do you like the Christmas tea cozy I made ?) This is one of 6 Japanese Lusterware Teacups and saucers I won in a bid on E-Bay. I have fallen in love with Lusterware and this inspired me to check out the china on sale via E-Bay. I have never bid or bought on E-Bay before, but I found this set and the price was very right. I bid, won, and received a whole snack set with teapot, sugar and creamer, plus the cups and saucers of this Lusterware and will feature it all in another Tea Time post. Some of the Lusterware was marked 'MADE IN JAPAN', some was not. I read this in an article on Lusterware by Harry Rinker. "Sometimes all pieces in a set are not back-stamped. The profit margin on ceramics was slim, and a factory could save a little labor cost by not marking every piece in a set." I also found some pieces marked with lettering that seemed to be gibberish, clearly read letters spelling nothing I could understand. I like my black, peppermint, or green tea straight. No cream or sugar. "The teapot must be boiling hot when the tea goes in. And the tea should steep four or five minutes. Thin slices of lemon pricked with cloves are all right; so is colored sugar. But for a family tea, we pour it out and drink it without anything in it. Just tea." Gladys Taber

Pour yourself a cup of tea, put the Christmas music on and visit these ladies for more Teatime Tuesday offerings~

• Pam at Breath Of Fresh Air
• Martha at Martha's Favorites
• Lady Katherine at Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor
• Terri at Artful Affirmations
• Wanda Lee at The Silken Purse
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage

"A cheerful heart has a continual feast." Proverbs 15:15

~Merry Christmas

Last year I received this lovely surprise in the mail from Miss Sandy over at Quill Cottage*. She is a true artist, especially when it comes to mixed-media and I believe she excels especially when her artistic talents blend with her words and faith , culminating in so many little beautiful items to delight my eyes and heart. I set this ornament aside last year because I knew I wanted to do something special with it..... And look, I received another exquisite surprise in the mail from Miss Sandy! My photography does not begin to show the little details in either ornament to their best. Now I have 2 little beauties and a lot of imagination myself , plus a lot of ideas but the free time to create..and I mean begin working on something, and have time to look at it from all sides for a while...time to spread out a work place and re-arrange and pull things apart, well, I haven't had that kind of time for awhile.( click on pictures to enlarge) The last 2 days we had our daughters' 2 daughters spend the night and day with us. Our granddaughter KN loves nothing more than to be left alone with large quantities of paper, cardboard, glue, glitter, scissors and colors,pencils, etc. So after the dining room table became her workshop I decided to follow suit and begin working on some of my own ideas . KN and I can really make a big mess of arts and crafts supplies , and we did. This is just the beginning of this idea. You can see the bird collage from Miss Sandy in the background. I love whites on white and do not want to clutter this little scene up. I have more things to add to this but haven't decided on just the right ones and for now am very happy with the quietness of this display. "The foxes found rest, and the birds in their nest in the shade of the forest tree; but Thy couch was the sod. O Thou Son of God, in the deserts of Galilee..." Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne "He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels; who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out His Word and melteth them, He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow." Psalm 147:16-18 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God..and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. " John 1: 1,2,14

Merry Christmas to you and in the midst of your holiday celebrating , and every day, remember He is, was, and always will be Jesus, Son of God, Savior, Messiah, Immanuel, our Hope and Joy, the Word made flesh!

Sweet Sunday Evening

This is the Christmas centerpiece for our dining room table. There are 4 simple vignettes on this Lazy Susan, and you can view each one by turning it. Each scene is of Santa and his elves or with his reindeer. The candle sheds a nice warm light in the evening when we have on only the tree lights , as we sit by the fire together in the evening. I made them pose for this picture, they looked so nice.Our daughter and her husband had a Christmas party to attend this past Sunday and we were able to babysit their 4 children for them....oh my, what would we ever do with 4 grandchildren here for the evening?

Poppa had a very attentive grandson here. Little J wanted to be with Poppa all night!

Poppa and his two grandsons , CT and Little J look out the window with excitement at the falling snow, CT hoped there would be a lot of snow. Poppa, who has to drive a long way to work was hoping there would NOT be much snow! Little J was more interested in our ducks waddling around in the falling snowflakes in front of the window .

The children and I worked on a project they can give as Christmas gifts. Shhh~ Don't let their mom see or hear about this just yet!It's a surprise.

After a less than nutritious dinner with lots of Oslo Kringle ( a dessert) we pulled out the queen size hide-a-bed in the living room, put lots of pillows and blankets out, stoked up the wood stove in front of it and put on a Hallmark Christmas movie I had recorded for them to watch with us. I popped a lot of popcorn and poured a lot of cranberry juice for them. After they got done bouncing around on the bed they finally settled down for a movie, and the youngest two also got a lot of cuddling and snuggling with Grandma and Poppa . ( in the picture above Little J is sitting on his big brother who was not feeling well and could probably have done without all the bouncing around)

My sheep shelf, decorated for Christmas. This shelf is where i keep the many miniature sheep I have collected. I also have many more on my Christmas tree. You might note I do not have any of my wee little sheep on this shelf, and that is because Miss Marple steals them and if she does not tear them to shreds, she hides them. So the Wee Little Sheep I do display are behind glass cupboard doors. Sheep and shepherds are the best Christmas decorations I think, Jesus, the Lamb of God came to redeem us, His sheep. We are the sheep of His pasture~

What a busy and blessed Sunday for us! I needed Monday to rest up after Sunday though, I think Grandchildren keep me young because I take such long naps after they go home!

Spot of Perspective

This is a musical snow globe I placed near the miniature log cabin our children made years ago. The log cabin is a year round fixture in our home, but I do like to add seasonal touches to it. I am almost done decorating , now that I have put away all the stuff that I had out for the last bazaar and kind of organized the craft room again( a perpetual project). Oh, and let's not forget the continual hauling of pitchers and watering cans of hot water out to the livestock and poultry because the temps are way below freezing around here!Do you know what hard work that is? I am just thankful we have running water and a hot water heater to provide this modern miracle...so I reflect on that when I am tempted to grumble about hauling so much water outside in single digit temperatures....and you need to know ...ducks require, use,and waste huge amounts of water! This year I am determined to keep the decorating simple. We have a vast miniature village, but since we are not hosting any big events this month we decided to edit our traditional decorating. No lights outlining the outside of our home, just wreaths and greens on the porch. Inside I put out a few miniature village houses and vignettes, the ones I like the best. I decided I really do appreciate the traditional Scandinavian colors of various hues of blue and white with wood, natural greens, and accents of red. My eyes rest when I view clean lines and cool colors and my mind seems able to focus more on what's important while taking in with joy very simple things. Above is our buffet with the big platter we serve all kinds of good food on, and by the lamps are two vignettes that hold meaning for us. I left room on the buffet for FOOD! You might notice the tree is not decorated yet, that is for tonight. Every year I reflect on how much I like the tree with just lights...no decorations at all. I toy with the idea of leaving the tree this way but I know we cannot resist adding the many decorations we have collected over the years and I will be happy to add them. But for this past evening my husband and I enjoyed the tree as it is here..a quiet evening together , watching a T.V. show we enjoyed , while 4 of our dogs and the 3 cats slept by the fire. A nice night.

The village church on the buffet.

Singing round the Christmas tree on the buffet.

I found this quote from the December 23, 1894 New York Tribune : "The modern expansion of the custom of giving Christmas presents has done more than anything else to rob Christmas of it's traditional joyousness... Most people are nowadays so fagged out, physically and emotionally , by the time Christmas Day arrives that they are in no condition to enjoy it...as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, the great question of buying Christmas presents begins to take the terrifying shape it has come to assume in recent years." There really is nothing new under the sun, is there?

"But Godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment.For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content." I Timothy 6:6-8

How Cats Re-Decorate...or Un-Decorate for Christmas

~This little mouse and the little horse are part of a very large Swiss made Christmas ski toy set. I only have them and 2 little girl mice. They seem to actually be made of some type of fur, and must have been made more that 40 years ago. I cannot keep them out for viewing . I have a cat problem......~Here is THE cat problem. Doesn't she look so very peaceful , and innocent? And why not, she has been on her nightly (and daily) mission of seek out, catch,and destroy . I suppose if I did that every night I would need a long and peaceful nap to dream and ponder the next days' destruction. Here (below ) she is napping in the midst of one of my Nativity scenes. I have placed NONE of my little Nativity sheep near this creche. Miss Marple has killed too many of my little sheep. ~Just look at these sheep. The shepherd here has been unable to protect them from Miss Marple. She seizes them and takes them off to her various lairs around the house and completely and utterly destroys them!She has a real fondness for the black sheep. "In a cats' eyes ,all things belong to cats." English Proverb ~Oh no !Miss Marple has discovered my new toys. I just know she has designs on Rudolph. I don't think the Abominable Snowman can do as much damage to Rudolph as Miss Marple can.

~Oh no you don't there Miss Marple. Leave my toys alone, go kill a real mouse.

~No!!!! I said a REAL mouse...these are mice I made at least 25 years ago. I made a lot of them, I sold a lot of them, I gave a lot of them away. They are now up high on a cupboard, because they would most definitely be carried off and destroyed by Miss Marple if they were down lower where the viewing would be easier for me, or you, or the grandchildren. ~Back to these little guys. I had them high in a shelf in my craft room, and kept finding the little mouse on the floor , in the hall,all over the house. Yes, I witnessed Miss Marple jump up onto the shelf, grab him and take off with him to have her way with him.And her way is to claw, chew, kick and bat around the poor defenseless little toy. He and the horse are looking battered and now I will need to give them shelter from the cunning and destructive feline I love. " Honest as the cat when the meat is out of sight." English Proverb ~It is not only the cats who love to frolic and feast and destroy our Christmas decorations. A few years ago we had another litter of Lab puppies around for the holidays. Hubby and I went Christmas shopping and apparently did not close the back door firmly enough. We had a litter of 6 week old puppies on the back porch, with heat lamp and deep bedding to keep them warm. We came home to the devastation a litter of Lab puppies can do to a Christmas tree if left to their own devices. The picture below is cute, but what we saw was far from the image Christmas cards paint. The ornaments were all over the place, broken, chewed, wet! The carpet was littered with broken bits of the glass balls, puppy poop and vomit ( they did vomit up quite a few pieces of ornaments) and the mess of puppy play was everywhere. The puppies were genuinely surprised by my reaction. I knew that as soon as we were greeted at the front door by the happy and excited to see us puppies, that I was in for a scene I did not want to see. I remember crying at the broken ornaments. There were some very special childhood ornaments totally destroyed. But, I got over it. After seeing broken glass I was a bit afraid some of the puppies had eaten glass and was more worried by the damage ingested Christmas ornaments could have done to little , happy, puppies. The puppies were fine, my Hubby was good to me and cleaned up most of the mess. The carpet was shampooed.......the puppies (all but one who still lives here ) went to new homes. Happy ending here.

~If only it would have looked this peaceful. Only in story books and Christmas cards!~