Happy New Year!

Warm wishes for a healthy, happy and peaceful 2017! Happy New Year!

Enjoy your weekend!

Merry Christmas!

We like to visit Santa 'Paws'

When Christmastime is near.

One of us likes to sit on his lap;

One of us has some fear.

We know Santa loves us both

And wishes us holiday cheer.

We feel the same and say to you

Merry Christmas and Happy

New Year!

We send you love and best wishes for

a blessed Christmas and a peaceful

New Year! I will be taking some time

for rest and relaxation between

the holidays, so I will see you in 2017.

Christmas Frames

You may recall seeing these lovely old frames which belonged to my grandparents (see Show and Tell).  They are quite unique and versatile. I had envisioned using at least one of them for Christmastime and so I did.

I'm sure that you, too, have used a card front for framed art. I thought this card was beautiful. It's tough to read, so I took a close-up.

Out of the silence,

Music

Out of the darkness,

Light

Out of uncertainty,

Promise

Hope

was born that night.

Blessings to you! 

Casserole

This casserole recipe may be a good way to use leftover Christmas ham next week. It goes together easily and since it's a glorified macaroni and cheese dish, I think it would likely qualify as "comfort food"!

Ham and Cheese Casserole

1 package (12 oz.) bow tie pasta

3 T butter

3 T flour

2 tsp. dry mustard

3 cups milk

3 cups shredded sharp cheese

3/4 pound cubed ham (more if you like)

1 can (11 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained

Panko crumbs

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Over medium heat, melt butter and stir in dry mustard and flour. Gradually stir in milk; cook and stir until mixture bubbles. Remove from heat. Add 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheese (save the other cup and a half) and stir until melted. Stir in prepared pasta, ham and corn. Spoon into a greased 9 by 13 pan. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups of cheese evenly on top and then sprinkle Panko crumbs atop. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly. I served green beans and fruit salad with it.




Although not related to this dish, I have a food recommendation as we head toward Christmas weekend.

Have you tried olives stuffed with bleu cheese? They are delicious! I was introduced to them at an annual dinner party with some friends earlier this season. Since that time, I have noticed that one is also able to purchase olives stiffed with feta. Yum! They're all perfect for a relish tray.

Enjoy!

Tuesday's Tablescape

Since we have just a few days until Christmas, I had to incorporate my Christmas cactus today. I got it during the season a year ago and I was determined to get it to bloom again this year. I am so happy that it cooperated!😊

My matching plaid placemats and napkins were a gift the first Christmas we were married, so they have been around for some time! I have to say that I would probably not have coupled plaid with cobalt and white until I saw it in a magazine about a year ago. I loved the combination, so decided to copy!

My everyday white dishes, some confetti and a bright ornament for each place setting rounded-out the table. By the way, did you notice that I didn't get the glasses set? This is the second time, recently, that I have done that. Be prepared if you ever eat a meal here!!

I used four different colors of ornaments.

As you know, a Christmas cactus requires 12 hours of darkness for six weeks to trigger blooming. As silly as it sounds, I recorded it on my calendar to do my part in getting mine to blossom. Life is so busy that I was afraid I would forget to do it, so my calendar told me when to place the plant in darkness. I stuck it in the powder room from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am for a six week period beginning the first of October. It seems to have worked because it's loaded with buds and a few are already opening!

Happy Tuesday!

Christmas Slippers

Our den tree has a collection of special ornaments. Most are gifts from students, while others are from my childhood. Here's an example of the latter.

I used to wear these red slippers, but now display them on the tree. See the silver bells on the ends of the ties?

My grandmother made them  for me when I was four years old and the bells are for good reason. Like all children, I was very excited for Christmas morning to arrive and so when I went to bed on Christmas Eve, I slept lightly. Positive that I had heard Santa by our tree in the middle of the night, I slipped out of bed to investigate. Maybe I could meet him in person! Rather than finding Santa, though, I found my parents who were putting finishing touches on things for the following morning. We all went to bed to allow Santa plenty of time to come to our home. After the season, my grandmother kindly knitted her granddaughters these slippers for future Christmases. In addition to being a festive touch, the little bells were good "alarms" to alert parents that their daughters were not asleep!

Don't you enjoy the childhood stories that come to mind this season of the year?!

Happy Christmas week!

Christmas Pins from the Past

Growing up and throughout the early part of my teaching career, seasonal pins were popular. I have many and wanted to do something with them, so I decided to do a little framed picture.

I had the old frame, which I spray painted long ago, and then selected three special pins. More than that made it look crowded.

The gold Christmas tree and angel (both missing sets now) were from my childhood. In fact, I remember wearing the angel on my Christmas dress the year I was in first grade. Of course, it was worn lots of other years, too. The Santa pin was from a sweet family years ago and I always loved it. The little girl selected it for me herself and it has matching earrings. By the way, my former first grader is now in post-graduate medical school and happens to work part-time at our veterinary office so I get to keep up with her!

Have a wonderful weekend. If you're like us, there are last-minute details demanding your attention. 'Tis the season!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Look at my new pillow cover. You know that I prefer covers to pillows because they are so much easier to store. You just fold up covers and stash them away. I got this one right after Thanksgiving and I love it.

You've seen the pillow pattern of a red pickup truck with a Christmas tree sticking out the back of it. I think it's cute, but I particularly like the station wagon version because it takes me down memory lane. Growing up, we had a station wagon with faux woodgrain on the side (popular in the 60s and 70s) and while it was yellow rather than red, it did have a tree tied to its roof each December. Our family tradition was to drive to rural MO and walk the fields of the Christmas tree farm until we found just the right tree. My parents, sister and I would vote for which one we thought was best and then we would help our dad saw it down. Our mother liked to save the extra boughs from the bottom of our selected tree and use those for decorative purposes. My dad would carry it through the field back to where the staff would shake and bind the tree while the four of us would mosey around inside the barn. They sold wreaths and large tree bows and Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate in the drafty old structure. You could warm your hands in the heat of the fire which roared in a metal drum, though,  and the strong smell of pine would delight your nose! We went through this ritual each year because an artificial was never a consideration. Once the lovely green pine was placed in its stand in the living room, we would decorate it with the shiny gold angel on top and load the branches with keepsake ornaments. That did not represent the end of our obligation, though, because each day we would crawl under the pokey branches to water the tree. Even keeping it hydrated did not prevent the needle-drop process, though, so we'd have to pick- up the piercing needles when we found them on the carpet. Real trees cannot safely be kept inside a toasty warm house for sustained periods of time, of course, so we planned accordingly. Real trees remained part of the Christmas tradition even after I was married...for a few years anyway. In the interim, artificial trees began looking more and more realistic. While we still loved our real trees, we were slightly less fond of the negatives. There was the year the tree toppled over due to a weak stand and a special ornament broke. Then once, the metal stand rusted (without our knowledge) from the inside and the discolored water leaked on the carpet and that required professional carpet cleaning. Equally disappointing was the pitch that stuck to the tree skirt and carpet. Somewhere around the same time we saw a handsome faux tree and we decided to buy it. It came home in a box stuffed in the backseat rather than being tied to the roof. That was back in the days when I only did ONE tree so you know that was long ago! What we bought really was realistic in the detail from the pine needles down to its shape. We were satisfied and so, pretty quickly, made the switch from messy real to convenient fake. Now I own a dozen artificials. They can go up whenever you wish and can be kept up a month. There is no threat of water on the rug or of clogging the vacuum with the needles.  An artificial tree won't meet my standards unless it looks like the real deal and I am satisfied with all I have. The one thing you can't replicate is the pine smell and I do miss that a lot. Still, I fondly recall the days of the real tree experience...down to tying it to the roof of the family station wagon!

Have a holly jolly Christmas!

What is THAT?

I like to share a recipe each week and although this post isn't one, it's still food-related so I guess it counts! I was recently grocery shopping when I spotted this and thought, "What is that?"!!

If I were still playing school, I would be dragging this interesting thing to my classroom. Isn't it unusual? This large, green citrus fruit is called a pomelo.  Are you familiar? See how it compares in size to the clementine?

When you handle it, it's softer than a typical citrus. In fact, it's almost a little spongy. Inside, the fruit is lighter in color and less juicy than a grapefruit. The membrane is considerably denser (and softer) than that of other citruses.

Pomelos originated in Asia, but are now grown in many countries. This Sunkist brand is from the USA (I assume CA). The taste is milder than that of grapefruit and I enjoyed it.

If you are not able to consume grapefruit due to medical reasons, you will need to avoid pomelos, too. The same substance in grapefruit (which blocks the action of enzymes that are supposed to break down certain medications) is also present in pomelo. That can be dangerous, of course, so don't try it.

Have you seen a pomelo in your store? Have you tried one?

Tuesday's Tablescape

The kitchen table is set for an afternoon snack. A few friends (who share my enjoyment of paper-crafting) and I get together monthly to work on handmade cards. I participate in a few other crafting groups, but this one meets very regularly. I have fun preparing birthday and seasonal cards, some of which I donate to local nursing homes for the residents and our afternoons "force" me to set aside time for this hobby. A little dessert is always a part of our get-together, so the table is ready for the raspberry white-chocolate cake in which we'll be indulging.

I love my Santa dishes and have enjoyed them for years and years. By the way, I see that my dessert fork is facing the wrong way...the handle is supposed to the left when placed above the plate. Shhh...don't tell! 😉

The candle in the centerpiece was given to me when I was 16 years old by a family for whom I babysat. Does that make it an antique?!

After I took the pictures, I also noticed my lack of napkins so I added those.  It seems I was in a bit of hurry to take the photos today!

Would you like to join us?

Santas in the Kitchen

This year, there is a Santa theme in the kitchen and you can see a ho-ho-ho-bunch of them around! Here are a few vignettes. All Santas are treasured gifts and represent special people and/or times.

Who would think that we could have a little bouquet of fresh flowers with this guy? Snapdragons bloom past the season, so I snipped these few survivors for the kitchen last Thursday...and yes, we've had a frost.

My parents gave me this vintage Coca Cola case, which was in the basement. There's a Soda King one, too, which you may recall that I have used in the past for decorating. I am drawn to the old Coca Cola Santa from the 40s. The vintage-looking tin is a replica from Hobby Lobby's Christmas collection. We had the old Coke bottles and the Santa was a gift from a precious student eons ago. In fact, the girl's mother and I ran into each other at the grocery store a few years ago and were able to catch-up. My former first-grader is now a mature, married biologist (what happens to the years?!).

The little alpine tree hosts Santa ornaments from my collection and I added the bubble lights. They are from Randy's family. My sisters-in-law gave us a short string of them several years ago and I simply removed the "bubbles" and slid them onto a modern string of lights. They no longer bubble, but I love their look on the tree.

On the floor, you'll note the vacuum cord since I had just run it. Let's pretend it's not there, m'kay?😊

This Santa is ready to ride in his wagon!

Have a good afternoon!

Happy Friday Morning!

It's nice to see the tinsel tree sparkle in the morning sunshine!

This four-foot peewee is the smallest in our collection, but is also the most brilliant by day. I picked it up about 10 years ago at the fabric store in an after-Christmas sale and have enjoyed using it in various locations over the years. I think it shows the best on the landing, though, because the sun floods in these windows and bounces off the silver boughs.

This year it is decorated with ornaments from Randy's childhood. Don't you love good old-fashioned balls? Some are simple, while others are more ornate. They're all pretty!

They're also fragile. I dropped one while hanging it on the tree this year and it hit the base just right, causing it to shatter. 😡 By the way, don't forget the bread clean-up trick when you're in a similar situation. When something small breaks into millions of tiny shards, press a fresh slice of bread directly on top of the mess and the tiny pieces will stick to the bread, making for an easier clean-up. You'll still need to vacuum, but the bread is a good first step.

I hope your weekend sparkles!

Historic Main Street

St. Charles, MO's historic Main Street district dates from the 19th century and  is comprised of quaint shops, restaurants and office spaces and, in fact, the first state capitol is located there. The area is a wonderful place to visit any time of the year, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve it comes alive! Seven days a week and on Wednesday and Friday nights, shops are open for business and people are greeted by International Santas and carolers among beautiful Christmas decorations.

Pine roping lines the fences and white lights twinkle as they wrap the trees and buildings of Main Street.

Large picture windows are decked-out with vintage scenes reminding people of Christmases past.

Some shops prepare elaborate displays outside their doors.

Horse drawn carriages clop along the cobblestone roadway, offering guests rides. Romeo, the only Clydesdale, wears his own green lights on his head. He loves people and playfully attempts to nibble on  your jacket when you pet his head!

Although we love the lights at nighttime, it's just as enjoyable by day. On weekends, there are parades of the Santas. If you're local, I'm sure you have experienced Main Street during Christmastime. It's important to take time to enjoy the season and visiting Main Street is one of the ways to do so. What are some things you like doing during this most wonderful time of the year?