Happy New Year!

Wishing you happiness and prosperity in the New Year! See you in 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few more holiday pictures taken around our house over the weekend. This will probably be my last post till after Christmas. We are heading to Pennsylvania to be with family over the holidays! So, I just want to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

china dish with red balls and my favorite Santa candy dish,

a warm cozy fire, Otis and Riley lov'in it,

a beautiful handmade Santa given to me several years ago,



blooming flowers and beautiful red berries color the garden.

Christmas Hoopla

I just received word from Sheila letting me know that she tagged me for meme.

Here's how it goes...

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm' - word.

3. You have to tag specific people when you're done. No "if you're reading this consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...because nobody actually ends up doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you, but the more the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it. Lets involve as many people as possible!

5. Please give Andrea some link-love as the "Hoopla-Creator".

So, here are my 12 things:

1. When I was little, my sister and my two brothers and I would always go to see Santa and tell him what we wanted for Christmas and he would give us a box of nonpareils. And to this day I still love those candies!

2. I wanted a doll for Christmas every year until I was too old for dolls!

3. Our family always went to candlelight service every Christmas eve.

4. We always opened presents on Christmas day.

5, We always had a fresh tree when I was young. Hubby and I still get a fresh tree. I love the smell of pine and I don't think I'll ever get an artificial one.

6. I got engaged on Christmas!

7. I only use white lights.

8. I love to decorate at Christmas time.

9. I love to wrap presents.

10. Christmas cookies have always been a tradition in our family and I still try to bake as many as my mom! My favorite is the peanut blossom.

11. I love Christmas music.

12. I don't like all of the commercialism at Christmas time and try to stay focused on the true meaning.

Well, there you have it! And now I guess I will tag Jen at sunnispace, Deb at postedfromhome, and Alexandra at silverbellcottage! Please do it if you can, I know this is a really busy time for everyone.

Lighting of the candles

We have a tradition in our neighborhood that started about 5 years ago when one of the ladies down the street got the idea to "light up our neighborhood on Christmas". The neighbors were willing to participate so a few of us ladies and hubbys got together and made the candle sticks out of wood which stand about 4 feet high, painted them black and fit them to hold a candle and a glass globe. We got the globes at an outlet which helped with the cost, then decorated them with red bows. We all decided that we would line our walkways with the candles and depending on how long your walk way is, you could have from 4 to 8 candles in your front yard. We have six.

So Sunday night we lit our candles. It all looked so festive and gives a feeling of unity in our neighborhood that I hope will last for a long time.

Otis & Riley

Christmas cookies

Time for baking cookies. I've been so busy with other things that I'm only now getting around to it! I pulled all of my cookie recipes out the other night and started baking this afternoon.

It's now evening, I'm tired and the kitchen is a mess and I'm still not finished.

So I'm going to get a glass of wine, prop my feet up and continue baking tomorrow. Enough for one day!

These are my favorites. Peanut Blossoms!

Paintings

I've been doing some painting in between all of the other holiday preparations and thought I'd show you the last two that I just finished. Sweet Rosie over at rosieswhimsy asked if I would do these for her. They are done on small pieces of wood that are free standing.

Pretty wrap

After taking Otis and Riley for their walk today, (might I add it's an absolutely GORGEOUS day, around 77 degrees, like spring ~ talk about global warming!) anyway, I did some more gift wrapping. I love wrapping presents. And I'm just about finished! Just a few more odds and ends and I'll be ready to go!

Otis and Riley

Otis and Riley watched patiently and were wondering why I couldn't spend more time playing with them today. I'm wrapping gifts, can't you see?

So they entertained themselves for awhile outside, watching the birds and the neighbor's cat. (I wrapped them with Christmas ribbon ~ thought they needed a little Christmas adornment.)

After that, they decided on an afternoon nap on the back of the sofa, their most favorite spot, where perhaps visions of sugarplums danced in their heads?

Gone shopping

Only 15 more days till Christmas! Yikes!

Each moment in time we have it all,

even when we think we don't.

Melody Beattie

The bells

There's a church about two blocks from our house, and this morning when the bells chimed at 6:00 AM it sounded like they were right outside the bedroom window. We must have been on a down wind because today they were unusually loud.

The church bells ring on the hour and half hour, every day from 6:00 in the morning until midnight. It's a sound I love to hear; a comforting sound, and one that I would truly miss were they ever to cease ringing.

Holiday cards

My errands are done, I've hung the Christmas wreath on the front door and I've made a cup of coffee, and now I'm going to settle in and do my Christmas cards ~ one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time!
Happy Holidays everyone!

The Old Hare

Galen cut some wood pieces out for me on the weekend so I was painting today. Meet the "Old Hare"! Painted on wood, acrylic, 3-1/2 x 4-1/2".

Christmas parade and birthday

Saturday was the Christmas parade. We went with our daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter. And yes, our granddaughter was in the parade on Santa's float!

After the parade we took them for a nice lunch in downtown Raleigh, actually, a birthday lunch for our daughter because it was her birthday! You can read about her birthday surprise on sunnispace! Later it was back to the house for birthday cake and coffee!

Sweet surprise!

Galen, my dear sweet hubby walked in the door on Friday after a hard week at work and handed me the most beautiful Christmas cactus in the prettiest holiday vase! Sometimes he can be such a sweetheart. Just had to share this pretty flower with you!