Tree

We're enjoying our red tree! Next, the candy canes - must buy them today! I hope your day is full of Advent musings and good cheer. LOVE!

A Night on the Town

Hello! I thought you might like a salad and some macaroni and cheese. Come on in!

Samantha Rose came over for some. Her Uncle Jeff enjoyed her company! She is a funny little one year old!

You know my neighbor Reve, the one I love so much? Jeff and Bryan refinished her hardwood floors this week so I had to pop over to see how pretty they look. Of course Reve is quilting! She's amazing!

I love early American style furniture and Reve's house is full of it. Pretty, huh?

Another cozy sitting spot at her house!

I made you a Christmas card.

I created some pretty pages in my journal.

And now - our night on the town! Kelli and Bryan gave Bill a night at The Brown Palace. He invited me. We had never stayed at this fancy historic hotel located in downtown Denver.

It's fun to go to high tea here. Isn't it snazzy?

After settling in (dropping my backpack) we walked down to the Sixteenth Street Mall and ate dinner. The lights and the horse drawn carriages were charming. I didn't get a picture of the horses. Sorry.

We had so much fun. Thank you, Bryan and Kelli! Here's Bill waiting for our car. I do love our city.

I thought the way The Brown Palace presented the extra bathroom tissue was pretty. I love the paper so I brought it home. I'll use it in my journal. Now we are home in our plain old house and I am thinking about vacuuming and mopping and tree decorating. The sky is so blue today. A walk would be fun, too. I wish you the happiest of Advent weeks. Light many candles and listen in the quiet, if you can. Read yourself a story or two. Enter into encounters with people with humility and service, spreading the Spirit of Christmas. Thank you for coming by!

Festive Anticipation

I've hung the greens. Garlands piled up at the entrance to the grocery store smell delicious. This year I vow to spritz them with water. Two pots of poinsettias jumped in my shopping buggy, too. Now, the cleaning. Before I dig out the tree, the floor must be mopped and that dust (still there!) must be removed.

I like to take pictures of celery. Don't you think it is the very best green? This year, my bread stuffing was actually good. Most years it turns out looking like a mushy mess, but somehow this year, it tasted delicious.

Julia Child was right. Butter is lovely.

Muffins and corn bread are pretty, too!

That's all I have to say about Thanksgiving dinner. It was snug and good. Bill did all the dishes. It wasn't my best pie year. I really should have listened to myself and bought them.

I also bought myself a hat at the grocery store. I am quite thrilled with my new hat and it was priced just right: under four dollars.

When I do dig out the tree, I shall bedeck it with red. I am giving our ornaments a year off. Red gingham ribbons and these grocery store glass balls. That's it. Oh, and candy canes.

More bedecking to come! Yes, I've had a bad cold and needed long reads and cozy naps. I'm banking on a surge of energy, even if it comes at a random time. It'll come.

The sky is pink and I'm off to the trail for a chatty walk with a friend and an hour of coffee and fellowship. On with my sweater and mittens and out into the cold air. I hope you are having a warm and meaningful weekend. Thank you for stopping in for a jolly hello.

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind to cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
~ Calvin Coolidge

Home Stuff

Happy day! I'm off to the store to buy one dollar notebooks for my reading and writing students (a great group!) so we can start our art journals today. FUN! I'm so excited to have five days at home beginning tomorrow.
I am so thankful for our little hide away home here. There is dust a plenty and many projects at the ready, cozy chairs and house cleaning calling. Even though I have a cold, I don't feel that bad. I love the vacation feeling. It feels so good!

Feather duster needed, but tea cups deserve it, don't you think?

Happy old stuff like dolly faces and rows of books = HOME!

Fat quarters lined up on the ironing board = BEAUTIFUL!

My view from the squishy sofa! Lots of blue! LOVE!

Gummy worms and a fun film are in store for our 25 minutes of Home Room at school. I wish the students good family time, good food, and if that is not their lot, I hope to send them off with smiles and warmth, acceptance and confidence. The band teacher stopped to chat when I was running the Latin/Greek tests through the Scantron machine and he said, "I am so hungry for Thanksgiving!"
Simple pleasures are gifts from our Creator! THANK YOU!

Little Flowers

I saw my little flower faces this weekend. CB danced in her Friday night show. The studio is in a big church and the music is lovely and worshipful. The costumes are modest and the movements are intended to praise and honor the KING of kings. I loved it.

Samantha had her big birthday bash. She took it all in her stride (Yes! She's walking and walking now!) She did not utter one complaint the entire evening. Maybe we all need big flowered headbands.

Finn is a flower, too. He's such a good sport hanging around so many girls!

Hi, Birdie!

I think Miss Bug (on the right!) is a people person. She followed the pack from here to there.

Soon little Aria will not be the youngest grand. Millie is coming in two weeks! Aria sat on the floor like a content little hen, watching all the action. LOVE!

"Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or the peanut they will give up their secrets but I have found that when I silently commune with people, they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough."
~George Washington Carver
Bill found this quote. Powerful, huh? It reminds me to quit talking and listen (something I find necessary to remind myself often).

Jody over at Gumbo Lily takes lovely photographs of her sheep and she gave me permission to put this lovely one up as my desktop background. I can't get enough of these quiet beauties. Just look at them. His sheep am I.