Hi Winter People (and my sweet Down Under friends, too!) Didn't Gladys Taber say winter people where the best kind of people? I forget why at the moment, but be assured that it's a good thing to be a winter person. As I was looking through my photos, I found LOTS of flowers and not so many other wintry things. Millie gave me the toadstool below. It's so squishy and friendly, isn't it? Are toadstools Christmas-y? Hmmmm. Gnomes sort of are. I moved lots of my gnomes to the basement because I put toadstool stickers on the walls to cover up the areas that are in need of paint. It's very Pom Pom-ish down there now.
I don't have that excitement that makes decking the halls go fast and stay fun. I keep waiting for it to kick in, but other than opening the boxes and thinking, "Aw, that's cute!" I have not sprung into action and made festive progress. I will! Guess what? The local granddaughters are going to read Little Women, too. We'll have two December book club meetings and eat Little Women type food. So far I have only found a few things that would be tasty for this endeavor. One is mac and cheese (the March sisters ate it!) and ginger bread. I'll take photos and tell you of our activities and games.Do you want to fill orange outsides with cloves again? I do like stabbing them with a skinny knitting needle and bedecking them with LOTS of cloves. I'll probably only do one.Aren't these little flower ladies lovely? See little Noah in the background? Aw! Forgive my dried up thumb (not pretty) but I am not a manicure person and I'm hard on my hands in the winter (sort of a compulsive hand washer - yikes).Sweet Gumbo Lily made this for me years ago and I love it so, so, so much! She also told me of a YouTube channel that you would all love. It's here if you want to click over: A Sweet VideoToday Bill was so nice. He took the weed wacker to the remains of the flower beds and made them all tidy. Next spring I shall be grateful again. This year, the sunflowers ran wild and got on my nerves. Next year, even though it's hard, I am going to pull up new shoots of cosmos and sunflowers because they wear out their welcome. This is the first Sunday in Advent and they don't really acknowledge it at the church I've been going to. They just aren't "high church" at all and that's okay, but I LOVE the celebration of Advent and I'm definitely doing it up big here. I have a special journal for it, some great guidebooks, all the Little Women watching, listening and READING, a tea Advent calendar AND a lot of Advent knitting (a very pretty scarf that I shall show you soon).We're going to a play tonight but tomorrow I hope to wake up feeling jazzy and festive so I can commence with the decorating.
Oh, my turkey stuffing was not good. I put apples and a bit of cinnamon in it and it did not go unnoticed. They were very "thumbs down" about it. My gravy wasn't my best either. I sort of felt like maybe I'm past my turkey preparation prime, but my mom said, "Some years are like that." I think she's right. I'll try stuffing again (no apples) soon. I do make good cookies, so I shall make sure I bake all the kinds I like very soon. I bought a big tin of cookies at Trader Joe's (why?) and ate 6 instead of lunch today. (eye roll)
Well, let's get started. I want my December to be holy and sweet, with candles and reading and prayers. Stay tuned, sweet visitors. xo
17 comments:
Oh dear Karen, I hope some zip comes soon. Don't worry about the decorations, you are everything as you are. Who needs decs anyway? xxx
Hi Pompom. I don't have my Christmas decorations yet except for a wreath on the front door. My first decoration is usually the Nativity, which I cherish, a gift from my daughter 20 years ago. It's always the last decoration to be put away after Epiphany.
Our priest went to great lengths to explain what Advent is all about. he also explained the Advent wreath.
Sorry about the turkey dressing not meeting expectations. I put one or two apples to moisten the dressing, depending on how big a crowd I serve but I never used cinnamon. My herb of choice is sage. I use a lot of finely chopped onions and celery, mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, some turkey dripping, salt, and pepper.
I hope that you find some enthusiasm to decorate especially for the kids.
Take care,
Hugs,
Julia
I haven't done any Christmas decorating either. I like to wait until December.
This year I made turkey stove top dressing and we all thought it was very good!! Easy too.
Sorry about the Turkey stuffing not how you'd want it to be ... sometimes meals just don't go the way you'd like them too ...
We have started putting some of our Christmas decorations up, it's easier to do a little at a time.
Sending my good wishes.
All the best Jan
I thought of you when I was watching a Brenda Gantt video about making her amazing Thanksgiving stuffing. I didn't make it myself this year, but it did look good! She starts with cornbread crumbled on the bottom, and I remember it had cream-of-chicken soup on top before baking. Just a thought!
I looked at your thumb and immediately thought of Gumbo Lily (I miss her blog so much!) She shared a recipe for a balm (I call it bee balm) that I make and use and it helps dry skin SO much. Olive oil, coconut oil, beeswax, vit. E oil, and a little bit of grapefruit essential oil. It would help your winter hands a lot :)
I'm not in the decorating spirit yet either, but that's okay. Nobody's coming here for the holidays this year, so I don't plan to decorate this year. We are going to Mississippi. Enjoy that cookie baking!
Totally some years are like that! Blessed Advent
Aw so festive. It always looks nice and cozy. Well you have lots to do, I am sure festive will hit you soon.
I am glad you have so many nice pictures on your computer.
I hope you find some enthusiasm for decorating, at least a bit. The clove-studded oranges would be nice to fill a pretty bowl. I did some about 10 years ago and they still look the same as ever. In order for them to keep you have to cover the entire orange, otherwise they will still go bad.
Having a book club just for yourself and the grands will be so much fun and having food that is mentioned in the book is a great idea.
Have a blessed Advent.
The older I get the more I think we should weed out what really matters and put our attention there. I do enjoy decorating, but not nearly as much as I once did. I think your Little Women book club sounds wonderful.
Sorry to hear about your stuffing. I think the apple addition sounds tasty. I went the easy route with the gravy this year. Warmed up a jar and called it good. Nobody knew the difference.
Hello there dear lady. Praying you get your Christmas inspiration soon. My boxes are down, the Christmas tree is in the house. Soon I'll open up some of the boxes and put the decorations in the best spots. Happy Advent to you.
Because my housemate and I are both going to be absent for Christmas, I thought I might not decorate at all, though my little LED lights are still up in a couple of places and only need plugging in. However, my book group is meeting at my house right in the middle of the month, so I must have a little more than that, after all.
The best turkey stuffing I ever came up with was the basic recipe with onion and celery, *plus* a bit of cooked wild rice and toasted pecans. YUM. A good amount of butter is nice, but the recipe in Joy of Cooking (70's edition) for "dry stuffing" that their family loved, that was made by their cook (if only we had cooks to cook when we lack zip), took all its flavor and moisture from being in the bird, and was not dry at all. Modern day turkeys, as I understand, have very small cavities relative to the quantity of meat, so we have to cook our stuffing outside of the bird. Which is where the butter comes in...
But I haven't cooked a turkey in many years now. This year my family and I had a leg of lamb :-) I would never do it without a daughter or two in the kitchen with me.
My hands are very dry right now -- over Thanksgiving weekend I washed so many dishes, and I guess I was too lazy to put on my rubber gloves. That was not smart.
Ah, I like your little shroom pal!! You are amazing to make Thanksgiving dinner for everyone so it doesn't matter if your stuffing wasn't perfect! You were kind to make it!
Your little flower people are sweet.
My hands are like that in the Winter also!
I like the sound of your Advent! I love it!!
I'm so glad that I do the job I do during Advent as I get to sing and rehearse Christmas carols all the time!
Kezzie xx
Well, I'm definitely not a winter person and while we don't have snow yet, it's bloody cold and I'm not loving it. I have little mojo to decorate right now, though I'm sure it will come. After TG, a four and five year-old for three days and a house guest for four after that, all I want to do is catch up on blogs and sleep. Maybe read or sit in front of the tv and watch Hallmark movies, which I don't even much like all the time. But I need their "cheer." But you have your advent and so many cute crafty things in your photos. Mojo will come!
Holy and sweet. I like that!
My daughter and I had a Little Women eating extravaganza years ago. Here are a few things I remember. Fresh fruit is Beth's favorite food. Apples, berries, dates, figs. We even tried pickling limes but found that we enjoyed limeade much more. There's also lots of candy munching including molasses candy, bonbons (a Christmas gift from Laurie's grandpa), and chocolate drops. Meg makes Laurie a blancmange for his sore throat. We made something similar to this with peach jello. And, of course, gingerbread.
Happy Advent, Pom Pom. It's a delightful season that I plan to live deeply and enjoy every year.
I'm not in the mood for much Christmasy decorating myself, but I do have a compact Christmas tree corner. I prefer turkey roasts to cooking the whole bird, but haven't been able to find any for a year or two. Keeping it simple and watching lots of cheesy movies. Your blog disappeared from my blog list for some reason. Gotta remedy that! Love you, friend! :)
Wishing you a blessed Christmas with your family x
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