Festive Stuff

The winds here have been mighty and amazing!  We don't have snow so we cannot jump in our sleighs with our friends and glide through the drifts.

Have you made candy and cookies? Do you have candy canes on your tree?

I made a hat for my dear friend Sondra!  I have two pair of socks that are almost off the needles.  I really want to snuggle into my hobbit hole and knit, knit, knit.  

Kelli and the girls and another friend and her daughter went to the castle at Glen Eyrie where the Navigators headquarters  lives.  We had tea in the castle.  The most interesting feature of the tea experience was the green tea/green pea soup!  It was very tasty.  The tea tray offerings were different, too.  No cookies, just funky little tarts and other bite size somethings. 

Yesterday some of us in our Bible study met together at my favorite chapel and read and sang together.  It was very cold in the chapel but our raised voices of song and words of scripture were lovely!  What a sweet Advent blessing!

My friend Kim taught me how to make candles and told me where to get the supplies.  I made soap and candles for my Bible study friends. They were a bit messy but next time I will do better!

I am rich in lemons.  My sweet comrade sent me lovely California fruit!  

And here is the bird gumdrop tree.  You can buy gumdrop trees with more branches and gumdrops do look like sugar plums when they are on a tree.

Yesterday I did not feel as festive as I would like, but today I do. I think I will buy some branches at the grocery store this morning, give them a fresh clip and place them around the house.  Yesterday I put fresh rosemary, a lemon, and vanilla in a pan and brought them to a simmer. It smelled very sweet.  I must bake cookies for my book group tonight.  I will put chocolate chip cookie dough in small muffin tins and when they come out of the oven I will place a small Reese's Peanut Butter cup in the middle of each one. I have made sugar cookies once and I'll make them again before Christmas Eve.  

I am waiting for my new pink eyeglasses to come.  They are taking forever!  

Thank you for checking on me!  Big HUG!