Merry Christmas Time of Year

Hi everyone!

I don't post a lot anymore, but I used to post a lot!

I thought I would direct you to some of my older posts to put us in the Christmas mood.

Do you like to craft?  Go here to see how to make gumdrops for your tree. This is one of my most popular posts this time of year. It gets a lot of visits.

Click here to see all my cookie cutters and learn how to make cinnamon dough ornaments.

Click here to see all kinds of Christmas craft ideas.

Click here to see how to make Scrabble Christmas ornaments. I used to make these and sell them. 

If you look on my sidebar, you will find lots of recipes you could try out on Christmas. Click here to see how to make my applesauce stack cake. Grandma made the best one ever!

On my sidebar is a link to my cookbook on Amazon. It has a pic of my stack cake on the cover.  Cookbooks make great gifts for people who like to cook!

I hope you have a nice Christmas and make lots of memories. Click here for a couple of posts about my Christmas memories.

I read on the internet somewhere that Christmas Eve is the most popular day to get engaged. That is one memory I forgot to write about on my blog. I got engaged on Christmas Eve 1977. Six and a half months later we were married!

I think it surprised our families. We had dated for years and I don't think they thought he was ever going to propose. But I knew better.

What's your favorite Christmas memory?

read Christmas story books

decorate with holly

make angels out of songbook pages

make m & m icicles to put on packages

Merry Christmas.

Labor of Love

We decided to put up our Nativity this year. 

The wooden pieces for the manger, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus,

a cow, a donkey, a camel and a shepherd and three sheep came out of our building.

It was a cold blustery day. 

Charley scratched his head while he tried to remember how it went together.

After a few false starts, we finally figured it out.

We brought down the figurines from the rafters of our building. We will remember this year to put them in trash bags before they go up in the rafters again. There was quite an accumulation of dirt and saw dust on them.

But, everything came out in the wash. Charley did most of the work. He washed all of them. Even though he is in short sleeves, it was very cold outside. He said he didn't want to get the sleeves of his coat wet.

Baby Jesus' cradle had broken, so my son made a new and sturdier one. The one that came with the figures was a flimsy plastic one. Andrew made this one out of some cedar he had in the building (another name for his workshop).

Our neighbor gave us some hay. We finished putting it together just before the rains came. I think it looks real nice. We hadn't put it up in quite a few years. We bought Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in 1991. In 1992 we bought the donkey and cow. In 1993 we got a lamb. In 1994 we bought the shepherd and two sheep and a camel. So you see, we have accumulated our Nativity piece by piece over the years. I guess we now need to get the wise men. I haven't seen these in the stores lately, though, I don't know if they still sell them or not.

The rains turned to a dusting of snow.

Tis The Day After Christmas

I'm so tired! There was no getting up early and shopping the after Christmas specials. I've got enough Christmas stuff and don't need any more. I may get a little wrapping and tissue paper, but that's all.

Tis the day after Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature is stirring
Not even my spouse.

The papers are strewn
All around the floor
The boxes are stacked
Up against the door.

The house is a mess
Don't know where to start
To haul off this stuff
We'll need a big cart.

I think I'll sit down
And rest my tired feet
It'll be a while
'till my home is neat.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas!

Our snow is gone with only a few patches of white here and there. The sun is shining and I don't even want to think of cleaning my house. I fixed a big breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits and tomato gravy, too, and I have a sink full of dishes. I hope I don't have any company until next year :) That's not too much to ask, is it? Maybe by then, it'll be back to normal.

All kidding aside, we had a very nice Christmas. My son and his wife, my sister and brother in law and my dad came out on Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner and a good visit with each other. Charley worked day shift this week and had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we opened our presents on Christmas Eve night. He works 12 hour shifts and went to bed around midnight and got up at 3am to go out to work on Christmas Day. So we are tired and not doing much of anything today.

Do any of you have your house cleaned up yet?

CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS BOOKS

I love children's books! I like to write them and collect them.

Among others, I have lots of Little Golden Books.

I decided to get out some of my children's Christmas books to display during the holidays. You can click on the images to see a large version of the picture. I love the graphics on the covers.



There's....... Polly's Christmas Present, The Cat That Climbed the Christmas Tree, A Little Christmas Treasury, Christmas Mice, The Curious Little Kitten's First Christmas, A Stable in Bethlehem, The Animals' Christmas Eve, The Christmas Story and The Happiest Christmas.




And here's....... The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas, The Christmas Bunny, The Littlest Christmas Elf, Jingle Bells, Little Critter's The Night Before Christmas, a Tell-a-Tale Book The Night Before Christmas, Noni the Christmas Reindeer, and Christmas Mouse.



And..... Tom and Jerry's Merry Christmas, Donald Duck's Christmas Tree, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree, and The Christmas Tree That Grew.




Still more.....Pooh's The Sweetest Christmas, Baby's Christmas, The Nutcracker, and The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas 50 Years of Holiday Comics!




Last, but not least.....I Can't Wait Until Christmas, Big Bird Meets Santa Claus, Annabelle's Wish, Raggedy Ann and Andy Help Santa Claus, and Mickey's Christmas Carol.

And here is a fun Christmas board game called Santa's Special Delivery.

Is your favorite book pictured above? Which one is your favorite?

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

Finally putting up some decorations.

Here are a few of my favorite things.........

Christmas Fenton

What is Christmas without a vintage Santa cookie jar to put all those favorite cookies in.

Snowmen made from mop covered styrofoam balls and decorated up for the cold winter weather.

More snowmen. The large one is made from an old vinyl record album and 45 painted, glued together and decorated. The small one is made from a CD you don't need any more.

A favorite wreath I decorated with vintage Christmas ornaments.

Do you have your decorations up yet?

Maybe these photos will give you some ideas of what you can make.

Don't forget to comment. Your name will be put in my drawing for hand made ornaments and a holiday pin.