And The winner Is...

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We had dinner with our daughter and her family.We watched a Christmas movie together, while snuggling grandchildren. 

Later, I had one of my granddaughters help me in drawing the winner of a flock of Wee Little Sheep.

All your names, as many times as you commented this past month, were added to the basket, shuffled around and... 

...drum-roll please.....

KEETHA !

Keetha, email me your snail mail address, and this little flock will be on its' way to your home ! Congratulations Keetha, and thank-you to everyone who has taken time to spend a bit of time with me reading and commenting on my blog over the past few years. I am taking a blogging break this week and looking forward to the coming new year , 2013. To all of you blogging friends ~

Happy New Year !

 

Little Baby On The Hay ~ God's Gift

This picture by one of our granddaughters says it all, the reason our family celebrates Christmas. "And she ( Mary ) gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn...for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:7,11

"Little baby on the hay, soon there'll be another day when nails shall pierce Your hands and feet as you provide our sin's defeat. 

Risen Jesus on the throne, we lift our praise to You alone - for You're the gift that we receive, the moment that our hearts believe." Roy Lessin  

Remember, tomorrow night I will draw the name of the winner of a small flock of Wee Little Sheep, and post the winner Christmas Day. Any time you leave a comment your name goes in the drawing , this is for all the posts since I announced the drawing. ( Keetha has a pretty good chance of winning!)

Merry Christmas !  

Christmas~ Hard Work For Cats

 It is such hard work being a cat during the Christmas Season. Resisting the sparkly, dangling things hanging off a tree. ( Birds ?)

 And let us not forget how hard it is to hold down the batting used for decorating and the wrapping paper when the people in the house keep moving it about !Not to mention the strings of lights....

It is such hard work a cat needs a nap. Now if only the dogs would appreciate our work and give us more room on the cat bed!

Reindeer ?

My husband & our grandsons. What ? You thought they were reindeer? Well, the grandchildren are sure my husband is Santa Claus. This is such a fun time of the year for us. "Don't expect too much of Christmas Day. You can't crowd into it any arrears of unselfishness & kindliness that may have accrued during the past 12 months." Oren Arnold

Hot Chocolate With Real Whipping Cream Snow Day

Tea-Time Tuesday has been postponed here at Cedar Pond .We had our first decent snowfall and had a snow day ! Look out my living room window, see all that snow? With 2 grandsons spending the night here, a day playing in the snow is called for.

                                                                                    

 My 3 Amigos huddle up next to the sun-warmed foundation.

 My sheep were seen licking the snow while waiting for their alfalfa.

The ducks warmed up IN the pond, and then scrambled for the crackers our youngest grandson scattered for them.

Today was a hot chocolate with real whipping cream after playing in the snow day ! Yes, it was.

Cat Stalks Christmas Elves !

Blizzard ,our cat, pondering the taste of teeny tiny Christmas elves?

It is snowing outside right now, I am almost finished addressing Christmas cards.It has been a very pleasant 2 days with our grandsons here, and now they are sleeping peacefully upstairs . They enjoyed playing games like Shooters, and Rummy with their Poppa, and each grandson made a dinner for us from the Paula Deen Cookbook For Kids.The Porcupine Balls and Pigs in a Blanket were yummy, thank-you Grandsons.We have to take the boys home tomorrow , I think their Mom misses them.

I have a TeaTime Tuesday post to do later on today, and please don't forget the give-away!( see side-bar) I hope you're taking time to enjoy this season with loved ones, appreciating the many blessings in your life. 

Table-Top Snow Scene : Christmas Decorating

Our dining room table takes up a large part of our living space( by design ). A large table allows more people to sit together as they share a meal & fellowship. Because the table dominates so much space I like to decorate it too."Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." Washington Irving

Often a pretty tablecloth, candles,or the food itself are the best centerpieces, but around Christmas I like to make a miniature world of Christmas and winter scenes to delight my grandchildren and myself. "The best gifts around any Christmas tree; the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." Burton Hillis

The miniature forest scene on the table is part of our home's Christmas village scene, carried on into other parts of the house.You can see our little village on the buffet from here.

Santa's camp is in the little forest on the table too. ( He looks like my husband.) This is the table-top decor for this Christmas season, and one that allows little children and big kids alike to imagine a Christmas forest and even rearrange the figures if it suits them. Kind of an interactive table scene.( Don't forget the give-away, details posted in the side-bar.) "My idea of Christmas , whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" Bob Hope

Christmas Cabin & Give-Away

 Here are two Wee Little Sheep helping me announce my give-away. The little flock of 3 I am giving away will look similar to these two woolly sheep. The sheep are made using the wool fleece from my own flock of live sheep. The sheep are perfect for the Nativity scene with a 6" scale. The winner may choose to have the sheep wear bells, hearts, or no neck ornaments at all. All you have to do to get your name thrown into the bowl ( literally) for selection is leave a comment on a blog post. Your name will be entered every time you leave a comment.I will select someone to draw the name out of the bowl December 23rd, announce it December 24th and mail the little flock to the winner before the new year begins !Now, onto Christmas decorating, more specifically, our little Christmas Cabin.

 This log cabin sits atop an armoir between our living room & dining room. The cabin was built by my husband and 3 children years ago for a home-school history fair.It is furnished for my little Bear family now, and even decorated inside for Christmas. Outside the cabin it is the abode of a polar bear family and Santa Claus.

Thank-you for visiting, and please, don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a Wee Little Flock !

"In December the winter sun burns like white fire on the snow. Ice glitters on the cold side of the branches of the sugar maples, melts on the warm side and falls with a soft sound." Glady Tabor 'The Best of Stillmeadow'

Teacup Tuesday ~ Grape Vines or Ivy ?

Does the pattern on this teacup look like grape vines to you? I chose this teacup & saucer today to sip my tea as I decorated our home. I hummed "The Holly & The Ivy" as I pulled family seasonal treasures out of their storage boxes.

I was happy with the simplicity of my sun-room Christmas decor and thought the ivy teacup looked right at home with the lovely Peace Lily my 3 younger sisters had sent to the Memorial Service last month for my husband's mother . The lovely plant now lives in our sun-room.

The teacup is bone china made by Colclough. Upon examining it more closely I discovered a sticker from the shop where I bought it saying "Grapevine" c. 1945-48 Colclough ".That stopped me short, looked like ivy to me. So, I did some research and lo & behold, it IS Ivy, by Colclough. There are quite a few dishes & teacups made in this pattern. 

Being curious, I researched further into the meaning of the song I had been humming all day, 'The Holly & The Ivy' and discovered it is an interesting song that has little about the ivy in it.If you're interested in this you can click here*.

This song is full of symbolic meaning and there are musings on why ivy & holly would have been used to adorn homes or religious buildings & temples~the symbolic use is probably meaningful to many, but I think it often comes down to being practical. What plants and trees were green or blooming in the dark and bleak winters? Ivy, holly, evergreen trees, and anything with berries for color. I love the hardy ivy plant even if it is considered an invasive nuisance by the plant experts ( including my husband). I very much like this teacup & saucer and think it is perfect for Teatime Tuesdays during the Christmas season.I am joining the ladies below for Tuesday Tea~Time:

• Terri at Artful Affirmations* 
• Sandi At Rose Chintz Cottage* 
• Martha At Martha's Favorites* 

 I will be giving away a flock of 3 Wee Little Sheep this month, just because I want to, it's almost Christmas, the season of giving!More details to come, but all you have to do to enter is leave a comment. I will enter your name every time you leave a comment on my blog.( If you comment on 3 different blog posts, your name will be entered 3 times) It starts now. I will post a picture of the flock in my next post. ~ "Gift: A present; any thing given or bestowed;any thing, the property of which is voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation."American Dictionary of The English Language

Remnants

 Remnants of autumn ~ red, gold, bright yellow leaves.

 The new grape arbor , just this summer loaded with vines and grapes, looks bare.

 The older grape arbor is almost hidden with grape vines , and the bright yellow cloud of leaves makes me happy, yet the cold rain and freezing weather has now lessened this cloud to a few puffs of yellow hanging barely, ready to fly away in the next passing wind.

 November is the time of transition from Autumn to Winter, the transition from the busy-ness of hunting and gathering, preparing for the cold bleak months to come.

A big part of this transition is filling the wood shed with wood cut from trees on our property, most downed by storms, to heat our winter hearth & home. So much of my favorite season ~ Autumn, is filled with the remnants of summer, and preparing for Winter and all she brings. "There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood, Touch of manner, hint of mood, And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple, and the crimson keeping time." fr.Bliss Carman, 'An Autumn Song'

Now, onto December, Christmas, and all the special delights of this season! I will be having a give-away of my Wee Little Sheep this month just because I want to, and I hope you come back to see how you might win a sheep of your own.

Blue & White For Thanksgiving~ A Family Tradition

 This has to be my favorite china, Blue Danube*.

 Although not a bold beauty, this cup & saucer is the china pattern my husband & I chose for our wedding registration. 'Charleston ', by Noritake. This pattern was on sale when we married and we received settings for 12 in plates, cups & saucers, plus quite a few serving pieces.I love the simple elegance of this pattern and after almost 40 years of marriage have never tired of it.The ivory background with the platinum rims, and the dark blue design filled in oh-so-delicately with pale blue always look just right on my dining room table.

 My husband's father started our Blue Danube collection of china, and he filled in our wedding china pieces, and also gave us a set of Noritake 'Perspective' goblets in Peacock Blue to accompany our place settings. Above you can see the two china patterns we love and use frequently on our table as we share meals with people we love.( plus, a Blue Danube candle-stick I found at a thrift store! )

 I use my Blue Danube dishes as accent and decoration through-out our home.Here it is behind the tiers of fruit on the sideboard. What bounty !

 Over the years I have broken enough pieces of my wedding china that when we have a lot of company I need to fill in with Blue Danube. Here, before all the platters of food were placed on the Thanksgiving table you can see how I mixed and matched my favorite chinas.In the photo below, you can see the bright blue water goblets in my china cabinet and a few more pieces of Blue Danube.

The children ( 4 of our 8 grandchildren) had their own table, and you can see they are eating off Blue Danube. I used a yellow & white toile tablecloth for their table. I love the double-blossomed yellow orchid my husband's brother and his wife gave us as a host gift,it made a perfect center-piece for this table. ( Thank-you ! )

The nice thing about hosting any kind of dinner, lunch, or tea, is you can be as creative as you like. Matching dishes are not necessary, and often I think mixing patterns and decorations makes it more fun . I am very thankful for the china my husband & I chose together so many years ago, and especially thankful my husband's father loves to gift his family with dishes they love to use.I am MOST thankful for the family assembled at our table and the abundance of food to fill our dishes to overflowing ~ gifts from God I do not take for granted."Enter His gates with Thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise, Give thanks to him; Bless His name." Psalm 100:4

I am joining these ladies for Tea Time Tuesday:

• Sandi *
• Martha *
• Terri*
• Kathy *