Last Post in 2007

Today is the last day in 2007 and a brand new year begins tomorrow. I generally start the new year half optimistic and half pessimistic -- optimistic because I make a lot of plans that I hope will work out and pessimistic because previous experience tells me most of them probably won't. In a lot of ways, 2007 was a good year for me. I made some friends, accomplished a few goals, and had some pretty enjoyable days. On the other hand, there were some challenges and times when I was downright discouraged. I guess most people can say the same thing. No one has a "perfect" year. Still, on December 31, we like to hope that one is just around the corner. We make lists of everything we will do and want to do, trying to ignore the fact that there are very few check marks on our lists from last year. My list of resolutions gets shorter every year because I know that the more I resolve to do, the less I tend to get done. Last year, I had just six items on my list. I accomplished two and-one-half. The one-half is because I was supposed to learn two new piano pieces. I learned one completely and "sort-of" learned two more. I did read fifteen books that I had never read before and lost those last annoying pounds this summer. I didn't learn to paint well, finish reading that interminable book on the Constitution, or finish writing my novel. This year, I still have similar goals in mind, but a little different, too. What are they?

1. Eat healthy
2. Complete several new pieces of artwork -- portraits, landscapes and a still life
3. Read at least 20 books I have never read before ( I found this to be real incentive to research different authors and find new books this year)
4. Practice the piano and learn at least two new pieces ( I'm going to give this one another try!)
5. Figure out what my painting style is and make at least one decent painting.

Will I do everything on that list? I doubt it. I should probably go ahead and delete "eat healthy" right now. :) But I do want to set goals for these things and try.

I always wonder a little when a new year begins. What is 2008 going to be like? Will it be a happy year or one full of trials? Will our plans for moving back to our hometown at the end of next year work out? Who will be elected president? I don't know the answers to any of these things, but God does. He has everyday planned and is in control of every circumstance.

Psalm 31: 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in Your hand

Christmas at our house

We started out by cooking all day Monday, Christmas Eve. My mom made our favorite strawberry punch and we got out the Christmas tablecloth and serving platters.
I made this fudge from scratch late Sunday night. It's better if it has time to really set. The recipe is Alton Brown's from the Food Network. The recipe itself is easy, it just takes forever to cook up to the right temperature and cool down to the right temperature.
On Monday, while my mom was working on different things for Christmas dinner, I made these cookies and got my apple pie started. The cookies are a Martha Stewart recipe, oatmeal-toffee-chocolate chip-dried cherry. They turned out really good. I froze some of the extra dough to make some more for this weekend. The pie was difficult. The crust turned out crumbly, but the filling pretty good. I think I may try a pie crust recipe with shortening as well as butter next time to see if that makes any difference.

Christmas Day, we woke up pretty early and went downstairs to open presents. I got a lot of new clothes, The Complete Jane Austen, a beautiful version of Pilgrim's Progress, a really nice blue-purple leather pocket book, a coat, and a drafting table to do my artwork on. One really funny moment was when I opened my sister's present to me. Of all the books in all the stores in this town, she had bought me the exact same book I bought her, The Complete Sherlock Holmes. We bought my mom a set of Christmas dishes. They are a set of white dishes with a silver band, but have saucers with silver holly to go with them. We got my dad a DVD set of one of his favorite old TV shows.

I spent the afternoon putting my desk together. When I opened the box, I discovered it was in about a million pieces, but I worked on it for about two hours and managed to put it together. We ate a great dinner of prime rib, stuffed potatoes, and salad and then went to help my sister put her new writing desk together. It was a really nice day. Now I have to print off lots of new reference photos so I can work at my new desk!!!

I think somebody liked her present..........

And we were worried she would never use it! :)

O Holy Night

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night, O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here came the wise men from Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our Friend!

He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!
Truly He taught us to love one another;His law is love and His Gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His Name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy Name!

Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

words by Adolphe Adam

source: www.cyberhymnal.org

Christmas Meme

Here's a fun Christmas meme:



Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Gift bags can be really cute, but they aren't as much fun to open!

Real tree or artificial? We've done both. We had an artificial tree for about ten years, but this year we got a real one and I like it a lot. It smells so good!

When do you put up the tree? About a week after Thanksgiving

When do you take the tree down? Usually around New Year's

Favorite holiday theme? Victorian Christmas! I love pink, lacy ornaments

Favorite gift received as a child? My Samantha American Girl doll. I wanted her for years and my parents surprised me with her for Christmas when I was eight.

Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! I picked it out when I was about five and we still put it up every year.

Hardest person to buy for? Definitely my mom

Easiest person to buy for? My sister is pretty easy to shop for

Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm....I've gotten some clothes I didn't care for before, but I don't think that falls under "worst present ever"

Mail or email cards? Mail cards! Sometimes I send emails, too, but always mail cards!

Favorite Christmas movie? It's A Wonderful Life (this is waiting for me at the library right now!) and A Christmas Carol

When do you start shopping for Christmas? First week of December. It just doesn't feel like I'm shopping for Christmas any earlier.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Never

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything? :) No, my favorite is those chocolate oranges that you whack on the table and they fall apart into segments like a real orange. I get a dark chocolate one in my stocking every year.

White lights or colored on the tree? Colored lights.

Favorite Christmas song? Now that's just too hard. Top Five: O Holy Night, Mary Did You Know?, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Silver Bells, Sleighride

Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Complicated. Now, we stay home. Used to, we traveled 600 miles to our hometown. When we still lived there, we split the day in half between my mom's family and my dad's family

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen.....Rudolph!

Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel. I can never find a star I really like.

Open the presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? My sister and I open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. Everything else is for Christmas!!!!

Most annoying thing about this time of year? traffic. TRAFFIC. TRAFFIC!!!!

What I love most about Christmas? I love the decorations, the lights, the music, but most of all I love the celebration that Jesus Christ was born. "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord"

Let me know if you play along, I'd love to see your answers so consider yourself "tagged" if you're reading this!

Last shopping day?

Today we went out to find our last few presents. It turned out to be harder than we imagined. When we started out, the traffic wasn't too bad and we only needed a few things. We stopped by Kohls first. I need a new pair of shoes and my mom wanted to look at the clothes. Neither of us could find what we wanted. Then, we went to Barnes and Noble. My mom tried to go in and choose a book for me, but in the end she asked me to go in and pick it out myself because she couldn't remember which books I already have. I picked The Complete Novels of Jane Austen. It is so neat -- an oversized copy, with original illustrations. By now, even driving around the parking lot was terrible, with everyone backing out of spaces at the same time and trying to drive down lanes. Next, we went to a store to try to find my dad his favorite cologne. They didn't have it, but my mom did find a pocket book she liked. When we left there, the traffic was even worse. It took so long to get home. Now tomorrow we will have to go to the mall to try to find shoes and cologne.

We are also going to make our Christmas menu tonight so we can get all our grocery shopping done tomorrow. On Christmas Eve, we have a little party with strawberry punch and snacks. For Christmas Day, we are going to have a prime rib roast and just a few things to go with it. There is only the four of us, so if we made lot of side dishes and desserts they would just go to waste. For Christmas Eve, I am going to make cookies of some kind (I'm thinking about oatmeal with toffee and dried cherries), fudge, and white chocolate-cherry candy. For Christmas dinner, I want to make an apple pie. If only I can get the crust right!! Anyway, that's how we'll probably spend tomorrow -- sitting at traffic lights and shopping in grocery stores. Maybe I'll get around to putting my gingerbread house together before Christmas is over! :)

Gingerbread progress

Today, I baked all the pieces for my gingerbread house. I meant to get this finished yesterday, but I went out shopping all afternoon with my mom. By the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was roll out dough. This morning, I set out my dough to let it soften some. Since I made it Monday, it had chilled until it was too hard to work with. Then I began rolling it out. It was actually the easiest dough I have ever used! It didn't stick, it didn't break, and it didn't have to be floured constantly! I could even pick it up and turn it different ways like the chefs do. :) I guess chilling the dough thoroughly is key to being able to roll it out easily. It took a while to roll out all my pieces, simply because there were several and I could only fit two on each pan, but the rolling out process, for the first time in my life, was a breeze. All of my pieces turned out well, too. Only one of my walls didn't feel quite right to me after I baked it. I hadn't rolled it out quite evenly, so one side was fat and the other was thin. I made a duplicate of it with the left over dough to try to prevent assembly problems. I did keep forgetting to check on the dough in the oven (note to self: from now on, set the timer five minutes early), so a few pieces got brown around the edges -- not good in the gingerbread world. Hopefully, they won't become brittle and crumble on me. I did manage to bake off two absolutely perfect pieces -- no cracks, no bubbles, and all perfectly even-- which are pictured above. Considering they are only two out of about ten pieces that I baked today and the fifty or so pieces I've baked in the last three years, that's quite an accomplishment. :)

I made the news... and gingerbread houses

I took a little break from posting this weekend. Now I have a few new things to talk about. :)

This morning, my mom wanted to go to the post office to send our Christmas packages back home. She wanted me to go with her because she had two large packages to carry and the Christmas cards to stamp and mail. When we pulled up to the parking lot, we noticed the local news station van was parked there. Of course, we thought, OH NO!! Those packages had to be mailed, though, so we went inside. There was the news reporter at the head of the counter and a camera man filming everyone who was standing in line. Talk about bad timing. I had on very little make up and my hair looked terrible. While we stood in line, the camera slowly took shots of everyone, then, we looked up, and he was standing in front of us, giving us a close-up!! I couldn't even look back up. It was too awful. When we watched the five o' clock news tonight, the story was mostly interviews that had taken place before we got there (we were so glad they didn't ask us anything) but they did show one clip of us standing in line.

As soon as we got back, my mom left to finish up her Christmas shopping and Gabrielle and I started working on our gingerbread houses. We have made one nearly every year for about four years now. We make the dough from scratch, the icing from scratch, assemble and decorate them the week before Christmas. Why we put ourselves through this, I don't know. It is one of the most nerve-wracking projects you could ever undertake. Already, the stress factor is pretty high. We had chosen one set of templates, made the dough, chilled it, rolled it out, and cut some out. The dough was sticking to everything, making a mess, and just being annoying. Nothing like that happens when the TV chefs roll out dough. I baked off one pan and Gabrielle started working on hers. After all this trouble, we discovered that the side wall wouldn't fit on our cookie sheet. We still worked with it for a long time, trying to make something work, but finally decided to just change patterns. So, after supper, we're going to have to roll out what's left of the dough and make all the pieces for the new house pattern that we can. Then tomorrow, I'm sure we'll end up making more dough to finish the house pieces with. So, now my nerves are frazzled and my back is aching. Why do I make gingerbread houses? I have no idea.

Just a few ramblings.......

I don't have anything in particular to post about today. I've been a little bit lazy this week (getting over a bad cold is always an excuse for me to be lazy), but I have managed to get some writing done and a new drawing finished. We bought the Christmas cards this week. I signed them all two days ago, but I haven't addressed them yet. I think I will spend this afternoon doing that. We went out shopping a few times this week also and the weather was actually almost warm! I want to go to a craft store and the fabric store sometime. Even though I keep receiving all these sales flyers from Joann's and Hancock's, so far I just haven't gone.

I have seen a few good movies in the last week. One was The Polar Express. I love that movie. We went to see it in 3D when it was at the theatre. Now that was really cool -- especially when the train was going down the 79 degree grade. It was like a roller coaster! Another was an old movie with Jimmy Stewart, The Shop Around The Corner. I saw this on TCM for the first time a couple of years ago and it has become a favorite since. It is about a man and woman (Jimmy Stewart and I-can't-remember-her-name) who have been exchanging letters anonymously for sometime. Come to find out, they work in the same gift shop and fight all the time. It's a really nice old movie. I also like A Charlie Brown Christmas. I always feel sorry for the poor little tree, too!

I checked out a few Christmas books from the library, too. I enjoy reading Christmas short stories a lot. I began A Christmas Carol this week. One book of short stories in particular is very good. It contains Christmas chapters from different books, such as The Pickwick Papers, Christmas on Plum Creek, and Little Women.

What Child Is This?

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I love the words and the beautiful melody. When I found the words at www.cyberhymnal.org, I discovered that each verse has its own chorus. The tune is the traditional English melody, Greensleeves, and the word are by William C. Dix.

What Child is this who, laid to rest On Mary’s lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christians, fear, for sinners here The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, The cross be borne for me, for you.

Hail, hail the Word made flesh,The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh, Come peasant, king to own Him;

The King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise a song on high, The virgin sings her lullaby.

Joy, joy for Christ is born,The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Colds and Computers

This was not a fun weekend. In fact, it was a really, really aggravating one. Saturday, I went to Walmart. It was sprinkling a little and the air was chilly. My cold started to come back by that evening. I am going to have to make a serious effort not to go out in the rain the least bit from now on. To make things worse, I started trying to make a photo calender for a Christmas gift Saturday night. Everything was going fine, all the birthdays were marked, and a few pictures were put in place. Then, my computer froze. I restarted it, signed online again, and went back to the calender page. It wouldn't load. I deleted temporary Internet files and cookies, restarted the computer several times, but nothing would make that calender software load again. So, I called the help phone number. Their advice was to keep deleting temporary files. I shut down the computer and left it until the next day. Sunday morning, it was way too foggy and rainy to go to church. My cold was so bad by now that I couldn't have gone anyway. That afternoon, I tried to work on the calenders again because they were on sale through today only. The computer froze..and froze..and froze and still refused to load the calender page. I called the help number again. This person informed me that the problem was my computer -- my version of Windows was no longer compatible with their software. I wish somebody had told me that before I worked on it for hours with a miserable head cold. So, today, we went to the library and I spent two hours working on a photo calender from their computer. All I can say is, everybody had better enjoy that calender!!!!

Christmas Shopping

Thursday, my sister and I went out on our annual all-day shopping trip. We've done this for a few years now. We go shopping, mainly for our parents, but for other family members, each other, and our dog, too. Last year was a NIGHTMARE!!! I can't even describe how bad the traffic was and it was just a middle-of-the-week shopping day. The best way I can think of to give you an idea of what it was like is this tiny fraction of the day: it took 45 minutes to get from the stoplight in front of the mall to the parking lot at the back of the mall and another 30 minutes to find a parking space!!! When we got inside the mall, things didn't get any better. We had no idea what we wanted to buy anyone. You would think in such a huge mall we could have easily found something, but we ended up walking up and down the mall, through store after store, until we finally settled on presents for our parents.

This year was better by 1000%. There was hardly any traffic at all and we had previously decided on everything we were going to buy. Of course, we changed our minds about my mom's present when we saw something we liked better, but we had a general idea in mind and that kept us on track. My dad's present was actually the most difficult. We knew what we wanted to get him, but we couldn't find it anywhere. Still, looking for it wasn't even a problem because there was no traffic, no crowds of people, and we were finally able to locate and purchase it. We bought Princess a fluffy, pretty dog bed at Target. I had an idea in mind for what I was going to get my sister, but after shopping, I have a better idea. Now I need to go shopping without her so I can buy it! :) Toward the end of the day, we got a burger and one of our favorite milkshakes. Gabrielle likes an orange flavored one. Me? I go for the double chocolate fudge sundae milkshake. It is a chocolate shake, layered with fudge sauce, and topped with mini chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry. Talk about delicious!! Don't think about the calories. :)

Show and Tell Friday -- My Christmas Quilts

For Show and Tell Friday this week, I am going to post pictures of my Christmas quilts. I have made several quilts now, but these are some of my favorites. For more Show and Tell fun, visit Kelli's blog at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/.



I handmade this quilt three years. It is completely hand-pieced and hand-quilted. The pattern is a Virginia Star with a lattice border. I love this particular star pattern. The tiny pieces could be annoying to work with at times, but I think the result was worth the extra trouble. There were definitely lessons learned in this quilt. The center pieces of the red star are made of a certain material which, when I bought it, was a really vibrant red color. After I prewashed it, it faded a lot, but I was so excited about getting my Christmas quilt together that I didn't even notice until I had made several stars. I thought about taking them apart even then, but I couldn't find another complementary red fabric with a muted pattern as hard as that is to believe. So I went ahead and used it.

Another mistake I made was going with "by the book" measurements for a queen sized bed. I discovered after I completed the quilting and binding that this quilt is about six inches too short for my bed. I could have solved the whole problem if I had just lain the quilt top across my mattress before I finished it, but I didn't even think about it. Despite its flaws, I really love this quilt. I love the bright colors and the stars. I put in on my bed in November and keep it on through January.

This is a little wallhanging I made about four years ago.I think it was my second quilting project. It's cute, but I didn't construct it very well. I learned one thing, though -- I hate applique!
This is my Christmas tree skirt. I think I made it three years ago. I was having a hard time finding fabrics I liked for this project in the store -- if I found a cute print, I couldn't find anything to match it or there wasn't enough of it. Finally, I saw these three coordinating fabrics with gold patterns and thought they would work really well together. The pattern was very simple to make. I wish I had made the skirt itself a little larger, though. I want to make another one sometime with different colors, just for a change.

Christmas Decorations

I feel a lot better today. When I woke up this morning, I still didn't feel good, but by this afternoon I was much better. Hopefully I will be completely well tomorrow because my sister really wants to go Christmas shopping. :)
We finished getting the house decorated this weekend. I love to set up all the decorations and see the tree light up. For the first time in ten years, we have a live tree! Last year, we threw away our artificial tree. It was about ten years old and was beginning to look worn out. There is a Christmas tree lot just down the road from our house, so we stopped by there last week and picked out a tree. I was surprised at how much I like having a real one. It was definitely a lot easier to set up than our old artificial one that I had to put together one branch at a time. Anyway, we put the lights and all of our ornaments on the tree. Some are store bought, some are handmade, and some are hand-painted. It's a pretty and interesting combination!
This is our nativity scene. I remember picking it out in the store when I was about five years old.
This is our piano and all the little figurines on top. Some are gifts from both my grandmas and from my Aunt Sherry. My favorites are the little bears on the front row holding up a present and a Christmas tree.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go, but the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be on your own front door!"

Not feeling great....

I had a couple of things planned to post today and including some new pictures, but I started to feel really miserable with a sore throat last night and woke up this morning with a full-blown head cold. So, all I feel like doing this afternoon is drinking chicken soup and taking a nap. :) Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow and will be able to post more.

An Old Favorite

Friday, I watched one of my favorite old movies, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. It is a movie about a family who lives in a tiny New York apartment. They find a farm with an old house on it and decide to buy it and remodel the house. The experiences they have as they try to build their dream house are hilarious, but also things that happen in the real world of building houses and remodeling -- I've seen enough shows on HGTV to know that. :) I have lots of favorites among Cary Grant's movies, but this is definitely around the top of my list.