Christmas Wishes to All of You

 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas.

 

The image above is from one of the towels I received from my sister.  She has an embroidery machine and made the holiday design on them.

 

I think they are beautiful!

I was up early (a bit before 5 am) as usual this morning. We did not have to go to our Christmas brunch until 11:30 a.m., so I had plenty of time to finish the green star quilt I have been working on for...e.v.e.r.

I am so thrilled to finally have it completely finished!  I spent an hour or so curled up in it late this afternoon reading those magazines.  Tomorrow I plan to relax in the same spot with that stack of cooking books. It's so nice and warm and cuddly.  In fact, I think I am going to finish this post and head right back under it for the rest of the evening!

For Christmas Eve I made a few dishes to take to my sister's party. One was these festive jello squares. The white is condensed milk with unflavored gelatin.

I have been meaning to try these for the past few years. DH is a jello lover and he really liked these.  They may become a new tradition.

I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday as much as we did this year.

Still No Fresh Christmas Arrangement in my Basket

Two weeks ago I said I was going to go outside and cut down some of these evergreen shrubs to make a holiday arrangement.

But as of today, the basket and candle holders sit empty.

I just have not had time.

After work today, I had a dentist appointment for a periodontal cleaning and an eye doctor appt. after the dentist appointment.  I got to work at 6:30 A.M. and back home at 6:30 P.M.  No time for anything but dinner, helping DH with the clean up, watching the news and making this blog post.  Maybe I will get it done this weekend.

To inspire me, I went back through my Christmas pictures to find out how this table looked for the past two years.  Here is last year: 



and 2010:

Either one looks better than it does right now. :)

I would like to use the "JOY" bunting again this year and maybe incorporate some snowmen (a "LET IT SNOW" bunting would be nice, but no time to make that).  With snowmen that do not necessarily scream Christmas, I can leave it up until Valentine's Day...then again it may be February before I ever get around to doing it!

I am definitely lacking in Christmas spirit this year and that is just fine.  Every now and then I like to take a year off and not do the incredible amount of work that it takes to deck the place out in holiday decor.

How about you? Are you overflowing in Christmas spirit this year or have you lost it all like me?

Gingerbread Man/Candy Kitchen Christmas Tree

This morning I put up the only Christmas tree I am going to do this year.  It's a skinny 5 ft. tree on the edge of my kitchen counter looking toward the family room.

I put the ornaments on while it sat on the floor. I thought it would be fast and easy, but it took three attempts (with help from DH) to get it on top of the counter.

 Each time ornies fell to the floor, everything was a jumble and I had to redo it.  It ended up taking way more effort than I expected.  At least it will be easy to take down.  I only had to haul up one plastic bin.

It's all decorated with candy ornaments, gingerbread men and cookies (years ago I made all the gingerbread men & cookies).

 The top has a big candy cane with sprigs of red/white lollipops.  I think I bought the sprigs about four years ago and this is the first time I used them.

I put a big bow of the gingerbread man ribbon across the front of the box it sits in to cover the electrical cords.

The only other decorating I am planning to do is to cut down some fresh greens from this border in my yard to make a big arrangement of real greens. 

I may do that tomorrow.  Right now the bushes are covered with snow. Tomorrow it is supposed to be warm enough to melt all the snow.

Have you all been doing Christmas decorating?

Christmas Wreath with Bird's Nest

Since I only had to make two vegetable dishes for our family potluck Thanksgiving dinner, I had plenty of time to putz around during the day.

It was 60 degress outside, so I spent an hour cutting down Sedum Autumn Joy (3 wheelbarrows full).

Then  I decided to make a Christmas wreath.

I put an artifical wreath on an easel in the basement and set about rummaging through boxes to find items to add.  I began with this checkered ribbon and some pinecones.







I added a dried allium seed head to the center of the bow.

 I found some fruit picks and more dried money plant and poked them in a few areas.  One box yielded my real bird's nest that I have  been using on my tree for a number of years.  I am not planning to put up a large tree this year, so I stuck the nest on this wreath.

I don't even know yet where I will put this. But it's ready to hang when I decide.

I still need to add a few more sprigs of lime green foliage.  If I can ever find it!  I searched and searched, but have not yet found the contaniner I stored it in last year.  Hate when that happens...

 

In my next post I will give you the recipe for these asparagus spirals:

 

Pinecone Christmas Decor

While searching for some new Christmas decorating ideas, I came across these rustic pinecone items at the Horchow site.

This year decorating in a rustic style is somewhat appealing to me.

 

I think I could easily make my own by gluing cones to this topiary form (that I used in a previous year for a candy theme):

 

I also have a number of  paper mache reindeer that I could use.   

I think I remembered these  deer being smaller than they are.  Now that I see the picture, I don't know if I want to devote that much time and effort to changing their appearance.  Gluing sounds easy, but I think it would take many hours to get them on just right. I may have to be happy just admiring a rustic woodland holiday theme in other people's homes. 

 

Are any of you decorating yet?  I know it's early, but this is usually when I begin mine.  I get it all done, but don't turn the tree on until the day after Thanksgiving.  This year I plan to cut down on the decorating.