Christmas has left the building

       For those who celebrate… when does Christmas arrive in your home ?  As for we of This Old House, the day after Thanksgiving and all through that weekend, the tree and all the stuff settles in.  I absolutely love this holiday – for the joy those little lights and the old fashioned bulbs and the Christmas baking bring to the atmosphere, the  fond memories rekindled  of those big Italian Christmas gatherings at my Aunt’s house with all the cousins and aunts and uncles,  and memories of  the beautiful decor in my grandmother’s warm home (there were even red bows on the picture frames!)  I have a few ornaments from my mom’s tree,  a cherished addition on our tree year after year.    I  also love gifting people.  That held true  back in the day when I didn’t have a pot to you-know-what in… and today as I find ways to be creative in the gift giving. The beauty of that is, creative gift giving doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg – and sometimes it’s even free, the gift of your efforts and time.  It is truly the thought that counts. 
     So about that timing thing.  My neighbor across the road doesn’t put her tree and decorations up till Christmas Eve.  Heck, we’re almost done by then.  Her tree twinkles in the living room window until far into February, while ours is cleared out at the first of the year.   For me, once Christmas is over, it’s over.  As the new year comes in, I want a fresh clean approach, including inside the house. 
  
      This year I noticed the decor after operation Christmas clean-up  felt a little stale, so I decided to take down some window treatments,  move some wall hangings, clear some of the  decor clutter, change up the mantels on the fireplaces,  and try real hard, and believe me the struggle is real, to not drag out  and display MORE decor clutter in the process.   It just feels good to simplify. 
  

    With the first of the year came the never ending and never quite accomplished resolution to eat healthier, lose the extra weight and add more exercise.  So, I’ve kick started that goal yet again,  broken-record message or not.  It’s never too late to get going, keep going… Onward.   After some research I decided to stick with what will probably work in the long haul, using the WW points system via phone app to monitor carb intake.     Diets like KETO just aren’t sustainable for a person like me, anyway.   That one in particular involves too much meat consumption, and while I know it gets results,  I doubt it’s great long-term for anyone’s arteries.

     Wishing you all good things in the new year – thank you for stopping by.

The Christmas House

      If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while, you know about Stella – our little cottage on the cove.  We learned about that vintage coastal community through a dear friend who lives just down the road from us here at This Old House.  She and her husband raised their kids during summer months in their cottage near Stella –  It maintains the same rustic 1930’s seasonal cottage charm as ours, partly because of her loving touches just about everywhere, and her husband’s beautiful artwork to compliment it. So, we are neighbors both here and down at the shore.

      I need to tell you just a little about “Mrs. F” without giving away her personal information. She is a real dynamo! Having already lived most of her 90th decade, she continues to maintain two households with a little help from her children and grands,  still volunteers for several organizations, still creates, gardens and bakes for family, friends, and the causes she supports.  I have several perennial plants in my cottage gardens now that come from her garden, they will always remind me of her, and my gratitude to her for having helped us find a cottage of our own.

    I stopped in a few days ago to see the bird carvings her son had created, and was just blown away by the Christmas decor she had absolutely everywhere in her charming home.   An observation I’ve made regarding “Mrs. F” and a few other people I’ve been lucky to know who have lived well into their 90’s…  despite heartbreaking events like illness or  the passing of a spouse,  they all share something vital – and that is to live fully with purpose, intention, keeping up with family and friends, nurturing their creativity and being active in causes they believe in throughout all of their days. 

    Browsing all the decorations and artwork and treasures around her home, the warmth of the place and the person  and the people she holds dear surrounds you.  I told “Mrs. F” her home reminded me of a Christmas House… and she said that is exactly what her grandchildren call it.

     The ornaments on her tree are vintage, some she made out of copper,  some given to her by students during her teaching career.

The sitting room above has beautiful furniture pieces 
made by members of her family. 
This bathroom has so much spunk… “Mr. and Mrs. F.” papered it with old

New Yorker Magazine Covers… I absolutely love it.

Below is the only work in acrylics her husband 
ever produced –  He preferred to work in oils.
Of his many beautiful works, this is one of my favorites, and hers. 
A blacksmith’s shop.. with the forge’s glow spilling out into the evening snow

   A collection of Steiff toys from her husband’s childhood live in her office/study… 
The story of how steiff toys came to be is a worthy read – 
you’ll find it HERE

    So many treasures of the heart in this old farm house down the lane… Thank you, my dear friend “Mrs. F” , for sharing it with us here on my blog.

   There’s one more thing I’d like to share –  Mrs. F’s recipe for Swedish cookies. I was gifted with a lovely box full of cookies she made for the holidays, and these  particular cookies are absolutely divine buttery sugary perfection. 

Grandma Mabel’s Swedish Cookies
1 lb. Butter
1 cup sugar
4 cups flour
1 egg yolk
dash of salt
1 shot of Brandy
Combine ingredients – Work with hands until a paste dough is formed. Chill for 20 minutes, Roll  out dough on floured surface, nice and thin. Cut shapes, brush with egg wash so that decorations like colored sugar, etc. stick to the cookie.  Bake at 350 Degrees, 12 min or until just golden.    

ThanksChristmas!

      I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend, and we certainly did.  There were just a few stumbles – aren’t there always?  First…. my lemon meringue pies turned into lemon soup.  If you’ve never made them, here’s what I didn’t know.   I thought I’d add a little more lemon juice than the recipes requires… to give it just a little more lemon zing.  Well… too much lemon zing kills the corn starch -stick-togetherness…. hence.. soup.   Stick to the recipe on that one. 
    Then… Dear old Dad came in wearing his  MAGA red baseball hat.  I ignored it, because he’s entitled to wear whatever he wants to wear and think whatever he wants to think, and  I wasn’t taking the bait.  Until he took to yelling and pointed fingering his opinion at several of my other guests and didn’t stop yelling when I asked.  And that’s when I intervened with some yelling of my own.  Not one of our finer moments, and very typical of our relationship, sadly.  
 My apple pies, that thankfully came out delicious, not soup-like. 
I used honeycrisp apples, cortlands, empires, mcintosh.
It was a great mix – honeycrisp my absolute favorite. 
   Other than that miserable moment, we had an enjoyable dinner and time spent with family. 
   The weekend after Thanksgiving is when Christmas comes out of the closets, the basement, and the shed at this old house.  As of today,  the halls are decked, and although the picture doesn’t reflect it, the pumpkins have been removed from the front stoop.
  My Christmas cactus are in full bloom and the cottage geranium
is still pretty in pink. 

   My Aunt Virginia made this tree in ceramics class many moons ago – It’s my favorite decoration.  Several of my friends have them as well, very popular back in the 70’s-80’s.   I bet a few of you have one, too..

This morning while I fed horses, the prettiest pink hues spread across the 
landscape… only to fade to New England grey shortly after. 

    Currently drizzling outside, more rain in the forecast – and I’m feeling at peace as I sit at my desk writing out christmas cards, and a touch of sad- because a few on my list are no longer with us.  I write little notes in some of the cards,  especially to those who have had a difficult year.  I think it’s a sad thing – that letter writing and christmas card sending is becoming a dying tradition, so I’m keeping it up on my end, regardless.  
   Till soon – 

   

For the love of the Tree

 ** I am receiving your messages that you are not able to leave comments on this blog.. I don’t know why, but I’ve done a few things to hopefully make the issue go away.  If you’re one of those, please try again under this post and lets see if the situation is resolved.  Comments are now pop-up instead of embedded.

   My childhood home was a Staten Island 1800’s farmhouse that ended up smack in the middle of development.  I loved that little house, with it’s slanted  but beautiful wood floors, steps up and steps down in almost every room, even the creepy stone foundation basement that had a huge hole in the side wall I was sure was either Jimmy Hoffa’s final resting place or the Grinch’s hibernation headquarters.  Either way, nothing good was coming out of that hole in the wall.  But a lot of good came out of being raised in that house – including the huge old oaks that surrounded it, close up.  
   At night I’d gaze out my little bedroom window at the big old outstretched branches. With a summer breeze, their rustle would lull me to sleep.  I’d listen to the birds chirp and watch them flitter among the leaves in the early morning light.   Our yard had an abundance of trees and we collected “itchy balls”, helicopters, and even fluffy mimosa tree blooms until those trees were removed due to disease.   I imagined the big old oaks, in particular,  standing as sentinels, guarding our family and pets.  To this day it’s a sad thought that they were all removed when the house was eventually sold to developers –  and develop, they did. 
   Here on this 1800’s farm – there are also an abundance of trees which we cherish. On either side of the house are tree groves – one is a pine grove and the other is mostly cedar with some others mixed in.  We weren’t sure of the age of these groves until recently our 95 year old neighbor Margaret’s son told me he planted all those trees as seedlings about 45 years ago with the previous owner.  He was paid .10 cents a tree and he was ten years old at the time.  
   The pine grove is my favorite – always fragrant with the scent of pine, soft needles on the ground.  Pine roots grow shallow, and we have lost  at least 10 trees in storms as the torrential rains and wind take them down.  We’ve been planting new ones to replace what is lost. 
The picture below is the same pine grove from the field behind it. 
And the same grove in winter
On the other side of the house is the cedar grove with the horse barn and grazing fields behind it…
 And.. behind those grazing fields is a new Christmas Tree grove the men of this family planted last week.   We’ve toyed with the idea for years and my only issue is… once you’ve spent seven years growing those beautiful trees, I think it would be a little heartbreaking to chop them down. For that reason, I didn’t encourage it. 
 Nevertheless… the men persisted… and so, we now have a 125  saplings in the field behind the horses.  In seven years they will be ready to adorn family christmas tree traditions for local people.  They are douglas fir, and we have heard that’s a favorite of the deer around here.  SO, up went the cedar poles found lying dead in the back woods, and deer fence will be installed around the little tender trees. 
  If you squint real hard and lean in, you might see all the little babies….. and our house down by the road in the background. 
   Speaking of trees – Do you put up a tree?  A real one or fake?  and when?   Ours is done – and it’s fake.  Not because I don’t love a real tree, but because we poisoned one of our dogs once – he drank the tree water in the stand and almost died.  The $2000 bill to save him wasn’t fun either. SO… it’s a fake tree for us, and a warning for you –  most of those tree farms use pesticides and fertilizers to keep those trees looking christmas tree ready.  Be aware that that stuff runs down into the tree water in the stand and can poison your pets. 
 Because trees are my favorite decorative accent, I’ve got them all over the house…  Aunt Virginia’s ceramic tree, that just about everyone who has ever done ceramics, especially in the 70’s and 80’s has made or was given as a gift from a relative who made it, …. well that tree goes in the man cave where the guy and I spend cold winter evenings doing a fairly decent job of  ignoring each other’s politics.  
In the kitchen I have a collection of bottle brush trees on the window sill. 
Over the fireplace in the kitchen… with two wreaths my kids made many years ago with my mom, the retired teacher/crafter extraordinaire.  
Found this pillow at Homegoods for $25 and it’s a big pillow…. love it! Oh, those trees… 

And on my dining room table… these paper trees I found a lovely local shop, The Rustic Barn.

   Back to Margaret, my 95 year old neighbor… She loves Christmas trees too and her son still puts one up for her every year. It needs to be a real one, and it needs to be put up on Christmas Eve, not before.  That’s about the only thing Margaret and I don’t agree on – seems to me the season for THE TREE starts right after Thanksgiving and  is over shortly after Christmas.  By New Years I’m chomping at the bit to get that thing down and put away if I haven’t already. I do know my own grandmother followed the same tradition as Margaret .  My mother’s childhood tree went up Christmas Eve and was decorated while the children slept.  They woke up to a Christmas House on Christmas morning.  There is something lovely about that, too. 
     Margaret actually had her 95th birthday yesterday.  For years we haven’t lit up the tree out front because it got so big we couldn’t reach anywhere near the top with our tractor, the way we used to.  Then we hired a company and oh-boy-too-expensive. So it sat without lights for a few years.   This year the boyz discovered a  lift we could rent from the local hardware store and so we lit it up again, called Margaret and told her to look out her window, which is directly across the street. 
  
    So there it is,  for the love of the tree.  I hope this holiday season bring you joy and peace and shared good times with those you love. 
Till soon, friends –
   
   

Family and Food

A good day was had by all…
even though some of us look a little tired.
Time spent with family we don’t always see,
and food we don’t allow ourselves to eat frequently.
(hello, heartburn… my old foe)
At the end of the day I was more than grateful
for the opportunities we have to be together. 
That in itself is a gift.  
I hope you spent the day in whatever way rejuvenates your spirit.
To me, it’s what the day is all about.
That.. and a mountain of dirty dishes.
They’re calling me..I hear them.

T’is the Season through your eyes…

Quiet Reflections of the season  ~ There’s a bit of melancholy in the holiday season for me, but it’s also filled with bursts of joy, and the quiet contentment I find in simple things that gladden my heart. Candlelight is one of the things that warms my heart.                                                       
  Kate Young ~  chronicles of a country girl

My fondest Christmas memories are when we would travel to my grandparent’s house in Greensboro, NC to stay with them through Christmas. We didn’t go every year, but when we did it was great. I would walk in the house and go straight to the kitchen where I would find Christmas tins filled with home baked cookies. Some in the traditional sugar cookies made with cookie cutters and sprinkles and some other varieties, too. My grandmother was a teacher of first graders. She taught for 35 years before she retired. When I was young and her school was not out for Christmas break yet I got to go with her to school and spend the day in her class. I had to do the lessons just like all the other kids, but I loved it. Of course, I had the big head thinking that the other kid’s teacher was my grandmother. I will never ever forget her letting me go to work with her.

Kim ~  http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

Christmas Magic
Sue at Beach Bungalow       http://sue-beachbungalow.blogspot.com/

Nancy  ~  A Rural Journal

December 1952

I am actually holding a doll that belonged to my older brother, Wesley. It’s name is Patti, and that is what they named me. Mother still has this doll, however my brother is no longer with us.
Patti – Osage Bluff Quilter

 Happiness is….
There’s no rhyme or reason why this picture is my favorite today.
 It makes me smile and want to go hug my grandpup.

“Taking a break from wood-chopping”

Sandy at Aging Disgracefully
Tradition – Family Portrait on Christmas Day

 I choose this picture because these two silly little ornaments mean so much to me. The angel was made for us over 30 years ago by our niece. We didn’t have children but my sister selflessly shared hers with us, this little angel is on my tree every year. The trailer park ornament was given to me by my dear friend of 27 years who passed away this summer. We travel and live in our motor coach most of the time, so we jokingly call ourselves trailer trash. I must have cried buckets today as I put all the ornaments she has sent to us over the years, on the tree. To me this is what Christmas is, family and friends.
 Joyce Ann –  http://joyceagray.blogspot.com/

Christmas in Florida! …Santa on the Rainbow River.

 “And the stockings were hung…”      I don’t know how I found the time to stitch four such intricate stockings… one for each son. The smaller ones behind the stitched ones are for the boys respective pets. And the blue store bought one is for the new daughter-in-law….it’s too bad for her that my stitching days are over!! 🙂                                                             Grace ~   http://www.newsfromthehill.com/

*Letter for Santa *
Kathryn at Take my Breath Away –   http://www.jemsmom.blogspot.com/

“Missing you, dad”                                                                           Sheryl ~   ain’t for city gals…..

I was thinking  last night while watching my favorite Christmas tv program,  the Andy Griffith show “A Christmas story ” … what I love about Christmas is the great food, the look in your kids face Christmas morning, being with 60 family members Christmas eve night, and being at moms for christmas morning breakfast!  Merry Christmas to you –                  Andy – http://thelittlewhitehouse-andy.blogspot.com/ 

This  is my Scottish grandmother’s Christmas pudding recipe. Passed down to her from her mum. This was taped inside a very old cookbook that was passed on to me! It is really yummy. A traditional Xmas
pudding.  May your holiday be merry and bright! 
Deborah ~   http://fashionplate-hungryforstyle.blogspot.com/

Lynn ~ I love to decorate my house with both real and artifical greenery –

First white Christmas in 60 years!
Andy ~  thelittewhitehouse-andy.blogspot.com