The Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my Granny gave to me a tree full of ornaments she made. From the time I was 8 or so until she lost vision in one of her eyes, I must have been 38, Granny spent all of her free time sewing.

She collected various colors of felt, pom poms, sequins, thread and any other pieces and parts she could use to decorate. Birds were one of her first designs.

She scoured coloring books, cartoons and our lives for patterns and ideas for ornaments. If we got a new dog, an ornament in their likeness would soon appear on our tree.


These are my favorite Christmassy ornaments that Granny made. There are hundreds of others she created. But, for the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the traditional red, Santa clothes, reindeer, wreaths and mice show up so well on the Christmas tree.


Some were designed with children in mind while others were meant to appeal to everyone.

Granny was a constant in my life. We spent Christmases at her house until she downsized to a small apartment. Then, she came to our houses. The cousins would get together every year (and still do) to exchange gifts. All of our trees look similar...covered in ornaments made by Granny.

Now that Granny has joined the Chorus of Angels, her presence is especially with us at Christmas. As I decorated the tree this year, I remembered which ornaments she gave me when I graduated from college... The ones she gave me when the boys were born... The ones she made because the boys liked Sesame Street.

It's appropriate that Granny died on Mother's Day weekend. Her daughters and favorite niece were together with her on her last day. Whenever she remenisced, her family members were the focus. With three daughters and 11 siblings, not to mention all of the grandchildren, there were plenty of family stories to tell.

Granny and her sister, Martha Edna (always pronounced MothEdna), worked together to create so many of the ornaments. They sold their ornaments at various craft fairs.

This Santa ornament was also made into napkin rings. This pulled the Christmas decor from the living room into the dining room.

Some of the last designs Granny came up with were like this one. I love that Santa is holding a bird.

Even though I know this is Mrs. Claus, I always thought of her as Granny. She was the inspiration for so many of our Christmas traditions. While I thought she was the glue that held our extended family together, we have continued our celebrations together.

While many think of Santa as the focus of Christmas, I know that family is the most important tradition of Christmas for me.

Make your family the focus of your holidays.

Forgive those who have disappointed you.

Give the gift of time...share stories, laugh, play games.

You'll have no regrets!

May your Christmas memories warm your heart this and every year!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

On the 10th day of Christmas, my friends and family gave to me the joy of their creatures...large and small!

Miss Cora snuggles in her warm hen house. Don't tell anybody, but she's my favorite old girl!

I suppose Skippy has been good enough this year. He'll get some special goodies from Santa! A crusty old bagel would make him so happy!

My Riley Dog is ready for Santa. He wants a huge ham bone to gnaw on, a squeaky toy to play with and a non-weenie Mom to walk him on cold days!

Usually, baby chicks aren't hatched this time of year. Mary found this one after his mother was snatched up by a predator. I'm not the only one who has chickens inside!

Mary must have been a very good girl this year. For Christmas, her friend, Dot gave her Barnabus, a miniature donkey. Mary's daughter, Elizabeth, loves this little guy! He's just in time for the Live Nativity at her church!

Lucky Llama lives at Mary's, too. He's the good llama. He didn't spit on me!

Doe-Wreath-A decorates my Mom's front porch every Christmas. I don't know who is cuter...Doe-Wreath-A or Niece Erica!

A neighbor has this very cool cow guarding his driveway. Every season, the cow gets a new outfit. This one lights up at night! I want one of these in my yard!

This cute little fellow hangs out on my front porch and bird feeders. He usually has 4 or 5 friends with him.

Happy tails, I mean trails, to ya'll! I wish you safe travels over the holidays!

Not a creature was stirring...Not even a mouse or a squirrel or a donkey or a chicken!

The Ninth Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas my mailbox is decorated with nine kinds of greenery.

I actually decorated it on the first day of Christmas. Then, on the second day of Christmas, the gale force winds of a weird December storm blew this monster off my mailbox.

I scooped it up, put it back on top and tweaked it a little to make it presentable. It will have to do since I don't have much greenery left to cut!

I love fresh greenery on mailboxes and got a little carried away. Variegated acuba has large green leaves with yellow spots. It fills in nicely. I have about four different types of holly growing in my yard. I cut as many as I could reach, particularly the ones that have the most berries. I only had one bunch of berries on a nandina bush. I shoved that in there, too. A cedar tree hides my heat unit. I pruned the back of this and shoved handfuls of the clippings into the arrangement. The two scraggly-looking yew shrubs in my yard got a light pruning. If I cut too much it just disappears altogether! Like the arrangement on the front porch, I added some red spray painted dried hydrangea for color, tied on a bow and viola!

Last Friday, I went to Mama's house in Nashville, NC. For Christmas, she decorates her friends' mailboxes or light posts. Wouldn't you know it was the coldest day of the year! They all turned out beautiful.

We "borrowed" greenery from various spots around town and went to work. Here's what the elves did in Nashville!

Julie's Mailbox

Annette's Mailbox

Rosa's Lamp Post

Barbara's Mailbox

Mom's Mailbox

Mom's Ramp

Mom's Porch (love the milk box it's arranged in!)

How did I miss getting a photo of Mrs. Carty's mailbox? Hers is beautiful, too, and different because it has a yellow bow mixed in. Her Grandson, Bryce, should be headed to this side of the world in January. Be safe!

May your halls (mailboxes, porch, windowsills, front door) be decked with boughs of holly, acuba, nandina and much, much more!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas my angel collection demanded an appearance on my blog. Who knew they could be such pushy broads!

I didn't mean to have a collection of angels. It just sort of happened. It started about 15 years ago when I found this girl at a craft sale in Rocky Mount, NC. Okay, she isn't officially an angel, but her praying hands and spiritual nature screams angelic to me! I love her! She was meant to go into a garden, but I was afraid the elements might damage her. She is a one of a kind!

These girls came along over the last couple of years. Their bright colors, simple beauty and inclusion of the nativity attracted me to these.

The quilted angel reflects my love of sewing. The corn husk angel was brought to me by the aforementioned Aunt Mollie. She is perfect on my front porch overlooking my ferns, pumpkins, and Christmas greenery. She didn't even know I had a collection of angels. How's that for divination? The third angel, well, I can't remember where she came from but she plays nicely with the other girls!

When I saw this angel, she spoke to me. She said, "Take me home! I'm so versatile! I will look great with your angel collection and your bird collection!" I was very obedient. Nancy Busch consigned this piece of art at SuzAnna's Antiques. She never made it to a shelf in the shop! She is made from a wire base and covered with papier mache. She is gorgeous, and she is my second one of a kind angel!





While many folks associate angels with Christmas, my girls stay on my table all year long. They make me smile. They inspire prayer. They represent my various personalities and obsessions.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!

Glory to the New Born King!

The Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, the mailman brought to us a very few Christmas cards!

It's about time for me to get to work on our family's Christmas cards. I'm dreading this. Instead of the nearly $400 we have spent on Christmas cards, photos, Christmas stationary and postage in years past, this year, I'm working on a FREE family newsletter e-mail.

This is the photo that will be accompanying the e-mail!
All of my sweet boys!

Our mailbox has held much fewer Christmas cards this year, so I know we aren't the only ones tightening our belts. And as for the funny cards, they are few and far between!

Every year, this is the first card I receive. It comes on the first day of December and is from Julie and Brian. No, they don't send the same card every year, but it does arrive on the same date. It always sends me into a Christmas-is-just-around-the-corner tailspin! Their card this year was so sparkly. I really thought you would be able to see more of its beauty, but alas, my scanner sucked on this one!

However, this pretty silver card with a stack of packages was a delight. Tony's Aunt Rita sent us this one from Australia. She is such a sweetie and never fails to send us Christmas greetings. I'll have to print out my Christmas e-mail and send it to her since I don't have an e-mail connection for her!

Susie, my once-business-partner-in-crime at SuzAnna's Antiques, sent this Santa-Cutie Christmas card. She is the Queen when it comes to remembering special occasions! She remembers my birthday and anniversary and sends cards for Thanksgiving and Easter. She even found me the perfect card for my husband for our next anniversary. Isn't she a wonderful friend!

My in-laws sent this beautiful card from Australia, too. I wish you could see the pretty glittery details that my scanner wouldn't pick up. It's also three-dimensional. Tony says I can't get away with sending them an e-mail instead of a Christmas card. If I want it to get to Australia before Christmas, I better get real busy!

This card really caught my attention! So many of the vintage cards I come across have been flocked. Get your mind out of the gutter! Flocked is when the card feels like velvet has been laid over some of the surfaces, usually the red ones. Since amaryllis remind me of Granny, this card had multiple attractions for me.

Thank heavens for Cousin Mandy! Actually, she's my mother's cousin, but I'm not sure what relationship that makes her to me, so I she will have to be my cousin, too. Her card just made me laugh! Her dog, Bentley, has been a royal pain in her @$$. The only time he seems to not be in trouble is when he is sleeping. How on earth does he sleep in that position!

And last, but not least, this is the postcard I got from a local dentist. Last week, I cut off the writing and posted it on my blog to see if anyone could guess what they were advertising. Lisa from Indiana guessed that they were "some sort of doctor, maybe a dentist." Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! I'll be putting one of my handmade Christmas ornaments in the mail to her tomorrow! I don't think he meant to send the card to me. I'm sure his focus was on all the single, married, happy, lonely (ie. horny) men in Wake County! I don't know any men who wouldn't want one of these girls leaning over him to look into his mouth! There are so many things I want to write, but you will just have to use your imagination! Same thing goes for what's in the box...what kind of present would your dentist give you for Christmas? A box of sugar free candy? Dentures? An electric toothbrush? X-ray vision glasses?

Hoping your mail box delivers many surprises for you and yours this Christmas!

The Sixth Day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas we loaded the station wagon sled with cookie sheets, large cooking bowls, a bag of sugar and two boys (we left Tony behind for a day of peace and quiet!), and headed to Nashville to bake all of our Christmas goodies with my Mom, an annual family tradition!

She already had sugar cookie dough mixed up and ready to cook. This is a huge recipe, so you can eat lots of raw dough and still have plenty of baked goods to share with friends. After about 6 pans of cookies, we were glad to see the bottom of the bowl! These are perfect for a cookie exchange and won't be secretly tossed in the trash by any takers!

SUGAR COOKIES

Once those were under way, I started cutting up fresh oranges for ambrosia. This recipe is the guilt free dessert of the season. With only three ingredients, all being fruit, you can't go too wrong. Cut up oranges, add a can of crushed pineapple, juice and all, and stir in unsweetened, grated coconut. Okay, so the coconut is not the lowest calorie thing in the world, but it is much better than sugar, butter and flour that seems to be in all of our other delicacies!

Three generations of chefs...Me, Rick and Mom

Rick jumped in and started making turtles. These are his favorites. Since all you have to do is unwrap candy, either Rollos or Reisen and place it on top of a twisted pretzel, Rick likes the ease of these babies. Once they are compiled on a baking sheet, you just heat them up for 10 minutes until the candy melts, then push a pecan half into the melted candy. You're done! These always turn out so cute. Now, when deciding between Reisen or Rollos, decide whether you like hard chewy caramel or soft squishy caramel. Rollos are the softies!

By the time I finished the ambrosia, Will and Mom were mixing up a recipe of Seafoam. Mom wants Will to learn how to make this family favorite so she can pass the wooden spoon on to him next year. I have heard folks refer to this candy as Divinity, but the Divinity I have tasted hasn't been nearly as light and fluffy as Seafoam. Mom has to hide this from everyone because we will gobble it up without saving any for visitors and friends.

SEAFOAM

After baking up a storm, it was time for a lunch break and the addition of another chef. My niece, Erica, arrived just in time for lunch. Since the day she was born, she has had the ability of reducing my Will to a goofy, giggly, silly kid just by walking in the door. This did not change today!

TWO GOOFY BOYS!

Next came the Lady Fingers. Yum! Mom had the foresight to mix these up last night, too. We rolled them into dainty little fingers, baked them for 10 minutes, then dropped them in a ziploc filled with powdered sugar. Once they are coated, you store them in a cookie tin or just eat them as you remove them from the ziploc bag of sugar! Mom had to take these away from me!

The last recipe we prepared was cheese straws. There has to be something salty to remove the taste of all the sweet things you eat during the day! Will mushed up the cheese and butter. He struggled with the sillies while pouring flour into the measuring cup. He was downright scary when it came to adding red pepper to the recipe! Once it was all mixed up, he put the mixture in the cookie press and squeezed out four cookie sheets worth.

Mom's front porch...the kids and Doe-Wreath-a.

While waiting for all the cookie sheets to make their way to the oven, we took a photo op on Mom's front porch. Don't you love the cute aprons she picked up for them!

Snack plate at the end of the day! Seafoam, lady fingers, sugar cookies, cheese straws and turtles!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, I'll be going to WalMart to purchase myself a pair of stretchy-waisted sweatpants to squeeze into. So, now you know why my ass is a size 16! I better get out there and put another couple of miles on my sneakers so as not to stretch into an 18 before New Years!

NOTE: If you would like to see the recipes for any of these yummy treats, just click on the name of the one you want. It should take you to the recipe!

May visions of sugar plums dance in your head and NOT on your hips!