We Three Kings...

of Orient are, bearing spiced tea from Arkansas far...  Sorry - I get a little carried away with Christmas carols - and that one in particular lends itself well to alternative lyrics.  Like all of us haven't been singing about exploding cigars since we were kids...  Isn't that the cutest little jar you have ever seen?  I got the nicest surprise package in the mail yesterday from my friend, Erin, in Arkansas and inside was this lovely Mary Engelbreit Christmas card and this adorable jar of spiced tea mix.  She even shared her recipe with me!  There's just something about the postman knocking on your door on a blustery day that says Christmas.  Thanks, Erin!

ME Monday...

and another ME Christmas ornament.  I just love this little mouse and his tree.  I confess - I unscrewed the loop from his head and he just sits on the desk keeping me company.  He's a nervous little guy.  Keeps adjusting the garland on his tree, while he looks cautiously over his shoulder keeping an eye on Peter the cat.  I'd be nervous, too.  Pete's a lot bigger than he is.  For more ME Monday, check out the fun over at Cherry Chick.  Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!  Only eleven more shopping days till Christmas...

The table switch...

is half finished.  I moved the round Singer sewing table and replaced it with the antique mission library table.  I decided that the change would give me some extra room for books and my fan - which had taken up residence at the dining room table.  Can you tell I don't entertain much?  I think my friend Richard and I ate at the dining room table about a year ago when I first moved in (I was thrilled to actually have my table at home!) and then Ariela, the kids and I snacked at the table once while Marco was working putting the shelves in my lanai closet.  Everyone knows women enjoy watching men work.  Anyhow, my next project is dragging one of those ugly nightstands out of the bedroom (I've already relocated the two drawers full of stuff) and getting someone to take it away.  Then I have to somehow maneuver the round table into the bedroom where I am sure it will look fantastic next to my old black iron bed.  I just need to work up the ambition, energy and strength to move the stuff.  Wish me luck!

I've been having...

one of those months so far...  It seems like December first came around and I lost all of my holiday spirit and momentum and I am just now finally catching up.  You'll probably notice that a bunch of posts appeared on my blog almost all at once - and I've just about got all of the Christmas decorations exactly where I want them - only to take them down and put them away in about three weeks.  The holiday season has been hard for me the past couple of years and I was feeling more festive this year - for about a minute.  And then the aloneness and worry crept in and I ended up moving a couple of squares back.  Actually, I don't even know what square I started out on, but at least I'm not back at Square One, wherever that is.  I've been working on some client projects that I need to finish by the first of the year and so I've been fortunate to keep my mind and hands busy.  Too much time to think is my worst enemy.  Playing with my new e-reader gadget has cheered me up immensely - and so has getting caught up on my blog.  This is something I've done mainly for me - to improve my writing and to share something positive every day and it has been one constant that has kept me going over the last eighteen months or so.  I've met some lovely people and made some new friends - and I am very grateful for that opportunity.  I'm also encouraged that people do like to read what I write and that it's not just my friends being nice when they say how hilarious my stories can be.  So I'm caught up and moving on toward the next square and a bright new year.  Now if I can just find a place for that antique table...

Merry Christmas to me...

and I even wrapped it up.  The box, that is.  Not the thing.  Because, well...  I'll be honest, I couldn't wait.  When I renewed my lease here for another year I got a $100 Best Buy gift card as an incentive.  And so, since it wasn't costing me full price, I decided to brave the crowd of holiday shoppers and went to Best Buy and got the most amazing new gadget.  It's a Kindle3G e-reader!

I am thrilled beyond words - and with all the free words I can load inside the thing!  The sheer number of free books available for download is staggering - and I have downloaded about fifty books so far.  All completely free!  No bestsellers, but aren't the classics better anyway?  It's lighter than a paperback and the display is very easy to read.  I've been researching all of the e-readers out there for some time now and the Kindle had the best features - or so it seemed to me.  My friend, Kathy, has a Nook and she loves it.  Tim has an iPad and he likes that.  I read so many reviews I started taking notes and it seemed that people were most enamored of their Kindles - and so I decided to take the plunge.  And so far, I'm so glad I did!

Handmade this year...

and I've had such fun making little gifts and shopping online!  I've always loved crafting, and it has always meant so much to me when someone has taken the time to make me a gift.  Or even a card!  I used to make birthday and Christmas cards even before the current card-making craze and I was always thrilled to open a handmade or handstitched card.  My friend, Margaret, who lives in England is famous for her cross-stitched birthday and Christmas cards.  I've been doing my shopping - what little I do - on eBay and Etsy and I haven't bought anything that isn't either handmade or vintage.  Can you tell I also like getting old things as gifts, too?  I even did some wrapping this morning so I can drop a couple of presents in the mail in the morning.  

Santa would be so proud - I am early this year!

I haven't stopped howling...

with laughter at the holiday advice doled out by the inimitable Ruby Ann Boxcar in her hilarious book, Move Over Santa - Ruby's Doin' Christmas!  I'm about halfway through it and well, you can't read too much of it at one time if you are prone to small accidents when you laugh too hard.  I'm not sure if Ruby is a real person, but if she is, I wouldn't mind being one of her neighbors in the High Chaparral Trailer Park - that is, if I were inclined to live in a trailer.  The book begins with a foreword by Pastor Ida Bee Something-or-Other from the Holier Than Most Baptist Church and it goes wonderfully downhill from there.  Ruby describes the Twelve Days of Christmas parties at the trailer park and gives advice on what, when and how to decorate for the optimum holiday effect.  I especially liked her convoluted mathematical formula for determining the maximum height of your live tree (and how to steal it from Lowe's after closing time).  Tom lent the book (and two more!) to me on Thanksgiving and I went home and left them - along with my jar of orange jelly.  He and Al dropped the books and jelly off the other day and I have thoroughly enjoyed both so far.  The homemade orange jelly is great with peanut butter.  Al recommends trying it on a ham sandwich.  Maybe for lunch...

Why do I still worry...

when faith comes with a Worry-Free Guarantee?  It would be so much easier if I would just lay all of my problems - both real and imagined - in God's Hands and let them go.  Easier said than done.

25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
  ²⁷Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
  ²⁸"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
  ³¹"Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?' or "What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?' ³²For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6: 25-34)

Now that is a seriously great worry-free guarantee!

ME Monday...

is here again and I actually remembered that I have some ME holiday stuff to share.  Can you tell I'm enamored of these little trees with no decorations?  I tied a ribbon around the base next to the burlap - that's it.  My ME Santa has loaded up his sleigh with pretty little boxes wrapped in ME paper.

The boxes are empty - but Santa says it doesn't matter.

It's hard to wrap up the Christmas Spirit!

I love these nesting ME boxes - I've had them forever.  I've never wrapped anything inside them for anyone because I was always afraid I'd never get my treasured Mary Engelbreit box back!

For more Mary Engelbreit treasures, check out the fun over at Cherry Chick.  Have an ME Monday!

It's our twelfth Aggiversary...

Aggie came home to live with us on December 5, 1998 when she was about nine weeks old.  She was the feistiest puppy I ever met!

She went from little puppy to chunky monkey in no time!

She is still pretty feisty and full of herself at the ripe old age of twelve - only now I don't know whether to call her a chunky monkey or a cheeky monkey.  Or a chunky cheeky monkey.  She's still the very best Christmas present anyone ever gave me!

Here in the test kitchen...

we are working on a batch of Snickerdoodles.  I've pretty much decided that these will be the cookie of choice for my bookkeeping clients this year; I can mix them up without the assistance of an electric mixer - and if all else fails, I can use the Krusteaz Snickerdoodle cookie mix.  But that's a secret.  Shhh.  Aggie says we should share our recipe.

1 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir in the eggs. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the cinnamon. Roll dough into walnut sized balls, then roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be slightly brown. Remove from sheets to cool on wire racks.  It's okay to test-taste one or two.  Or a few.

The name of the game...

is Stink Pink - and I could never successfully teach my husband to play.  It's a rhyming game where you take turns giving each other clues like chunky feline - the answer to which is fat cat.  Simple, right?  Well, I always thought so.  Apparently not.  Tim could never get it - especially when you have a two syllable clue like mythical beast transport - which is dragon wagon.  It probably sounds boring - and the only thing that made me think of it was my making up a silly cat song this morning (yes, I sing ridiculous songs to my associates).  You can also do multi-syllabic words like the stinkety-pink-pink-pink for an old stickler for the rules.  Can you guess?  It's an octogenarian parliamentarian.

I need to get out more.

The annual dilemma...

of where to put the Christmas decorations continues.  I love these little white deer - just like the ones you see in people's yard - only a lot smaller!  These belonged to my mother-in-law; my husband's older brother made them many years ago.  He was a cabinetmaker and he did beautiful work - Tim has a small painted box that Harry made.  I used to tell Grandma that I wanted these deer when she died.  Remember saying that to your mom or grandma when you were a kid?  Well, when my husband moved her up to Pennsylvania, she gave them to me and said, "Why wait until I die - enjoy them now."  And I do.  I've named them Shirley and Pop in honor of Tim's mom and stepfather.

I can't figure out what to do with these adorable photo holders - or what photos to put in them.  I just love the sweet folk art style.

When I see the right spot, I'll know it.

These two Christmas baskets are begging for a spot on my desk - but there just isn't any more room.  Any ideas?

It's beginning to look...

a lot like Christmas!  There's no grand tree in the living room, but I'm making use of my small trees and my little Longaberger sleigh baskets.  These bears were hibernating in the basket with those miniature cats and they've decided to take a sleigh ride for the Christmas holidays.  I can't remember any more who the teddy bear artists are, but they are still a delight to me.  Muffy VanderBear has lent them her New England Christmas tree.

What's left of my Santa collection (everything got downsized!) has taken up residence on the shelf in the entry way with a couple of miniature trees and a cute wooden Happy Holidays sign.  I love the figure on the right which has Santa offering Frosty a steaming cup of hot cocoa.

I wonder how that will work out...

And welcoming guests is my Noah's Ark cross stitch which I made years and years ago - I still have to find the stocking I made to match.  I love this thing and I'd leave it up year round if I weren't afraid people would think I was crazy!

Cats in the...

cloche - Peter would just steal them right out of a cradle, don't you think?  I've finally found a way to display my miniature cats!  My husband gave me quite a few miniature artist cats and bears over the years and when I moved there was no room for my curio cabinet which had previously kept them safe from marauding felines.  They've been languishing in a basket in the closet until I had this brainstorm - and aren't they cute?  One of them even has a little Santa hat and a wreath with little bells.  Yes - that's a little spotted dog in the front.  He just would not be left behind.  I added the ribbon to the top and voila! - a Christmas decoration and a collectible display all in one.  I'm so happy to be able to visit with all the kitties again - it's been a while.

ME Monday...

and it's finally time to get out my Mary Engelbreit Christmas handbag!  This is one of my favorite bags - and it's an ME, too.  Imagine that!  I have had this for about forever; it's a coated cotton bag from Nordic House with leather handles.  I have the regular ME version of this bag as well - isn't that a big surprise?  I try to switch to this bag right after Thanksgiving every year - and this year was no exception.  I think holiday illustrations are some of Mary's best work.  For more ME stuff, check out the links over at Cherry Chick!

Getting into the spirit of holiday baking with...

Chocolate Nut Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 ¾ cup milk

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

1 ½ cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine eggs, milk and oil in another bowl.  Add gradually to flour mixture and mix until moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Spoon into prepared loaf pans and bake for 55 to 60 minutes.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

I usually have a plan...

but it seems that this time I do not.  Yet.  Isn't this a lovely table?  It's an antique Mission library table from the 1920s - and I paid all of $50 for it.  Al & Tom were gracious enough to go and pick it up for me from the people who advertised it on craigslist.  The husband told me that his wife just had too much furniture in their house and they wanted to get rid of it.  What's amazing is that it is exactly like a desk I bought for my mother many years ago.  There used to be a wonderful antique store downtown run by a lovely artistic lady who made annual buying trips abroad until she got too frail to travel.  I suspect that a lot of the items that she sold were family heirlooms; she was "old money" who had lived here most of her life.  My dad called it genteel - or what's left when all the old money is gone.  At any rate, she was lovely and so interesting to talk to - and she had wonderful things in her shop, including some of her own original artwork.  On a Saturday after Thanksgiving, much like today, we stopped in her store after the annual craft fair on the waterfront (a whole other story!) and had a look around.  I saw the desk and decided right then and there that I had to have it - and unfortunately, so did my mother.  Well, you can imagine who won - and I still paid for it!  I did score an antique English wicker market basket with folding handles that day, which I enjoyed for awhile, until my mother latched onto that too.  Story of my life - which is exactly why I never introduced her to my husband until after we eloped.  Wait - where was I?  Oh right - so I saw this bargain on craigslist and now it's sitting in the middle of my living room.  And I'm not quite sure where I am going to put it.  Yet.  But I'm working on it.  Really.

Are people crazy?

Who in their right mind goes shopping at 4:00 am?  Or worse yet, who camps out all night long to be first in line for some over-rated sale the next morning?  Sorry - not me.  Never again.  Not even if I had any money to spend!  Yes, I went shopping on Black Friday once, years ago, because I had never gone.  My mother and I decided to go to Burdines early in the morning - see how long ago it's been?  Burdines is now Macy's!  It was horrific and I vowed never to do it again.  I came home with a migraine the size of Texas.  The whole shopping trip is a Mama story - something like Mama Takes on the Mall - but I will leave that for another time.  This year, like every year since that fateful holiday shopping spree, I slept a little late and have spent the entire day at home.  I admit that I did do a little holiday shopping online - but only for a couple of inexpensive handmade gifts on Etsy - and two things that will be incorporated into some crafts I'm making from eBay.  I have putzed around with some Christmas card ideas, but I don't like anything I've done so far.  I gathered up the fall decorations and got out one of the boxes of Christmas baskets and my little white wooden deer.  The weekend is still young!  Right now we are patiently waiting for the Pizza Hut delivery guy to bring us our thin crust cheese pizza.  Well, I'm being patient - Aggie knows something is up and she's sitting beside her gate staring down the door.  She'll be in a complete frenzy when she hears a strange car and then a knock on the door.  Children! 

Dinner and a Monk-a-thon...

Thanksgiving dinner with Tom & Al was great - Tom is an excellent cook.  The mashed potatoes were to die for - but of course, I forgot my camera - so no photos of the lovely meal.  (I borrowed the photo of the dogs from Tom's Facebook page...)  We even had homemade wheat bread!  These are their sweet rescue dogs: Cassie the rat terrier and mad French kisser, Duncan the smiling spitz and Suki the sweetie pie spitz.  They also have three cats: Daisy, a little seal point Siamese and her fluffy fourteen-pound husband, Chubbs and the latest addition to the family, Betty Grable, a mischievous grey kitten.  Aggie was invited, but had to stay home due to her bad behavior this morning - she got away from me outside and I had to chase her down.  No mean feat, believe me.  I am stuffed full of turkey, sausage stuffing, potatoes, corn pudding, homemade cranberry relish (just like my Grandma's!) and two kinds of pie: pumpkin and cherry.  Aggie and Peter got their turkey treat when I came home and we have settled in for the evening.

We're back to our Monk-a-thon - we're pretty much at the beginning of Season Three, watching the episode called Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf.  I don't know why everyone thinks he's so weird.  But that's just me.