Grammy's brag book...

I'll apologize right here and now. This is a treat only for family and friends. We had Christmas tonight; and it was great fun. That's what kids and grandkids make it!
Thanks for putting up with this nonsense!
I know it's not much fun for folks not blood related...



Josh gave us all~~such wonderful, thoughtful gifts. He's the new Uncle Lou, a beloved bohemian bachelor uncle, who was the bestest Santa ever when "we" were kids. We lost him this past March. Josh will carry on.

Paula, Em loved her books. Every book she opened, she sat down immediately to look through it. She's going to be another avid reader in the family!


Pat, Em loved that dancing chicken. She belly laughed over and over!.
.










Jake was on new toy alert...thinking Em's toys were his as well.
The corgis were caught in the middle of crumpled paper and activity. Addie was on floor clean up patrol.

Now....finally, it's Christmas around here! Grammy's happy!

Greetings Everyone, and may you all have a wonderful Christmas tide this weekend. It's been so much fun this year, meeting you folks online, and sharing comments with you all.

May we never forget, why indeed, we celebrate this time of year.
God bless us everyone!

Icing...and I don't mean frosting!

Winter in Indiana, is always kind of a crap shoot. You never know what will happen. Yesterday we woke up to Iceland, as did many in our region. Power outages, snapping wires, and shearing tree limbs were happening left and right. Our downtown area, was a ghost town. It was eerie.

The corgi kids didn't like the icy crust in their back yard, and even their too long toe nails couldn't dig in. We stomped around with our big boots to crush and open up some areas for them to squat, without sliding. The cracking of tree limbs going down popped up all our heads. Jake brought a frozen, deflated basketball for me to kick. His herding instinct makes him want to work (or play) all the time, no matter what the circumstance is. Addie, just wanted to get the heck back into the house!


Today, it's 14 degrees colder, so everything wet yesterday is frozen hard, and crunchy today, really making the roads worse than before. Sheesh. Jim is wearing out the remote, while I visit many new blogs. Cabin fever is kicking in! God bless all the utility workers and highway folks that are out there today.

From the Farmer's Almanac...

It's vintage thingie Thursday with Coloradolady. I took the easy route today and posted an informative entry from the Farmer's Almanac which has been around since the days of Ben Franklin.

Christmas Firsts...







THE FIRST American Christmas tree can be credited to a Hessian soldier by the name of Henrick Roddmore, who was captured at the Battle of Bennington in 1776. He then went to work on the farm of Samuel Denslow in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where for the next 14 years he put up and decorated Christmas trees in the Denslow family home.

The first Christmas tree retail lot was established in 1851 by a Pennsylvanian named Mark Carr, who hauled tow ox sleds loaded with Christmas trees from the Catskill Mountains to the sidewalks of New York City.

The first president to set up a Christmas tree in the White House was Franklin Pierce, and the first president to establish the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn was Calvin Coolidge.

The first American to print and sell Christmas cards was Louis Prang of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who began publishing cards in 1875.

The first department store Santa was James Edgar, who, during Christmas seasons beginning in 1890, would wander about his store (the Boston Store) in Brockton, Massachusetts, dressed as Santa Claus, talking to the children of customers.

Cuppa for your Health!

Those of us who are diehard tea drinkers know that a cup of the steaming brew is both a mental and physical experience.
Holding a hot mug helps calm, warm, and soothe an achy body or a troubled soul. It allows us to take a deep breath, put our head back with closed eyes, and renew, momentarily.
My daughter took me to a tea shop in Apex, North Carolina for Mother's Day. We experienced a "high tea" which was delightful, and girly. The treats were small, delicate and flavorful; and the individual tea pots in cozies and china cups made us feel like ladies. We didn't have gloves or hats, or even a skirt on, but yet, we were so feminine that hour, our voices went up an octave.
Coffee is dandy, and serves a purpose. I love it, and it gets me going when there's much to do. Tea, however, is an escape, a trip down quiet back roads, or to a palace by the sea. It makes your bones melt when weary. Martha would call it a good thing I think. Just for fun, you can visit wikipedia to read about the benefits of drinking tea.

"If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you."

Gladstone, 1865

Cookie Day...

My son Josh and I try to get together one day before the Christmas crunch to have a baking day. He adores Christmas, and goes for the gusto each year.
He's famous where he works for his break room treats. He feels such joy from creating craft gifts, making cards, and baking cookies or peanut brittle for his family and co-workers. It just makes him happy to give, and it's a great outlet for his creative side.


The entire house smelled delish. The corgi kids were circling and hoping that someone would stumble and drop a little sumthin' sumthin'.

These sugar and spice nuts smelled wonderful in the oven, and were easy to make with the sweetened whipped egg whites. The cinnamon added the spice, and they are going to be a big hit. Jim, the corgis, Josh and I all gave them a sample!










The family butter cookie recipe has been used for decades. We make several double batches. Frankly, owning stock in a butter company would make sense this time of year!





The recipe for these

delightful molasses cookies was found on Mennonite girls can cook.

Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Is it Thursday already? The days fly by, especially this month.
Please click the link to Coloradolady's site to see many vintage items today, entered by vintage lovers like myself.

This sweet little girl, is nearly as old as I am.
She was given to me by an exotic, sophisticated aunt who graced our lives.
She was a world traveler, smelled of expensive perfume, and was extremely outspoken.
She wore mink coats to the local grocery store.









My brothers were each given a reindeer at the same time, and the trio appeared together each Christmas on the fireplace mantle surrounded by pine boughs in our family home. When we left, Mom gave us each our treasure. The wreath has been broken, and elmer glued. She's been packed up and moved four or five times. Christmas just wouldn't be the same without her, and one day, Emmy will have her to remember her Grammy by.

Nickel Tour...

Just a quick little peek, it won't take very long.
720 square feet tours are quick as a song.

We always liked Santas, and make them we did.
Winter therapy while the kids went and hid.
April in college, and Josh on his own,
Mama painted each night, home all alone.

Jim made this lit tree, all made out of beads.
Last year's gift for little ol' me.

April made this, our dogs in a frame.
Corgi, oh corgi, what cute little dogs.
Something they do though, is eat like short hogs!

We made this corgi, before we had one.
Who knew we'd have tri's~
one girl and one boy one.

This is our tree, tiny it is.
Small trees for small houses.
A good size for mouses.

Family is everything, a good way to live.
Wallies of pine cones, too sticky to give.

Over the sink, some doodads do be,
cinnamon ornies Josh made;
for Mama, that's me.

My favorite this year, is what's on this shelf.
Pictures of family,
some short and some tall.
We need to remember, always it's true,
that FAMILY makes Christmas, not presents at all!

What makes it special?

.What makes the month of December special for you? It's always jammed packed with things to do, get done, and attend. Life for most of us, is a whirl this particular month. Leave a comment, if you like, and tell me what makes it special for you?
One thing that my family makes without fail is Mom's Christmas cookie recipe. We've been making them for sixty years. Each household, whether it be my sister-in-laws, myself, or Mom's grandkids; ALL use it for cut-outs that we decorate; then gobble up! The smell of real butter, makes us recall a younger, aproned, pink cheeked Mom, as she corralled her three hoodlums to cut out floury, buttery treats.
One year I baked them in my 50's style easy bake oven, one cookie at a time! We used the same cookie cutters each year, the old fashioned red ones, with a pebbly surface on the inside. Trees, stockings, fat Santa's, and the candy cane cutters, now divided between my two offspring; used in their own divine smelling kitchens. Mom/Gram is 91, and doesn't bake anymore...but the memories are firmly in place.
Santa serves a purpose, and we need him. My kids grew up with naughty/nice lists. Santa can be used as leverage to prevent any behavior lapse. My son is 34 now, and in his heart, I know that he "still believes!"

Want to have some fun? Visit this website! http://www.northpole.com

Stockings are still a big part of Christmas morning. We had the traditional orange in the toe, but the rest was all loot! Stockings were done first, before presents, and after my folks woke up a little to a cup of coffee. I made each of my kids an ornament and a patchwork stocking their first Christmas. They use the same ones today, in their own households.
My daughter just completed her patchwork masterpiece for her daughter, Emmy, nearly two.


This, little darlin', is what I'm waiting for this holiday. The North Carolina kids are coming up after Christmas for a few days; that's when the fun will begin.
Having both of my kids, at home, at the same time, plus my grandbaby....now that is what this mama wants for Christmas!

Vintage Thingie Thursday...what, already?

Thank you Coloradolady for hosting Vintage Thursdays for the Apron Queen.
Today~~I'm walking down memory lane.
My Dad's song at Christmastime, was always this one. You better watch out...was his mantra from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. We NEVER put our tree up until Christmas Eve. Can you believe that? It must have been some old bohemian custom that he kept alive. It just killed my brothers and I. We always figured that we were the last household in America, heck, the world, to put up a tree!
My Mom still has a few of these shiny bright ornaments. I always loved the jewel tone colors. Her decorations are pretty sparse these days at age 91. What few that are left, are carefully boxed and put away.
Y'know, in the 50's and 60's, it seemed that everyone smoked, even Santa apparently! Advertising was full of smokers; but a smokin' Santa seems absolutely outrageous!
My mother's sweeper was a clone to this one. It swept up the pine needles and broken ornaments for many a year.
This was a popular album when I was a child. That Como crooner could make women melt; especially with holiday tunes.

The Chipmunks were more our speed. My brothers and I wore this album out! We got a new hi-fi, and this particular album, for my family's first Christmas in our newly built house, circa 1961. We circled the hi-fi, giggling at the high pitched voices. My kids loved it as well, then on cassette, in the late 70's, early 80's.
Did every American Christmas tree have bubble lites on it? They were always so mysterious, and a marvel to watch. Now, you can get a night light-bubble light. A six foot pine tree with its boughs laden with bubble lights was a sight to behold!
You'll shoot your eye out! Can you believe this toy gun was only $2.95?

Those Christmases of our childhood, in the 50's, especially, were wonderful. Memory is such a wonderful gift from God; it brings such joy to experience happy times over and over again.

It's starting.....

Poor Jim is all I can say. I get these crazy schemes in my head, late at night, thinking about how I'm going to do something. We went to an annual open house last weekend, hosted by local crafty farmers.

They fill their barn with all sorts of prims, baked goods, and Christmasy stuff. Jim saw this Snowman, and wanted it for the front porch.
Now, that the outside is finished, on to the interior. I'm going through each room, cleaning first, then will get creative. My theme this year is quilts. I'm digging out decorations and prims that haven't seen the light of day since 1999. 720 square feet won't take long to decorate, believe me! I just hope that Jim survives this. He's already told me that he has plans tomorrow...all day, and all night plans!