Ready or not, here it comes!

Christmas, I mean. 

(Pam here)

This month flew by! How did that happen? I wasn't even as busy as I've been in the past. I was more relaxed, less stressed, and then time disappeared. Now! It's time to go crazy around here. I've got twenty four hours to be ready for a houseful of people and gifts and food and off to church (twice) if the predicted snow doesn't keep everyone home.

My favorite little Christmas vignette- a craftsman made lamp that I inherited when my father passed away (I remember him getting it when I was a little girl. It used to have a tiny red light bulb in the fire place that we could turn on. Can't find one to fit now.) The tiny vase on the mantle came from Italy last year.

We have a good sized Christmas village that my boys arrange every year. The bride and groom are very appropriate as this season I am mixing my holiday preparations with wedding preparations for our daughter's nuptials next month.

Sarah has talked about the special food gifts they receive from business clients. We get a few also. For many years we have received a hand smoked turkey from a local farmer neighbor. He raises pigs and cattle and owned the slaughterhouse until this year when he retired. He is also our 4-H leader and the man we call on when we have an issue with a farm animal. He is having some health issues now but still manages to deliver his smoked turkeys on Christmas Eve (a day early this year). My boys helped him butcher the turkeys a couple weeks ago. I made sure he left today with a box of cookies to take home.

This was a sweet surprise- a Christmas greeting from one of the bridal couples I had this year. The groom was from South Africa.

Here's our Christmas tree. Our boys got a $5 permit from the forest service and hiked through the woods to get it. Appropriately, it was the day of our first snowfall. It had to be pruned quite a bit to fit into our small living room.

These special ornaments represent the dogs we have had in the family over the years.

A special family tradition are these personalized ornaments from Bronners in Frankenmuth, MI. When our first baby was born, her paternal grandparents gifted her with the first one and continued the gifts with every child we had. Now we give them for our grandchildren. I sent one this year for Levi David, born last March.

We still hang this complete set of wooden nativity figure ornaments that I painted (double-sided) when I was about ten years old. The set was a Christmas gift from an aunt.

There are many hand made ornaments including this stitched one that was a gift from another aunt about thirty years ago. 

Among the old ornaments is this one, sent to us from Sarah! when Seth was born in 1989!

More of the food gifts among business people....I am a producer. Last weekend I was very busy with the cookie box project. My husband's business gives these cookie boxes every year to its biggest clients.

Chocolate dipped pecan shortbreads, coconut chocolate pinwheels, pecan tassies, turtle brownies and fruit and nut chewies (with dates, cranberries, coconut and walnuts). Lots of nuts this time!

The business colors are red, black and white.

I'm doing more baking today, this time for us: a pound cake that will be made into trifle tomorrow, a double chocolate cheesecake (with chopped Swiss chocolate mixed in) for those who don't want to eat trifle (yes, they exist), a sweet, fruited Christmas wreath is in process as a gift for my husband's business partner, and more bread and sweet roll dough. I have a few last gifts to wrap also. Tomorrow, more cooking and baking and cleaning before heading out for church and the children's Christmas Eve program.

Merry Christmas to all! Blessings on your celebrations.