Christmas Week

 I'm not sure of the day...ahaha...somewhere between Christmas and New Years.  The mixed up days of eating, visiting, napping, watching movies, staying in my pj's all day.  

I was gifted this plant from my mother-in-law.  It bloomed from Thanksgiving till Christmas.  It was beautiful.

We had a nice church service.  I read the book The Tree Trees and made all of these goodies for our after service fellowship.  I had so much fun making all the candy!  

I also made a couple batches of cookies.  

Baked sourdough bread

Our children and grands came over for a little lunch on Christmas Day

The smoked salmon was BEST I've ever eaten!

7 layer salad was a Christmas Eve tradition growing up and into my adult years when we all went to our parent's house.  My sister Lynn made it.  This is my first time making it.  I haven't eaten it for probably 15-20 years.  So good!

We also had roasted veggies, full fat mac & cheese, bacon wrapped dates and cocktail weenies, dips, cheese, ham, crackers.....

A few treasures from my mother-in-law's estate

Over the past few days, as I was cooking and creating, I did share it on my Facebook and Instagram page.  This morning I made a croque madame for breakfast and shared the picture.  My friend and neighbor sent me this.

Little did Lisa know that one of the main reasons I wanted this lifestyle was because of Martha Stewart.  I even named one of my first fancy hens after her.  I loved her magazine.  It was a compliment the younger me would strive for and the older me feels flattered.  

I told myself recently that I'm now to a point in my life where I can look back at the things the Lord has helped me do and be content and satisfied.   

I'm working on my New Years post - it is on this same order of a theme.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.  

December - A Few of My FavoriteThings

Here it is almost Christmas.  

Maybe my being in a walking boot and brace for 8 weeks prepared me for a more relaxed holiday season.  I have been mindful and realistic with HOW I wanted to spend my time, HOW I wanted to decorate and HOW much I wanted to bake and create.  The younger me, tried to do "it all" - truthfully, I did...ahaha, but, somehow in all that busyness, the feeling of the season often times escaped me.  Not that I didn't enjoy it all, I did.  It is just that I didn't "need" to do all that.  

So, what have I done differently this year?  

Created experiences for those I love.  

My daughters and grands came over for a gingerbread house and cookie day.  We decided to make this a tradition on the first Friday of December.  I made the kits and assembled them so that we had time to do the "fun" part together.  

My grands, Ezra and Lauren.

I hosted a Christmas Craft night with my 4H kids.  I supplied all the materials.  I also made kits of projects that they could take home and complete, this is my gift to them.  The first project, the sweater ornament, materials were supplied by Cheri.

I love these! I made 12 for my own tree.

You can see the kits, I put in baggies.  

A tree for me (wink, wink) I do have a lot of Annalee dolls.  This past summer, I was lucky to find so many from a flea market in Minnesota and my mother in law had a collection that we divided before here estate sale and I now have hers.  She was the one who got me hooked on these little felt cuties.  So my whole tree and pretty much only decorations this year are them.  I did do a Nativity area with my mother in laws old set.  

Finally hung the closet doors.  

We are breaking with the traditional Christmas meal and replacing it with a Christmas brunch.  I asked what they wanted to eat and smoked fish won (I will have some ham for Jon).  So today, Al and I went to Green Bay to Bearcat Fish House.  We also stopped at Woodmans (HUGE grocery store) - we instantly regretted it as it was a 3 ring circus.  However, I needed stuff to make my candies with tomorrow.  We stopped at a St. Vinny and I found this, I love it.  

Tomorrow I will make some candies that I have wanted to make for a couple of Christmases.  Monday I will bake cookies - I like them to be fresh.  We will have a get together with Al's sister and brother and families after Christmas.  First Christmas without grandma.  

On Sunday, I will be reading The Tale of the Three Trees for our church presentation.  This year, they asked everyone to participate if they wanted.  I bought this book for my grands last year and it's a tear jerker.  I hope I can read it without crying.  If not, that is o.k. too.  

Have you planned anything special for yourself or others this Christmas?  

Blessing from Ringle, Wisconsin.