~ First White Christmas EVER! ~

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas Day one way or another. The highlight of the big day for me was that I had my very first white Christmas! Having been born and raised in Southern California and spent most of my life there, I'd never experienced falling snow until our move east! I never knew how much I would love winter and snow! We got just shy of 3 inches as our Christmas Day total and it's still snowing today! Here's a pic I just snapped out the back:
I also wanted to share with you the wonderful gifts I received from my friends. Look at what Karen made for me...a gorgeous bonnet in my favorite sage check fabric, a beautiful doll dressed in mustard calico, and a set of perfectly prim herb animals...what fun these will be to decorate with for spring and summer! She really spoiled me didn't she? Thank you Karen!
Pat made for me this fabulous stocking and she also sent me one of her husband Don's stunning ink well reproductions! Thank you Pat!
Kris sent me this amazing Santa head ornament that she made! Thank you Kris!
Linda made me some address labels with what else? yep a willow tree!...she knew I'd like that! Thank you Linda!
Kath sent me a lovely CD of Celtic music which I love, Thank you Kath!
Just look at this adorable gingerbread man that Loretta made for me! Isn't he just the cutest thing? Thank you Loretta!
These gifts mean so much to me because I don't receive gifts from my family...there's just the 5 of us...me, my husband, our 2 grown boys, and 1 daughter-in-law...none of them celebrate Christmas per se so it is just lonely ol' me trying to make things as festive as possible. I get them all gifts but I tell the kids not to get me anything because they struggle financially and I gave up years ago trying to get my husband to buy me something so I have come to enjoy the season leading up to Christmas more than the day itself, but I do enjoy receiving gifts! Thank you all so very much!!

I know alot of you are going to be experiencing blizzard conditions out there so please stay safe and warm!

~ It's Been A While! ~

Since my last post was about the tornado, I'll start with an update. We have since replaced the downed pear tree with a small oak tree and we've had the trim replaced as well as a whole new roof put on but oh whatta nightmare! The roofing crew made an absolute mess of our house! They walked all over my azaleas, broke a couple garden knick-knacks, and worst of all, while tearing off the old roof, they allowed the asphalt shingles to scratch and scrape the vinyl siding!! They've tried to clean the tar scrapes off but have only made it worse and we are now left with brown blotches and scrapes on every surface! The contractor's insurance company has been out and has made us a couple of unacceptable offers...one of which is to replace only the damaged pieces of siding...yeah right!...can you imagine what THAT would look like?...our siding is eight years old and would not match the brand new siding!...this weekend they are having someone else come out to try and clean the blotches with something else...I am not hopeful.

Now on to something MUCH more fun...Christmas decorating! I have FINALLY finished it and have just posted a bunch of pics to my Picture Trail so have a look when you've got a few minutes! I tried to keep it simpler this year...didn't even put up a big tree with all the ornaments...but with the boys grown and hubs couldn't care less, I'm the only one who gives a hoot if there's any kind of decor or not so I just did what I wanted to!
I have recently added my family's silhouettes to the wall in our family room...my mother always had these hanging in her home and I asked that her former husband send them to me so now I am able to enjoy them. I remember that she and I actually sat for ours to be done but my father had already passed away and his was done from a photograph.
If you visit my Picture Trail, there's a pic in the Christmas Decorating album that you'll see where I've placed them.

I have been changing what's in this bowl on the coffee table with each season and having fun with it! The bowl is one that I offer in my shoppe, it's the Large Rustic Chopping Bowl.

Well there's really no sense in my posting the pics here when they are all posted to Picture Trail, so head on over there if you wanna see the rest, there's like forty of 'em! LOL

That's all for now...Christmas is coming!...Merry Merry!