Our First Snow Of The Season

Where oh Where have the last five years gone? Our Miss B is 5 today! Her birthday gift from her parents is Disney on ice I think her mother went at about the same age, she will love it.

We finally have our first storm of the season. It is not only snow but sleet and freezing rain not a good mix.

The ice hitting the snow and the trees blowing. Just glad we have the beast in the basement going (the wood stove)

I made some scones this morning and now..

I have another small rug on the frame and trying to figure out how I would like to hook this. I am not sure I have enough of the wool I want to use for the rabbit so I am mixing two wools  or trying the circles. I haven't figured it out yet.

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I hope your Christmas was happy and wishing you a wonderful new year!

The Dupuis Family Christmas

We call our annual christmas gathering with my husband's family

the Griswold family Christmas.

The adults draw the name of one child to buy a gift for and then the adults have a yankee swap after. This is just a few of the kids there is a total of 10 kids and 15 adults so quite a crowd with lots of noise and and fun. there is an annual round of cards and the kids are happy to play with each other and their gifts. And of course food lots and lots of food.

I haven't made this almond tea bread in years.

It is so good.

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I have my challenge rug all done and bound I don't think I can show it here but if I find out I am wrong I will post it.

It is a tribute to our little kitty who adopted us and stayed for 20 years. 

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Well the gifts are bought and some are wrapped. We have friends in on Christmas eve and then on to Christmas with my sweet B. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Feather Tree

I have decided my table top feather tree is going to be it for us this year. I have some of my most valuable ornament on it. 

My sweet vintage santa

A pink basket of fruit.

This is called a dresden ornament it is pressed paper.

They are from the late 1800's not knowing what it was when I bought it for .25 and I found it is worth 200.00-300.00 while not a pretty Christmas theme it makes me smile because I would never spend the big money on them but .25 is good.

I used my fold out creche.  I am as decorated as I am going to be.

Tonight we headed to a local eatery for wine down Wed. All wine is 1/2 price with a couple of apps we were good. We came out to find a candy cane with a note from the local little brownies. 

And last but not least we had the high school caroling in town last week. 

It sounded so lovely and gave us all the Christmas spirit

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My husband's family gathers this weekend and then it is right on to Christmas!

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I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful season. We are still mild but going into the cold this weekend. Winter will surely come at some point so I am enjoying the nice weather.

A fun Weekend

I have been busy pulling out my winter/Christmas stuff.

I hooked this last year and still love it. Great on my coffee table.

I stayed with Miss B while her parents did the last of their shopping. She was sick so it was low key. She is like her Gramie was when she was little if there was a strep germ out there it found me. But she has meds and is on the mend. So hard when they are sick.:(

then we headed for Maine for a surprise birthday party. This family owns an inn on a lake they all use and enjoy. I am so jealous of it such a beautiful setting and a fun spot.

  (outside of our bedroom window)

This would be the birthday boy he was very surprise!

It was so good to see old friends. His wife( also Kathy) in the middle.

It was a fun night and we headed home early the next morning so we could catch up on house work. (I took a nap). Of course the weekend slipped by so fast and we have another busy weekend then it is Christmas and a the long months of Jan and Feb. 

The weather is still very mild and we are taking full advantage of it.

I need to pick up a few more things for Christmas 

so a busy week.

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I hope you are all taking the time to enjoy friends and family.

Christmas in Kennebunk

We headed to the beach for Christmas prelude 

in Kennebunk Maine

We got up early and hit all the sales and ate our way though

each store. 

Left to right My sweet friend Cathy, My daughter Ashley, and a horrid picture of myself. we are all sporting sparkly reindeer antlers. 

I took a couple of extra days off to fit all the fun in

and to have a day of rest after. I finished the mantle it's a wooly one.

Between two friends I have lots of berries

and holly.

To make the house very festive.

This is the only tree I have up so not sure when I am going to get the time to put the big one up, every weekend is spoken for from now until Christmas.

I have been pretty sick and the meds I had to take kicked my butt but I am on the mend now just tired and of course running around all the time doesn't help.

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I hope you are all well and enjoying the season.

A Good Weekend

A very odd sunset tonight it looks like the sun was shooting straight up to heaven. 

I found this at the dump swap shop. Someone had made a vase out of birch bark so for free I will give it a try....

Yep it's a keeper...

My sweet friend dropped off some red winter berries 

perfect for decorating.

I have been cleaning out cupboards and drawers and closets.

I took a load to the thrift store and well I had to look around. right? I found 2 Christmas scarfs with tags on each one that said 20.00 I scored them for 2.00 total I would say that was a deal!

Bright and early we joined Miss B for breakfast with Santa.

Then a trip to the playground...

I bought a Christmas train to put together and decorate.

Miss B did all the decorating I just squeezed the frosting on she put all the candies on. She was so creative I thought. 

I have been decorating a bit along the way.

this is my vintage little paper houses I put in my step back 

cupboard in the kitchen. 

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Let the holidays begin. Take time to enjoy them. 

A Church Sale And A Cleaning

We got our Thanksgiving Card from Miss B. She really put her foot in this one:) So cute.

I went to a church sale bright and early and purchased some items for Christmas. This parish does a great job of making gift baskets that are great for Yankee swaps and gifts that are not a lot of money.

But they also have a trash and treasure room in the basement. I had to rescue this hooked Lamb.

I also purchased this bracelet and earrings. the bracelet has some pieces missing but the earrings can be used to fix it. I love vintage bracelets. 

So on the way home I took a drive into our recycling center aka the dump. These two little trucks were in the swap shop. They are in great shape a little cleaning and...

And pretty cute!

I also found this in the swap shop a very large jar with no cover.

I grabbed it and asked husband to make a wooden top. this will be great for flour. Husband made a top but he stained the wood so I will show it later. I gave it a good scrubbing and a bleach soak we are set to go.

I watched old movies and cleaned out drawers and bookcases. Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck does it get any better than that? Ok maybe Hepburn and Tracy. While cleaning out drawers I found 80.00 in LLBean gift certificates, 50.00 restaurant gift certificates, and 100.00 spar gift certificate that we had forgotten about. I guess I should clean more often!

My dollar basket I got a few weeks ago all decorated up.

I had everything at the house to dress it up and lots of greens in the woods.

This is sunset tonight. I walked by a window and the outside was a weird color so I put a coat on and went out looking for the sunset. Pretty awesome!

And to get the holiday spirit going I put the lights in the windows.

My neighbor has them all year round. While it is very pretty 

I love when we start getting the lights up each year it seems like a little holiday prize. 

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Have a wonderful safe and peaceful Thanksgiving.

A Week...

Prayers to Paris. There are no words....

Last Wed we drove into Boston for husband's 6 month check up.

All is well and we go back in 6 months!

These amazing cookies are oatmeal, white chocolate, and dried cranberries. So dang good!

I attended a couple of Christmas open houses one was at Badger brook, just an amazing place to go with lots and lots of goodies for rug hooking etc.. I bought a pattern to do a punch needle snowman I think I have finally learned how to needle punch (I think) so I worked on that last night. today Miss B visited she had a very hard time when it came to leave. Her grandfather had to walk outside so he wouldn't cry with her. Her little heart was broken:( We have promised her an over night with a day of cookie baking. 

I have my challenge rug drawn out and now I will work very hard on it for the next few weeks. Thanksgiving is very quiet for us so I will hook and enjoy some Christmas movies to get caught up.