rested / ready

L - iphone / L - iphone

A nap before the party and then making fancy. I feel more myself wearing boots and jeans, but I guess every once it's nice to be elegant. The annual company Christmas party is about the only time I pull out the jewels and show a little skin. Now I'm ready to be wined and dined and maybe even be twirled around a bit.
I hope your holiday festivities are fun this year.

share / savor

L - Nikon / T - iphone

I'm enjoying my first cup of Russian Tea of the season a little late this year. I usually make up a batch at Thanksgiving and a second batch to share. Do you have a special treat you like to share at Christmas time? i made sweet potato biscuits just because they sounded good. they were.

garland / lights

L - Nikon / T- iphone

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale
i love decorating for the holidays, but decided against bringing my two bucket-loads of christmas cheer back with me after thanksgiving. i'm sort of regretting my scrooge-y decision. i had thought i wouldn't have long enough to enjoy them for all the effort it would take. but now seeing as i will be here til the 23rd because of work i'm sad i don't have them. i did pick up a string of $5 lights at the craft store when i was picking up DIY-christmas gift supplies. i love the way they make my room look and i'm a little bit less humbug now!

take time /put your feet up

L - Nikon / T - iphone

I guess we both had that kind of weekend. Busy, busy, busy but took time to put our feet up, enjoy some Christmas music and the lights we'd hung. Hope you're taking time to savor some moments of Christmas joy.

precious memories / warm heart

top photo of me and my girl friends taken by my brother / L - Nikon

My fiance (sounds so strange to me) and I went to see Trans-Siberain Orchestra perform on their Winter Tour. It was truly amazing.
From the powerful sound of this group to the simple, precious sound of friends of 60 years singing "Blessed Be the Tie that Binds" - it has been a wonderful start to the holidays.

My parents had a Christmas party today with a group of friends (about 8 couples) they have known for about 60 years. My brother and I helped out. But we were the ones blessed. This group of friends took care of us when we were babies, our families camped together when we were children - even after moving to different parts of the city they've joined hands in prayer every year at Christmas time throughout the years. The group, sadly, is getting smaller as husbands and wives have passed on. Now their children, my friends, bring the widowed parent to the party and this year I got to see a few of the girls. It was such a great time of fellowship and good food and lots of laughing.
Later, as I relaxed at home, enjoying some of the hor'derves I had missed and a hot cup of coffee I thought back and smiled inside at how funny they were - poking fun at their age, or at the stories that they retold but also smiled to think of this bond so strong - it truly warmed my heart.

This song that we all sang was the perfect ending to a perfect time together.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent pray'rs;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims, are one,
Our comforts and our cares.

We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

evening black / winter white

L - Nikon / T - Nikon

I don't "dress up" much - the office Christmas party is about the only evening I buy a special dress, get out eye shadow, stockings, and my patent leather shoes. And because Taylor wasn't home to critic my outfit I had to take a photo and send it to her for approval. (wish i could take better self portraits) She said, "it looks cute, especially with the awesome necklace and shoes". I'm not sure cute was what I was going for but I guess it will do. Do you like to get dressed up in fancy clothes? / people always tell me i look too dressed up for the errands i'm running. i just like wearing pretty things and am too impatient to wait around for the perfect event. i've gotten very good at dressing nice things down with thrift store belts and worn boots, haha. i hope i didn't make too much of a faux-pas by wearing white this winter day.

colored lights / white lights

L - Nikon / T - Nikon

I'm behind on getting my tree up this year - I just got the lights on it last night. However, it looks like Taylor is very festive at her apartment. She has her little tree decorated and her bike is all decked out for the holidays too. I'm wondering... do you use colored lights or white lights?

is it early? / is it late?

solo post - L, Nikon

What? It's too early! It's not even Thanksgiving , you say. I know, the autumn leaves haven't even fallen to the ground yet. And no I have not decorated my house (I do my decorating the weekend of Thanksgiving). I'm just doing a little photo shoot for one of my etsy sites – I'm preparing to list a few new items. Do you remember the paper ball ornaments I made last year ? I think maybe I talked about a little bit about a family craft session where we all made these wonderful ornaments out of repurposed Christmas cards. We all get cards that are treasures, ones with special messages from special loved ones, etc, but we also get a lot of cards that have no special meaning to us after a certain time. Through the years I have collected a lot and my mom has collected even more. We are putting these cards to good use by making ball ornaments. They look beautiful on the tree and the best thing is they are very light weight and unbreakable - a great thing when there's a cat around. / It might actually be too late to list Christmas items on my etsy site. Some people think a lot further ahead than I do. But I'm going ahead with it. I am going to list these little journal booklets (Christmas card list, journal, wish list, menu planner, or guest book -whatever you want to use them as) made out of repurposed paper that I get at the office - perfectly good paper that is thrown out for various reasons. I also put a printed 2011 calendar at the front of the books and a few sheets of graph paper just for fun. It's nice to have a little book to jot things down in.

So I guess it sort of is time to start thinking about the holidays whether we like it or not. I bet some of you have already checked off everything on your shopping list? Not me for sure.

P.S. I hope this isn't bad of me to self promote but who else is going to do it right? I moved my ring shop to a different address on etsy so I'm going to go ahead and say it... my rings can be found HERE . They might make a nice gift for someone on your list. wink wink

A Very Merry Christmas to You

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas with warmth and love all around you.
-Taylor and Leslye

listening to: Child In A Manger

spice / nice

solo post - L, Nikon

listening to: a crackling fire and Let it Snow

(there's a slight prediction of snow for Christmas Eve - I am so wishing for it)

in the oven / out of the oven

solo post - T, Nikon

listening to: Santa Baby

wonderment

solo post tonight - L
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus." - Francis Pharcellus Church

I believe, don't you? Santa Claus represents the joy and spirit of giving - a joy that brings an euphoric feeling of well being and it seems to happen universally at this time of year don't you think? And if you have children around at Christmas they bring it all to life even stronger. To see the wonder in their eyes as they sit on Santa's knee, looking in to his eyes as they tell him their wishes; as they wait in anticipation for his arrival on Christmas morning. Why is it that this innocence of children brings tears to my eyes?
I can't tell you how special it was to be a part of a visit with Santa with my niece and nephew over Thanksgiving. They were convinced he was the real Santa. Santa was at a Christmas show visiting with children all day long and it was closing time - he spent over 20 minutes with them, personally, telling them all sorts of stories as they sat at his feet with their mouths dropped opened. He was very animated and wore deer antler rings and pins made by his elves and real fur boots and velvet suit so rich. He told so many interesting tales filled with such exuberance - one of being saved from the freezing lake by a polar bear; he showed them his world map and told them of the travels and how many trips back to the North Pole it took him before he finished all of his rounds; he told about some of his favorite elves - all in greatest of detail. By the end of the visit I was convinced - he was "Santa".
The other day I was looking through some of the Santa photos I had taken of Taylor and even some of the ones that were taken of me and my brothers. It's funny how the times change. I wonder if the photos that we take today will have such great nostalgic quality as the ones from our childhood do now. I mean I know they'll still be nostalgic but do think they will have the charm that old photos have today?
I'll be posting a few on my autumnsun blog just for fun. Maybe more later.

humble/ fancy

block print card by young Leslye and a handcrafted German sheep

This weekend has been filled with many activities - from a quite evening at home looking through old photographs and old handmade Christmas cards, attending a magnificent performance of traditional Chinese dance "Chinese New Year Spectacular" with some friends at our new Cobb Performing Arts Center, shopping at the crowded mall searching for the perfect gifts, wrapping presents together and then watching the movie "The Fall" (if you haven't seen it I recommend it). While looking through my childhood photos and cards I remembered the simpler times we enjoyed when we made our own cards and ornaments and made many of our gifts; we enjoyed staying home and baking together and putting together puzzles; sitting, warm, by a fire listening to my mom read a Christmas story. I don't remember there being a lot of t.v. watching and frantic Christmas shopping or the desire to always be on the go (of course, that's a child's recollection). It seems it was a slower paced life back then - at least that's the way I see it now in comparison. I'd like to slow down and enjoy the simple things like we did when I was a child.  / today was somewhat stressful for me - i have a hard time knowing what to get people, especially when they give no hints (mom!), and that makes me stressed. but mom and i did end up finding a few things that we think people will like and then we wrapped presents together. i like wrapping things so that even the most ordinary looks special. remember playing the white elephant gift exchange game when you wrap the gift to look all big and fancy when what's inside is usually just a silly little gimmick? we play the white elephant every year in our family but we give nice gifts. i've been to many a party where this game is played and i've gotten some really crazy stuff - sometimes funny, sometimes embarrassing, and every once in a while you get something you actually like. have you played this game?

The above is one of the handmade cards from my younger years. Inside the card I included this poem (I don't remember where I got it):

Animals knew Him
In His first sleep,
Donkey and cow,
The wool-soft sheep.

The humblest beasts
Gave Him their heat,
And shared the straw
Beneath their feet.

Creatures were kind
In that cold place.
They gave Him warmth.
He gives us grace.

this is my wish

"What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace." - Agnes M. Pharo

lights all a glow

solo post tonight - Nikon d40x Sigma 30mm lens

I got the lights up tonight and it looks so pretty. I think kodi enjoyed the process too. She's behaving pretty well so far - she hasn't jumped in the tree yet.
It's your last day of finals and you must feel a relief. See you soon and we'll put up the ornaments together. You can put the angel on top - I'm too short.

“Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display - so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow. It isn't the tree nor the firelight's glow. It's the warmth that comes to the heart” - unknown

Listening to: "A French Christmas" CD

waiting on you

solo post tonight - iphone pics
The decorations are coming along but I'm waiting on you to finish it up. The wreath needs fresh lemons and the tree needs lights and decorations, of course. (I'll get the lights up before you get here Sunday because I know you don't like that part). I think I got a good tree - look it's not even shedding - remember last year's tree? It smells so good and so far it doesn't seem as though kodi is bothering the tree - at least not when I'm home.      See you soon.
Listening to: We Need A Little Christmas - The New Christy Minstrels

Are you waiting on a special someone to come home this Christmas?

my little corners

solo post tonight - before / after
This weekend was very enjoyable - productive but in a very relaxing way. I took my time - doing a little here and a little there. I began the transformation process - turning little corners into scenes of Christmas. I don't go all out, covering every inch of my home in Christmas decorations but I do have little corners that I like to switch out - . I got every thing done except for the decorating of the tree. I put the tree up and will leave it that way (undecorated) for a few days to see how kodi reacts to it. We didn't have her last year so I don't know how having a cat around a Christmas tree is going to work out. I guess I'll hang all unbreakable ornaments this year. I may wait until T is home to decorate it - it would seem too lonely doing it by myself. We've always done it together.

some treats / a glimpse

I went to Trader Joes today to get some poinsettias for the mantel and found all my favorite Christmas treats. It's not Christmas without clementines, Panettone and Lebkuchen. My brother lived in Germany for several years and he bring back Lebkuchen at Christmas time. I guess that is also when I fell in love with the original Steinbach German smokers and nutcrackers. I have a pretty good collection, but my mom has a great collection. I bought my first one when I went to Germany along with something I really treasure - a 3 tiered German carousel of the Nativity. Do you collect special Christmas decorations? / here is a glimpse of the "creative" portrait i'm finishing up for drawing. sorry for all the drawing stuff - it's just pretty much all that's going on right now.

frosty cold / toasty warm

nikon D40x by L / iphone pic by L
I love the Christmas season - the festive lights outdoors and the glowing warmth indoors. In Frederick, last Friday, it was Frosty Friday and the shops were open late. We enjoyed browsing the streets all-a-glow with twinkling lights. It was so cold outside but to me that just adds to excitement (personally I can't imagine being in a warm climate at Christmas time). When it's cold I can dream of snow. And when it's cold outside, it makes the fire inside all the cozier. This night we walked the streets until our hands and feet were numb and then found a cozy little coffee shop along the Carroll Creek district with a warm fire that served up one of the best cappuccinos I've had in a while - or maybe it was the atmosphere, nonetheless the coffee and the fire warmed us up for the walk back finishing up a wonderful evening. / T is busy with finals - no post or photo from her tonight