Category Archives: holiday

Dec27

Longwood Gardens 2006

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My mom, sister-in-law, her mom and Kenny and Tori came out to our house so the kiddos could open their gifts from us. Tori got a Tinkerbelle ‘head’ lamp as her main gift. Kenny got an assortment of t-shirts (his favorite thing to wear) and drawing stuff. I had chili, chicken salad tea sandwiches, ham pasta salad, fruit salad and pastries as snacks before we went to Longwood Gardens. It was jammed packed and Sean and I had to walk at least 1/2 mile to get to the front door. My mom and Colleen’s mom got pushed around in wheelchairs, though the kids got a ride when we went into the conservatory. I was using the new camera and it’s hard to get good nighttime shots-I deleted a bunch, but downloaded 60 photos! Here are some of my favorites-

Me and Tori in the main conservatory
Some of the outdoor lights
Stars on the ceiling of the main conservatory
 White tulips
Blue tree outdoors

I finally went over to the ‘side window’ and got my frequent visitor pass so I can go as much as I want. We didn’t get to see the ice skating there which is new this year. We may go again next week. I got tonight’s visit taken off the price. : )

Dec25

A nice Christmas eve

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Kenny, Tori and Sean on Christmas eve

Part of my brother Ken’s finished kitchen/family room. He put the stone work around the gas fireplace himself. That’s a flat screen tv over the fireplace. They had two trees, the other real one is in the next photo.
Tori and me wearing our paper crowns from our Christmas crackers-an English tradition. I happen to find some in a dollar store.
Tori and a Belle doll I gave her.

Brian’s aunt has left us a message on the answering machine and she sounded a little disoriented. She told us that Brian’s other aunt, Berenice passed away on Saturday. She had dementia and had gone down to 50 some pounds. She died at home with everyone around her. She was a dear woman who smiled with her eyes and always made you feel at home in her beautiful Victorian home. Her son and husband were Brian’s teachers where he went to high school. Aunt Sue said she looked at peace at the end. Her funeral is Thursday and Brian and Sean will be pallbearers.

We went to a lovely (but warm) midnight mass service in Delaware last night. The music was wonderful and I couldn’t keep my eyes off an urn on the altar with white, olive green and deep pink colors. Branches that stuck out of the top were white.

We got to sleep about 2 am and I slept better! : )

Dec24

Please help yourself

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Lots of hard work-Butter crisco chocolate chips, white chocolate chip fruit (dried cranberries and apricots) cookies, Russian teacakes, Rum Raisin Cheesecake bars, Deluxe Lemon bars, Microwave peanut brittle, date meringue cookies and chocolate nut fudge. Opps-forgot the 7 layer cookies!

We’re off to my brother’s house in a few hours. I don’t know what to wear, but it’s going to be a casual get-together with good food. I made Ken his requested Apple Cake with Rum sauce. I also have to bring a Caesar salad (I cooked some shrimp to toss in).

I’m surviving on pure adrenline as I haven’t gotten to sleep until 3 am or later the last few nights. I keep thinking what I have to do in my head all night. Sometimes it would be so great to have people who live here who like to cook-ha! They’re talking about midnight mass too. I’d probably be awake already!

Have a lovely Christmas eve!

Watch for new photos here.

Dec22

Gifties

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I guess it’s safe to post these as three of the five (as far as I know) have received them. These were for my pals over at tribe.net. Six of us are pretty close and in the last few months we have been sending mail art to each other. I decided not to do paper for the ornament exchange and do what I do best-cross stitching! I used my sewing machine to finish them off. With the stuffing I added some blue spruce pine needles that smell like citrus. They really like them which makes me smile. I was working on them when I was getting over my tummy bug, so that helped me recover.


Dec21

Wrapping marathon

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That’s all I’ve been doing. I wrap for all one person, and move on to the next. I want my niece and nephew to have their own special paper too. I’m almost finished-I have a few of my nephew’s gifts to wrap and my father-in-law’s. Brian and Sean only have to wrap gifts for me (and Sean for his dad and grandparents). Then I stick bows on the packages or use pretty ribbons to finish them up. I don’t do bows until the last minute as they like to pop off, so I have to use tape to hold them on. Plus who likes a squooshed up bow?
Here are a few things I thought you’d like to see:

I’ve been trying to finish this little bear ornament since high school! It only needed a few stitches and assembly, which I did yesterday. I redid the mouth and metallic stripes on the drum. And I added the fringe to the scarf. Those are my initials from 1976! I did learn how to make cording too. : )

This is a gift for my mom. My brother Dave had uploaded a bunch of slides from the 1950s he found, and this was one of them. That’s Ruth and Alan-Christmas 1954 (we think). So besides Christmas, why the photo in a frame? I took a few of their good china (what was left of it is just little chipped cake plates) and smashed them up to make mosaic pieces. So although the dishes are pretty much gone, here is a sample of the grape pattern with even the maker in a chard of the china-one the bottom there. Let me tell you, it was hard to break up! The grout should dry a bit lighter. This is a my favorite photo of them. My ‘pop pop’ died when I was 6 weeks old-a long time ago!

Dec19

Playing with the Rebel

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Our new camera was on the front door step this morning! We hope it wasn’t there all night, but I think it arrived first thing. It’s like an old-fashioned camera, but it’s digital. I was putting the battery and CF card in place (we have to use a CF card we have already-silly me thought the company forgot to send it). I did take some photos, but we don’t have the software on the computer yet. I have to figure out why it works ‘some of the time’ on the auto and all of the time on ‘P’, meaning, it shows the image on the LED screen on the back.
I’m really bushed from baking yesterday. I may get out in the kitchen sooner or later. I know what I’m making for dinner though. It was from Martha Stewart’s Food magazine-cauliflower and pasta. I just happen to buy a big head of it the other day.
I may tidy up the boxes of Christmas things I pulled out over a week ago. I didn’t get all the ornaments I like on the tree-like Mister Winking gold moon, but I think I better wrap gifts soon!
Watch for some photos soon!

Dec18

Camera phone capture

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There’s actually a lot more going on here, but I had my little camera phone and that’s it. Sean also took a photo with his phone and if it’s better, I’ll switch. This was a few days before I got sick and I just got around to sending it to myself tonight. It’s not my house, but a house in the next town. I made chocolate chips and 7 layer cookies this afternoon. I am not use to an efficient oven and I had to watch the cookies better than I had in the past (I had a system where I would turn the cookie sheet around so they would evenly brown-no worry now). My first batch ran a bit, so the next batch had more flour in it. Did I say it was close to 70 degrees outside today-it’s the 18th of Dec!! So my kitchen was very, very warm. It’s great having a dual oven. Tomorrow or the next day I have about 3 more kinds lined up to do.

My cooking duties for Christmas eve aren’t too bad-Caesar Salad and Apple cake with rum icing (as requested by my brother). Now that one seemed too dense when I made it, so I’ll have to watch the batter this time. I may add a little shrimp to the salad and I’m looking for a nice dressing recipe.

Dec18

Christmastime visitors

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My mom and Jim came over last night after visiting my Uncle Don. Did I forget to tell you he is home now? He has a lady come in 3 times a week to clean, etc. but he is doing better. I think every 3 weeks the agency has to review his ‘case’ to see if he still needs help.
So, mom wanted to make sure she got here this year to see my house and tree as she wasn’t driving much last year. She told me seeing my tree put her in the Christmas spirit. I told her that’s what I was aiming for. I cleaned most of the weekend, so I am pretty tired today. I do plan to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies in a few hours and see where that leads me. I have a feeling my ‘baking’ mode will kick in and I’ll go to town in my new kitchen. I had Mom and Jim stay for a pork tenderloin cooked with roasted potatoes, (which I really felt like eating-my sickness last week has put me in a food jag) carrots and also green beans. They enjoyed their dinner. The guys were watching the Eagles football game, so we ate in shifts.
After Mom left, she stopped at Big Lots and was in there an hour. Here I thought she was almost home and she was shopping! She mentioned Sean’s name and the manager there overheard her and said he was waiting for Sean to call him! So I guess he was well liked. Sean may work a few weeks in January at the store if they need him. Speaking of Sean, he has a final today-math and then the dreaded Biology one tomorrow.
Wish me luck in my cookie making attempts!
To Carole-I’ll be thinking of you on your journey. I tried to say something on your blog, but I got knocked off. Thanks for sharing about Jesse. I have a friend who had a similar pregnancy. I had a miscarriage the summer before Sean was born, but I was only about 6 weeks along.