I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. You've inspired me in so many ways with your talent and your warm hearts, and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming year.
We're heading off to a party tonight with a couple of families that we try to get together with every New Year's Eve. It's become a bit of a tradition. Tomorrow it's football games and the Rose Parade (on t.v. that is). I've been to the Rose Parade twice, but it's awfully cold sitting out there all night. I know that it's not cold compared to where many of you live, but I still think I'll stick to watching from the comforts of my simple home :-)
May God Bless you all. See you next year! Blessings, Marcia photo courtesy of The Stock Solution
I'd like to share a favorite site of mine. It's called SnowmanCam. It's a 24 hour a day streaming video located in Northern Michigan. Over the past year we've seen deer, raccoons, bears, squirrels, birds, etc., come and visit these feeders. We just pop in once or twice a day, and if there is wildlife there, we watch. Okay, maybe we're easily entertained, but we love it. Thanks to Shelley at Building A Log Cabin for introducing me to this site last year. If you haven't visited her beautiful blog, you need to. She is a wonderful photographer and you'll love her cabin.
I'd also like to let everyone know about Google's translator for your blog. It's a widget that you add and it enables your blog to be translated into many languages, which makes it easier for someone from another country to read. It's easy to add (it has to be for me to be able to do it). I'm also able to use the translator to read foreign blogs. Here's the link Google Translate -Tools. You can see how it works right here on my blog. It's on the right, under my header. Just select a language and translate.
I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas. We were very blessed this year. We had all of our family home, and everyone was well. I did get to spend Dec. 23rd at Urgent Care with a young son who split open his head and had to have a few stitches. That wasn't in my plans, but he's no worse for the wear. It's just another way to tell the twins apart :-) My ongoing line, "I told you someone was going to get hurt", might have a little more meaning now, too!
It's nice to have this coming week to relax and take my time putting away the Christmas decorations. I'm like some of you, and keep some of the winter things out, but I like to get most things put away before we start back with our homeschooling next week.
Have a wonderful and relaxing week. Blessings, Marcia
This is a wonderful song I heard on the beautiful blog Many Little Blessings in the original language. My daughter searched for it and found it in English. This lady has the most beautiful voice and the song speaks of Mary and her baby, the Lord Jesus. I hope you enjoy it.
Have a Glorious Christmas as we celebrate His wonderful birth!
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11
I know that this is a busy time for everyone. This is the final week of Vintage Christmas Monday at Anything Goes Here. Thank you so much for hosting this event Joan. It was the first event I've participated in and it's been so much fun. Like so many others, my Christmas decorating is a combination of new items, vintage items, and things passed down in our family. Our tree is a prime example of that. Our first Christmas tree when we married was just a few balls, purchased at a local store. Then our first son was born, and I made a little ornament for him. The next year we had another baby and another ornament, and so a tradition began. Of course, when we started it, I didn't realize that getting a new ornament for each child each year would make for such a heavy tree, but six kids later, it is ornament heavy and they put them all on each year. When they start families of their own, they will have plenty or ornaments to take. Here is the ornament that started it all. Our tree and a couple more ornaments. I made the bows when I was about 16, and we just keep putting them back on each year.I shared in a previous post that I have several nativity sets. I picked this one up at a thrift store quite a few years ago. It looks like those from the 60's when I was little. The music box still works.The pillow is new from Target, but the yo-yo tree with bells on it is one that my mom made years ago. I just pinned it on for the holidays.I guess you call this milk glass, and it's been in my parent's house for as long as I can remember. This year my mom gave it to me. Thank you Mom!A close-up of a couple of my postcards, along with the one at the top of the post.Some of my Christmas dishes. I want to wish everyone a very Blessed Christmas. Thanks so much for stopping by. You've all made me feel so welcome in blogland. Blessings, Marcia
This was a funny little poem I had to memorize in junior high. I always loved that the little boy really started to behave "Jest 'Fore Christmas". I didn't know then that I would have 6 children someday who might try to do the same :-) Having 4 boys sure helps me understand some of his antics too. This is all of my children at Christmas in 2000.Wow, where has the time gone?
I'm participating again in Vintage Christmas Monday hosted by Joan at Anything Goes Here. Be sure to go and check out all of the other blogs and their wonderful vintage items.
This bear and lamb were my stuffed animals when I was a child. They were both homemade. The Bible I've included here isn't actually something I decorate with, it's too fragile, but I loved the red color in on the cover. It belonged to my great-grandmother and was given to her by my great-grandfather. I don't know when it was printed, but she passed away in 1932, so it's quite old. The Hearth and Home magazine is from 1929. I plan to frame the cover. The teapot was my grandmother's, the ornaments were from my childhood, and the silver dish belonged to my parents, coming from their silver anniversary celebration. They've been married 61 years now. The big red pot was a yard sale find and I love having it in my kitchen.Isn't this a cute picture? It's dated 1948, another yard sale find I picked up strictly for the image. I love decorating with old books, and this one was published in 1909 which makes it 100 years old. I bought it at a thrift store, because I loved the image on the cover, but I read it a couple of year ago, and it was a good book. It's always interesting to read an old book. The author had written it in what was then a present day setting; but reading it now is like reading history. Don't forget to visit the other sites. Have a wonderful day! Blessings, Marcia
This handsome guy is RussMyHoney. Today is his 52nd birthday. He doesn't look 52 does he? We've been married for over 23 years now. Russ is a wonderful husband and father. He loves his family and he loves God's word. He's pretty fond of surfing too ;-) We grew up by the beach, and he still goes out and surfs now and then. I think we have 4 surfboards stacked against the wall in our bedroom. Try decorating around that ladies! You can't store them in the garage here in the desert, the wax would melt.
Russ is a diligent worker who has worked two jobs for much of our marriage, just so I could be home with our kids. In fact, (a little more bragging here) he began working for the phone company in 1991 and has still never taken a sick day. Seriously! Russ has played the part of Jesus in quite a few church productions, and a few years ago he was asked to pose for the cover of a book. He is a also a wonderful example of what God can do with a life. I will share that story sometime, but for today I just want to say "Happy Birthday Honey, I Love You!!!" Blessings, Marcia
There were so many pretty quilts at the show I went to last week.Oops, how did that get in there? Actually, the lady seated on the far left is my great great-aunt. The only man in the photo was her 3rd husband (she outlived the other two), and he was the mayor of their very small town. I sure wish I'd inherited that quilt! I shared some of them in the last post, but I wanted to show a few more. Very beautiful quilts. I wish my photos were a little better.A couple of summertime quilts.I love this "window" quilt!This was in a narrow hall, so I couldn't get a good shot of the whole quilt together, I had to take two photos. Last but not least, a little bit of sibling love!Ha Ha, do you see the hand in the back holding up my daughter's hair? There was actually a little bit of tickling and hair pulling going on here. They look so innocent too, don't they?Have a wonderful day! Blessings, Marcia
It seems like everyone has been getting snow. I love all of the photos I've been seeing around blogland. We even had a dusting of it last night. My twins got out and played in it even though it was dark, knowing it might be gone by morning. Most of it was gone by midday, but it sure is cold here now. I wanted to share some photos of the wonderful quilts I saw at the quilt show in Wrightwood, CA on Saturday. A very pretty Winter quilt.This photo is a little dark, but this one was beautiful. The stitching and quilting was so detailed. This one reminded me of Anne of Green Gables for some reason. This is another one with lots of detail.I almost missed this one because it was up against the built-in bookshelf and it looked so real there.Those are real clothespins. This one was not meant for ever sleeping under, but isn't it beautiful?The guitar just seems to fit with this one. There were so many beautiful quilts it was hard to decide which to include, but my lack of photography skills kind of helps me with that :-) Have a wonderful day! Blessings, Marcia
I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. You've inspired me in so many ways with your talent and your warm hearts, and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming year.
