A Winter Chat

I thought I'd pop in with a little this-and-that!  

First of all . . . HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

I gathered a few hearts and scattered them here and there. I made the two coverlet ones. The calico hearts with buttons I purchased (several years apart!), one of them on a recent antique shopping adventure with my friend Barbara. 

On that same antiquing trip, I picked up the vanilla latte candle and the colorful penny mat under it on the sideboard. The heart on the tea tray I made many years ago, seventeen years ago to be exact. I remember because my granddaughter Eve was a baby when I sent a similar one to her family, and Eve will be eighteen this summer! Oh, how the years fly by! 

We had some more winter weather this past week. The snow fell quickly and was so pretty. All activities were canceled. I lit my candles, made a pot of chicken noodle soup and homemade biscuits, and enjoyed the down time. The snow was mostly melted within twenty-four hours and life resumed. That's my kind of snow! 

Manzy enjoyed the snow from his cozy perch. 

When Kati was visiting at Christmas, she introduced me to Elevate, an app that offers "brain training games" to boost cognitive skills. I only use the free version (you can subscribe for more games), but I love the challenge and have just completed a 50-day streak. 

I made these chocolate cherry scones for my Bible study group yesterday. They are the same scones that I made last year (Cherry Vanilla Valentine Scones) except that I drizzled melted chocolate on the top instead of the vanilla glaze. 

I came across this quote this week and it really made me think. Oh yes, there is so much that we do not see!

But I also want to take note of God's blessings that I do see, and with that in mind, I began a gratefulness journal this week. My friend Carla has been doing this for years and recently hit the 12,000 mark! Inspired by Carla, I am taking a few moments each day to simply list things that I am grateful for. 

We decided that we didn't want to compete with the crowds for Valentine's Day dinner this evening, so we have ordered carryout from our favorite Mexican restaurant. Ron will be here any minute with our meal . . . 


I hope that your week has been filled with simple delights, gratitude, and a knowledge of God's immeasurable love for us!

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I John 4:10 

P.S. I wrote a Gathering the Moments post for November, but just finished it published it last week. So I backdated it and sneaked it into the blog, but if you're interested in reading it (Thanksgiving pictures are there), you can find it ~ here ~. 

Memory-Making Moments: A Christmas Recap

 

If I don't show you any other pictures from our Christmas this year, 

I must show you this one ⬇️

Ron and I,
our four children and three children-in-law,
our fifteen grandchildren, 

my mom, and my sister

. . . all in one place at one time!

It was the first time that we had all been together at Christmas since 2021. 

What a gift!

And there were a host of memory-making moments!

Some were recorded and some escaped the camera,
some are special and some are ordinary,

but all are treasured and stored in my heart.

Unhurried time together.
Hugs. Little footsteps. Guests.
Coffee. Lots of meals. Lots of leftovers in the fridge. 
Unplanned dress-alikes.
Christmas movies. Christmas jammies.

Music of all kinds . . .
Christmas carols,

impromptu karaoke that went on for hours
(Peter singing "It's a Wonderful World" as Louis Armstrong had us all in stitches!)
violin, piano, guitar, singing.
I was thankful that my voice recovered enough that I could sing in our church's Christmas cantata.

Little grands decorating cookies. My mom made her sugar cookie dough, I cut most of them out (until the littles came in and cut out a few), and the littles decorated them. With LOTS of decorating sugar. Spoonfuls, in fact. They were true sugar cookies!

Little cousins doing crafts, playing Duplo, "playing" the piano, and eating breakfast together in the kitchen.

FAMILY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION!
Joy. Togetherness.
Hors d'oeuvres buffet.
Gifts for all. Piles of wrapping paper. Ribbon "necklaces."
Ryan's prize of a $50 Amazon gift card to the person who most closely guessed the number of Jolly Joes in the jar. (Gavin won!)
Family photo.
Gammy's trifle, Bekah's fudge, and lots of cookies.

Christmas Eve candlelight service.

CHRISTMAS DAY. 
A very special rendition of "Joy to the World."
Christmas breakfast. Orange rolls.
Aunt Bekah opening her gifts.
Caleb and Ellie enjoying Aunt Bekah's new rug. 
Visiting a friend who is in rehab.
More feasting.

Visiting Gammy. Goodies.

Good-byes . . . one group at a time . . .
until our gathering of 26 people was back to the 3 of us . . .
and then Bekah went to a conference for five days
and Ron and I were alone in the house. 

Photo by my friend Carla

Photos by Kati

s

We had eight days full of memory-making moments!

And then there was one more celebratory day when Ron's siblings and their spouses joined us for a post-Christmas gathering.

Photo by my sister-in-law Pat

Now Christmas season 2024 has past . . . but the memories linger . . .