As the name of my blog indicates, I spend a lot of time thinking about home. Of course, my Heavenly Home is the one that is eternal, so that’s where I need to lay up my treasures, and that’s the one I’m striving for. But in the meantime, I have been given this tiny piece of the here-and-now—this home on the edge of town, this family, this neighborhood—in which to serve Him. And, though this is in the earthly realm, I want the things that happen here to be investments in the Heavenly realm.




Friday, December 22, 2017

Christmas Tour | Pineapple House 2017



I am inviting you into Pineapple House today for a little Christmas home tour! 

Although I have shared a Christmas tour every year since Thinking About Home began, this is the latest I have ever done it! But I like having this little record of my Christmas home from year to year, so I am going to go with the premise that it's better late than never. I'll try not to chat too much. 


The living room and dining room flow together so well that I am going to show those to you as one space. Most of our decorations are simple . . . lots of candlelight and greenery. 



I always do a della Robbia arrangement on the mantle, but it turns out differently each year. 


Our family tree is filled with decorations that we have collected over the years. (Each girl has her own collection to take with her when she begins her own home.) 


Brown paper packages tied up with assorted plaid ribbons and pineapple tags!


Nativity made from olive wood that our son Ryan brought from a trip to Israel


Looking from the living room into the dining room . . .





This little wool tree is new this year. My friend Barbara and I spent an enjoyable evening at a local country store learning to make these.



Now our tour will take us to the kitchen. In the photo below, we're leaving the dining room and going down a small hallway (basement steps to your right), looking into the kitchen. At the end of this view, you can see the little vestibule that is part of our master suite. Painting this vestibule and hanging a new light was Ron's most recent project, his last for this calendar year. (Maybe I'll share that area with you sometime soon and tell you of our plans for the master bedroom area.)



I have included lots of kitchen pictures, including views that I have not shown you before. Last year, I told you about our long term plans for the kitchen. (You can read about those plans ~here~ as well as see some "before" shots of the kitchen.) We have checked a few of those things off our list, but we are planning to concentrate on more of those projects beginning this winter. Slow and steady is still the plan. I'll keep you posted! 




On the coffee counter. I change out our napkins with the season. Love these Williamsburg-style Christmas napkins!

Looking down the galley kitchen toward the back door, you can see that we removed the wallpaper, hung a new light, and painted. The cabinets have not been painted yet, so we have an odd patchwork of colors right now. Even so, I am glad that we chose to go ahead and paint this area. It gives me vision.


On the island, a new wrought iron plate/bowl rack that we purchased on our trip to Lancaster holds my Friendly Village dishes.

Side note: You could not imagine how many tries and how long it took Bekah and me to style the island for Christmas. 😁





This view is from the back door, looking down the galley from the opposite way.

Holiday teas!

From the window over the sink, there is a glimpse of a lighted tree on the sun porch.
And back to the pie safe.


Our last stop on today's tour will be the library. This time last year, this room was filled with unpacked boxes of books (you can read about its transformation ~here~), so it was fun for me to add a few Christmas touches to this "new" room.

The grands love this room! They play games, read books, and make plans (and noise too) in the library. So I put the kid-friendly Playmobil nativity set here.


Eli (one of the "Really Woolly" sheep by Dayspring) was Bekah's favorite! Because she loved him so (and because there are only three letters in his name), "Eli" was the first word she learned to spell and she wrote it over and over and over. A few of the books on the shelf of picture books have Eli's name written inside. 💕





The children also play with this (unbreakable) nativity on the desk.


Thank you so much for joining me at Pineapple House for our Christmas tour! My house is my hobby and I love sharing it with guests, whether in person or via the internet. I know that my home is a gift from the Lord and I hope to always use it for His purpose. 


A blessed Christmas to all of you, my readers and friends! 
May your celebrations be joy-filled as we rejoice in 
Who He is and 
what He did!


"For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."




Past Christmas Tours: 

2009  A Farmhouse Christmas

2010  The Simple Farmhouse Christmas 

2011  Old-Fashioned Farmhouse Christmas

2012  A Colonial Farmhouse Christmas

2013  Farmhouse Christmas Tour ~ 2013

2014  Farmhouse Christmas Tour ~ 2014

2015  This tour was done in three parts. These are my favorite, and it was our last year in The Farmhouse!
           Farmhouse Christmas Tour 2015 ~ Part 1 {Christmas in Our Living Room}

           Farmhouse Christmas Tour 2015 ~ Part 2 {Christmas in Our Kitchen}
           Farmhouse Christmas Tour 2015 ~ Part 3 {Christmas in Our Dining Room}

2016  Pineapple House at Christmas



Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Sunday Snapshots: December Birthdays





















"Fa-la-la-la-la"

"Bah, Humbug!"



On Sunday we celebrated our December birthday people: our dear daughter-in-law Sarah, and our oldest grandchild, Gavin, who recently turned 15! (What?!) 

Such a fun day! For lunch we had our traditional Christmastime sandwiches, broccoli salad (Sarah's favorite), and ambrosia (Gavin's favorite). There was arm wrestling (no photo). Giggles. Presents delivered by two adorable Birthday Fairies. A make-your-own ice cream sundae bar, as well as decorated cupcakes and "reindeer poop" . . . sweets for the sweet? A party game in which a word or phrase was pulled from a bag ("snow" or "Walmart" or "camping", etc.) and each player went to the sign which best described how they felt about that word: either "Bah, Humbug!" or "Fa-la-la-la-la" or "whatever." 

And we did all of that before exactly half of our group had to go to  church to practice for the Christmas Eve service! 

Kati, I believe, is a serious contender for Aunt of the Year! Her gift to Gavin was a Chick-fil-A calandar which includes a coupon for a free treat each month. (Anyone who has raised a teenage boy knows that food is their love language!) But on top of that, she put his gift inside a box labeled "Ear Wax Candle Kit"! (Most of the guys thought it was great; most of the gals said, "Ewwwww!")

Yes, all of the aunts out there are going to need to step up their game if they're going to beat Kati out of this prize! 😁

It was a joyful day for celebrating two special gifts to our family: Sarah and Gavin!

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