Pineapple House | Christmas Tour 2025

I was especially excited about decorating for Christmas this year.

Why this year?, you may ask.  

Because Ron painted the living room, dining room, and hallway this past autumn, and I thought that our new paint color (Copley Gray by Benjamin Moore) would be the perfect background for Christmas decorations. I was not disappointed! The greenery and fruits and pops of red seemed to love the grayish green woodwork. 

So, although I missed last year's Christmas home tour for the first time since I started blogging in 2009, I am resuming the tour this year and you're all invited! 

We'll begin in the living room. Much is the same as in other years - the della Robbia-style mantel arrangement, the olive wood nativity figure that Ryan brought from a trip to Israel, the tabletop tree with dried oranges (real) and cranberries (faux). 

My gift wrap plan was simple this year. I wrapped all of my women and girls' gifts in this pretty Laura Ashley print that I found at Marshall's and I wrapped all of the men and boys' gifts in plaid. 

Next, we'll walk out to the sunroom where we'll sit and watch the snow fall. Honestly, we can't do that often because we don't get a lot of snow here in the Mid-Atlantic, but on a recent morning, I enjoyed the snowfall while I sipped my morning coffee and it was a treat.  

Ron hung the Moravian star in the sunroom and we can see it as we drive up the street to our house. 

I filled a pewter bowl with some lovely potpourri Mom gave me last Christmas.

Here are a few glimpses of the Pineapple House dining room.

I have told you before about the sideboard that Ron built from plans by Adam Peck, found in Country Living magazine. We have had it for about 42 years now and I love it most when it is decorated for Christmas. 

We have had this corner cupboard almost as long. It, too, was made by Ron from plans ordered from Country Living. Its simple design is timeless. 

We'll finish our tour in the kitchen where the theme of fruit and greenery continues.

And coffee, of course. :)

I have been collecting stone fruit for several years. (I doubled my collection a few years ago when I bought six pieces in a thrift shop for 5o-cents each!) Last year, someone I follow on Instagram suggested that adding a black piece to your collection made everything else look better. So when I saw this cluster of stone grapes in a favorite antique store this past spring, I reached into my birthday money and made the purchase! They were not 50 cents. But it was good advice and I am glad that I bought them.

And now we have arrived at the back door. Thank you so much for joining me in my Christmas home! 



I will leave you with a little gift. This is the iPhone wallpaper with the verse that our ladies' Sunday School class has been memorizing. Feel free to save the photo and add it to your phone.  

What an amazing truth: 

that the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us! 

God Himself became a man and came to save us from our sin,

to pay the penalty for it that we could never pay. 

That, my friends, is why we celebrate!
May your celebrations be merry as you rejoice in His coming!

Five on Friday | Planning for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here! Plans are under way . . . 

{one}

This year we will have 25 around our Thanksgiving table! 

I am so excited that our whole family will be here to celebrate together! We will put several tables together end to end so that we can all sit at one looong table. 

This table was from Thanksgiving 2022

{two}

Earlier this week I picked up two new plates that were on clearance at HomeGoods. I keep adding to my collection of brown transferware. I am not sad about it. When I use brown transferware on my Thanksgiving table, I use a variety of patterns and they all seem to work together. 

{three}

I have a very small collection of fall/Thanksgiving mugs, but I love the ones I have. Becki of Field Lilies blog said that she would like to see the turkey one a little closer, so I zoomed in. 

{four}

It is our tradition to use place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. One year I was running short on time and considered forgoing them, but then I was told that the grands have games that they play with their place cards each year. Well, a Gran cannot certainly not ruin such a happy tradition, so I found time to make them! 

This year, I am going to resurrect a version of these printables found in an issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine. You used to be able to download them from her website, but that link has since been removed. Fortunately, I have the original page from the magazine that I can photocopy. 

Thanksgiving 2011

{five}

We will have our Thankful Tree this year!

A Thankful Tree is a simple tree (I am not an artist, so it is truly simple) made of brown craft paper. I cut out a gazillion leaves from cardstock, and everyone writes something that they are thankful for on a leaf/leaves. When we were raising our children, we had a Thankful Tree every year, from the beginning of November until sometime after Thanksgiving. 

Now, we are in a different stage of life and we don't always have one. But this is Kati's year to come for Thanksgiving and all of the children/grandchildren will be here and I want all of the grands to remember this special tradition, so we will hang the Thankful Tree up before they all arrive. 

When I went to Hobby Lobby to purchase card stock in autumn colors, alas, there was none. I came home and found something even better on Amazon: a package of 120 fall leaf card stock cutouts! No tracing or cutting . . . I simply need to punch them out. And they were delivered to my door the next day. Win! 

Punched out three sheets of leaves while I sipped my morning coffee.

Thankful Tree ~ 2023

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD,
and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning,
and thy faithfulness every night.

Psalm 92:1, 2

Five on Friday | Welcome, November!

When I lose my blogging mojo, I find that a Five on Friday is a good way to just hop back into Blogland without a lot of explanations or fanfare. So here we go . . .

{one}

I happily welcomed November! It is one of my favorite months. It's cozy and comforting and filled with thanksgiving. 

{two}

When November arrives, I start playing my Thanksgiving playlist on Spotify. Around the house. In the car. While I am cooking. While we are eating Thanksgiving dinner, of course. I try to include a little something for everybody. For the little ones, there is Alvin and the Chipmunks' rendition of "Over the River and Through the Woods" and Steve Green's "Give Thanks to the Lord" from one of his Hide 'Em In Your Heart albums. There is a Crowder song for my daughter. Some Michael Card for my son. There are traditional songs like "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" (which I remember learning in elementary school) and newer songs like Matt Boswell's "O Give Thanks." 

If you have a Spotify account, you can click on the image of my playlist below to listen. 

{three}

I also welcome November with fall foods. This week I made some pumpkin butter (recipe ~ here ~) which is so yummy on hot biscuits or toast. It's easy to make and it fills the house with the spicy aroma of fall. 

{four}

For this week's Bible study, I went November-y with cranberry streusel muffins. The streusel topping is the same one that I use in ~ this ~ recipe, but the muffin itself is a bit different. Maybe you'd like to try them? 

CRANBERRY-OAT MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries
1/4 cup butter

1 cup milk
1 egg


DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Butter muffin cups.

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and blend well.

Toss the cranberries with 1 tablespoon of dry ingredients and set aside.

Melt butter. Off heat, stir in milk and egg.

Stir butter mixture into dry ingredients and, when well-mixed, stir in cranberries.

Fill muffin cups. (At this point I added ~ this ~ streusel.)
Bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned and toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

{five}

This past year, our ladies' Sunday School class has chosen a Bible verse each month to memorize. I have created iPhone wallpaper for some of those verses to aid in our memorization. It is helpful to have that little reminder each time you pick up your phone! Here is November's wallpaper:

Happy November, my friends!