Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Peace

Hopefully you are all keeping your cool during these last few days before Christmas. We had our family celebration here a couple of weeks ago so the bulk of my shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning, and hostessing are complete. You would think that this week would have gone smoothly, and it has for the most part, but yesterday I felt like I might be loosing it with papers piled a mile high on my desk and the ghosts of things undone all came rushing in at once.

I was on the phone most of the day with our insurance prescription provider, then with Boyne Highlands and Dad trying to get rooms reserved for the overflow up north next week. Stacks of menu ideas, grocery & to do lists, year end charitable giving lists, graduation and wedding cards to get in the mail (added anxiety about being so negligent), Christmas pictures to download and forward were all piling up. Hurt feelings soothed and confusion clarified.

This morning though I woke up with a new attitude. These smiling faces greeted me on my computer and reminded me that all is right with the world even if I don't get every thing done.

I am so grateful for the grace that my family and friends give me, and we give each other, year in and year out for my, and their, short comings. Isn't that one of the best gifts we can share with each other?

Blessings and grace I share with You my kind reader. As you go about your day may the peace of the Lord be with you. Smiles all around!

Pictures of our Grand Children

by

Ashley Privite

Happy Birthday Cathy

Happy Birthday Cathy! This picture is of the ladies on our Christmas Eve. When I enlarged it Cathy was cut off a bit ;( You still get a good idea of how stunning she looked in her Anthropology's dress.

My hand is still hurting so I can't type much. I hope all is well with you all and that you had a happy New Years celebration.

Hugs,

Sue

Christmas Recap

Warning: Picture heavy post ahead. First let me say that at our last stop on the Christmas trail I fell. As a result I won't be doing much typing because my left hand is pretty much a mess.

Our first stop was at Mom & Dad's to celebrate Christmas Eve with my side of the family. A good friend of the family came by and helped them deck the halls so every thing look especially beautiful. Thank you Eunie!!!!!

Every year we alternate spending the night Christmas Eve with one of the children. This year we were at Aaron & Angie's. The Christmas magic was felt in a big way there as those of you have been readers of Life At Home for a long time can imagine.

The weather was icey and rainy so after breakfast at A & A's we headed over to our friends to do a quick gift exchange then got on the road to come back south as early as we could.

Our last stop was at my brother and sister in-law's for a polish feast with John's side of the family.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. My hand is throbbing now so I will sign off.

Hugs,

Sue

~ Merry Christmas ~

Merry Christmas to you and yours from our family to yours.

Christmas Downstairs

This year the kitchen looks pretty much like it did last year, but come on in and have a little tour of the house with me if you like before I start packing to head up north.

My old Santa dummy board gets moved around a lot during the Christmas season. The garland got a little more attention than usual this year with the addition of clusters of ornaments. The Mark Roberts fairies are still climbing all over the place though. The colored lights and fairies give it the childlike look that we go for around here.


This year John and I have decided that our present to each other will be new floor covering. This nasty beige wall-to-wall carpet has to go.
Santa and the Nutcracker's keep an eye on the action from the top of the entertainment center. I am looking for a little faux Chippendale chair to replace the children's lawn chair that he is sitting in this year.

In the powder room I added some antique ornaments and sparkly red snow flakes to the silver tray that holds items like Lady Primrose hand cream for the guests.

I am loving these Mariposa guest towel holders this year. They are a good alternative to the wadded up dirty hand towel that tends to look pretty ratty when you get a house full of people.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now I need to get upstairs and pack for the trip north so I better get going. Don't work too hard ladies.

Hugs,

Sue

Practice Picture

Oh what fun. I just learned how to enlarge my pictures. Susan at Between Naps On The Porch has a fairly simple tutorial on her lovely website. You can find it by looking in her catagories section and clicking on the link there.

Thank you Susan!

Call It A Bribe If You Want To ~ It Worked ~

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas early at our house. All of our children and grandchildren arrived Friday for the festivities. This is the first year that we have had them all here. In the past six years since we have been living in Metro Detroit we have celebrated Christmas in MP. Now that our oldest has moved back from Colorado with his wife and four children we decided to do it here.

You can imagine what a chore it has been for us to load up all the Christmas goodies to create a memorable Christmas away from home. Not an easy one for sure. So, this year they all agreed to make the trip here. Hallelujah! To insure that they would make this an annual event we really put on the dog. E-mails and phone calls were made by the dozen to coordinate all the details. The agenda was set. Friday would be our Christmas eve, a casual affair, with heavy appitizers and a social hour. Saturday morning we would exchange presents and have a nice breakfast. Saturday afternoon the ladies would get their hair done and it would be a free day for the gentlemen and children. Saturday night a semi-formal dinner party would follow.

Below is our opening attempt to insure a continuation of this annual event.

Pretty dresses


for the ladies.

Monogrammed shirts for the gentlemen



with ties that coordinate with the ladies dresses.

I think it may have worked!

~ The Guest-Room Of Perfection ~

Good morning ladies. How was your weekend? I hope you are all safe and warm and surrounded by the ones you love as you as you make your way through this last week before Christmas.

Above is my tiny pink living room. Since this room is already pretty well filled with goodies that endlessly sooth my soul I only added a couple of Christmas touches. The stag needlepoint pillows have replaced the cabbage rose ones for the winter.
An old cut glass bowl with simple sparkly pink ornaments in it on my mother's end table in the corner finishes off my favorite room in the house.

This old, rag tag bough, with some left over pink ornaments from the dining room tree, fit on the banister that leads upstairs from that room. It is lit with white lights that must make an unusual site from the street. The opposite banister has colored lights and red ribbon on it. I know it sounds weird, but with Christmas magic, and from the entrance it amazingly works. Well it works from the inside anyway, hehe.....

You saw how many gran's we had here last weekend in the last post. This is the table I had set up for them in the foyer. It worked out well for them to do crafts on while the adults socialized in the back of the house. Come to think about it, I don't think they ever did get around to making the ginger bread house from the kit that was waiting for them. Oh well, I will take it up north with us when we go on Thursday and they can work on it an Mom's.


We did a fun thing this year that I will show you tomorrow. Today let's see the upstairs before I added the surprises that awaited our guests.

Our room got a good going over so our youngest son could have a place to store his things. We made up a bed for him on the sofa so our room was his place to stow his bedding, clothing and the like.

Our bathroom is action central when the girls start primping. They love to get into my makeup and jewelry. Last Saturday when we were getting ready for our big dinner party on Saturday night the hair, jewelry and eye-lashes were flying.

Just thought you might like to see my new pink and white monogrammed towels. John wanted to know where his towels were. I told him that upstairs linens are only monogrammed in the lady of the houses initials according to Emily Post. Bless his heart, he laughed and resigned himself to using his soft old green towels.

Come on in. I will show you around the guest-rooms that are ready for company. This is the Currier & Ives room. These C & I prints of the four seasons hang on one wall under this old plate shelf that holds red C & I transfer ware plates and a platter.

A C & I lamp shade tops the green glass bedside lamp.

The bathroom between two of the guest-rooms is freshend up for company.

Fluffy clean towels await their arrival.

A small sample of my collection of rose plates stand ready over the light fixture to welcome them home.

Even the waste basket got a bath in anticipation of their arrival.

The blue and white room with its diamond shaped checkered old quilt and matching pillow shams on the feather bed covered with a scalloped white spread is clean as a whistle.

One of these days I will get around to painting this chair white. The fabric on it matches the curtains that are stashed in the closet from our old house that need to be refitted to cover the windows in this room.

These are the windows that they will eventually cover;)

OK, moving down the hall to the last guest-room.

The hunt room.

This needle point chair is waiting to be piled with clothes.

The ancestor pictures hold sentry over the bed.

This little corner of the laundry room cheered me while the washer and dryer was buzzing.

I hope you enjoyed this visit and the tour of our guest-rooms. If you are hosting guests this Christmas at your house you might like to see what Miss Emily Post has to say in her book, The Personality Of A House, about The Guest-Room Of Perfection:

"The essential requirements of comfort for every guest-room of perfection, whether it be in a palace or in a little but well appointed house, include:

1. A bathroom of its own.

2. A delightful bed.

3. Plenty of light and air.

4. Choice of pillows.

5. A perfect dressing-table.

6. A good light to read by in bed.

7. Heat in cold weather.

8. Cross-ventilation in hot weather.

9. A sofa to rest on.

10. Situation as free from noise as possible."

Her book, first published in 1939, is one of my favorites.

Stop back tomorrow if you get a minute during this busy week to see the surprises that we had for the family when they got here last Friday and we will take a look at the downstairs all decked out for Christmas.

Blessings and much love,

Sue