Take An Ornie Tour With Me

I'd like to take you on a short "Ornie" tour. I have so many ornaments that it would take the White House Christmas tree to accommodate them all!

like this one...my son's first ornament...he was 3 months old on Christmas day...now he's 36!

This church lights up when a Christmas bulb is inserted into an opening in the bottom of the ornament...given to me by a good friend...looks like my hometown church.

You must know by now that I love all things gingerbread...the look, the taste, the smell...real or the imaginative...so tempting.

Beautiful ornie given to me by another bird-loving friend. Looks perfect on my woodland animal tree in the dining room.

No self-respecting woodland tree would be complete without a bird's nest. Tradition has it that if a bird's nest is found in a Christmas tree, it insures the house where it resides during the holiday season will have a wealth of good fortune the following year. How 'bout those golden eggs?!

Same bird-loving friend also loves butterflies, as do I. Blue enameled flutterby is one of my favs.

Another gift, my "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" snow globe, is especially beautiful after a hearty shake to make the snowflakes fly.

I found this beautifully painted mercury glass Santa on the sale table at Dillard's several years ago. He "glows". He is so heavy that I use him in various places other than the tree.

PussyWillow and red stick ornament and a Peter's Pottery bird add texture and color to a tablescape.

No holiday would be complete without my sweet grandchildren's picture in a tiny Thomas Kinkade frame.

One year I made these little Santas from Styrofoam and tissue paper and Gesso.

A small vignette on my outside Baker's rack makes me smile when I drive into the driveway.

A dear teacher friend remembered me this season with a frosty birdhouse for my little friends.

Couldn't end a tour of ornaments without including one of the Hubster's favorites...The Lone Ranger. I bought this for him several years ago at Cracker Barrel in remembrance of his favorite long ago TV character. Silver still looks in good shape...even after all these years roaming the Wild West.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of my favorites...I'd like to hear from you as to your favorite ornaments.

Tissue Paper Bonanza & The Christmas Mouse

Will you indulge me for a minute or two? I must "brag" about my family.... I know when I post this it will forever change your mind about me but it's just a chance I have to take. Today we fed the family, exchanged presents and had a really good time this afternoon during our Annual Family Christmas.

(Now comes the terrible part.) When everyone leaves (if the celebration is at my home) I sneak out to the garbage can and retrieve the "wrapping paper bag". Ok, I know this is just "too horrible" for some of you, but let me explain. Those of you who regularly read my blog know I have a thing for tissue paper. It has a hold on me that I cannot explain...and knowing that the bag is in the garbage just makes me nauseous. Today while digging through the trash, I struck gold...because my family is a connoisseur of tissue paper. There, I bragged. But this year they outdid themselves. Every year I don't see how they can do better and they never disappoint when it comes to their selection of tissue! (I am truly sorry if you don't have this gene in your family gene pool...it's just something you will have to try and live with.)

The only problem with them as opposed to me is that I can't part with the paper...they can. So they are careful with it and gently toss it into the bag...they know what I'll be doing as soon as the house is back in order...I will be at my ironing board ironing every piece! Yes, Virginia, you CAN iron tissue paper at Christmas and every other time of the year.

Just set your iron on hot (no steam, please) and iron away. I have all kinds of tissue...vintage, holidays, hot colors, muted baby shades, every color of the rainbow...they all laugh at me at school....however.....when somebody needs tissue for an impromptu gift...where do they always come? To yours truly.

Today I am the proud owner of probably 40 0r 50 new sheets of tissue...lime green with silver sparkles, polka dot, shiny red damask, Vintage Santa, silver...on and on. I posted a smattering of my new stash and hope you are as impressed as I am! Queen of the Tissue Paper Realm, I am!

Other fun little items for your perusal are "The Christmas Mouse" cookies I made for Granddaughter Gracie's school Christmas Party. If you look closely, the head is a Hershey's Hug. The body is a stemmed maraschino cherry dipped in white chocolate . It has two sliced almonds inserted between the head and body while they are still moist and I added red gel eyes and nose. The entire mouse sits on a white chocolate dipped Oreo. (Of course, you can buy the already dipped Oreos to make your job a little easier...I've also done these in regular chocolate.)


















One last thing is this color combination I came upon while "dumpster diving" in my garage and thought you might like it to...the moss green ribbon with the lime green paper really appealed to me! Hope you like it, too!

Pre-Family Christmas Gathering

Good Sunday morning! I am excited to have all my family here today for our Family Christmas gathering. They will begin arriving around 10:30 and even though preparation is rather stressful I am always hopeful that these times will be meaningful and enjoyable for everyone.

This morning I re-designed my blog. Just something I did on a whim and hope you will enjoy it. I have tried to make it more user friendly. Let me know what you think. I hope this Lord's day will find you healthy, peaceful and in a worshipful state of mind.

Spaghetti Sauce and December GiveAway Winner!

I have just been awakened by the most unsettling dream. Today (in real life) I will prepare spaghetti for 25 family members, and for some reason I have tossed and turned all night long. Now, I don't like to brag but I make very good spaghetti sauce and have been making it for years so there's no problem there. In my dream I am living in an apartment and have to make my sauce in a former student's kitchen because my kitchen is too small. Now right off the bat this is strange because the student's kitchen looks like something a very small but stylish gnome would use.

In the dream as I am walking to the apartment with all my pots and pans in tow, I am greeted by a large contingent of former students. I arrive and make the sauce without incident until I gather my tools and the large pot of sauce and begin to leave, at which time I promptly slip and drop the entire pot of sauce. (I know that was a run on sentence, but it was necessary.)

Now I am faced with cleaning the student's floor PLUS re-making the sauce. (Sigh.) A young man in camo is seated in some kind of boat eating a box of donuts and pleads with me NOT to give up and to re-make said sauce. At that moment, I give an undaunted look and head to the store for more ingredients.

Now I'm no psychologist but I'd say this may have several meanings.

1. Be extremely careful in the kitchen today...(I'm wearing my Reeboks and a bicycle helmet.)

2. Somewhere there's a man in the military that needs my spaghetti sauce.

3. Even if faced with feeding 25, eat a donut and DO NOT give up...you can do this!

4. I need a new kitchen remodel because mine is OBVIOUSLY too small.

Do you have any thoughts on this situation?

BTW: Winner of the DECEMBER BLOG GIVEAWAY is #25: Jennifer Rodgers! Merry Christmas, Jennifer! Thanks for being a "follower"!

Random Thoughts from a Random Person

Just a few random thoughts.....had a great "Cookie Swap" today! Such fun with ladies that I work with...I'd like to say that my co-worker, Susan, is the VERY best co-worker anyone could have. Kind, helpful, just plain nice. (She'd have to be to put up with my nonsense.) Next: Chicken Daddy has been "shopping" since 3:30 this afternoon...and it's now approaching 5:30...this is MUCH longer than normal...do you think I got a "hippopotamus" for Christmas" this year?

One of my former students, Stephanie, posted her Christmas tree made out of coke cans with a "pull tab" star on FB and I had to re-post it...Isn't it cute? Rather clever...I'm sure she was inspired by some of her former teachers to accomplish such a fete! (BTW: she has just returned from South Korea where she was a missionary. One day this week I had 21 South Koreans reading my blog....more than my United States hits at that moment! Is that not mind boggling?)

And on top of all that, I taught Patrick House...this season's Biggest Loser several years ago and I am still just ecstatic about his win on Tuesday.

I am drawing for the December blog GiveAway in the morning...be on alert! I have almost 30 coming to my house Sunday for our Family Christmas...wish me luck! I am still slightly loopy from my "procedure" yesterday, but all in all I have had an excellent day!