Merry Christmas

See amid the winter's snow,
Born for us on earth below,
See the tender Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.

Hail, thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Gift of the Magi

 The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry is one of my favorite Christmas stories.  I remember reading it with my mom as a child.  His words are so lyrical and touching. This particular illustrated version by Lisabeth Zwerger captures his prose beautifully.  The characters dance on the pages.  Check it out!

Home Tour - Outside and Entryway

 

 My husband literally has a 10 second commute!  We love it!

 Our home is an almost traditional American Foursquare.  The floor plan is a bit different because of the special pastor's study the church put in on the main floor.  Basically we have four rooms on the main floor (one in each corner) and four bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. 

Our neighbors all live in Foursquares too. According to the stories, the homes were all built by the same group of men from 1915 - 1919. I love going inside my neighbor's houses.  They look just like mine with small variations!  The house built for the town's doctor, on the opposite corner of the street, has the fanciest details in the woodwork.  Gorgeous!

We almost never use our front door.  Next time you come over, come to the side door!  Can you see it in the picture?

 Looking down the stairs to the side entrance.

 Looking up to the main floor from the entrance.

 Down to the basement.

"The landing"

Outside the side door.

Home Tour - Kitchen and Northwoods Bathroom

When the white dishwasher broke a couple years ago the trustees replaced it with a black dishwasher.  For sure, a black dishwasher is better than no dishwasher, but seriously.  It is a WHITE kitchen!  What an eyesore.

 Notice the refrigerator floating strangely in the middle of everything.  It drives me batty.

 Welcome to the Northwoods Bathroom, the ugliest bathroom in the world.  Its ugly amenities include circa 1996 cheap wallpaper and pre-fab vanity.  To round out this hideousness there is a drop ceiling (To cover up the 10 foot ceilings, of course! Who would want those?), fluorescent lighting, plus forest green painted cabinetry and trim.

 

Oh la la!  Tres chic.

 

 

The kitchen looks nice, but is worn hard.  The cabinets were installed for a pastor's family in the 1950's.  At that time the butler's pantry was converted into a half bath. It is the one part of the house that I wish was different.  It is small and dysfunctional.  I would really like a bit more space, especially for the tiny cooks who like to be in the kitchen with me.  The floor plan, however, is quite unforgiving to more furniture because of the floating refrigerator.  Even a small cart on wheels would be in the way.

The church talked about a kitchen/ bathroom remodel before the economy tanked in 2008.  Basically the plan was to remove the no longer in use chimney, to create a built-in space for the refrigerator. Also discussed was  moving the bathroom into what is now a coat closet, to regain the butler's pantry space for the kitchen.  That project is on hold until further notice.

So. What to do?  I haven't done much with it because of the looming remodel, but because it is not going to happen soon, I feel the need to make the most of what I have.  First up is the Northwoods Bathroom.  I plan to remove the wallpaper, paint the vanity to match the white cabinetry of the kitchen, and paint the walls a grayish purple.  The kitchen is going to get white paint touch-ups, dreamsicle orange walls and new valances.  Maybe take doors off of one of the cabinets to display some of my nicer things and introduce more color?  I would like to replace what I call the "crap table" in the corner with a prep table on wheels with some stools.  Chris isn't in love with the idea, because a prep table would be a lateral move, plus it would cover up a window.

Does anyone else have some cheap ideas?

Silent Night

Claire and her teacher Christa

Claire's piano recital was on Tuesday night. She did really well.  Her piece was an arrangement of "Silent Night", which happens to be my least favorite Christmas carol of all time.  I enjoyed hearing her practice and play on Tuesday, but I'm also happy to put it away for now.  I doubt beginner piano books will ever have arrangements of "See Amid The Winter Snow" or "The Infant Priest was Holy Born" and I will hear "Silent Night" again in the future.  I'll get over it.  Promise.

Spicy Gingerbread

From allrecipes.com.  These are really good.  I love them.  My husband loves them.  My kids love them.  They're great.

Spicy Gingerbread Cookies


1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves

Cream butter, sugar, molasses and egg.  Add dry ingredients and mix. Chill (if desired).  Roll out and cut.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Home Tour - Study

 I love our parsonage.  Sometimes in the quiet of the evening, when all the kids are asleep and I am done with my chores, I sit on the couch and think to myself "I live in my dream house"  or "I will never live in a house more beautiful than this".  It was built in 1919 as a parsonage for the church next door and the church has kept it up very well.

The study is one of the neatest rooms in the house.  It was built especially for the pastor, with lots of bookshelves and a private door for parishioners to visit.  Now we fill all of those shelves with toys and games, as well as books, as the church built a pretty awesome study inside church for the pastor in 2005 (?, sometime right before we came).

Chernobyl

One of my favorite Christmas tree ornaments is an old baby toy of Claire's.  Chris named the toy Chernobyl, and Baby Claire loved him!  Chernobyl makes me giggle every December when we pull him out of the tissue paper to hang him on the tree.

Hung by the Chimney With Care

Gus's stocking.  Not quite finished yet.  Hopefully I'll get it done before December 24th.

My stocking.

Claire's

Christopher's *

Isabel's

Lil's

These are the felt stockings I've made for our family.  I really enjoyed working on them over the past few years, but I think they might be the end of my sewing adventures.  At least for now.

* When we were first getting to know each other, I remember asking Chris what his favorite color was.  He replied with a crazy, Thoreauian answer, "I love the color of snow covered pine trees."  I always tease him about that--hence his stocking.

Happy Advent

Be Jealous

My Thanksgiving weekend was awesome.  You should be jealous.  We ate lots (and lots) of great food and spent the rest of our time laughing.

The girls and I made these place cards inspired by this project.

Cutie-pie, Classic Pumpkin, PW's Dreamy Apple, and Martha's Chocolate Pecan

Gabe?  Did you have your Mom and Dad take your picture?

Mom.  Seriously.  We need to talk.

Menu

Turkey a la Jan
Dad's Stuffing
Erin's Cranberries
Sweet Potatoes with Sage Butter Crumb Topping
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Green Beans with Bacon Vinaigrette