Happy New Year

Praying that the New Year will bring an abundance of God's grace and blessing in your life. May He draw us closer to Himself and may we respond with humbleness and gratitude.

Through Rain, Snow, Hail and Customers Still In Their Pajamas

We live out in the country a bit and as many country folks, our driveway is a little longer than usual. Not terribly long, only about ½ mile long. It keeps us away from the traffic noise, is nice for taking walks and causes a lot more work for my husband in the winter. Our mailbox is of course, down at the main road. Because I don’t really like to shop, I fairly regularly purchase products online. Some are delivered by UPS and some come in the mail. My mom told me long ago that if I wanted to receive “happy mail” I would need to generate it myself. So, that is what I do…generate a little happiness for myself in the form of scrapbooking supplies, books of all kinds, and an occasional Philosophy product.

I have a very sweet mailman that, bless his heart, drives up our driveway to deliver my happiness. He isn’t required to do this. He could leave the little pink slip in my mailbox forcing me to get in my car and drive into town to pick up my package. But for some reason he is kind and has gone far above his duty for several years. Nothing so unusual about this except that he comes in the morning and inevitably I am still in my “casual wear” without makeup, my teeth not brushed and my hair sticking up. The worst part is that I am usually braless!! So I grab a coat or jacket and put on whatever shoes that are available and head out to his car. I have told him on several occasions that I do in fact get dressed and comb my hair daily but he always looks at me like, sure lady whatever you say!


So, the other day he is delivering a package and I am not only dressed in real clothing but because we are just about to leave I have not only makeup on but lipstick, shoes that match my outfit and, I am wearing a bra!! So I proudly head outside, no need for a jacket or a bag over my head and retrieve my package. I thank him as usual but as I turn around I suddenly have the need to announce that I am dressed. I turn around and yell, “WAIT, I’m dressed!” Which, momentarily seemed awkward, but he just smiled and said, very appropriately, “you look nice, you must be going somewhere?” Okay, I wasn’t eliciting a compliment I just really wanted him to know that I wasn’t some kind of lazy good for nothing housewife that sat around watching TV eating bon bon’s. I do other stuff too.

About a week later I look out the kitchen window and there he is with another happiness package and, crap, I’m not dressed. So, once again I throw on a jacket, put on a pair of shoes and head out to his car embarrassed but pretending like I don’t care. He takes one look at me and says, “back to normal huh?” I quietly say “yeah” and head back into the house to watch TV.

Christmas Celebration

We celebrated Christmas with most of our kids {Amber and Garrett could not be with us} at the Clark House in Hayden Lake Idaho. This is our new tradition, starting last year. The house is rich in history and the owner, who is a great storyteller, is glad to share all of the information he has gathered over the years. The house, in it's heyday, was the summer vacation destination for the rich and famous of the Spokane area. And actually, aristocratcs from all over the world vacationed there at one time or another.

This is the second floor landing.

We stayed the night on this floor in one of the 10 rooms with a fireplace and private bath.

We were served a fabulous breakfast the next morning in front

of these windows looking out over the lake.

We have been fortunate both years to dine in this private dining room. A mural of the house during all four seasons is hand-painted on the walls.

The arrangement on the mantel was spectacular!

My family plus Amanda's boyfriend Cody and Aunt Robin.

Cute!

Auntie Amanda giving kisses.

Favorites

These are our favorite Christmas cookies. The recipe comes from my mom and is good either frosted or unfrosted.

Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

2/3 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 tbls molasses

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbls pumpkin pie spice

Mix butter,sugars and molasses. Add egg. Add flour, salt, baking powder and spice. Mix until well blended. Cook on greased cookie sheet for 11 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.  Frost with pink peppermint frosting and dip into crushed candy canes. {I always double the recipe!}

Christmas At My House

My New BFF {she just doesn't know it yet}

Edie is my new BFF. She doesn't know it yet but I think we are going to be good friends. I know that I am sounding a bit like a stalker but I have to get to know the person whose mind dreams up this kitchen.......

paints this armoire....

and does this amazing makeover on her daughter's bedroom.

Yep, we're going to be great friends!

Pumpkin Rolling Contest

Learning how to do a photo collage has been on my to-do list for months. With the help of Teresa over at bloomingonbainbridge and Picnik I have created my very first one. If I had known how easy it would be I would have done this long ago. Oh well, I can mark it off my list, finally (although I'm sure I have much more to learn, like sizing).  Teresa has such beautiful collages on her blog and all I had to do was ask and she kindly gave me the lowdown on collage making. Okay, so you probably couldn't care less about my photo education progress but I am thrilled! I probably won't be able to sleep tonight :)

I grew a bumper crop of pumpkins this year and as always, there comes a time when I need to get rid of them. I don't look forward to hauling them to the hill near our back yard, even if I'm using the wheelbarrow. This year though I had a brilliant idea! On Thanksgiving Day I told the kids who had gathered at our house for dinner to grab a pumpkin and head over to the hill. They each wrote their name on their pumpkin and then rolled them down the hill. Whoever's pumpkin got to the bottom first was the winner. The kids all thought it was a great idea. Not one of them asked if their was a prize for the winner which I thought was sweet. I got rid of the pumpkins with very little effort and the deer were happy that I finally let them have a feast.

THANKS AGAIN TERESA!