CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

I can't believe we are in November (mid-way no doubt)

and so close to Christmas.

Since I have some time on my hands right now

I have been busy making some gifts

I will give you a little preview here of what I have been doing:

hint:

I love making Christmas ornaments 

I also have about 5 gifts wrapped

Have you started your Christmas preparations yet?  

Only 40 days, 10 hours, and 52 minutes left to go!

With the economy so tough

and just how hard things are anymore, 

it is nice to have something so special

to look forward to

remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

49 Days Away!

The stockings-

A tradition beginning in a European country originally, 

children simply used one of their everyday socks, 

but eventually special Christmas stockings 

were created for this purpose

The Christmas Tree-

decorated real or artificial, and 

a Christmas tradition

The Door Wreath-

Christmas decorations 

symbolizing the coming of Christ, 

aka the Advent season in Christianity

The Snowman-

They are customarily built by children

as part of a family project in celebration of winter

____________________________________________________

Some of my Christmas memories:

We grew up in a Swedish family

and celebrated Christmas Eve with a 

large family gathering and the 

exchanging of family gifts

after we ate dinner

The dinner sometimes consisted of

a Swedish Smorgasbord

My grandmother would say the 

blessing in Swedish.

As kids we never really knew what

she was saying, but boy did she say it well!

There was corn pudding, Swedish meatballs,

lutfisk - fish in a jar (yuck), limpa bread with lingonberry jam,

dates rolled in powered sugar, bread pudding,

scalloped potatoes and chicken,

sauerkraut, and other family favorites

One of my mom's favorite sayings

was: "But we have to feed the people"

With 6 kids in our family

we had a massive amount of

gifts under our tree

The youngest kid usually

was appointed "Santa"

to pass out all the gifts to everyone else

Some of us other kids would usually

get up and help Santa

Christmas morning found our gifts from 

Santa under the Christmas tree.

I remember so clearly the little hand written

signs with black marker with our names

on them. They were large signs and were

placed in front of our "pile" of gifts from Santa

(Of course it was my dad's writing on those signs)

Santa never wrapped up gifts for our house

(our parents were too pooped after 

wrapping all the family gifts that 

were handed out on Christmas Eve).

Christmas day would be a little 

bit slower paced and end with 

a nice ham dinner

________________________________________

Are you ready for Christmas?

What are some of your family traditions?

remember:Jesus is the reason for the season

SHADOWS OF DAKOTA

We cast shadows

not so unlike 

reflections

in water

For other shadowy shots, please click on the following link:

LEARNING TO PLAY

It is a paradox of creative recovery

that we must get serious about

taking outselves lightly.

We must work at learning 

to play

                                                  -Julia Cameron

This is a picture of my dear nephew about 14 years ago. 

What a treasure he is!

I am linking to:

PRETTY IN PINK

Linking to:

How sweet it is

My sister recently had a cookout at her house 

I offered to bring something sweet for dessert.

I had an angel food cake in the freezer and 

thought Hmm...

what can I do with that?

I went to the grocery store and tried to find something

that was not too unhealthy to transform this angel food cake into

I ended up buying some plain greek yougart, crushed pineapples

and a box of instant coconut cream pudding

I mixed the yougart with the coconut cream pudding

and then drained some of the crushed pineapples

I spooned the yougart/pudding mixture over the cake

and then added 

the drained pineapples on top of the cake

and let me tell you

This was "yum" good!

If you need something quick and good

just take an angel food cake

mix instant pudding with 

something like yougart or cool whip 

and then add some kind of fruit on top 

of the cake (blueberries, cherries, etc)

Spoon the mixture on top of the cake

add the fruit

and you will have a real crowd pleaser!

For more Sassy Site fun

please click on:

Maybe a touch of pink

I have really been playing around with my beads lately

and wonder

if you like my latest creation?

Glass beads

(Amethyst chips with lilac and maybe a 

touch of pink in the middle of the bracelet)

with sterling silver earrings

I am linking to: 

Lil birdie

Linking my lil bird to

The Weekend in Black and White at:

 http://blackandwhiteweekend.blogspot.com/

EDGY SHADOWS

I caught these shadows 

last week while driving around at lunch time 

I found them behind the shopping center

They are what my godson and I

would call "EDGY"

I just think they are so interesting

You just never know what you'll find with 

camera in hand

I am linking to:

http://heyharriet.blogspot.com/

check out all of the other wonderful shadow shots!

Tunnel Vision

My Shadow Sunday shot:

Kota in a tunnel

for more cool shadow shots 

please click on the link below:

Yum

Earlier this week, my office had a going away party

since our office is closing next week

I made an overnight, layered salad 

I had never made one before

Much to my surprise 

it was absolutely delicious and oh so pretty!

This salad is made the night before 

I layered the salad in this order:

1 bag of mixed romaine lettuce

1 cup of shredded carrots

1 cup of chopped red onion

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

 I added some more romaine lettuce

and added more of the layered ingredients above

to make thin layers again at the top of the salad

I then mixed one cup of mayo (I used Kraft with olive oil)

with1/2 cup of milk (I used fat free organic)

and dill seasoning

And then poured it on top of the salad,

and spread it to pretty much cover the top.

After that I added some shredded cheese on top of that

and garnished with some bacon bits (in a jar)

and cut English cucumbers.

We had fried chicken, baked chicken, barbecue,

pasta salad, baked beans, lasagna, cakes,

and so much more.

We also had

chocolate strawberries (yum!)

and other goodies

And after all this good stuff

I even lost about 1/2 pound this week

Amazing!


I am linking to the following 
blog parties at:
http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/2009/02/introducing-foodie-friday.html

RED WALL

SHADOW SUNDAY SHOTS 

Going to the mall Friday with my nephew

I spotted this great shadow opportunity

The red brick wall really captured 

these shadows

I asked my nephew to stand 

next to the tree

but don't ya know

before I blinked he was up in the tree

What a monkey

I'm sure if you have boys

you can surely relate to this!

for more cool

shots

please visit:

Springtime Beauty

Wake up your senses

Feel the beauty

Taste a whiff of the sweet air

embrace God !

for more interesting shadow shots please

click on the link below: