Here he is playing with  his sister.

Opening presents!  And more  pics of our dinner time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Had a  nice family Christmas Eve with  brother and his family.  What is more fun than watching little children open  their gifts.   Has a lovely dinner and  then presents under the tree were opened.  Jon was so excited because the construction set he got he had told his mother weeks ago,  when he saw it in a store,  that was what Santa was bring him.  We had no idea he wanted it.  I saw it and thought he would love it. Glad I did because he just loved it.  He played with it  until they went home for the night.  He is so sweet.                    

these Christmoose cookies were really hard to move around, bake and frost.  Out of 8  I had 4 that did"t loose a leg or antler.  Frosting glue didn't help the repair  so I ended up with 4.

more cookies

With my neice and her children  visiting for Christmas Eve, I decided to do some extra cookies for kids only. Hope they enjoy them but will wait entil after  our dinner sto offer them.                                                                 

Here is the  finished look for  the family room drapery treatment.  We will drop the  long drapes when evening comes and the still  cold settles around the window.  This should warm up the room.

saving a bird!

This little bird got traped in our porch yesterday while brother Dick was visiting.   He went right over and captured the bird in his gentle hands and started petting it  to calm it down.  He  carried it out to the bird feeder still stroking its head and while it  sat at the feeder, Dick ask me to get the camera and take its picture.  I was  thrilled to see  he was still setting there when I came back and Dick was still talking to it.  It didn't seem to be afraid at all of us.  I  took this picture and one more from my cell phone and then birdy must have thought that was a big enough photo shoot because he flew off none the worse for the incounter with  humans up close.   What a lovely  experence that was for us.   You never know what  nature will offer you if you just give it a try.

We enjoyed the  tunnel of  hooped lights at this Christmas holiday display over the weekend. 
After passing through the tunnel,  you enter many  holiday scenes  one more beautiful than the other.  Then we went in town  and saw a wonderful display put on by one of the doctors in town.  It filled his  front yard and around the sides of his house.  As you can  see it was a real  beautiful gift to the community that he put up every year just for the community to enjoy.

On Monday  I spent all day in the kitchen  making cookies to give  away.  I think the new cookie press I got last week worked pretty good.   It was a long process of decorating after they all cool but well worth it .  They turned out real pretty I think.  And they taste good too!!!!

Monday was a rainy, cold day.  We decided to  hang our new drapes in the family room.  This will cut the draft from the  sliding glass doors come February and cold days here.  Hubby had to do some special handy work to get all the drapes up.  We have a vertical blind, a  regular  long drape and the valance over all of it.  He put on his thinking cap and came up with a plan that works.  Everything is up and looking good.

Tuesday was the nativity  debute.  I had been painting for a couple of  week to get it done for Christmas.  We  set up the lighting and then  up went the painted figures.  This is just  the first of the main charaters.  There are camels and wisemen, donkeys and a cow. Plus more lambs and a dummer boy yet to be painted.  Next year  maybe I will get the rest of the set done.  This is it for this year.  Merry Christmas!!

Also added a  couple of children by our little trees.  Just for cuteness!

kumquats

The other day a neighbor  gave us  some  kumquats.  I had  know idea what to  use them for and after getting  on the internet  and investigating, I decided to go with  the jelly  reciept.  Really downsized the quanity but here is the results.  So,  from about 20 of these little fruits  I got these  three jars.WALLA!!

Justin returns!!

We were plesantly  surprised to  have Justin , our neighbors son,  move back into the neighborhood with  his father within the last few months.   He is our  life saver in sweeping off the roof of pine needles.  This is a must because the people next door insist on using the burn barrel in their  backyard and we are afraid the stuff that floats up in the air from their burning might set the needles,  that lay on our roof from the pine trees,  on fire and burn down our house.   He is so kind as to climb the ladder and sweep all the needles off  every  fall.  We were afraid he was not going to be here this year and then , on Sunday afternoon , he just arrived at the door with a big smile and a great question.  "do you want those needles sweep this year?"  What a great kid!!  He visited for a while and then got to work.  Did a great job too.   He has extended his services this year  with  offering to do any odd jobs we might need extra help with around our house.  This  may come inhandy  in the real near future.   What a blessing he will be for hubby and his projects.

These guys don"t get together  very often but enjoy the times when they do. Although now they talk mostly about their  health and doctor appointments and aches and pains.  It is still good for them to be together for a few hours. We only live  2 hrs away but  work schedules keep us  apart for the most part.

Ben and his Mom  enjoy going over the ancestory books  to update their information.  Ben is starting his own book, so when he comes over he gets lots of copies of Uncle Dicks books and my pictures  of family from the past 100 years.  Some of my picture of relatives go back as far as 5 generations  in New England.

Here is the rug I got  at a consignment store here in town.  For only a few bucks it is really a good rug.  It will keep the chill of our feet this winter  from the tile floor  underneath.  It also tones down the echo in the room. Makes for a warmer atmosphers as well.  Also got a couple of wall pieces that I loved and could just not pass by as they go so well with  the room.

They  are iron with grapes and leaves entwined.  Now if I get my picture done of the Italian  wine  cellar to put over the fireplace that should pretty much finish the room.
Today we are going to try to get that dinningroom set.  I thought about it over the weekend and decided it was a good buy.  Now I hope nobody else thought so too and bought it before I  made up my mind.  If so,  then  it was not to be mine.  We will  know by thisafternoon.