Christmas Memories

Christmas for me begins differently every year but when it comes to decorating it's as I begin to replace paintings and pictures with my sister's "stitcheries" that I'm inspired to start playing  Christmas music and little snippets of Christmases through the years start bouncing around in the windows of my mind.

One year my mother decided to try selling "Regal" and it was fairly easy to convince friends to buy boxes of Christmas cards with their family's name embossed in gold below the Christmas greeting. It was fun to pile up the orders and help her deliver them but the best of all was opening the "Mystery Box".  The box contained a little set of china elves, each holding the letters to make "Noel", an gold umbrella paper napkin holder and the most exciting surprise of all, a book containing a punch out cardboard village.  We assembled it and displayed it with pride on the built in buffet in our dining room. Imagine my surprise to find a cardboard village for sale at "Winners" a few years ago.  Of course I bought it and enjoy setting it up each year at Christmas.

 

Each year I enjoy looking through my collection of Christmas books and  cookbooks.

 and I plan to try some new Christmas recipes but often the farmer beats me to the kitchen.  

His winter hobby is cooking and in the past week he's made delicious brownies,  

baked beans,  antipasta and shortbread!

I hope that whatever your traditions are as you decorate your home, you will enjoy the process and that the days leading up to Christmas will be filled with joy and anticipation rather than with stress and worry.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - it's been snowing quite steadily this week and I thought you might like to see our route to our small town.

 

Although I don't have time to do a mosaic in this post, I will link to Mary's Little Red House and suggest that you visit there - it's always a fascinating experience at her house.