For the Love of Santa....

Santa's busy season has come to an end,

and after a long night of delivering packages

around the world,

Mrs. Claus in her usual Mrs. Claus fashion has planned a small dinner party

  to congratulate Santa on another
successful year.  Just Santa and the Mrs.

with another couple. 

Have I mentioned Santa and I go way back? 

So this is a post Christmas party celebrating

 Santa's hard work and Mrs. Claus'

love for the big guy.

Who knew?

I will let you in on a little secret ...

I got a new lens for Christmas.

Someone I know (unauthorized of course) tried it

out for me

before Christmas and said it worked great.

I am not so sure. 

I took these pics with the new lens and

I am having a little difficulty. 

I am however, looking

forward to practicing and improving.

He requested I sit next to him at the table. 

Mrs. Claus, always

the most charming of hostesses, always seats

boy, girl, boy girl.

Did I mention Santa and I are tight?

Since Santa's favorite color is red,

the Mrs. embraced the red on her table.

Check out the cute rhinestones in her rose arrangements.

She even added a few reindeer....

since Santa does love his reindeer

Mrs. Claus' roses almost looked artificial, but

she grew them in her garden.

Santa has many names and faces...Mrs. Claus

emphasised this fact by using a set of

plates showing Santa's many personalities

She especially likes him in creams and whites.

The Mrs. has a fear of color.

Santa perfers himself in RED...of course

Mrs. Claus is a fan of lots of bobbles and glitter

Kristi got me these cute candle holders with the

starburst on

them for Christmas...I love them

and loaned them to Mrs.

and I loved the patterns on Mrs. Claus' candles.

I think she said the elves made them...or

maybe she bought them at Kohls.

anyway we had a lovely evening.

and Santa settled in for a long nap...

Until next year Santa....

We'll be good.

I am linking to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch

for Tablescape Thursday....be sure to join in for all the fun.

The stockings are hung...

As Christmas approaches and I begin my last minute hustling and bustling, I thought I would share

some more of my holiday

decorations.  As I look at these pictures, I

am always amazed at how much I love my Christmas "THINGS". 

Each "THING" brings back a memory,

an event or a dear friend or family member that

picked out something especially for me. 

Maybe that's why we LOVE

to decorate at Christmas....it reminds us of the LOVE that

IS Christmas.

My friend Debbie

(when she was in her former home)

always took a picture of her

living room from upstairs. 

Because of the design of my house, I can't do that, but

whenever I take a picture from the stairs it reminds me of Debbie.

Meet Debbie

I'm still embracing the RED this year, and my rich reds

remind me of my good friend Kris. 

As long as I have known her, Kris has always embraced

color.  It may be a little harder for me to embrace color, but

with a little influence from her I think I'm

  coming around, so Kris, this reds for you.

Meet Kris

and me embracing the RED

My daughter always takes pictures peaking into

her house from outside....so Kristi,

this is in reverse, since the weather outside is frightful.

Kristi has many talents and gifts when it

comes to anything CREATIVE.  I would

like to say she gets it from me...but she is

her own Creative Being.

Meet Kristi

A glimpse of the Man Room.  This reminds me

of my friend Peggy (since she named it). 

Peggy is not a blogger, but she should be.

She also is blessed with extraordinary gifts.

You can see her gorgeous home here

This is my Nativity...

owned originally by my red haired grandma.

This lady was bigger than life and I never remember her

with anything but a big welcoming smile and hug.

Nice to remember the REASON for the SEASON

This is my mom's little tree that she brought with her when

she came to live with us.  It is home to all the little

mouse ornaments that we made...oh so many years ago...

Can you see these little guys...??

Moms plan is to make a set for all the grand kids and

let them each paint their own.  I will

be looking forward to that project in the coming year.

This was a tree I won at our annual Bunco gift

exchange many years ago...and reminds me

of my wonderful Bunco friends.

Here I have some random Santa's purchased over the years.

You better watch out....he's coming to town

Every year on Christmas Eve, my dad presented

us each with a hand-made ceramic piece that

he had personally created himself and

reflected our personalities (usually ;).

These were alot of work and usually took him

months.  Looking back over the years of treasures

I noticed they usually reflected the interests of that

particular year.

We do miss him an awful lot.

My cream and gold tree.  I always

say I am going to add some color to this tree and each year

it is still Cream and Gold....

But I do like my little goodies on the tree.

This year, on the day we took the grand kids to see Santa,

I overpaid for a set of ornaments from Pottery Barn.

The 12 Days of Christmas.

The are beautiful though.

and Christmas wouldn't be the same

without a snowman or two

I love mantels, and I am lucky enough

to be able to do 3 different ones.

and they are all different.

So Merry Christmas to all, enjoy your holiday, and

Praise the Lord for all he has given us, all we have, all we are and all we hope

to be....and for the greatest gift of all,

his beautiful SON.

May all your dreams come true...

Rollin on the River.....

... Or ..... Putting around the Harbor...

Every year Newport Beach, California

hosts a Christmas Boat Parade. 

The ladies I hang out with,

rented a boat last year to view the parade. 

They made a party

of it and had a great time. 

So great in fact, they decided to repeat the experience

this year. 

I didn't get to go last year,

but this year ....look out Newport Harbor.

We arrived to get our "Duffy"

armed with food and beverage

I was a little suspicious (or maybe just tentative)

of going out in a boat that

no one knew how to captain.

Enter Captain Mackey....

Captain Mackey is an experienced captain.  She

WO-MANNED the duffy

last year with no incident (????)

and if she saw this picture she would

KILL ME!!!

So off we went... food and drink

being served by the crew.
We enjoyed
appetizers, delicious corn chowder, corn bread, salad,
and assorted cookies and sweets.



Patty is very excellent when it

comes to multi - tasking.  She

can pilot the boat, enjoy a little food and drink

and ...

Take pictures of the passing boats.

Now, when you rent these boats there are a few rules...

considering

you need NO experience to rent these...there really are very few rules.

1. Don't leave the harbor and go into open ocean

2.  Don't run over any buoys

3. Don't hit any other boats

4. Don't go under any bridges

5.  Don't become part of the parade.

6.  Come back safe and sound.

Not too bad, we can abide by those rules ... I think.

So the Parade begins....

These boats were totally decked out

With huge partying going on ....

Now, do you remember rule #5?  That rule

seemed to be the hardest to follow. 

This boat tried to enforce the rule.

Unfortunately,

we enjoyed being part of the parade

and managed to sneak in every now and then. 

This is the boat we will be entering next year.

or maybe this one....we haven't decided yet.

Either way...we couldn't have had anymore fun

than we had.

Patty managed to get us a front row seat

and was the perfect captain

The boat can hold 12...so we

are now taking reservations for next year.

It will definitely be an annual event.

Thanks ladies for a great time.

and Patty you are the best, you organized

a great evening and brought us back

safe, sound and on time.

I am linking to  Susan at a Southern Daydreamer for

Outdoor Wednesday

Be sure to visit all the participants.