Wednesday, December 29, 2010

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.



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

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.
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.


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...



Monday, December 20, 2010

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.







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