What a wonderful holiday season we had this year!   We traveled to Texas to be with our family and friends over the holidays.  It was a great trip for the most part with some challenges along the way, but overall a truly blessed time. 

We had a dusting of snow on the ground the day before we left.  A huge snowstorm was predicted for the day we left.  Our plane left at 5:15 a.m., which meant we had to get up at 1:30 in the morning to drive to the airport.  It was already snowing, and the roads were quite treacherous, but we safely made it there.

It took the airline crew 40 minutes to de-ice our plane! They went over it three times with 2 different kinds of de-icer.  The stewardess apologized for the long wait, however, we didn't mind the wait, safety at this point was more important than time!

Once above the clouds, the morning sunrise was enthralling to see!

We arrived at our first stop, and waited to board the next plane.  While in line to board, the gate attendant announced that our flight had been cancelled!

As everyone flooded the local gate attendant to rebook their flight, my children and I walked down several gates to an attendant who wasn't busy, and she reserved for us the last three seats on the next flight out, which was six hours later that day.  We were thankful to get on that flight, and I know the Lord guided us to not wait in that line like the rest of the folks who were trying to rebook their flights, and further that there were exactly the amount of seats left on that flight for us! The hand of the Lord was with us even in the unexpected turn of events.

We had six hours to spend in the airport, and after getting up at 1:30 that morning (and not really sleeping well the night before - you know how the anticipation of waking up that early messes with your sleep, lol) - we decided that we would make the best of our time at this airport, regardless of our weariness.

I found a window overlooking the bay, and enjoyed the beautiful view. People watching is always fun too, and we did some of that. I also walked the entire airport several times.  Six hours passed pretty quickly for us, thankfully.

Finally we were on the plane to our next stop, and now, the sun was setting in the sky.

Beautiful doesn't really describe the scene outside our window as we traveled.

As we descended into Los Angeles, we could see the terribly destructive wildfires burning below us.

Night descended as we arrived at our next stop, Los Angeles.  We just stayed on the plane, and soon we were on our way to our final destination, San Antonio. We had been up at this point close to 24 hours, but a quick stop at Whataburger on our way to my parents home was a nice welcome to Texas.

The next morning, our first stop was to visit Bill Miller BBQ for breakfast. In my opinion, they have the best fast food breakfast you will ever eat! I got the bacon, egg, cheese and potato taco, and with their amazing hot sauce, it was a great way to start the day.

I soaked up the beauty of flowers blooming.  The roses were stunning.

We went to visit my sister and her family.  They treated us to the  most amazing BBQ experience, at the Salt Lick BBQ.  It is all you can eat BBQ, unlimited meats and sides!

The meat is cooked in this huge pit that is in the entrance of the restaurant.  I highly recommend visiting this restaurant if you enjoy Texas style BBQ... we were filled to the gills as we left, and my sister remarked that many people feel "salt-lick sick" when they leave, because of the amount of food they bring you to eat!  Lots of leftovers returned home with us.

 

My nieces (2 and 4) showed me this gingerbread house that my mom helped them to decorate.  The 2-year-old just helped herself to the candy on the house while we visited, lol!

We enjoyed a magnificent sunset over the river one evening.

Texas-style mountains graced the horizon as we traveled to be with my husband's family.

If you didn't know this already... my family loves Texas style BBQ! LOL... and so we found another amazing BBQ pit to eat at. This is one style of food that can't be duplicated where we live, as they use mesquite wood, which we don't have, to get the amazing flavor in the meat.

This BBQ pit does not use plates, rather it uses large pieces of freezer paper on which you dump your meats and sides. Plan to get a little messy as you eat, lol!

Another beautiful sunset.

I helped my mother prepare for the large Christmas dinner she was putting on.  I took pleasure in helping her set out her finest china for the meal.

Food just tastes better on china! We made sure our parents got their food first to honor and respect their efforts at hosting such a large gathering.

After the delicious meal, the girls sat down to a cup of hot tea together, before we had our annual Christmas white elephant exchange, and then game time and snacks later.  We were happy to have the youngest generations join us, as they enjoyed the tea time with us.

My mother has had this china for 45 years, gifted to them at their wedding, and she has not ever had a piece broken!  It is the Royal Albert Lavender Rose set, and it is in remarkable condition. We sipped King Cole orange pekoe tea.

Because our nieces enjoyed the tea party so much on Christmas Day, we planned another tea party a couple of days later.

We kept it very simple, with ham salad sandwiches (made from leftover ham that was ground and mixed with mayo and dill pickle), icebox cookies, shortbread cookies, Mom's Boston Fruit Cake and other assorted chocolate snacks.

Mom was given the recipe for her fruit cake by an family friend many years ago, and it always graces her table at Christmastime.  It is moist, delicious and just amazing!

Some time ago, my mother lost one of her brothers in a tragic accident, and since then her family has used butterflies as a way to remember his amazing life. This past summer our family helped our parents renovate their home, and this wall was left open because my mom's idea was to turn the wall into a garden scene where she could hang 3D butterflies.  My sister found this gorgeous mural online, and for my mom's birthday this year, our family worked together to hang the mural on this wall.  Our parents both just sat and looked at the beautiful mural after it was hung, and their hearts were so grateful to have this big project completed and for them to enjoy.

All too soon, it was time for us to return back home.  While we were gone, there was hardly a day without snow here.  We had a friend plow the driveway, and another friend who came at night to stay at our place and keep an eye on our animals.  We were very blessed to return home and find our animals happy and fat, and our home and driveway welcoming and waiting for us.

 

The next few days were busy for us after being gone for almost two weeks.  There were storage building roofs that needed to be shoveled, and I couldn't wait to get outside and explore the snowy wonderland.

My garden sits quietly under the heavy blanket of snow, beautiful in the early morning sunshine.  Apparently the sun was hardly seen while we were away, but it came out in its full glory for four days after we got home.  I will save those pictures for another blog post.  It was such a blessing to be with our family over the holidays, but truly there is no place like home! :)

I look with anticipation into the days ahead, because as we walk day by day with Him, while the world around may be tumultuous and filled with uncertainty, despair, sadness and misery... and our own circumstances may at times mirror those things... still we can look up beyond this world, into His face, and be comforted in knowing that He sees it all, and nothing will befall us that He is not aware of, in control of, and working in us, and through us for our greater good.

I'm reminded of this verse today as I write this post, and I want to share it with you, praying that the everlasting goodness of our Lord will be with you, regardless of what life circumstance you may be encountering, or facing this year. 

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

In Him, all is well!

The season of winter is a time of less light with shorter days, longer nights and more time spent indoors.  I like to take advantage of the winter months with the time spent indoors to catch up on all the projects I think about doing through the year.  Through the year, often I will get started on a project, but the outdoors will call me, and they get put aside.  Winter is the time of year that I focus on getting back to my crafting projects. 

A dear lady reached out to me through my blog after discovering we live close to each other. We have met several times since to visit together.  Because we both love to craft, we planned a crafting day together.  She purchased this gorgeous fabric to make 80 yo-yos.  I brought my Big-Shot and cut out 80 4" circles to make yo-yos by gathering a stitch around the outer edges.

I saw her yo-yo table topper and we came up with a plan for me to make one similar to hers.

While I was visiting her, she was also working on the finishing touches for this darling snowman!  She finished it and sent me the picture.  It is a punched needle Snowman and she made a little pillow out of it and set it on an old oil funnel.  Isn't he the cutest! In the New Year we plan to have another crafting day and I may have to try my hand at punched needle working!

Because we were sharing craft projects with her, after she shared the yo-yos with me, then we worked on some stamping/scrapbooking projects I had brought.  I found coasters at the dollar store, and she stamped them with brown Staz-On ink with a lighthouse and a stamp that says "Thy Word is a Light Unto My Path".

The final step is to seal them with an acrylic sealer spray. I forgot to bring the sealer spray with me to show that step.

Then we made a little stand-alone accordion photo album to put pictures of her grandchildren in.

A picture of the little album from the back.

Very fun and easy to make little album, and makes a great gift for someone to keep pictures of their grandchildren, children, or family members on display. We had such a sweet time of fellowship together, and sadly, my phone died and I couldn't take a picture of the beautiful lunch she prepared for us to eat.  What a blessed day of crafting it was!  And of course, we sat down after our crafting was done, and drank a cup of hot tea together.

Speaking of hot tea, I found this darling tea pot at a thrift store, and I suspect it is very old.  I believe it is a Rockingham teapot, but I am not sure as it has no name written on it, only a hand painted number. It has the distinctive markings of the Rockingham line, but I have not been able to positively identify it as such.  Perhaps some of my tea drinking friends will know more about this teapot?  I cannot find any pictures online of one that looks similar to it.

As I've worked on my yo-yo's I've often had a little helper trying to tangle my threads!

We have had some days of sunshine where the mountains could be seen with the frost dipped tree line in the horizon.

Walks with the dogs on beautiful afternoons, soaking up the sunshine.

Roger always has this look on his face as if he knows something I don't, with a look of wonder or a knowledge of something I can't see.  He is quite a funny little fellow!

The sunsets have been glorious!  After an late afternoon trip to Wal-Mart, I was dreading the drive home in the dark. I exited Wal-Mart to these gorgeous skies, and I got to enjoy the beauty of the skies on my drive home!

Because of my carpal tunnel surgery this past fall, my tomatoes had not finished ripening, so canning was put on hold.  I simply froze the tomatoes until they all finished ripening.  My husband helped me one long afternoon as we canned in one setting all the tomatoes from our garden this year.  My tomatoes did not do well this year, but I still got a good amount to put up for the winter!

You probably recognize this picture! It is also on my blog header.  I found a company who makes gorgeous canvas art out of your photos.

I was very impressed with the quality of the canvas print and the sturdiness of the boards too.

 

I had two photos printed on canvas, and my favorite by far was the first one, but I was pleased with this one as well. I wanted to do a bold bright print and a soft muted one.  The quality of both was excellent.

I had a hankering for cherry pie.  I had found this old recipe framed in a thrift store some years ago, and it has been a favorite cherry pie recipe since.

I kept the pie crust simple with no lattice crust, and it tastes amazing! This was made with cherries we picked this past summer that I canned.

I'm making progress on my yo-yo's!

I was so blessed earlier this year to win a giveaway with Kim @ ExquisitelyUnremarkable.  Thank you Kim for this generous giveaway!  She sent me the cutest card and a get well card too, because the tartlet tins came to me just as I had my carpal tunnel surgery.

Because I was in recovery mode with the surgeries, I set these gorgeous little tins aside for my winter projects as well.

So this past week, I pulled the tins out of their vintage box and began to play with them.  Oh what fun!  I also had some beautiful paper that I covered magnets with as well.  Once the crafting fun starts, I never know where it will end!

I made some of the tins into magnets as well, and some were made into hanging ornaments.

 

Most of the magnets I've given away as little gifts for friends.  It is a fun and easy project! I just buy the peel and stick business card magnets and attach pretty paper to them, soo easy!

This is a project that I've NOT made myself... yet! But it is on my "bucket list" to try.  I just love the pretty vintage look of the painted bottles.  I saw these in a local thrift store.

I wanted to find a fun yummy treat to take to a Christmas party with some of my dear friends.  I cut pie crust with a 3" circle cutter, placed them in the mini tart pan (from Pampered Chef) and then used the fun Pampered Chef wooden tool to push the dough down into the tart pan.

Homemade apple pie filling went into the mini tarts and baked at 400 for 15 minutes.  Sprinkled with cinnamon on top.

 

Yum yum!  Sprinkled with a bit of confectioner's sugar... so simple, easy, and I promise... you can't eat just one!

Making more progress on my yo-yos.  Just a few left to do now! I won't get the table topper made until after Christmas, but I will show you the finished project when it happens!

Some handmade bookmarks being made as Christmas gifts too.

What is cause for more joy than this gorgeous pillow that I also won in a giveaway! I can't believe that I was the blessed recipient of two very generous giveaways!  I won this pillow from Connie who blogs at Connie's Crafty Creations.  I was just soo excited to receive this gorgeous pillow in the mail, handmade by my very talented friend!  I have long admired her work, and was so excited to have the perfect place for this beautiful pillow in my living room.  However, you can see a lazy Mister Simba who really does symbolize total and complete joy in this picture, ha! Cats do have the art of sleeping perfected!

Whew! This has been a long post... I've gotten quite behind in my blogging with all the projects I have going on.  Our world finally was dipped in white a couple of days ago, and I am just loving the glorious beauty of it all.  We have an inversion of heavy clouds over us right now and we haven't seen the sun for days, but at least the snow helps brighten up our world!

Christmas is just around the corner, and I can hardly believe it! We will be traveling over the holidays, and it is possible that I won't get back here to post again this year.  I pray that all of you have a blessed and very special Christmas, and I will see you in the New Year of 2018. 

I will leave you with a couple of fun short videos I took as the snow came down yesterday.  My daughter was playing the piano and I think you will enjoy them!




Happy hugs to all!