Saturday, November 30, 2019

DECORATING THE CHURCH FOR CHRISTMAS



And another month is gone.  Just one more in this tired old year.  But what a month it will be.  So much to do!  I really have to get it together and get things going here.  A new month will hopefully bring new energy.

This afternoon I went to church to help decorate for Christmas.  We are supposed to have an ice storm tomorrow and I'm not sure we will be able to get there so I made sure I had the bulletins done and took them over there.  Because I was working on them, I got there late.  The Christmas tree was up and a lot of the decorations were out.  Carolyn was working on the windows.  I did the back table that you see when you come into the sanctuary.  About five years ago I bought this beautiful embroidered Christmas table runner at Reading China and Glass in Lancaster.  I donated it to the church and we use it each year on that table.

I took all the fall decorations off of both bulletin boards.  I have other things to put up tomorrow.  I have to print them out and cut them out tonight and then get to church early to put the boards together.

I took only four pictures today.  I will take more tomorrow and show you them next week.  But here's what I have today.


Carolyn did the windows.  So pretty!


The pulpit and communion table.


The creche is on top of the baptistry along with some poinsettias/


This beautiful banner is on the wall behind the pulpit.  We had quite a time trying to decide how to hang it.

I bought two new books for my Kindle today.  One is Dickens' A Christmas Carol and the other is an advent devotional by James Merritt titled The 25 Days of Christmas:  A Family Devotional to Help You Celebrate Jesus.  So I'm all set with my Christmas reading.  Well, I have tons of Christmas books that I'm going to dive into.

I guess you can consider this the unofficial beginning of Blogmas.  But there's lots more to show you in the coming weeks.  Hope you will be coming back to join me.  Have a nice night everyone.

Kathy


Friday, November 29, 2019

THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING


Hello, friends!  Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful.  I had a good day.

Look how pretty the sky was this morning.



I saw it through the window and just had to get a shot of it.  I didn't even notice the birds on the wire until just now.



I had the front door open to take the other pictures, but this one I took through the door.  It was cold!  



Yesterday I was able to watch the entire Thanksgiving Day Parade as it was taking place.  This is the first year in so many years that I have been able to do this.  It was so good -- much better than in previous years.  And celebrating 100 years of it was wonderful.  Lots of flashbacks and people who had retired from the station coming back to visit.  Plus tons of celebrities.  I figure I've been watching it my entire life so I've seen at least 60 of the parades.  Wow!  That makes me seem so old!

Carole and Walt came over to pick us up around 3:00 p.m. and we all headed out to the restaurant.  There were a lot of people there, but not overly crowded when we came in.  We were seated quickly.  They had a special Thanksgiving menu.  I had made up my mind that I wanted fried chicken, but they had a roast chicken meal on the specials, so I got that along with mashed potatoes and corn.  Joe and Carole got the turkey dinner and Walt got crab cakes.  I did think about getting that but decided on the chicken.  For dessert Joe and Carole had pecan pie, Walt had blueberry pie and I had pumpkin pie.  Everything was good but I couldn't eat the whole thing and brought about half of my meal home.  I will eat it today.

When we left there was quite a line of people waiting to be seated so we came at the right time.  It was a lovely and relaxing day.  Just what I needed.

Driving home we saw a beautiful sunset -- all purple and crimson and gold.  And then we watched the moon come out with the planet Venus hanging in the sky right below it.  What a wonderful world the Lord God has given to us!

Well, here are the rest of the pictures of my fall decorations.  I am enjoying them for the next two days and then they are gone for another year.  I love my fall things and will be sad to see them go.  But on Sunday I will begin decorating for Christmas.  It doesn't seem like Christmas to me.

I didn't put all of my pumpkins out this year.  I have so many.  But I put a couple on the table along with my little squirrel and a Lenox candleholder.





My Lenox pumpkin lives on the step.


My scarecrows from Rite Aid went onto the steps this year.  They are so cute.



Another Lenox scarecrow is on my shelf along with a sign I got at Rite Aid.  I really liked the way I did the shelf this year.


I didn't move everything off of the table next to the sofa, but I did add two candles and an owl.  I love my candy corn gel candle.  I started to burn it one year but decided that I would keep it forever.



And now I am going to get off of here and get some breakfast.  I hope you all have a good day.  I am planning on Blogmas again this year, so let's see how that works out.  Can I really find enough to blog about each day for a month?  See you all later.

Kathy






Thursday, November 28, 2019

HAPPY THANKSGIVING


Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you are all having a wonderful day.  It is early, so I haven't been celebrating the day... yet.  I have to take Joe to meet his veterans group this morning.  He is part of a color guard for a football game.  While he is gone I plan to clean and bake.  When he gets back, we will get ready to go out to dinner with our friends Carole and Walt.  We talked about different places to go, but ended up deciding on the Country Club restaurant, so that is where we will be.

Originally my sister had to work today.  She usually has Thanksgiving at her house.  So we had made other plans.  But then she was able to get someone to take her hours and invited everyone to dinner.  But we already had our plans in place.  So maybe next year.

Today Philadelphia is celebrating the 100th anniversary of our Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I am so excited to see it.  It is so different from what it was when I was a kid, but still so good.  The local station who owns the parade is doing all kinds of throwback things -- old videos, previous hosts coming out of retirement -- and that should be so fun.  I will be watching it off and on, but I am recording it so I can see it all later.

And now I have to run so I can get Joe to the meeting place by 7:30 a.m.  Have a wonderful day and I will be back tomorrow to tell you all about our day (and hopefully show you the rest of my decorations before they come down and Christmas goes up).

Kathy






Sunday, November 24, 2019

FALL DECORATING PART 1



Hello, friends!  Welcome to Thanksgiving week.  So hard to believe it is in only 4 days.  It seems to have come so quickly.  And so has the cold.  On the way home from church today it was raining and snowing.  Yes, our first snow.  We had some flurries the other day that lasted for about 15 minutes but this was large, fat, wet flakes.  Fortunately it lasted only a short time and no snow laid.  I am not ready to get out the shovel and ice melt.

I am going to show you some of my fall decorations today.  I have not taken pictures of everything, but I will later this week.  But let me post what I have.


My new little fall candleholder.  So cute.


These are the flowers I got at Target.  They look so real.


Another Target buy.  I bought this Halloween bowl last year.  See the "Boo" on the inside?  It is holding Halloween colored peanut M&Ms.



My apple cider sign hanging in the kitchen.


Here's the front window.  It's all Rite Aid buys.  So cute!


And the wreath on the front door.  I made this one and I love it.


Finally, my pumpkin spoon rest and the little pumpkin truck on the stove.

I love fall so much and it is over much too soon for me.  It seems strange to think that at the end of this week I will be putting all my beautiful things away for another year to put up the Christmas items.  But I guess that is what keeps it special to me -- it's not out all year long.

I have a headache so I think I will go to bed early.  It was our annual Pie and Praise at church tonight and we didn't even go.  I just can't get rid of this headache and Joe isn't feeling well.  I hope a lot of people showed up.

Have a good evening.  See you later this week.

Kathy





Saturday, November 23, 2019

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?




Hello friends!  Don't you just love the picture above?  It was taken in Kyoto, Japan.  Like most of my pictures, I found it on facebook.  It is so pretty.

I can't believe it has been an entire month since I did a What's For Dinner post.  Of course I did not photo every meal I ate, but here's some of them that I thought you might like to see.

Sunday, October 27 we had breaded flounder filets with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies.  Since we discovered that we could buy the fish already breaded, we have been having it as our standby.  It is so good.


Tuesday, October 29 we had pork chops and shell noodles with mushrooms in butter sauce.


Air fryer chicken and mixed veggies were on the menu for Wednesday, October 30.


This is a dish I often make on Halloween.  I resurrected it this year.  It's called Bones, Blood and Gore.  It's really pasta (bones), tomato sauce (blood) and ground beef with mozzarella cheese (gore).  Just something fun for October 31.


On Tuesday, November 5 we had ham steak, mashed potatoes and fresh green beans.  Those beans were so good.  Nothing like fresh veggies instead of frozen.



For dessert we had a piece of the pumpkin dump cake I made.  Served on a pumpkin plate -- what else?



Wednesday, November 6 it was more of the wonderful fish and this time with the rest of the fresh green beans and an herbed roll that I had gotten at Trader Joe's.



Thursday, November 7 we had chicken fingers with honey mustard sauce, spinach with mushrooms and another of the herbed rolls.


Friday, November 8 I made an old family favorite -- apple fritters.  They didn't rise as they should have and I have a feeling that I need to buy new baking powder.  They were still good though.

On Tuesday, November 12 we had the stuffed cabbage I got at Shoprite and I made a salad.  Those galobki were so good.  I have not seen them there since, but if I find them again I will definitely buy them.  They are one thing I have trouble making.

Last night we had fried chicken, mixed veggies and sweet potato gnocchi.  Neither Joe nor I had ever eaten gnocchi before but wanted to try it.  Though it wasn't bad, it wasn't our favorite.  I have the rest of the bag to use, but probably won't buy it again.

So that's it for the last month.  Hope I have given you some ideas for your meals.  Enjoy!

Kathy





Friday, November 22, 2019

GROCERY HAUL



Time is passing quickly.  Too quickly.  Days just seem to whiz by.  I can't believe it is afternoon already.  Joe and I have been running here and there and are incredibly tired so we are taking a day off today and doing just what needs to be done.  We all need those kinds of days.

I thought I would do a quick post of our last grocery haul and hopefully do a "What's for Dinner" tomorrow.  I plan to finally give you a look at my fall decorations next week before they all come down and Christmas goes up.  And just how did Christmas get here so fast.  Didn't we just celebrate Christmas last month?

So, friends, here's what I got.


A small bag of No Salt potato chips, an apple pie and some brownies that were half price.


Now for the non-junk stuff.  I got a pound of ground beef that I made into hamburgers, and a pound of stewing beef that became Mississippi Pot Roast.  Both of these things are gone.  I think the next time I get stewing beef I am going to make my Irish Stew.


We always get a case of water.  And I found these golabki (stuffed cabbage) on the hot bar.  We had these for dinner that night and they were so good.  Golabki is my favorite Polish food.  Since I live in primarily Polish neighborhood I get to eat all their good stuff.


Salmon, milk, more pumpkin cookies (so good!), ham lunchmeat and swiss cheese.


Treats for the boy, gravy mix and ranch dressing mix for the Mississippi Pot Roast, two kinds of instant potatoes, rosemary leaves (I was all out), Ice drink for Joe, lactose free cheese, and I decided to try hamburger seasoning on the burgers I made.  It was good.


Finally, some tortilla chips for the salsa I had, bananas and the paper towels were in the marked down basket and I got them for $1 each.

I ended up going over budget, but since I had gone under budget the week before, it all worked out.  We need just a few things this week and then it's on to December.  Hope I gave you some ideas for your meals.

Kathy



Wednesday, November 20, 2019

HE'S HERE

Last night we welcomed my second great-grandchild to the world.  Here is little L.B.


His mom was going to be induced today but he didn't want to wait.


Hadley is going to be a wonderful big sister.


So happy to welcome him to the world.

Kathy