Christmas Tour

My house right now is like that proverbial duck on a pond (or was it a swan?)... Calm up top and paddling like heck underneath.  From the street, you'd never know we weren't ready for a visit from you-know-who.

Wreaths on doors - Check

Candles in windows - Check

Tree lit in window - Check

And now, a confession.  Since we've been just a wee bit busy unpacking the moving boxes for the last few weeks, this is as far as we've gotten with our tree.  Really.

I did slap a wreath over the range and bake a batch of cookies just for y'all.  Hey!  Somebody's been stealing the cookies!

Whoa!  I'm smokin' now!  Look at that festive ribbon on the cloche.  Somebody stop me.

And there's actually sugar in Mammaw's Friendly Village Christmas sugarbowl.  No creamer, though.  When I unpacked the kitchen, I discovered that it got smashed to smithereens in the move. 

Can you smell the Seda candle?  It's called Holiday. Yummy!

So here are a few pictures of Christmas past for you to enjoy.  Don't mind me.  I'll just be back here paddling like heck trying to catch up. 

Please drop by again after you visit the other 4,999 homes on Nester's tour.  Maybe I'll have my act together by then.

(Also linked to Growing Our Own Garden's Christmas Door Tour).  Thanks Lianna!

You Got Questions? I Got Answers...

I swiped this from Lisa Pickle's blog.  Give it a whirl - it's fun!

27 CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, although I currently have more bags than paper in my stash.

2. Real or artificial tree?  Real, real, real 'til the day I die.

3. When do you put up the tree?  Sometime around the first weekend of December.

4. When do you take the tree down?  When it turns brown and crispy and becomes a fire hazard.

5. Do you like egg nog?  Um. No.

6. Favorite gift as a child? That's a hard one.  A Barbie townhouse or Barbie van, a stereo when I was 10 or 11, a ballerina jewelry box from my grandmother - I still have that thing somewhere...

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, two identical ones, made from olivewood.  A friend's parents were missionaries in Jerusalem years ago and sent it to me.  I had them get one for B's mom and we got it back when she passed away in 2000.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Mom, probably.

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received?  A bean pot.

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Regular mail in the years when I actually send them.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?  A Christmas Story and Family Man.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Hmph.  Christmas Eve?

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mom's fudge and pralines.  Blend of the Bayou casserole. Christmas Morning Sticky Buns.  Chocolate covered cherries.  I'll stop now.

16. Clear lights or colored?  Both.

17. Favorite Christmas song?   -  Mary Did You Know? by Kenny Rogers and Wynnona. And that reggae sounding song by Mandisa about A King is Born Today.

18. Travel or stay at home for Christmas?  Home.

19. Can you name Santa’s reindeer?  Uh huh.

20. Open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?  At the crack of dawn on Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?  The commercialization of what should be one of the two most sacred days of the year, and people who say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".

22. Do you have an angel on top or a star? Neither.

23. Ugliest Christmas decoration ever invented? About ten years ago, there was this weird family who lived across the street from us who had a Santa that repeated "HO HO OHHHH, MY FEET!"  non stop, 24 hours a day, for the entire month of December.  That, my friends, was ugly.

24. Which looks best; theme trees or homey trees?  Theme trees usually look better, but I like the mish-mash trees best.

25. Gingerbread or sugar cookies?   Sugahhhhh. With icing.  And sprinkles. And glitter.

26. Favorite kind of Christmas cookie?  See question 25.

27. Do you like fruitcake? Um. No. Again.

Okay…now it’s your turn!

A Progress Report

Guess what?  I still don't have a doorbell, central vac, towel bars, a bathroom mirror, or TV service.  But the landscapers have been working hard all week through the storms to get sod and shrubs in.  And last night the internet fairy came and left me a connection to the outside world.  Life is grand, ain't it?

There are a handful of boxes still milling about and waiting to be unpacked, but for the most part all my stuff is now out where I can look at it, walk around it, move it, fluff it, or pitch it into the Goodwill box whenever I get the urge. (Oh man is that Goodwill box overflowing!)  And please don't let the feng shui police (Tater Tot calls it feeng shoo-ey. Ha!)  find out, because it's all in little piles on the floor, messin' with our energy flow and tripping us up in the middle of the night.  Speaking of tripping, this house is so stinkin' dark, even with no curtains up yet, you can't see your hand in front of your face, or the bottom stair step, in the middle of the night. Wanna know how I know that last part?  Ahem...B missed the aforementioned bottom stair and I found him laid out in the middle of the foyer last night.  (Yes, he was fine.)

Grass, beautiful grass.  I think I'm gonna cry.

You know how when you move into a new house, your furniture never looks as good as it did in your old house?  Well y'all, that is my major problem right now.  So far, here's my shopping list:

1.  Chairs for the dining room
2.  Coffee table for the hearth room
3.  Rugs for hearth room and foyer
4.  Stool for my office - I'm typing this standing up
5.  Pick up new breakfast table, which I bought back in August
6.  Andirons or grate for fireplace
7.  Find fabric for the red sofa and our headboard before the upholsterer sells my stuff, which he's had for three and a half months.
8.  All new furniture for the family room
9.  Bronze spray paint to salvage a very large, very gold mirror for the foyer

I'm just getting started.  This should all be a piece of cake too, being that we are currently flat broke. Well  maybe I can swing the can of paint.

We got our tree Monday night.  Four days later, it's sitting forlornly in the middle of the living room, where the guys plopped it Monday night, with no lights, no tree skirt, no presents, no nothing.  Maybe I should rethink showing up for Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes next week, ya think?

Y'all look what I just won!  Yes, that's a genuine Steinbach.  Oh my stars and heavens!   

I'm still up to my eyeballs in moving boxes over here,

but I sneaked into blog land for a quick visit anyway, and it was waiting on my dashboard!

There are still  nine more days of giveaways left over at The Well Appointed House, so go see Gabrielle and become a follower for your chance at some serious loot!

Only A Day Away

Tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the day we've worked toward for over 2 years.  We're sitting on go.  The lights are hung, the drywall dust has settled, the floors are gleaming, the paint has dried.  There's no grass yet, but who needs that stuff anyway?  I'm just praying that it STOPS RAINING IN NORTH CAROLINA soon so the landscapers can do their thang, and that no one knocks on our door in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner to inquire as to why we are residing in a house with a muddy lake where the front yard should be.

It sure seemed like this day would never come. I don't know why God has chosen to bless us with this home, but this will be a Thanksgiving to remember for sure. Not just because of the house, but because He's brought us through so much else in the last year. We're different people, all four of us, than when we started this journey. And for that, more than anything, I am thankful.

If you think of it, please say a prayer for us tomorrow.  I'll get more pictures up as soon as I can.  We won't be getting internet service before next week.  Or a stove.  Can you believe that?  Apparently the Thermador people didn't get the memo about the recession, and they've got more ranges to build than they can shake a stick at right now.  I guess it's a good thing I don't cook, huh?  Mom's gonna save the day, though.  She's putting her turkey in the fridge to thaw as I write.  Did I ever tell y'all that I have the best mother in the world?

Anyway, I'm off to buy paper towels and toilet tissue (muy importante!!) for tomorrow, and get a good night's rest . I think I'm gonna need it.

God Whispers

("There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul.  God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly.  Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God.  He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry and distraction which life causes as it rushes on"... F.W. Faber     This quote was on my sidebar for a long time.  It struck me the first time I read it,  probably because I am guilty of speeding through so many days in busy oblivion.)

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We sat, B and I, in the car on our new drive, riding out another downpour and enjoying a few moments of quiet.  Utter chaos continued all around us. 

We watched for a lull in the relentless rain so that the kitchen cabinets could be hauled inside. The hurry, wait, hurry, wait, juggling act of building this house was on my very last nerve that day.  I just wanted the flood to stop, in more ways than one.

I was absent-mindedly popping handfuls of chocolate therapy into my mouth while watching waterlogged workmen slosh in and out of my house, when something told me to look down.

This is what I saw.  They came out of the bag just. like. this.  No kidding.
 

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.  This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.   Ezekiel 1:28

Linked to Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky.  Thanks Emily!

Buoyancy

"Do not expect to be treated fairly in this life.  People will say and do hurtful things to you, things that you don't deserve.  Instead of obsessing about other people's opinions of you, keep your focus on Me.  Ultimately, it is My view of you that counts.  ... (From the book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, which I mentioned in my last post.)

More than once lately I've found myself turning to Matthew 6:25-34.  "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 

And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."    (Emphasis mine)

My life right now doesn't resemble anything I've experienced in the last 42 years, and I am just about exhausted.   I know I may lose followers for being honest (or maybe a better word is depressing) but it is what it is.

Last week, I was seriously considering pressing that big ol' DELETE BLOG button, because I couldn't fathom how I was helping myself in this little journaling experiment, let alone anyone else.  Then one harried morning I found this note in my e-mail:

"I am a Texan by birth, raised by Louisianan parents, but I now live in ... the land of the rude people (and) ... I "heart" your blog.
 Somehow today after stumbling into work (after getting too litle sleep), I clicked on a link on someone's sidebar and found your blog.  I wanted to send this e-mail to say, thank you for writing it.  Although I was raised in the South, I didn't get saved there.  What that means is that sometimes I struggle with reconciling who I was before Christ, with who I am now (you see, where I live, work and go to church there is a desert, devoid of people who are into ANY of the girly things I love and love to discuss.  This has led to me feeling like I have to apologize for what I love (which means apologize for being me).  When I read your blog it was like weight falling off.  I thought "wow, here is a woman who is a Christian, loves a lot of the things I love and she isn't apologetic about it".  I found days discussing Oswald Chambers as well as Louis Vuitton Never full contents.  Marvelous!!!  This may sound funny but it was like I got instant permission to be myself.  Isn't that funny? ...  Anyway now that I have gushed and cried, I will go back to some more reading.  Hope you are having a good day."

Well.  I couldn't think of anything except, just... wow.  And then I printed that e-mail out and put it in my little Louis Vuitton Never Full.  Just in case, you know, I forgot. 

So thank you, A.  What a blessing you are.  I saw God through you today.

What's in Your Wallet?

The resident style maven at A Femme D'Un Certain Age did a series recently wherein she asked her French friends to spill their secrets about what was lurking in the deep recesses of their handbags.  I enjoyed this bit of e-snooping so much, I thought I'd share what odd junk I carry around.

The bag is a Louis Vuitton Never Full, a birthday gift from B last year.  Did I ever mention that my birthday was on the same day as the big September stock market plunge?  I knew it cost the equivalent of some people's house payments, and wanted to return it the very next day.  B was insistent that I not, and I'm so glad he won that argument.  This bag truly lives up to its name - you cannot fill it up.  Tater Tot loves to peer down in there and swear he sees China (the country, not the wedding collectibles) at the bottom.  Even on days when I feel particularly schlumpy, I can feel halfway pulled together with this on my shoulder.  I heart it very much.

First, the usual suspects:  cell phone, keys, wallet, checkbook (there are 2 - one regular and one construction account).

Then:  2 pairs of reading glasses, my Ray Ban polarized sunglasses (never leave home without them), an orange faux Hermes mini tape measure, cheap camera, LV coin purse found in the glove box of the first Mercedes I ever owned (see, sometimes it pays to buy used cars!), and gum.

DISCLAIMER:  THE PHOTO ABOVE WAS TAKEN MONTHS AGO WHEN I ACTUALLY HAD TIME TO KEEP MY PURSE NEAT AND TIDY.  NOWADAYS, NOT SO MUCH.

And now, for your reading pleasure, the junk list in no particular order:

YSL lip gloss
Estee Lauder Sugar Honey lipstick
Tweezers disguised as lip gloss, so I can sneak them through airport security.  I know, I'm such a rebel.
Nail file, eye drops, Motrin, toilet seat covers, hand sanitizer (swine flu be damned!)
The remains of a tube of Lollia Breathe hand lotion (okay, I'm throwing that away right now)
2 packets of pilfered Starbucks sugar in the raw
16 Benjamin Moore paint chips
1 piece of shoe mould
Ipod earbuds
1 bank statement
1 coupon for a free car wash that I'm never gonna be able to use because it won't stop raining
4 pieces of cabinet hardware for Tater Tot's bathroom
A $15 Old Navy coupon
1 recipe for tortellini soup swiped from somebody's blog
Sixty dollars and nine cents
1 baseball scorebook plus "THE LUCKY PENCIL"
A copy of "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young (p.s. if you don't have this book, get yourself to a bookstore immediately and purchase one!)

3 fortune cookie fortunes:
#1 "Remember three months from this date.  Good things are in store for you."  Oh no!  I don't remember what day I got this one!

#2 "You will have a chance soon to make a profitable transaction"

#3 "This year your highest priority will be your family".  Well duh.  And I hate it when fortune cookies don't have fortunes in them.  Proverbs just DO NOT CUT IT with me. No sir.

That's about it.  And no, I didn't weigh the purse.  Don't think I didn't consider it though.   Now, inquiring minds want to know.  What's in your wallet?