Friday, December 12, 2014

Signs of the Holiday

Missy, here. I have no recipes to share. We had the church staff over for a Christmas party Monday before last. But did I take a single photo of food???

NO.

Although yesterday, I did bake some amazing pumpkin bread from a mix we found on sale at Williams-Sonoma.


And oh my goodness was it good topped with this!



But since that's all the cooking I've done recently, I'm just going to share some holiday decoration photos from other events.

First, the Thanksgiving table at church the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I always love the harvest table! Lots of beautiful fresh produce.



In November, I was at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, and they had just decorated for Christmas. My oh my. The place is AMAZING. And so huge that we kept getting lost. :)



 See if you can spot the people who look pretty tiny next to this giant tree. These areas were massive. 


And our housekeeping staff was very good to us!




Now, back home to Georgia. Below, the festive decorations from the first Sunday of Advent. We had our service of Lessons and Carols, a beautiful service with the reading of the Christmas story along with singing of carols and other music. Always one of my favorite services!



Tuesday before last, my United Methodist Women's circle had our annual Christmas luncheon. I've shown you other table decorations done by my friend, Jan. She did more cute, creative center pieces!


Each glass globe was filled with snow and a holiday scene.




And if you can see the smaller jars… They held candy and roasted pecans, a party favor for each of us to take home.

So many traditions to enjoy every Christmas, events that make the holiday special. What are your favorite traditions that make your Christmases memorable? What's that one event that you count on each year to put you in the spirit?

25 comments:

  1. Correction. I DID cook once this week but plan to share it later. :)

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  2. There's no time for cooking this time of year is there??? Because I'm relying on whatevers... whatever we find! There's so much to do, and if it comes to a choice of cooking or writing, I'm writing!!!! I can survive on sandwiches and no one pays me to cook, LOL!

    Missy, can you give me Jan? I just want her. I am so not the cool person who envisions anything, and her eye is magnificent. Please tell her I said so.

    Wait.

    Who is THIS PERSON AT MY COMPUTER???? THIS PERSON BEING NICE???????

    EEEEEEEK!!! I'VE BECOME A POD PERSON!!!!!!!

    I blame Christmas. Sigh. It always makes me a little bit nicer than my normally snark-filled New Yorker self.

    Clearly a miracle!!!!!!!

    And I love the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. OH MY STARS amazing. When there was a Nashville writers' conference years ago, a bunch of us went sightseeing and spent the day at the Opryland. I took Dave there three years ago (like exactly three years ago!!!!!). We stayed at a less expensive hotel but we visited the Gaylord, we went and saw Belle Meade and we ate at the Loveless Cafe and we toured The Hermitage. It was like a marvelous two-day history lesson and we loved it! If I could handle bugs and humidity, I'd hang out in Nashville more often. Such a friendly, nice city!

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    1. Ruthy, I suspect you're being NICE to avoid Santa's naughty list!

      :) Hey, I think you need to plan to winter in Nashville (no bugs or humidity). Or come on down to Georgia. We have a mother-in-law suite and would love to have you. :)

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    2. Ruthy, we did the same one year when we went to Groves Park Inn for Christmas brunch and the Biltmore to see the decorations. Cheap hotel so no guilt about enjoying the rest of the season.

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    3. Julie, that's the ticket! :) Stretching the dollar is a good thing on my Ruthy-budget!

      Missy, oh my stars, we'd have so much fun together. Forget the men!!!!!! :)

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  3. What an incredible post!!!! This is fabulous.

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    1. Julie, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos! I thought of you when I made the gluten-free pecan pumpkin bread. It was OUTSTANDING. You need to see if you can get some of the mix on sale and stock up!

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  4. Someone has a birthday today!!! We'll have to see if she comes back to see our wishes. She may be out partying all day. :)

    Happy birthday Julie!!

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  5. Happy Birthday Julie!!!
    Beautiful pics, Missy...thanks for sharing! Visited Opryland Hotel when dd lived in TN.....gorgeous!! I always enjoy pics of your church and Christmas events!

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    1. Jackie, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos! I love to share them.

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  6. Julie's partying with her new snowman glasses her sweet perfect hubby found her on ebay...soooo romantic!

    that hotel is awesome! never been though.

    sigh..I was supposed to be at church helping decorate for the giving tree party tomorrow but um didn't quite make it. maybe I'll try getting dressed and seeing if they need my help for about an hour....only decorating 2 hrs and I have an appt at 11:30 and one at 2:30 then quilting tonight. I told them I'd help tomorrow at the party itself..hopefully hidden in the kitchen putting hot dogs together though I hated the dishwashing chore last year..sigh...actually putting them up was the worst part - big industrial type kitchen with HUGE deep sink and little counter space and all sorts of rules posted about covering stuff and putting things back...sigh..

    Idont' know what puts me in the Christmas spirit- just not really there yet at least not all the way :-( usually quilt festival around Halloween first of November does the trick but only lasted a teeny bit(they have Christmas projects because that's when quilters gotta be working on stuff) or operation Christmas child did last year but this year I barely got my 4 boxes done- enjoyed it but still sorta blah-ish...then giving tree I barely got primed for and had fun shopping but now it's sorta ho-hum feels like an ordinary day though communion service was really good Wednesday night(the short 20 min service) sometimes he sticks straight to the liturgy/bulletin but sometimes he speaks more and this time he was quiet then said something like' about this time Mary would have been pretty far along and really showing - and did the hand motion in front of his stomach' and in Bethlehem which is David's city - and how all David's descendants were the ones taking up the rooms so they were kin to Joseph...he said 'Joseph KNEW this people and they KNEW him they didnt' approve of him being with Mary who was pregnant but it was his own family who turned them away. he said imagine your own kin knowing you needed a place to stay but saying they had no room. how if we feel rejected know that we have a Lord and Saviour who was rejected before He was even born. just the way he said it slowly and quietly was so meaningful. that was worth than any Christmas 'mood' to me so maybeI do have it in perspective. I knew the significance of Bethlehem and knew the lineage went ot either joseph or mary but had NEVER put 2 and 2 together about his own family most likely being the ones to turn them away. have any of you heard it put this way or thought about it? just curious if I wasted 20 yrs in church and got zilch?!
    Susanna

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    1. I don't think you wasted 20 years, Susanna! The most wonderful thing about studying/reading the Bible or being taught the scripture through our pastors and other teachers is that every time we learn something new. There are layers upon layers of details and meaning to explore. That's why I know I'll never learn it all until I get to heaven - where I'll have all eternity to soak it in :)

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    2. Susanna, I haven't heard that theory on the story either. I have a feeling it's one of many ideas about what happened. So you haven't been cheated for 20 years! :) You're just enjoying a new, meaningful take on what could have happened. I love when I get to hear new things or hear them in a new way that really touches me at that moment.

      I hope the event goes well tomorrow and keeps up your holiday spirits!

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    3. Oh, so beautiful! And I think the moment I got that part of the story was when I was teenager an our pastor said, "Mary was a teenage, immigrant, homeless, unmarried mother that gave birth in a barn." I was like, "whaaaa???" Haha. But yes, they weren't married, She was very young. She was in a foreign country. And they had no home. But the way he said it brought it home.
      In my husband's tradition, they have something called the "posadas", where the children re-enact Mary and Joseph's search for shelter. It's a beautiful tradition... hmm... maybe I'll go put some of that in my post for this weekend!
      Thanks for the reminder, Susanna!

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    4. I'm chiming in too, because Susanna, I think our growth as people and Christians comes in spurts... and nothing is wasted unless we're wasting our time/lives purposely! Having an aha! moment is AWESOME. It's wonderful! It's a growth opportunity. Oh my stars, I can see you sitting there and the light bulb going off! But I see those other years as maybe the time of waiting in the desert, wondering. And now that you've had a wake-up call, girlfriend, put it to use! Go for it! Make a difference, somehow, someway! I have absolute faith in you!

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    5. hmmm maybe I have been in a desert - just seems everything is fresh and new. the years I spent at an non-denominational church (approx. 7) seem to mix with the Methodist stuff when it never did before. one of our preachers (not the same one as Wed night) came from a non-churchy childhood - I"m still not sure how he ended up a Methodist preacher but hey! but he comes from a totally different 'place' because of that and he's the ONLY Methodist preacher I ever in al my years heard give an actual altar call at the end of the service! heard the at the non-denominational and a couple of Baptist services but never in a regular church service.
      Virginia I remember something about the kids re-enacting the Mary and Joseph story- a woman at work mentioned it a while back when she was talking about Easter and how they do a walk where someone takes a cross and walks the street and they re-enact the walk to the cross. she was talking about that then mentioned the posadas.
      Susanna
      Susanna

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  7. Beautiful decorations, Missy!

    I'm going to be sharing more decorating ideas on Monday. I love getting into this Christmas time of year!

    For me, there are two events that make the season memorable.

    The first is our annual Christmas tree hunt (see last Monday's post!). I found out that more than 50 people came to the hunt this year, and there were even more at the Chili supper afterwards. That's amazing, considering how small our little church is!

    The other event is our Christmas Eve service. Our service is early in the evening - 5:00 - and afterwards our family comes home and we have a Christmas Tea with special drinks (hot cider!) and finger foods. And then we usually play a game like Settlers of Catan. It's become a tradition over the last few years.

    And my daughter went to a youth retreat at Opryland several years ago. It was a great venue for the retreat, and she has wonderful memories from it.

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    1. Okay, you have to fill me in on what Settlers of Catan is!

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    2. Settlers is one of the most fun games we've found! Challenging, but not hard to learn, and with a different result every time we play it.

      Here's a link to Amazon's Settlers page:
      http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=settlers+of+catan&sprefix=settlers+of+catan%2Caps%2C557

      Sorry! I don't know how to do a live link in the comments!

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    3. Thanks, Jan! I added it to my wish list. May get it to play while everyone his here for Christmas. :)

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  8. Gorgeous pictures, Missy. Love the decorations in your church. We meet in a high school gym so it's not the same as having a real live church home.

    I think lighting that first advent candle is a tradition that I never tire of. I use beeswax candles and I love the smell. And singing and listening to Christmas Carols. It's the only time I let go of my inhibitions and belt out the songs. (I have no musical talent whatsoever but at Christmas time I pretend I do.)

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    1. Kav, I took a photo of the Advent wreath at church last week. I should have added that! I love that, too. As well as the Christmas songs.

      Our choir cantata is coming up soon. I always enjoy singing in it!

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  9. Oh, so beautiful! I love the Gaylord! The first time I went there, it was a little overwhelming but the last time I was there, I met up with my college roommate, who was there for a national teacher's convention. We had such a blast!

    And our Advent wreath is up and decorated with lego men, hahaha.

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    1. Virginia, I'm so glad I'm past the stage of stepping on little Lego men and bricks all over the house! Those things hurt on my bare feet. Although, it would be cute to find them in a wreath. :)

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