I don't have a recipe to share this week. I wanted to share some wonderful photos I took at church last week. The sanctuary looks so beautiful, I couldn't help but run around and snap pictures with my phone. :)
Welcome to our church! Here's the pretty wreaths on one set of doors.
Inside the sanctuary, we have the beautiful Chrismon tree. In case you're not familiar with what that is, here's a little history from the United Methodist Website.
Ornaments made from Christian symbols (or Chrismons, a contraction for 'Christ monograms') were first developed by Frances Spencer and the women of the Ascension Lutheran Church in Danville, VA. Many churches display a Chrismon tree during the Advent and Christmas season decorated with handmade ornaments.
Here are closeup photos I took of some of my favorite ornaments.
Most are ceramic and painted with gold. So very pretty! And there are some cross-stitched ones as well.
Oh, and here's my front door. I bought a new wreath last year, but, once I put it up, I realized that it was too bland. It blended in with our green door! So I wrapped it with a gold bow this year. I still think it needs something else. Maybe some red glass balls. I may add those next year. :)
My daughter is finally home from college, so I'll have some help decorating the rest of the house. But for now, we're happily snuggled on the couch under a soft, fuzzy throw blanket, working on our computers. :)
I have to say I think snuggle time is a little more important than whether we have lights on the bannister. So I'm not rushing anything!
I've been trying to decorate for Christmas. I had to jump in earlier than usual because I hosted a party here this past Sunday. So, fast motion prep! (I don't usually get decorated until about mid-December.)
First, the ever-important tree. We've always had live Frasier Firs. But this year I decided to buy an nice artificial one so we don't have to fight over who has to put on (and remove!) the lights. :) I really l like it!
You can see up close that it has a bit of sparkle that makes it look like snow.
I didn't get ornaments on it before the party, but with the lights and pinecones and "snow," it didn't look bad.
I actually spent more time on the mantel than I planned. I usually have the bottom tree branches that we cut off our trees. I totally forgot I wouldn't have that this year! So I got the berries out of the attic and went to do the mantel, and went, "Well, duh!" But I had bought a live wreath while at Home Depot, which didn't work out in the spot I had planned. So in a pinch, I ended up taking that wreath apart and used it!
I usually also have white lights through the greenery but ran out of time. I had to cook!
I made beef chili and vegetable posole soup. I tried this new recipe that turned out good (except I didn't like the smell! I think maybe it was the hominy that smelled bad to me.) It was so strange how it affected my nose. Tasted really good, though, with all the toppings.
Toppings for chili and soup included black beans, chopped black olives, green onions, avocado chunks, cilantro (I left it as a topping because I know how many people--around the cafe, too!--don't like it), sour cream, and cheddar cheese.
Oops. Took the photo after dinner.
I also made a spinach salad with chopped pistachios.
And one of my friends offered to bring something. She's an excellent baker, so I asked her to bring dessert. She brought my favorite...
Caramel cake!
Poor thing said she had to make two batches of icing. Said she burned the first one.
I enjoyed a nice, fat piece!
We had a great time at our annual ornament exchange! I still haven't finished decorating but at least got enough of a start to have a Christmas party. Once my daughter gets home after finals, I'll have some help finishing. :)
Oh! The sounds of Christmas...
I wanted to share this video. It's a piece our church choir will be singing for our Christmas music. It's become one of my very favorites! It'll give you chill bumps--the good kind. I just hope I can sing it without getting choked up. Enjoy! I hope it brightens your holiday prep.
How are your holiday preparations coming along?Have you been invited to a holiday
party or potluck? We have already been to a couple pickleball potlucks.
Pickleball players love to party about as much as they love to play. Smile
Here is what I like to make. It is festive and healthy.
This is pretty obvious so I’m not really going to show
photos nor write directions of how to do this.You do need fresh veggies and a holiday tray. I use an
aluminum tray if I don’t want to have to worry about taking it home.
Since there wasn’t much to photograph in preparation, I’m
sharing some holiday decorations found here in the desert.
Just because we
don’t have snow and the traditional pine trees, we do make up for it with
lights.
We also put up artificial trees which look lovely all lit up
at night.
We went to my friend’s house the other night and she not
only had an artificial tree in her entryway, but she had decorated her cacti in
the front yard.Notice the lights
are chili peppers?
Another favorite thing to do is wrap lights up the trunks of
palm trees. Now don’t laugh. I’m sure there were palm trees in the desert where
Jesus was born and surely they were alight from the glow of the angels flying
around.
This one is for Ruthy.
Every year my hubby’s family all get together on the 26th.
It is so much fun to see all the cousins and their children and grandchildren.
We have a potluck so I will be bringing the veggie tray above and also a Frozen
Pumpkin Mousse Pie. My financial advisor, Jim
Dew, sends out a newsletter every month and besides being a great financial
advisor, he is a gourmet cook. He always includes a recipe in the newsletter.
This Frozen Pumpkin Mousse Pie looked really delicious.And it is.
Here is the recipe copied with permission from JimDew’sNovember newsletter.
Frozen Pumpkin
Mousse Pie
··30 small gingersnap cookies, (about 7 1/2 ounces)
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a
9-inch deep-dish pie pan with cooking spray.
2.To prepare crust: Combine
gingersnaps and raisins in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add
oil and pulse
until blended. Press evenly
into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan.
3.Bake the crust until set, about
10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To prepare filling: Combine
pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix well. Add
ice cream and stir until blended. Spoon the mixture into the cooled pie crust.
Freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Let the pie soften slightly in the
refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
We sing about it, we celebrate it, we long for it.
When we're away, we can't wait to get back.
When things are rough, we long to retreat to it.
When we smell gingerbread baking, we're taken back there in our memories.
For generations, when we've thought of Christmas, we've thought of home.
(Hit "play" for a little mood music!)
We've lived in many different houses over the years, from Michigan to Texas to South Dakota, and several states in between. We've learned to make each of them our home. But it isn't where the house is, or what we put in it that makes it "home." It's who is there.
And the who? Our family, our extended families, our church family.... It doesn't really matter, does it?
When we're surrounded by loved ones, we're home.
Today I decided to share our Christmas decorations. They've migrated from house to house with us, and it's always a challenge to put up decorations purchased for one house in another, completely different venue :)
We put the decorations up in layers. We've collected winter decorations over the years (especially when we lived in the south and were homesick for snow and slanted winter sun beams), so we put those in place first.
Snowmen, reindeer and pine trees dominate the winter scenes.
And then we layer the Christmas decorations over them...and around them...
Red balls, lights, the Christmas tree....
My mom's favorite - Nutcrackers from Germany.
Christmas decorations saved from our childhood trees.
These are more than sixty years old. I can't believe they've survived our moves from state to state.
Finally, the manger scene. We have several, but the one from my husband's childhood takes center stage.
And we add outdoor decorations to spread some of the cheer to the neighbors.
This was an easy decoration to make. A bushel basket, some trimmings from our Christmas tree, a few logs from our stack of firewood, some scented pine cones and a string of LED lights (LED because I didn't want any added heat to the flammable ingredients!). It glows on our front porch all evening, a bit of a Christmas Card for the neighborhood.
And inside the house while we decorated, the crowning touch - a simmering potpourri.
Simmering Potpourri
Ingredients:
1/2 bag fresh cranberries
1 apple
1/2 orange
3 or 4 cinnamon sticks
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
Cut up the apple and orange (go ahead and eat the second half!)...
...and put everything in a pot with a couple quarts of water. I like to use my little one gallon crockpot, but you can use a pot on the stove, too.
Heat, covered, until the water gets steamy and the cranberries get soft. Then reduce the temperature, remove the lid, and let the Christmas scent make its way through your home.
We're back to Home again, aren't we?
I can't think of Home without remembering that my final Home isn't here. We're just pilgrims on a journey.
And I can't leave without sharing my family's favorite Christmas song. There are a lot of good ones to choose from, but this one really reminds us of what Christmas is all about.
