A bit about Christmas

Dearest friends,

We had a really good Christmas. Hope all of you did too!

Daughter Lynn and her fiance Jason with Mars and Amelia

and even though Christmas is over, hope you won't mind if I show you a few Christmas things...Well, I would have been back before now but with so much going on, 

Like Windows 10! and not being able to load pictures from my little camera. Finally got that figured it out, "all by myself"!! I sure did!!

Anyhow friends, you know how I've always wanted to be from England, well I have! and always wanted to drink tea from a pretty teacup, that too! and make the traditional British mince pies...

Do you have any idea how proud I am of these little mincemeat tarts? Don't laugh at my makeshift cooling rack, and sorry, some spilled over a little...

Why, I've waited an entire year to make these little tarts. I bought a jar of Borden mincemeat on sale after Christmas last year.

This was the most fun cooking I did for the holidays...

Have to admit, the pie crusts came in a box, but it was I who cut the little rounds and placed them in the pan. An ice cream scoop worked perfect for pressing the dough into the cups. 

and after all these years, got to use this set of teeny tiny antique cookie cutters I found at a sale years ago...

(did wash them in hot soapy water first) and best of all, I like the mincemeat. It's delicious! 

We got lots of beautiful Christmas cards. Don't worry, I'm not going to show them all... but look at this one...

Six Lab puppies! Have you ever seen anything so cute!! Wish I could keep one.

and a big group of silly kitty cats that made me smile.

just one more...

an adorable Bun Bun all sweetly decked out for Christmas. 

We enjoyed every Christmas card that came in the mail. This is one tradition I hope never goes away. 

Oh, some of you asked to see the ice box fruit cake after it was sliced, so here it is with half missing. It's very good!...

So can we start thinking about spring and gardening now? I'm wondering just how much light and sun we can expect with all the trees cut, across the road. 

For today though it's very cloudy here, and a bit sad with all the trees gone...hard to believe, isn't it. Oh, you would be surprised at the number of squirrels that have taken up residence in the trees in our yard now.

Thank you, if you're still here. Sorry for such a long post. I'll be visiting and catching up. 

Love,

Henny

Just in case...

you never hear from me again...tomorrow morning the "Computer Guy" will install "Windows 10" on our computer. 

We have no idea what to expect. All I know is, right now I know just enough about computers to get by. Just enough to keep a blog going.

You know me, can't do a post without a picture or two, or maybe a dozen, but I really do want to show you this...

Oh my goodness, I love it! Isn't this horse picture absolutely perfect for the teeny tiny bathroom with the new barn door shower curtain?? I love it!

Better get busy. But seriously, in case I don't get back, especially before Christmas...

Hope all of you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I do love my blog friends...and well, don't know what I would do without you.


Eli and Dumperoo wanted to say goodnight too...

Need to remember to close these doors. That's doll dresses Woo is resting on. Doll dresses for the next craft show. :(

Love,
Henny

Here's to a happy post!

I'm tired of worrying about the trees being cut, and the muddy road out front. So...

It's rare to go in a thrift store looking for a specific item and actually find it...

but I did. This little candle light to go under the tree. 

and last year found the Santa candle lamp at a thrift store. Don't know why I like them??

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Just a quick note about the tree cutting across the road. We did find out that the land owners are not planning to sell the property for a housing development or a trailer park.  Thank goodness!

Cutting timber around here for the most part is a money thing. Re-seed in pines and in thirty years you can cut again!

Anyhow, look who's feeling important this morning...

he like looking down on Smokey...and have you ever seen such toenails on a kitty cat! Dr. Davis commented on Dumper's funny toes several years ago. 

Been a while since you've seen the bunnies...

This is Penny. All four condos have been filled with warm soft hay for the winter. Sure looks comfortable and cozy with the sun shining in.

and this is "Chief, Son of Bun". I'll show you Fiona and BunBun later as they would not come out for a picture. 

and, of all things, surprise, surprise, surprise...

 two new bunny rabbits.

When the old man up the road offered them to me, Poppy said "absolutely not"!!  But after worrying about these bunnies for three days, he agreed that I probably needed to give them a home, at least temporarily.  We'll see. :(  

One more picture and I'll go...

Even after a couple more inches of rain and lots of muddy water running into the pond, the reflection yesterday morning was amazing. 

Hope to be back soon. 

Love,
Henny

Fruit cake and a little video

There were several things I wanted to post this morning but maybe I'll just do a couple and save some for another time...

I made a fruit cake! Not a baked fruit cake, but an icebox fruit cake. This is the one mama used to make and it is unbelievably delicious. Tastes more like candy than cake.

Seems like I posted the recipe once before. Anyhow, you start with a new box of graham crackers.

A box of graham crackers used to be bigger, 16 ounces if I'm not mistaken. The recipe calls for a pound each of most the ingredients...

All the ingredients listed come in smaller packages now so it all works out.

Started by crushing the crackers and then cutting the marshmallows.

after switching to a larger pan, I added the other ingredients and mixed and mixed and mixed!

Poppy kept saying, "I'm telling you, all that is not going to fit back in that box!"  "But it will", I said. Guess who won. Poppy, of course. I packed and packed, even taped the corners of the box to keep them from splitting, but no good. Believe me, the leftover is not going to waste.

Here's the recipe...

Icebox Fruitcake

1 Box Graham Crackers (crushed)

1 lb. Box Marshmallows (cut)

1 lb. Pecans (cut)

1 lb. Walnuts (cut)

1 lb. Candied Cherries (cut)

1 Fresh Coconut (grated)

1 Box Dark Raisins

1 can Eagle Brand Milk

Mix, pack in cracker box lined with wax paper, enough to fold over cake. Tie box with string and place in refrigerator.

Wanted to show you too, how the property across the path is looking...

just getting started

getting brighter

and brighter. 

So if any good at all comes from cutting all these trees, maybe the two pear trees in our front yard will get enough light to grow a pear. Wouldn't that be something!

and I do hope the little video works...

It sure is cold and rainy today. Downright gloomy. Here's a glance out the living room window, after our walk in the rain...

Appreciate your stopping by.

Love,

Henny

The Barn Door

Such a frail little tree. The limbs are almost too weak to hold the lights...

It hurts my heart to cut down a little tree but this one would probably have been crushed anyway.

The family that owns the hundred acres across the path are having the timber cut. The big machinery was brought in last Saturday and the cutting has begun...a constant screaming and grinding of giant teeth and saw blades. It's a sad thing.  

About that shower curtain...Amazing how I can LOVE something one day and then be just sick of it the next. I'm good at that! 

Has it even been a year since I pulled everything out of the teeny tiny hall bathroom, cleaned the room, then painted the walls the palest of pinks and hung that pale pink Toile shower curtain. 

Not sure what style all that was...maybe Victorian, or an attempt at Victorian.

Anyhow, come on in...

in the barn door, that is. Of course it leads into the tub. Probably the closest I will ever get to owning a barn. Maybe I can store hay bales in there.

and I have finally framed and hung this picture of two mules.  Probably the closest I'll ever get to owning two donkeys too. I Love these mules! 

A few years back, on one of our trips to the State Fair, Shelby and I both bought a picture of mules. An older farm woman, (a feature at the fair), who wore overalls and cooked over an open fire, also sat and drew beautiful pictures of  mules. She told stories of growing up on the farm...it was a real treat, but for the last couple of years, she has not been there.

The picture hangs a little too high, but I plan to hang something else under it.

Raked and scraped to find a few accessories to go with the new look.

soap in a cheese dish

Guess that's about it.  Wanted to show you that new shower curtain...that started off as a joke. While looking online for a new shower curtain, I found the barn door. I left it pulled up to show Poppy, thinking he would laugh...he loved it!!

Thank you for stopping by. Hope to be back real soon.

Love,
Henny

Did a little decorating today...

Friends, I didn't mean to do a Thanksgiving post and then disappear. What happened was, I found the yard rake leaning against an oak tree, picked it up, and have been gone for seven days. Well, that's just about right.

Reminds me of a story Daddy used to tell us about my uncle Lloyd. There were seven boys and two girls in Daddy's family. There were railroad tracks not far from their farm. Daddy said all the boys would be out working in the field when a train whistle would blow, off in the distance. Uncle Lloyd would drop his hoe and take off running, catch the train, and be gone for weeks at a time.

Anyhow, today I'm trying to put up a few Christmas decorations...BUT! this has been a week of, everything I do or touch looks worse than it did before. I have struggled with the Christmas village on the mantle...

Just couldn't get it to look right. The snowy forest scene was too small and needed something! Finally, a brain storm! Using feed bags, (what ever did I do before we had feed bags) I cut out six fir trees...

painted them green...added a little white paint for snow...then painted a star for the top of each one. Not even sure now if I like it. Afraid it looks like something out of a coloring book for a seven year old??? Oh well. :(

and that garland around the fireplace! Got the ladder out again and making sure this year, to hang the center of the garland on the nail in the center of the fireplace, whew! which I did. Got it all hung and realized the plug for the drop cord needed to be on the right side...I had it on the left side. I had just put the ladder up! Been like that all day! 

I do like the little village; the houses and the people, especially in front of the cold snowy forest...

Found the Carolers last year at a thrift store. Seems like every year I find something new to add to the village and all of it's from a thrift store. 

 another group of carolers

and I'm not quite done with the tree yet...

So that's it, so far.

Oh, Poppy finally killed a deer; a buck. A big buck...eight point buck with two more small points. The taxidermist said if the small points are large enough to hang a ring on, then they would count as two more points...which would make it a ten point buck. Poppy sure was tickled. He is having it mounted...you know we need one deer head in the living room :( 

Poppy had the deer processed and gave the meat to three friends.

Well, this post was supposed to be about the new shower curtain but I guess that can wait until next time.


Got this picture of Poppy and Smokey this evening...

It's usually Dumperoo curled up in Poppy's lap.

Love,
Henny

Thankful for our crowd on Thanksgiving

We had such a good Thanksgiving Day...hope you did too.

Oh wait, let me back up to last Saturday and the "Santa Christmas Bazaar".  Friends, it was the absolute BEST craft event ever! Way too busy to take pictures, but I did get a couple of pictures near the end...

Shelby's jams and jellies, and that's my table behind the stacked jars...

Here, most of Shelby's baked goods had sold.

We both sold lots of goods, in fact, I sold aprons that, well, I thought would never sell and would have to go in the Goodwill box. You just never know. 

So, back to Thanksgiving Day...

It was an extra special day because...

For the first time ever, Poppy's daughter and her family, and both my daughters and their families were here together. That's Andee, me, Poppy, Windy, and Lynn. I decided to bite the bullet, close my eyes and be in the picture. (actually, the sun was blinding). :)

Had to search to find this one...

Hey, does Poppy look proud? This is Windy, Brian, and Grandson Luke. Luke is 15 years old, 6' 2" tall, and plays football!!

more of the group...

On the left, Poppy's daughter and family; center Andee and husband Todd; group on the right, Lynn's family (with three missing).  Actually the two guys in back of Lynn's family are Jason, Lynn's fiance and Jacob, Michaela's boyfriend... and on the far right, well that's Madison, Andee and Todd's daughter. Whew!

Ah, I like this picture...

Daniel was one of those missing from the group picture...that's him with his mom Lynn, and  my Great Granddaughter Addie.

Had to search for this picture too. Thank you Andee.

Daniel, my first grandchild. 

and here's the other big guy missing from Lynn's group...Grandson Joseph. Addie is his daughter.

On the pier, Grandsons Daniel, Joseph, and John. The other guy is Jacob with Michaela. Here's proof that the old pier is still sturdy after all these years. Poppy built the pier in 1996, with no one but me to help. Glad I didn't see those babies hanging over the edge. Looks like Michaela was holding onto them tight. The little boy is Greyson, Addie big brother and my Great Grandson.

Michaela, Addie, and grandson John in the background.

If there is a dog around, he will be found in Madison's arms. Like her mom, she adores dogs. Of course, Weetie was in heaven.

Andee, Todd, and Madison

Excuse me, but did any of you notice the leaves! The leaves! As far as the eye can see! Actually, the leaves are kinda pretty on the ground at Thanksgiving...it's Christmas time when the leaves begin to look ugly. 

and speaking of Christmas, I am excited about decorating now that Thanksgiving has passed.

Here's a little "before" picture of the lonely looking living room fireplace and mantle...

Hope to be back soon with a warm glow with bright and shiny cheerfulness.

But, alas, this morning we have wind and downpours of heavy rain bringing down als0  the remainder of the brown oak leaves.  It's terribly dark and cloudy and gloomy...

a day fit for nothing but snuggling up on the back porch cot.

 of course, some prefer a warm corner inside.

Okay, I've overdone it today. Too many pictures. But remember what I said after the big flop of a post about Vintage Market Days?

So, this is my happy Thanksgiving Day post! Oh wait, one more...

Completely forgot to take a picture of all the Thanksgiving food, but here's load six of the pots and pans to be dried and put away. Worth every dirty dish!! :)

Love,

Henny