Mountain Musings

Jonathan Unwraps His Quilt!

Earlier this year I joined Randi's Road to Spring Quilt-Along and finished a quilt that I posted about here. It's even pictured on my Flickr account button on the sidebar.

However, I knew that Jonathan would never suspect that I was making it for him even when I was sewing the pieces in plain view. Well, the quilt has been all done for a few months now and hidden away for Christmas morning. Yay! I finished without a hectic rush at the last minute!

Then...I realized a couple of weeks ago that I had forgotten to sew a label on the back. Oh, my! With company arriving and all the cooking and Christmas activities, would you believe that on Christmas Eve night I was hidden away in my closet sewing that label on at midnight?!

I told the girls later that it just wouldn't be Christmas if I weren't finishing up a craft project into the wee hours of Christmas morning!

Here's Jonathan opening his quilt:

I couldn't believe that one of the first things he said was, "Where's the label?" Now I'm glad that I went ahead and put it on instead of saying I'd add it later!

I think he likes the idea that I made him a quilt!

Priceless!

~Deb

How Should A King Come?

Merry Christmas Eve! Our annual musical program was tonight, and it was another great evening of scripture reading, music (flutes, wooden flute, and guitar), and singing--some well-known carols and several new ones!

Dad and the kids (young adults now!) have been putting together the Girotti traditional Christmas Eve program for over twenty years. It varies with participants, relatives attending, and theme of the program, but it is always exceptional. I look forward to it every year.

Tonight's musical theme was "A King Has Come," and my favorite song performed was How Should a King Come? The words are below, and you can listen to it sung by a choir and orchestra by clicking on the link.

How Should a King Come?

How should a King come?
Even a child knows the answer of course,
In a coach of gold with a pure white horse.
In the beautiful city in the prime of the day,
And the trumpets should cry and the crowds make way.
And the flags fly high in the morning sun,
And the people all cheer for the sovereign one.
And everyone knows that's the way that it's done.
That's the way that a King should come.

How should a King come?
Even a commoner understands,
He should come for His treasures,
And His houses and lands.
He should dine upon summer strawberries and milk,
And sleep upon bedclothes of satin and silk.
And high on a hill His castle should glow,
With the lights of the city like jewels below.
And everyone knows that's the way that it's done,
That's the way that a King should come.

How should a King come?
On a star filled night into Bethlehem,
Rode a weary woman and a worried man.
And the only sound in the cobblestone street,
Was the shuffle and the ring of their donkey's feet.
And a King lay hid in a virgin's womb,
And there were no crowds to see Him come.
At last in a barn in a manger of hay,
He came and God incarnate lay.

And the angels cried, "Glory, glory to God.”
Earth was silent so heaven rang!
"Glory, glory to God."
Men were silent so the angels sang,
"Glory, glory to God,
Peace on earth good will to men,
Glory, glory to God,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Glory to God, glory in the highest!
Glory to God, glory in the highest!
Glory to God!
(Carol and Jimmy Owens)

Have a very blessed Christmas Day tomorrow!

~Deb for the family

Not a Creature Was Stirring...

Our week has been fun...

• Tom is off work (always a good thing!)
• my sister (Aunt Bet) arrived from SC on Monday
• the menu is all planned
• the gifts are almost ready
• loving receiving cards from folks around the country
• Happy Birthday today to our 2-year old grandson, Ethan!
• just waiting for snow to arrive on Christmas Day
• we're ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

~Deb

Highlights of our Weekend

Friday:

• visited with new friends on a winter's evening

Saturday:

• joined in song at another encouraging hymn sing gathering

Sunday:

• tasted lychee and gang kai (Green Curry Chicken) for the first time at our friends' home after church

Sorry, no pictures of these events, just my hastily-drawn memories. Our motto of always taking a camera with us wasn't followed. ;)

~Hannah

Teatime

Isn't this table beautiful and Christmas-y? We were invited to a special tea by some friends. They went all out with the preparations, and their lovely home was decorated so festively.

Here we are with the ladies around the table ready to enjoy the final dessert course of Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce. Sarah even had a birthday candle in her piece!

Our friends DiAna, Alena, and their cousins Katrina and Emily, were our lovely servers, not to mention the expert cooks. What were all the other courses, you ask? Let's see if I can list them all.

We started with a cheesy chicken soup, then followed with ham quiche squares, bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, cucumber dill sandwiches, crackers with cheeses and gelatin salad, 2 fruit sorbets to cleanse our palate, peppermint scones with peppermint Devonshire cream, oranges and grapes, baklava and mini cheesecakes, and the ginger cakes. Everything was delicious.

Thank you, ladies, for a delightful time!

~Hannah

Photo Shoot: Baskets

Hannah has been busy recently photographing more baskets to upload to both Granny's Baskets page of the blog and to her Etsy shop (you can see the exact basket you would be receiving there.)

As you can see from the pile, Granny has been busy this season, too! Do you see a basket that would make a friend happy? Let us know, and we'll ship it right out to you in time for Christmas gift-giving, as long as it's a basket already made and in stock.

Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered baskets! It has made Granny so happy! We've made extra trips to the post office recently sending them to several states! Whoever thought one of Granny's handmade baskets would end up in Texas for someone to enjoy?!

 
Also thank you to those who have purchased Hannah's Soap. She has had fun packaging up the orders to go out.

Last but not least, we often forget to say a big thank you to all those who click through us on the sidebar catalog when you order items from Vision Forum. We appreciate it!

Vision Forum currently has a Storewide Special of 25 - 60% off through December 17th with $5 flat-rate shipping. The commissions we receive from your purchases go directly back into the blog to pay for Typepad for another year. So...thank you kindly!

~Deb

Thanksgiving With Friends--Old and New

Time sure flies! Thanksgiving was last month, and Christmas is almost here! So I figured it was high time I posted about our Thanksgiving spent with friends in northern Virginia, especially if we wanted these memories recorded on the blog.

This long table below seats 20 and is perfect for a large family or a family with a lot of friends. Our friends--Lew and Leigha--have both...six children and lots of friends! We enjoyed renewing old acquaintance with them, and also it was fun meeting three other families who were invited over for the day.

Granny watches as Sarah helps get things ready before the meal begins.

Here's the table below for all the children in the adjoining sunroom. Everything was beautiful!

The moms and young ladies worked together in the kitchen and placed food on the tables while the men got acquainted. It was such a wonderful atmosphere! I love Thanksgiving...especially if I don't have to cook! But...Hannah and Sarah baked four pies to bring and contribute to the meal.

A house tour was also on the agenda, and I took lots of pictures, of course. I enjoy seeing how other moms decorate their walls and homes. This was my favorite wall below. You can purchase this vinyl lettering and others like it here.

And below was a second favorite wall because I would love to stitch this needlework picture:

Here's the table full of food and folks--from one end:

To the other:

After the meal, we enjoyed a play by the children who portrayed Pilgrims and Indians:

Also during the afternoon, we sang hymns around the table and listened to some of the children playing piano. Tom, Jonathan, Sarah, and Hannah also presented a couple of songs.

The day ended with our host reading George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation.

We enjoyed our day tremendously with our friends! Thank you to Lew and Leigha for inviting us!

And thank you for stopping by and going along with us on our Thanksgiving Day visit!

~Deb

Goat Milk Soap Session

Last week I had the privilege of teaching a private soap lesson to an interested couple who hope to sell homemade soap from their farm, using their very own goat's milk. L.D. and Dawn are friends of ours who were unable to attend our last soapmaking class, so we made a special afternoon of it! I enjoyed sharing again what I've learned thus far about the process of soapmaking.

This time we worked in the kitchen, opening the window for ventilation when working with the lye. Together we attempted the touchy technique of using 100% goat milk as our liquid; Dawn brought fresh milk she had frozen in preparation.

Dawn's husband is an expert woodworker, so he contributed a beautifully-made wooden soap mold to contain our 7 lb. recipe. Below Dawn is just about ready to pour her rose-scented oatmeal soap into the mold at the end of the day. We had a great time experimenting together!

In other soap news, you'll notice on the right sidebar a button for homemade soap--for sale from Pleasant View Soaps (me)! Need a last-minute Christmas gift? Go check it out. :)

~Hannah

Stocking stuffers in my mailbox!

Yesterday I was delighted to see a package in the mail with my name on it! Over on Kate Spain's blog, she is very generously giving away twelve stocking stuffer gifts to her readers - one name is drawn every day. I was the winner on Day #2! There are still five days left, so go on over and put your name in the drawing to win some goodies. :)

Inside the package were several beautifully wrapped gifts. First, she sent me a panel of her 12 Days of Christmas fabric along with a pattern for a wall hanging that uses it...very cute. Then there was a Sudoku puzzle book - I love to work on those! Last but not least, a petit four of her new fabric line Central Park. Yay!

Everything looks very festive, doesn't it?

~Sarah

Celebrating Sarah and our First Snow!

Snow ~ We awoke Sunday morning to our first snow of the season...just in time for celebrating Sarah's birthday. This snowy sunrise scene is looking east towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. Accumulation was about an inch...beauty without the shoveling.

I actually didn't plan on this long of a Thanksgiving blog break! So true...the longer you skip writing a post the harder it is to get started again. However, some emails and comments kindly asking if we were okay have spurred me into action this morning. Thanks, blog readers for missing us!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I will write about our time of celebrating with friends in another post this week.

Birthday ~ But today's post is all about celebrating Sarah. "Happy-Day-After-Your-Birthday" to my sweet pea-in-a-pod! My baby is 24!!

Cooking ~ Saturday was spent in the kitchen making sure all the birthday dishes were prepared for Sunday.

Here's what Sarah requested for her special meal:  Meatballs over rice, green beans, sweet potato casserole, lime jello salad, toasted bread, and Funfetti cake with orange sherbet ice cream.

The cake was a double layer, baked in Christmas tree shaped pans, and decorated with a variety of candies. Since I'm not a cake decorator like Sarah, this took the most time, but I think it turned out just great. Here's an upclose photo:

Snowman Plate ~ You've read before about our snowman plate collection that we like to decorate with during the winter season. The kitchen shop at the Dayton Farmers' Market was selling a new design this year, and this one made its way home with me.

Concert ~ A Christmas concert at Bridgewater College featuring Vivaldi's Gloria was also one of Sarah's requests. We usually attend each December, so we picked the Sunday afternoon performance for her birthday. Both Hannah and I forgot our cameras, so this picture was taken with my phone; it will at least give you a glimpse of the church.

Games for the evening included Pit! and Trivial Pursuit--evidently a couple of her favorites because she picked them for last year's snowy birthday!

We enjoyed celebrating this weekend, and we thank the Lord for the blessing that Sarah is to our family!

~Deb