Mountain Musings

Merry Christmas from Mountain Musings

~Merry Christmas!~

Merry Christmas to all our readers! Have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Saviour!

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

~Isaiah 9:6-7

~The Girotti Family

Holly Jolly Bingo: Winners!

After fifteen days of bingo, we have our two winners! Congratulations!

 Winner of the first prize package:
~Caroline~

Winner of the second prize package:

~Anna W.~

Thank you so much to everyone for playing! I've enjoyed everybody's comments on all my posts - I love hearing about your Christmas traditions and celebrations. I wish everybody could win! :)

Updated to add: There was a total of 25 people playing. By looking over everyone's lists, there were 2 people who had their 25 words yesterday, and everyone else should have bingoed today. :D

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Fifteen

Yesterday we had our first bingo winner! Congratulations to Caroline for winning the first prize package. Now here are today's words - first person to post bingo wins the second prize! Go! :)

The final extra words are:
Cookies - a very popular word choice of all of you! :) Our family hasn't ever made a ton of Christmas cookies like some do, but we do enjoy baking some during this time of year. Yesterday I made a recipe recently posted on Money Saving Mom for Angel Face Cookies. I substituted palm shortening for the cup of vegetable shortening but did everything else the same. They turned out pretty good! Last year I made some cut-out cookies:
Have you ever made a gingerbread house? I've made one...11 years ago now. It was from a kit, with everything prebaked, and all the decorations included for you. It was fun to work on, but you didn't get to be very creative. I should try it again, and this time come up with my own design and bake my own gingerbread. :)

It's so fun to make a snowman! It's great when the snow is packing well enough to roll up - it seems like sometimes we are more prone to get the dry powdery kind that doesn't tend to stick together. I like to grab an old scarf to decorate my snowmen, and sometimes we'll have an old carrot available for the nose. If we don't, I just collect some sticks from the woods.

If you were around last year on the blog, you may remember the great Christmas light debate. It's still going strong here at the Girotti house! :) This year, we switched to totally LED lights on the tree, after having to replace the old strands every. single. year. However, there was one strand of the incandesant lights left that still worked, so I took the opportunity to scavenge that for my own room. Now the bottom of my large mirror has garland with multi-colored lights decorating it. I have just left them plugged in all the time and have enjoyed drifting off to sleep bathed in colorful light. :)

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Fourteen

Is today the last day? So many of you are getting close to bingo! Remember to post a comment here if you get all your words!

And the extras today are:
I love all the different festive colors of wrapping paper that we have! We have several rolls from Costco, and like everything else in that store, there is a lot of paper on one roll. :) Some of us use all different kinds of paper for different gifts, and there are others *cough*Jonathan*cough* that like to use one kind of paper for all their gifts. My aunt had a long running tradition of wrapping all her gifts in plain brown paper with pretty fabric ribbons on them, so you could always tell which ones were from her. :)
Have you ever gone Christmas caroling? Our homeschool group went many years ago, and it was so much fun! There were a lot of people that came to the door, they all enjoyed it, and it was a nice night. Last year, for the first time since then, our family went caroling locally. It was a coooold night though and lots of people were not home. However, it was still reallly fun!

We made up little bags with popcorn covered with peppermint candy coating, and Dad wrote a Christmas tract that we printed out and tied to the bag. After we finished singing our songs, one of us ran up to the door and handed them the treat bag. Everybody that came to the door seemed to enjoy our singing, except for the one guy who we didn't know was Jewish until afterward, when he pointed to the mezuzah on the door post and asked if we knew what it meant. (And we sung Good Christian Men, Rejoice, too....heheheh.) We were hoping to go again this year, but so far the week has gone by, and we haven't had the chance. The weather doesn't look too good for the next couple of evenings either. I was going to have a picture of us to post if we had gone earlier this week! :)

Memories...I have so many memories of Christmases past. One memory I have is when everybody came to our house for Christmas, back when Granddaddy and Aunt Bunny were alive, and Hannah and I had to give up our bedroom. We always set up pallets on the floor underneath our ping pong table and would talk long into the night on Christmas Eve. Then there was the Christmas I received Pepper after begging for a dog - I was sooo excited! Or the year I was 3 or 4 and was the angel in our little play...my costume was one of Mom's white blouses, trimmed with tinsel, that almost dragged the floor when I walked. One year I asked for and was thrilled to receive doll diapers...foreshadowing of my current obsession with cloth diapers. :)

Okay, now I'm feeling very nostalgic! Do you have good memories of Christmas to share?

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Thirteen

Thursday is here - we're two weeks in. Can you believe it?Extra words today:

I've been ice skating twice before. It was so much fun! The first time was on a weekday morning, and the rink was basically empty - very nice to have it to ourselves. I only fell once! :) The second time was on a Saturday, and it was SO crowded you could hardly move. Too bad it's not cold enough here, or we could just flood part of the yard to make our own rink like they used to in the old days! :)

What kind of nativity scenes do you have? We have one ceramic set that we've always put up, then we have one fabric one that a friend made a few years ago. (Thanks, Mrs. O!) There's also our nativity flag outside and a manger that Dad made on the porch. I cut some fresh cedar branches to fill that and put the blanket wrapped doll on top.

Do you have a good recipe for cinnamon rolls? I have found that The Pioneer Woman's recipe is absolutely delicious! It has to be, with all that butter. :) We don't care for coffee, so I don't put that in the icing, and usually I've substituted orange oil for the maple extract. Yum! I'll have to make some of those in the next week...

What kind of ornaments do you put on your tree? Classy? Country? Handmade? We have such a plethora of ornaments - our tree is soooo full. We have so many family favorites, plus we add new ones every year. Each of us kids has our own collection, that we will one day take for our own family. Until then, they just keep multiplying! ;)

We have two wreaths, one on either side of the front door. Back in Williamsburg, Mom went with a colonial look some years, decorating them with fresh fruit. Nowadays, we have candy canes tied on them. Have you ever made fresh wreaths? A few years ago, Mom and I took a class on how to do it. I tried later on my own, and it didn't go so well. Fresh wreaths are so pretty, though!

I love secrets! It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas - sneaking around and getting just the right thing for each person. I love it when it's a total surprise, and not even something they were expecting. Last year when I made Mom a snowman table runner and placemats, I was up late at night, sewing furiously. Then there was a lot of handwork to do, and I was able to sneak some in the van on the way to church and do it quietly in the back without her suspecting.

Then there are the whispers, the locked doors, and you can hear rustling paper in there. There might even be signs posted to warn off possible offenders!

Lots of good words today. :) Getting close to the end!

 ~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Twelve

It's Wednesday, and we're moving ever closer to a winner! It could be anytime now!
Bonus words today are:
How do you like to eat cranberries? In bread? Sauce? We like to make Cranberry Relish, and we've posted the recipe several times before. Here's one of the posts. We just made some on Sunday, so we've been eating on the leftovers this week. So yummy!

You always hear the song say "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire!", but have you ever had a chestnut before? Chestnuts once made up 25% of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains, but they were decimated by blight in the early 1900s. There are people trying to bring back chestnut trees, and one of our fellow vendors at the farmer's market this year is one of them. Hannah bought some nuts from them for Jonathan's birthday, and we still have to try roasting them. I wonder what they'll taste like? It will be neat to try them, knowing they were a Christmas time favorite many years ago. :)

There was a Christmas party yesterday at Dad's work, and he ordered a cake from me to share. I've done several over the years, and I was trying to come up with something a little different instead of a tree, wreath, present, etc. So I went with a snowflake theme and wrote Noel on it. (Noel is another word for Christmas, coming from French quite a ways back. Did you know that? For a long time, I didn't...) Not my favorite, but I never like my cakes that much. Heh. The inside was red velvet with a raspberry filling, and we were able to help clean up the leftovers for supper. :)

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Eleven

 Here we go again! :) There's at least one person with only 5 words to go - who will win?

And today's bonus words are:
Holly berries being called today reminds me of one of the songs we have sung during our Christmas Eve program many times. It was quite the hit back when we first performed it, and it has almost become an annual request. O The Holly She Bears a Berry has similar words to The Holly and the Ivy:

1. O the holly she bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus, all wrapped up in silk:

Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly!

2. O the holly she bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died on the cross:

Chorus

3. O the holly she bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died for us all:

Chorus

4. O the holly she bears a berry, as blood is it red,
  And we trust in our Saviour, who rose from the dead:

Chorus

A favorite part is when Jonathan has a solo in the chorus - his deep "Holly! Hoooollllyyyy!" is a classic. :) If you want to hear the tune, there is a YouTube video version here.

At Christmastime, there are often secret homemade gift items being worked on around here. Three different years recently, there have been quilts in the works! There's the Federal Star Throw that Hannah made for Mom, a Piece of Cake quilt Mom made for my aunt, and then the Road to Spring quilt Mom made for Jonathan. And the funny thing is...if you read those posts, each project was being frantically finished on Christmas Eve!

Have anything to add today? Do you eat ham for Christmas? (We don't.) Did you grow up with bubble lights? (I didn't.) Is Silent Night your favorite Christmas carol? (It is Granny's favorite!)

Etcetera. :)

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Ten

Monday again! I think we might have a winner this week...how many words do YOU need to reach bingo?

We'll have 8 extra words every day this week! :)

Do you know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? I didn't until I just looked it up - we probably have never had a real yam, just sweet potatoes that are mis-named. Granny makes some good candied sweet potatoes, simply made with cinnamon, sugar, and a little water.

At this time of year, a lot of people take a family picture to send out to all their friends and family. We enjoy receiving all the updated pictures, and we have a whole display on our refrigerator. As we get in each new one, we slip it on top of last year's edition. Usually we take a picture to send out every other year or so. This week we all dressed in our coordinating clothes, Hannah set up the tripod, and after much trial, error, and sore mouth muscles, a halfway decent picture was finally obtained. Voila:

Amazing how hard it is to get a picture with all 6 members looking okay at the SAME TIME. :)

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Nine

It's the end of the week again! Have a good weekend and see you back here on Monday. :)
And 8 bonus words today!

Do any of you use an advent calendar to count down the days til Christmas? We have a couple that we use. One is this scrapbook calendar that Mom made many years ago in a class. For a few years it was missing, but last year we finally found it! Yay! You have to flip to a new page each day - sometimes we forget though. Heh. (Notice the number on today's page - only 10 days til Christmas! Wow!)

Another advent calendar we have is this wooden tree made by a good friend of ours. There are 25 little hooks on it, and there's a small object that you hang up each day. They all represent a Scripture verse about the coming of Jesus and His birth, and you're supposed to read the verses each day as you hang up the ornaments.

This time of year can be so busy and hectic at times. Do you ever take time out just to be quiet and rest? I have a tradition of sleeping in the den on Christmas Eve (because usually someone else is in my bedroom), and I enjoy the quiet after everyone else has gone to bed. The lights are all out, and it's just the glow of the little candles and the tree lights. It's so nice and peaceful!

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo: Day Eight

I hope a lot of you get some words crossed off today! :)

Bonus words for today:

I LOVE snow! :) Last winter was so mild, and so far this year has been too. I've really missed having snow - hopefully we'll have at least ONE good snow this winter! In 2009, we had several storms, 2 feet on top of 1 foot, etc. I admit that was a little much. :) It's so pretty though, and I love having fun sledding, having snowball fights, and I don't even mind shoveling. Here's a picture we may have posted before, after the ordeal of taking Pepper out in the 2 feet of snow. That is what's the most difficult about winter weather...of course, I've never had to drive in it. ;)

Have you ever been to a cookie exchange? We posted about one we went to 4 years ago here. It was SO fun! There were lots of different kinds of yummy cookies to try and bring home. 

We have several different Christmas table runners that decorate our two tables. A couple were handmade gifts from friends, one we've had for years, and the snowman one I made last year for Mom. Don't they just make a table look so festive?

~Sarah