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Day 4 is upon us already! How many words do you have now?
Silent Night is such a beautiful Christmas carol! It has always been Granny's favorite, so it's one that we always sing each year during our Christmas program. We have an instrumental version on CD by the Miller-Rowe Consort that is so pretty...here's a YouTube video I found of them performing it live.
That's all I have for today! ;)
~Sarah
Day 3 and 12 more words! As you might have gathered, I choose a few of the words on the list to write about each day. If any of you have something to share about ANY of the words, feel free to do so in the comments! :)
Here's question for you: what is a toboggan? For 27 years, all I've known is that a toboggan looks like this:
All of a sudden, in the past month, I have heard 3 different people refer to stocking caps as toboggans. Naturally, that really confused me. A customer at the farmers' market told Hannah and me that he liked our toboggans. We just smiled and thanked him, and then turned to each other with a quizzical look on our faces. Heh. Googling turned up the fact that toboggan can be a Southern term for a winter hat. So....an informal poll of our readers - sled or hat?
The past few days we have had a couple of different winter storms move through our area. Yesterday we had 1-2 inches of snow in the morning, and I snapped a few pictures of the winter wonderland before it melted away in the afternoon sun. :) Well, at least MOST of it melted...the rest of the slush froze again in the 13 degree temperatures we had last night. There's nothing like a little snow to make it seem like Christmas time!
~Sarah
Day 2, here we come! Below you will find today's words....randomly selected by a generator, not by me. ;)
Do you have any special or traditional desserts you make for Christmas? There are several yummy sounding words today! Has anyone actually had mince pie? I've always thought it sounded rather disgusting myself, but I haven't had a chance to try it. :)
Last year, Hannah made a very intensely CHOCOLATE cake for Christmas. She found the recipe for Chocolate Gingerbread Toffee cake in Southern Living and decided to try it out. Everyone liked it - it's very rich though, so a small slice will go a long way!
Have you read this interesting article from Answers in Genesis? It discusses whether Jesus was actually born in a stable or if the Greek word for inn was referring to an upper room. I hadn't heard of that possibility before!
Hopefully by now, everyone has at least one word crossed off their lists! :) See you tomorrow...
~Sarah
We will now commence with the first day of bingo! Let's hope that I have enough to write about this year, and that I didn't exhaust all the Christmas topics last year. :)
First, here are today's words:
Poinsettias are always a beautiful way to decorate the table! Jonathan's company gives away very nice poinsettias to the employees at their Christmas dinner, and he brings one home for Mom to enjoy. :)
Here's an interesting tidbit about this common Christmas flower:
The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday. The tale goes that the child was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson "blossoms" sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the blood sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus.
What are some of your favorite Christmas carols? This conversation came up at our house recently, when Mom was talking about how she liked Once in Royal David's City. She was asking me what my favorite was, and I told her I really don't have one favorite - I like a large variety. :) Little did I know that she was specifically fishing on behalf of my aunt, who was in the process of making some Christmas napkin rings for my birthday! She just chose some of her favorites, and I like them all - aren't they so cute?! I can't wait to use them!
~Sarah
Well...since Sarah will be starting the Holly Jolly Bingo contest on Monday morning and days following, before she starts the fun I thought I'd get in a quick post about Thanksgiving Day and the special times this past holiday weekend.
We were indeed surrounded by friends!
First, we traveled to Lynchburg for a Thanksgiving meal and an afternoon of fun and games with church friends. We had a really enjoyable time - many thanks to the Decker family:The next day brought friends to our home who were visiting in the area for Thanksgiving. They stopped by for lunch before heading back home to northern Virginia. We love this family!:
And, of course, the ever present guest book that everyone signs before they leave:
The next day I received a surprise phone call from my hometown friends from South Boston who had celebrated Thanksgiving up in Pennsylvania. They were headed back home down I-81 and wanted to stop in to say hello.
I've known Garnett and Carolyn for over 40 years, and we always enjoy seeing them. We ate a supper meal together and sang some hymns before they were back on the road:Here I am with my friend, Carolyn. Thank you, friends, for stopping by to see us while you were in the area:
And last, but not least, my friend Jean and I got together this week for lunch and some antiquing. Here we are at Greenhouse Coffee in Crozet:
Below: we visited Rockfish Gap Country Store together, but neither of us left with a purchase. We found out that their Open House is this weekend with discounts in the whole store...so why buy anything at full price?
After Jean and I left each other, I continued on to Greenwood Antiques and Uniques, a store I'd never visited and had heard about only that morning.
The display windows were very eye-catching, and I spotted an antique quilt piece there that I could hardly wait to go in and check out.Once inside I found that the quilt piece was tabletop size taken from a larger antique quilt, and it definitely needed washing. The owner told me she used it for display only, but she would be willing to sell it.
Okay!
I now own it, and it's shown below. This piece needs some sewing and improving the torn sides. I think this is the spider web pattern? And here it is again being held by Hannah in the foyer:
Love my purchase!
Well, fun times! And more to come, Lord willing!
~Deb
Well, it's that time of year when snow sometimes heads our way. In fact, a few years we were knee-deep in snow on December 5th - Sarah's birthday - which she thought was just the icing on the cake, the best of all presents on her special day!
She was, of course, hoping for some of the white stuff this year...but when temperatures today are close to 70 degrees, then I don't think she's going to get her birthday wish! And what did our birthday girl pick for her special meal tonight? Her usual choice!
The Christmas tree-shaped cake is iced, the jello salad has jelled, and now I'm heading to the kitchen to begin preprations for the main meal. We want to wish the birthday girl the very happiest of birthdays!
And be sure to sign up for Sarah's Holly Jolly Bingo game by Sunday night...all the fun starts on Monday.
~Deb
Well, I was playing around with the idea of doing this little game again this year, and then after receiving a comment from a reader tonight I decided to go for it! :)
I am going to be running a contest this month, just like last year. I originally participated in one of these over on the In Stitches blog. If you played last year, you already know how this works; if you're new around these parts, read the rules below and feel free to jump in!
Game Instructions & Rules:
1. Choose 25 words from the list below. Write them down to save for yourself AND email your list to my email: girottih(at)yahoo(dot)com. Include your name in your email.
2. All list submissions must be received by MIDNIGHT (EST) Sunday, December 8.
3. Beginning Monday, December 9, I will post 12-15 randomly chosen words each day (Sundays excluded). Words will be posted around 8 am EST until the first two people reach BINGO!
4. Participants will want to check our blog each and every day to find out what words were called and cross them off your list!
5. As soon as you have crossed off all 25 words, please leave a comment posting “BINGO!” I will double check your list to make sure it is a good bingo and will announce the winners on the blog. Even if someone has called “Bingo”, please continue to post “Bingo” until a winner is announced.
6. Multiple family members are welcome to play, just send me the separate lists for each of you.
Prizes:
We're still settling on prizes, but they will probably include a basket, some soap, and some homemade fudge/marshmallows/or brittle. Ooooo - you know you want to win it! Pictures will be up at some point. ;)
BINGO WORDS:
Remember, choose 25 words from the list below. Write them down to save for yourself AND email your list to my email: girottih(at)yahoo(dot)com. Include your name!
Deadline to get your email with your words submitted is:
MIDNIGHT (EST) Sunday, December 8.
(click on this picture and then the magnifying glass to enlarge a bit for easier viewing)
I hope everyone will have a fun time with this again! :) Thanks again to In Stitches for the idea, most of the words, and the rules for this little game.
~Sarah
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