Mountain Musings

Mountain Musings ~ Home for Christmas!

Hello, and Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Snow won't be falling this weekend here in the Shenandoah Valley, but I love the beauty of a quietly falling snow on Christmas Eve, don't you? Maybe next year...

Life has been busy around Mountain Musings as we prepare for the season of celebrating the birth of Jesus. Here's our family photo below that we mailed in our Christmas cards to family and friends. What a difference a year makes! Last year we sent everyone Sarah and Eric's wedding picture!

Sure wish we could see that little munchkin, Andrew, this Christmas, but he'll celebrate in Atlanta with his parents until he's able to come visit with a little less medical equipment traveling with him.

Here's Andrew's Christmas Elf picture...he's 8 months old already! I'm a little biased....but isn't that just the cutest elf you ever saw??!!!

Back in 2009 as part of a blogging Christmas House Tour, I posted about our Christmas decorations inside and outside the house and also showed you my snowman plate collection. Click on those links if you weren't reading the blog back then...I usually decorate the same every year.

...with the exception of this year! Hannah took down the country curtains in the nook area, and we added berry garland and lights around those windows: Here's the newest plate just given to me by a friend. (Thanks, Kathy!) The antique holly berry tablecloth is an inexpensive purchase from the local antique mall: And here's the table set with snowman plates for a recent dinner when friends from church came over. My new plate will make an appearance tomorrow when my sister arrives for Christmas: As part of our holiday celebrations, Tom took a day off work, and we traveled to Richmond to meet dear friends for lunch:Whole Foods is a great half-way meeting place, and the tables in the Food Court are great for talking for hours!: The basket in the photo above was made by Granny, and I purchased it and filled it up with lots of green-themed goodies for my friend.

Granny is doing much better thanks to everyone's prayers for her, and the physical therapy three times a week is helping quite a bit, too. Here she is anticipating a Christmas concert at the hospital that's scheduled every December for all the shut-ins and patients in the hospital:Granny always enjoys this yearly Christmas concert, along with all the patients being rolled in on stretchers and wheelchairs. The first song,"I'll Be Home For Christmas," brought many tears from those not well enough to go home from the hospital in time for Christmas.

"When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh."  ~ Matthew 2:10-11

All the folks here at Mountain Musings want to wish your family a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and Happy New Year in 2017.

See you back on the blog in January.

~Deb

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Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 10

Edited:

We have our 2 winners! Congrats to Cathy and Victoria on crossing off all their words. Your prizes will be sent out shortly! :) Thanks to everyone for playing along again this year!

Day 10, words coming up!

Today I have a cute snowman picture for you!! :) Andrew and I were over at my in-laws' house yesterday, and he was interested in their big snowman decorating the door. We had to get a picture of them together. :) The snowman is a head taller than the baby! Awww.

Maybe someday he'll get to make a REAL snowman!

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 9

Wow, we're halfway through the second week already! I hope everyone has had fun so far and that you're all getting lots of words crossed off. Here's 15 more:

What's your favorite kind of hot chocolate? Do you have a recipe for homemade that you whip up? Or do you get a mix from the grocery store? One of my favorite flavors of hot chocolate is French vanilla....and I was given some for my birthday to enjoy! Yay! Are you a marshmallows in your hot chocolate person or not? Sometimes I put them in, sometimes I don't. :) What's even better than hot chocolate by itself is sipping some along with CINNAMON ROLLS. Now that's good stuff...perfect for a trim the tree party or for Christmas breakfast. :)

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 8

Here we are again....15 more words for crossing off your lists! Anyone getting close?

Today I'm showing you my collection of Christmas linens - I have 3 tablecloths, and then one set of snowflake napkins. Aren't they pretty and festive?! Right now I have the holly tablecloth on the table, but I need to change it out. Hmmm, which one of the others should I pick next...

Do you have seasonal linens that you use?

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 7

Good Monday morning, everybody!! I hope you had a good weekend...are you ready to start the second week of bingo? Here we go!

I have two manger scenes in our house - one is on our coffee table and was my grandpa's. It's very much like the one I grew up with, so it's like a little bit of home. :) The second manger scene is a new one given as a wedding gift from friends, and we display it on the dining room table.

What manger scenes do you have?

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 6

The weekend is here, and I have some bonus words for you! I won't be posting tomorrow, so see you back here bright and early on Monday morning. :)

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

 

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 1:31-33,  2:6-7

 

Christmas is the season of celebrating Christ's Birth, our Savior coming down to earth as a man to save His people from their sins. What wonderful news! How do you keep the focus of Christmas on the real reason for the season?

Have a good Lord's day tomorrow...see you next week.

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 5

Wow, it's Friday already! Fifteen more words, coming up...

Well, since it's almost the end of the first week, I suppose I should let you know what you're playing for, right? :) The prizes this year are as follows:

Prize #1

$25 Amazon gift card

Prize #2

$25 Etsy gift card

First person to bingo gets first choice between the two! Yay!

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 4

Forward to Day 4!

I wrote about our new ornaments last year, but here are some of the traditional ones that Eric brought along with him. These are clear plastic icicles, and we have both thin ones and thick ones all over the tree. He said that in Georgia, these are about the only icicles that we will get! :)
Eric and I both brought along quite a few ornaments with us...both of our moms have been giving them to us for many years, so we amassed a lot! There was enough to just about fill our tree last year, and now we've added the new ones!

Do you have any traditional ornaments that Christmas just wouldn't be the same without?

~Sarah

Holly Jolly Bingo ~Day 3

Happy Wednesday morning, all! We are now on Day 3, with 15 more words below. How many do you have now?

When living in Virginia, our tree skirt was always an old blanket that was red with white polka dots. Once I got married and moved, I was going to have to buy or make my own tree skirt - then Mom gave me one as a gift! It's a cute one, with a snowman and Let it Snow in the front. I like it! :)

Do you use a skirt on your tree?

~Sarah

 

Holly Jolly Bingo ~ Day 2

We are on to day TWO! Fifteen more words are below...how many can you cross out today?
I've loved decorating our home for Christmas, and we're finally done making everything festive this year! Here's a picture of our mantle...I've added a few things since last year. And you'll notice the new stocking in the middle! :)
How do you decorate your mantle for Christmas?

~Sarah

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