Things have been quite busy this holiday season. We will have 2 of the sons and their families out the week after Christmas. Sonny and I plan to visit my sister and brother in law on Christmas day.

I got the quilt back from the quilt shop who did the long arm quilting on it. I'm very pleased with it and know the granddaughter is going to love it. She picked out most of the fabrics.

The middle granddaughter is getting this one I had quilted last spring.

The oldest granddaugher is getting some dolls and some embroidered towels for her hope chest. Photo will come later.
The youngest granddaughter is into the American dolls. I had previously shown the trunk that hubby planned to build for her...well here is the one he made.

I've been doing alot of cookie baking and making treats for Christmas gifts. I don't have photos for all the cookies but these are my Rum balls..no baking required.

When I was a child my mom baked and made lots of Christmas goodies. One of our favorities she called "Chicken Feed" which is really Chex mix...so I made some of this..

I used 5 boxes of cereal, 1 package of pecans, 1 package of walnuts and 1/2 package of almonds...no cheerios but used the large pretzels instead of the stick kind. I also used mom's recipe for the juice that you pour over it. But I let it bake a little too long...oh well!!! We will eat it anyway.

Our youngest son and family went to Disney World for Christmas...they are having a ball. Here is Miss Molly dressed up like Cinderella..she got to meet all the Disney Princesses and many of the Disney characters. I think they may get to go to Crystal River and swim with the manatees before heading home. More pictures will come later.

And as always....

Been awhile since I've even been online. Working on some unfinished things for Christmas gifts. I finished some redwork embroidery in blue that is the Lord's Prayer and the fruits of the Spirit. I will combine them after Christmas into a wall hanging. I also am finishing hooking a couple of rugs my sister started back in 2012. I have completed one and about 2/3rds  finished with the other one. 

Photo of the other will come later. 

I did what little Christmas decorating I do each year. This year instead of the table top tree, I only put my spoon tree up that hubby made.

I keep my snow village out year round.

Then I went very basic with my dining room table. Just my nativity embroidered table cloth and my white angels and dove candle holder.

I didn't iron the table cloth and thought the folds would come out on their own but don't think it is happening. 

Got my light up redbirds and wiener dogs out on the porch.

From a distance they look like chickens and ?????

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On a gift note.....I have been wanting a Sizzix cutter for over a year and decided to gift myself this year with one...so got it the other day and of course it came without dies so now I'm looking at ordering dies. I will check Michaels next week to see if they have some basic one.

Sonny got some new boots and a quilted vest.

And as always...thought I would put up my To-Do list for the holidays.

Thanks for everything Father!!!

This week is a time to reflect on all we are thankful for...I'm so thankful for my family and my husband who I love with my whole heart. I'm thankful for my health and a warm home and good food but I'm especially thankful for my God...HE is everything to me.

He paints the best pictures ever.....

Noone can compete with that. Early morning sunrise just makes you want to get up and do more for Him.

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Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my sister and her husband...kids were all celebrating with their other sides of their families...

Sonny's birthday was the 20th and he decided to go hunting and man he got the best present ever!!!!

A nice 8 point buck..

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Have most of the Christmas gifts made for everyone in the family but the youngest. She is into American dolls. She was wanting her Papaw to make a doll house but for what it was going to cost, it was much much cheaper to buy one...but her mom being the resourceful person she is found a book shelf she converted to the doll house...so had been looking for something to do for Miss Molly...found this darling doll trunk with bed that Papaw plans to make.. It is from this site.

Doll trunk

I think she will be thrilled...but since they are going to Disney World for Christmas, she won't get it until her birthday in January. 

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Well off here for the day. And I leave you as always....

Full moon and baking time

Sonny and I always smoke hams and turkey breast for our church thanksgiving dinner each year. So we are doing that today. We are also having my sister and BIL out for Thursday Thanksgiving dinner so we are smoking an extra turkey breast for us. I'm making 2 small pans of cornbread dressing ...one for church and one for us...and will do fresh cranberry relish as well...for our Thursday I plan on doing turnip greens, sweet potatoes, tomato aspic and just home canned condiments...like pickled green beans, etc..

But I used the last of the persimmons the other day and made 4 small loaves of persimmon bread. I like it better than pumpkin bread..I put in dried cranberries as well.

I also made a buttermilk pie.

I lucked out yesterday. Last year I got a set of light up redbirds for Christmas yard decorating. They had some dachshunds but when I went back a week later to get them, they were sold out so on our monthly shopping yesterday, we stopped by Big Lots on the chance they had some and they had one set of the dogs left. We are setting them and the redbirds up today on our porch railing. Photos will come later. 

Monday was a SUPERMOON...last one this large was in 1948. So I did manage to get a good photo before the clouds moved in.

I loves these next photos of the moon behind the clouds.

Busy time of the year for us...

I thought I would close with this Scripture that pertains to the Supermoon.

Luke21:25- 28 "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the SON of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

Is Autumn here yet?

We have been dealing with unusually warm temps for this time of year up into the high 80's...We finally got some rain yesterday and temps are a little cooler but still seems so dry out...We won't have good fall colors this year due to the dry warm weather we have had..so there are already tons of leaves that have fallen. 

We have been fighting a buck deer lately. This past summer it was squirrels eating our fruit but now this buck is tearing up our smaller fruit trees with his horns..it is what you call "hooking"..they mark their territory by doing this. Hubby is a big hunter so imagine he will be in our freezer when hunting season opens..But this is what some of the trees look like. 

We have put stakes up around them to deter the buck from hooking and killing our trees...we did lose one smaller tree from his hooking.

And since the persimmons have pretty well fallen off the tree now, we took down the carpet tack strips and will reuse them on the fruit trees this next spring to deter the squirrels...it helped on the persimmon tree so know it will work on the other trees as well.

My sister came out and stayed a couple of nights a few weeks ago. We took a trip down memory lane and took a drive over to some places we camped at when we were kids..

Here is the Cossatot River.

We hiked around here for awhile and then drove over to Shady Lake. There we spent about an hour talking to the camp ground supervisor.

Then drove to Bards Springs. They still have the old lean-to camp sheds...didn't take photos there and then since Camp Albert Pike is still closed we didn't stop there as well. I hate that the Albert Pike is closed but it had gotten so overrun with people and ATV's that it was awful..now it is reverting back to the natural state and so lovely. There were some back packers and horse trail riders so it is getting some use...just no bathroom upkeeps.

Finished up the scrappy 9-patch quilt top and lady in our church quilted it for me but I have to bind it. Been doing some redwork baby quilt blocks for some baby quilts. Have some aprons to finish for Christmas gifts and also some ceramics to paint for the DGD's boyfriend's Christmas...and then she has given me 4 dolls to dress. 2 of the dolls I have to make bodies for...Also wanting to start a new hooked rug. Staying busy.

And I am ending this as usual..

Witticisms

Welcome to Vintage Spice Twice...sorry for the inconvenience of having to swap sites. I just could not post photos to wordpress any longer. Glad you could join me here. 

Here are a few witticisms I've collected...

And as always....

new try

I haven't posted here in over a year due to problems trying to upload photos. So will try again and see if it works.

Spring is here. We have had 2 days of 80F temps. All our fruit trees are in full bloom.

Our hawks have returned and think Mrs. Hawk is sitting eggs. I haven't been able to get a photo of her yet.

The trees are putting out leaves. We had to replant our pea patch as we had so much rain lately that they either rotted or washed away. The rains thinned our lettuce as well.

 

We took a drive between rains and got a good shot of a spotted eagle. He looked drowned.

The rivers and creeks are back down in their banks. We were really fortunate and did not get the flooding that others did. We had a tornado to touch down on a lake near us. Noone hurt.