More Christmas Mice

Over the years, I've put together a collection of Christmas Mice.  It started back in the 80's, when I'd take my son to Lekvold's Alpine Acres in Granite Falls, WA, to trek through the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree.  We'd cut one down, put it in the back of the truck, and take it home.  While we were there, we'd also pick up our wreaths and visit the Holiday Hut, a little cabin in the woods filled with handmade Christmas ornaments made by three generations of the  Lekvold family who lived on and ran the tree farm.  Their cutest ornaments were the tiny mice they crafted out of felt and little buttons.  I picked up quite a few of them, and then added mice from other craft shops over the years.

This year, while visiting Sky Valley Nursery, I found the best (and largest!) Christmas mouse to date.  Here they all are, living in this great basket at the top of the stairs.  They add so much to the Christmas spirit in this house!

 

 

 

 

It's Christmas!

Christmas morning finally arrived, and we enjoyed a light breakfast of quiche and fruit before we started the preparations for the turkey and ham.  Once they were in the oven, we transformed the table into a lovely tableau of elegance to celebrate the day in style.

After appetizers at noon, we had Kaila's Christmas Scavenger Hunt, and then settled into the routine of making the rest of the Christmas dinner.  By 3 p.m., we were ready for the first course of Butternut Squash Soup. 

We enjoyed the meal, the company, and the true meaning of the day that we celebrate.

 

 

 

 

Birthday Flowers

My best friend Liz sent me this beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday and Christmas this year.  It will make a lovely centerpiece for my holiday table, and the touches of pine will add to the fragrances of the roses, carnations, and lilies.  It's a thoughtful gift from my best friend.

Sky Valley Nursery in Monroe, Washington

While on a drive to Duvall last week, I took the highway loop heading north out of town, and landed in downtown Monroe.  Just before town, there is a well-known nursery known as Sky Valley Nursery.  I had heard of it from the locals, but had never been there.  I was on a mission to find a perfect tiny live tree to put on the back deck, adorned with colored Christmas lights.  I was hoping Sky Valley would have what I wanted.

Boy, was I surprised at this place!  It was huge, and had many outbuildings filled with bistro tables and chairs, pots, and all things garden. The gift shop was filled with elegant, high-end items with a garden theme, and I had a good time finishing my Christmas shopping there.  Also, I did find a perfect tiny live tree.

  

 

Match Coffee and Wine in Duvall, Washington

I was intrigued by the new coffeehouse and wine bar in Duvall, so last Saturday, I stopped by to check it out.  It's in an old building that has been renovated, and the interior was all wood and glass, and very upscale and inviting.  There was a large fireplace in the main room next to the coffee shop, and a long bar covered each long wall of the building.  The second picture below offers a great gift idea for a Christmas wreath for the wine lover!

It's a great venue for wine tastings, or coffee and hot chocolate on a cold, wintry day.

 

 

 

 

 

A Trip to Molbaks

On my week off, I braved the crowds at Molbak's in Woodinville, and had a wonderful time touring the garden area, buying gifts and ornaments, and getting a lovely Poinsettia.  It's always a wonderful holiday experience spending time in that lovely store that put Woodinville on the map many years ago.

Here is the poinsettia tree and a shot of all of the various types of poinsettias that Molbak's grows.

 

 

 

 

 

The Front Porch

A front porch tells a visitor a lot about the occupants of a home, and I hope there was a story somewhere in the contents of my front porch this Christmas Season.  I had so much fun putting everything together!

The lovely Christmas Cross came from Flower World, and I've never seen a Christmas wreath in this shape before.  The little red child's chair came from M&M Antiques in Monroe, and the two red lanterns also came from antique shops in Monroe.  The red plaid thermos belonged to my step-father many years ago, and the new red doormat is new this year.

Christmas is all about country living, and that was my message this year.

Snow!!

On Friday, December 20, we had our first snowfall of the year!  It was beautiful, and the snow started falling overnight, providing a lovely white canopy everywhere when we woke up in the morning.

Here's our street and yard.  The snow didn't last longer than a couple of days, and we only had about four inches, but it was still beautiful, and put us all in the mood for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

Dogs Love Christmas, Too!

Nala the Dog posed this evening in front of the decorated Christmas tree here in Maltby.  She has on her red and green jester's collar adorned with bells from Knick Knack Paddywack Dog Boutique, and she loves this season of the year.  She gets homemade dog biscuits, and soon, many other gifts appear beneath the tree with her name on them.  She believes in Santa now!

Christmas Dessert Buffet

On Saturday, we invited our friends and neighbors to a Christmas Dessert Buffet.  I've noticed that over the years, it's easy to lose touch with our friends due to busy schedules.  Our buffet was an invitation to drop by for a quick visit, some holiday treats, and then resume our busy holiday and shopping schedules.

We had fun making pies, cookies and holiday breads, and decorated the pine table with our creations.  Once the candles were lit and the holiday music playlist was turned on, we were ready!

We spent a wonderful afternoon catching up with our guests, telling stories, and making plans to meet again soon. It embodied the true spirit of Christmas!

 

Lunch With the Neighbors

We had our annual "Girls Christmas Lunch" yesterday at the Preservation Kitchen in Bothell.  It's fun for the four of us from Maltby to get together each year during the holiday season and get caught up on all of our lives over a good meal. We rarely see each other during the Fall and Winter months.

We shared stories about Kelly's family trip to France and Italy in September for their 25th anniversary, and heard stories about Roberta' chickens and updates on her five children.  Mary always has great stories about her six-year-old grandson Parker, and her plans for the yard and garden in the Spring.

This next year, we are planning a spring luncheon so we can be in touch a little more often.  Here's to all of us "country women"!

 

 

Stollen

This German bread (meaning "post" due to its shape) is a staple of our Christmas baking and family tradition for both of our families.  Here is the finished product that began 24 hours ago, and is now finished and ready to be sampled for breakfast tomorrow morning.  We will make several more loaves before the New Year arrives.

Good Times with Good Friends

Don and Jim have known each other and worked together for over 35 years, and when we got married 20 years ago, I met Mary and Jim for the first time.  Now, many years later, the four of us have shared wonderful adventures, and have our own stories to tell.  Our favorite story is the one about the four of us driving to the Gorge Amphitheatre in 1998 to hear Bob Dylan and his band play.  It was a cold and blustery May day, and we were freezing as we sat on the grass wrapped in blankets and drinking as many hot beverages as we could.  Dylan's performance was outstanding, and he still had some of his voice left. 

Since that first trip, we've spent many evenings sharing dinners at various 'favorite' places, hearing each other's jokes, talking about our children (we have four sons between the four of us), and hearing Jim's stories about the UW Huskies. We talk of our lives, our passions, life in general, retirement, and the latest movies.  We listen to contagious laughter.  We do everything that good friends do, and we are so glad we have people like this in our life.  Here's to wonderful friends who make Life's journey so much better by sharing it with us along the way.

Bellevue Botanical Gardens--"Garden d' Lights"

We had a wonderful evening at the Bellevue Botanical Garden Christmas lights display tonight with our best friends!  It was a chilly evening, but warm compared to the last few weeks (36 degrees tonight).  The light display was smaller than usual due to the construction in the area, but what they lacked in physical space they made up for in the concentration of the lights.  This year, it took the 13 volunteers over 6417 hours to create the displays.  Magnificent!

The Christmas Tree below has 12,800 mini LED lights!

 

 

 

Making Stollen

The Christmas baking has begun!!!  Last evening, we started the process of making the dough for the German bread stolen.  We got the glass bread bowl out, and started the two-day process of preparing the dough, letting it rise, refrigerating it overnight, and then rolling it out, shaping it into loaves, letting it rise again, and then baking it.  It is worth the work once the lovely, buttery loaves come out of the oven and are garnished with white icing and candied cherries and citron.

 

 

 

Ducks and Chickens at Country Village

Yesterday I went to Country Village to shop for Christmas.  The stores were all decorated for the holidays, and it's one of my favorite haunts, especially during the week when the shoppers are all back at work (and I'm not!).

In front of the White House Antiques, there were dozens of chickens and ducks eating bread, provided for them by the merchants of Country Village.  They looked so festive in front of the old house with its touches of holiday cheer.

Pilgrim Cookies

I made these Pilgrim and Turkey cookies the night before Thanksgiving.  They are so cute, and I used to make them when Dave was little.  I love the memories and traditions of the holiday season that have been passed down from many generations.

A Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt

This year, to keep Kaila on her toes, I put together an indoor scavenger hunt!  There were 10 clues relating to Thanksgiving, and she had 10 minutes to find each clue, move to the next one, and win her prize!  She made it, thanks to the help of everyone in the house!

She found a sweet potato on a high bookcase shelf, a football in the dishwasher, and a scarecrow on the front porch, to mention just a few of the items in the hunt.

Bravo, Kai!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Finally, the turkey was baked, the mashed potatoes whipped, the gravy made, and all of the other parts of the meal were complete.  We sat down to the bounty before us, said grace and gave our thanks, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Four generations were together at this table.

Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream Company

I chose three flavors of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream for our Thanksgiving dinner--Pumpkin, Salted Caramel, and Danish Vanilla Bean!  Everyone wanted the Salted Caramel on their apple pie, Kaila wanted a scoop of the vanilla on a wafer cone, and most of us sampled the Pumpkin and agreed it tasted just like pumpkin pie!

Homemade Apple Pie with Ice Cream

Here's a perfect Thanksgiving dinner dessert for a perfect day!  We made homemade apple pie from our own Liberty apples, and topped it with ice cream from Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream made right here in Maltby!  Yum!

Christmas Poinsettias

This year, I bought three different varieties of poinsettias for the living room and dining room.  There is a trio of them on the table behind the couch, one on the stereo cabinet, and one on the dining room table.

The white poinsettia is a Premium Polar, the pink ones are Da Vinci's, and the dark red one is a Cortez Burgundy. I'm hoping they survive the unseasonably cold weather we have been having the last couple of weeks.  They make the house look and feel like the holidays!

 

 

 

 

 

Maltby Pears

This year, with our long stretch of warm weather, the local apple and pear crops were abundant.  Well into the end of November, we bought 20 pound boxes of apples, and bags of very large pears.  I took a picture of the pears I got at the Maltby Market last weekend, and they were gigantic!  I shared some with our neighbors, and they were sweet and juicy, and brought back memories of our beautiful summer.

The Stockings Were Hung....

by the chimney with care...

Well, we don't have a traditional fireplace (we have a Sweet Home woodstove), but we do have a place in the entryway with hooks for our traditional Christmas stockings.  During our first years together, we lived in a new condo next to Country Village in Bothell, and I had so much fun furnishing our townhome with wonderful finds from this delightful country shopping area.  These stockings came from a store called "The Cranberry Cottage", and they've been in our various homes for all these years.  I've added some smaller stockings to keep them all company, and they look great together this year above my old antique secretary that belonged to my grandfather Ernest Arnold.

Christmas Evergreen Wreaths for the Church Doors

This year, I volunteered to provide two wreaths for the church's front entrance.  I got these two lovely evergreen wreaths at Flower World, and then showed up Saturday morning at 9 a.m. for the decorating party (I brought donuts, too!).  They look so beautiful as you walk up the front steps to the foyer and sanctuary.

 

 

The Unadorned Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving, we got the tree and the Christmas decorations out of the storage space in the garage and started going through the boxes, exploring the contents and getting out the ornaments we will start with on the journey to getting 300 Shiny Brite decorations hung from the branches.  Here is the "before" picture. My Martha Stewart tree came with lights attached, and beautiful gold berries on the boughs.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving!

I love to cook fresh cranberries, getting them turned into whole cranberry sauce for the Thanksgiving dinner!  These came from the cranberry bogs in Massachusetts, but many cranberries come from the bogs here in Washington State at Long Beach.

My Son's Birthday Party

What do you do to celebrate your only child's 39th birthday?  Why, you switch it up and pick a restaurant out of the ordinary! 

Last night, we got the family together and went to Toyko Japanese Grill in downtown Woodinville.  The food was wonderful, with lots of culinary theatrics, sizzling food, and waves of flames from the grill!

We had fun getting caught up on everyone's recent activities, and then came back to Maltby for the requisite ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (Dave's request).  Kaila placed the candles on the cake, and was proud of the job she did.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying a Holiday Cookie

We took a break from Thanksgiving dinner shopping yesterday to stop in at the Woodinville Starbucks for a snack.  This festive cookie caught our attention, and was great paired with Starbucks famous hot chocolate!

Comfort Food for Autumn Dinners

I tried a new vegetable dish last night made with Butternut squash and fresh Liberty apples.  I am looking for something new for my Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I think I've found it!

This lovely dish is made from an organic Butternut squash halved, pared and sliced.  It is then spread in a baking dish, topped with cored and sliced Liberty apples, and topped with a drizzle of butter, brown sugar, and flour.  Delicious!

 

 

A Still Life on the Deck

In September, I gathered together these lovely gourds and squash, and put together a still life on the deck that was visible from inside the house.  I've enjoyed the Gooseneck Gourd, and all of the smaller colorful ones.

These will be outside until after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas theme takes over!

Thanksgiving Postcards from 1911 and 1913

I have these two old postcards for the Thankgiving holidays dating back over 100 years.  The first postcard (the one with the turkey and flowers on it) was written in 1911 to my grandmother Alma Hantel in Grafton, Nebraska, where she lived with her father, the Rev. E.F.A. Hantel.  Two years later in 1913, a friend, Lena, sent Alma a postcard (the one with the football) to Halsey, Oregon, where Alma lived and worked as a school teacher.  That's also where she met my grandfather, Ernest Arnold.  They were married in 1915.

Fuschias in the Fall

I've never (in all the years I've been gardening) had fuschias survive until late November.  This year since April, I've had these lovely baskets (and six others) manage to stay alive and blooming until now.  Each day, I step outside and admire them, thinking each day will be the last day they will survive.  They keep surprising me.  Seven months of beauty will not be forgotten this year.