Happy New Year

I wish each one who visits here whether regularly or just once in a while a very happy 2015.  May it truly be a blessed year.

It's been a very cold and windy week. I have not been walking... just too chilly out there. I've started putting Christmas things away but slowly. I have a brand new journal ready for this new year. What will it bring, I wonder. 
                               Granny Marigold

Christmas Day

A lovely quiet Christmas Day here at our house.  We enjoyed watching the grandchildren opening their gifts and later we had our turkey feast. Roasting the turkey has been taken over by son #2 and he does a better job than I do because he takes the time to do things like arrange celery and carrots UNDER the turkey and stuff a whole lemon inside it. Not to mention the strips of bacon he carefully lays on top. Me?  I just used to bung the thing in the oven until it was VERY brown then I figured it was done. No fancy anything. I'm very glad to give the job to him. ( In return I wash the greasy roasting pan).

Here's a pic of my granddaughter dressed as Santa for one of the last days of school before the break. It's her daddy that is the turkey guy. ( Does that sound right?)

                 Here's my winter tea pot. I like the cheery snowman face!

                      I love the red in the my tea pot and in this crocheted pot holder. 
 

I found this set of plastic candles at the thrift store and it looked so 50's to me that I had to get it. I had to lower the blind in order to get a pic with no glare. 
 

Do you listen to music on   YOUTUBE?  If you do I think you'd like to hear the song GRACE by
Diane Taraz. It is so beautiful. I wanted to somehow put it here in my blog but am not smart enough to know how but I know it can be done.  Oh well, please go and give it a listen. 

I hope your Christmas has been, and continues to be, a happy one.  We hold to the old custom of two days of Christmas and tomorrow will be very lively and very crowded as my children and grands and assorted others come over. 

                    Granny Marigold

Merry Christmas

                                    Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!!

                                   With affection,  Granny Marigold

Almost Christmas

It's hard to believe that in just a few days it will be Christmas!  I've realized that every year when it gets to be the middle of December I get feeling just a tad down. Nothing major, more like blah. SO, I've been finding things that make me feel LESS blah!
Here is my list so far:

Candlelight.  Even one candle burning can brighten a room.  Today we'll light all four candles on the Advent wreath at supper.

The soft glow of the Christmas trees when I come downstairs early in the morning ( DH has the lights on timers so they are on for a while in the morning as well as the evening).   It's so dark at 7 AM that the trees look extra lovely.

Pretty Christmassy tins filled with cookies and fudge. The freezer is full and I've taken to keeping things cool on the porch.

Wishing people a Merry Christmas and seeing them smile as they return the good wishes.

Driving down the streets in the evening and seeing lit up trees in living rooms as well as all the outdoor decorations.

Vintage postcards stuck in the corners of mirrors. Who said you can't have Christmas stuff in the bathroom?

Garlands of Christmas cards ( made with cards from previous years, too lovely to throw away!)

Watching A Child's Christmas in Wales like we do every year.

Fruit cake. I've never understood why there are jokes about fruit ( Christmas) cake. I love it. Mind you, I've only had homemade ones.  Maybe the bought ones are not good.

That's my list so far.  How about you?   How are you coping this Christmas season?

Thanks for visiting.  I wish each one of you a blessed Christmas and a wonder-filled New Year.


           Granny Marigold

A Very Wet Day

We are used to rain here on the BC coast but the rain we have had these past 24 hours has been phenomenal.  And it was today that my daughter and I went to browse in the lovely shops that I only go to at this time of the year and only with this daughter. We had a fun time. She was actually looking for Christmas gifts while I was just there to admire all the pretties. The shop pictured below was in an old house and had kept the various rooms as is and filled them with amazing "stuff".  Under what was the stairs to the second floor they had a cute kid's area. The picture doesn't do it justice. That ceiling... that is a giant chalkboard.
The pictures of the shop were taken with my daughter's phone because I had forgotten my camera. 

             This is a pic taken from the outside (wet world) and shows the display window.

                                    Here is just one of the displays inside.

That shopping was this morning and after lunch I went to the thrift store where the prices are more  to my budget.  I do like a 'new' purse and this one was three dollars.

The other treasure I found was these two cups ( which didn't have saucers). I love how the plain outside belies the gorgeous insides.
 

The Daffodil cup is by Paragon and the other one is Foley. They both have slightly scalloped edges and gold trim. I am happy to add them to my collection!

Now it is late afternoon and time to think of supper. Soup sounds like a good idea. Must go chop vegetables.   
I hope your week is going well.  Granny Marigold

This and That

This photo captures a rare moment as my little grandson sits in wonder gazing at the tree. He doesn't often sit still. Notice he's only got one sock on.

              Here his big sister assembles the very old cardboard nativity.
 

I should probably have removed the butterflies on the wall behind but then I'd have to store it somewhere until January and I wouldn't know where to put it!!!
 

Here is the nativity we ordered through Sears about 45 years ago. Not a chip on it so far. It winds up and plays Silent Night.   The shepherd on the left is a thrift store find as are a few of the sheep. The rest I made with the help of my DH.

This set fits perfectly onto the bottom of my mom's old treadle sewing machine. Notice this year he has placed baby Jesus on the roof. ( I told him the baby needed to be near his mommy so he relented).
 

          A small glass set in the livingroom.  For a few years I collected nativity sets and now have  a number of them.
 

You can just make out the Precious Moments set also made of glass here beside my old soup tureen filled with Christmas balls that didn't make it on to the tree. 

One last one. I used to know what this one was made of but now can't remember. It's quite different. I bought this one at Ten Thousand Villages . These stores provide vital, fair income to artisans in third world countries .It is a non-profit  program of Mennonite Central Committee , a relief  development and peace agency of Mennonite churches in North America.
 

That's it for today. It's been a busy day and I'm ready to sit and relax. Hope your day has been a good one too.

              GRANNY MARIGOLD

Cookies

I read somewhere that this is Cookie Baking Week. Now whether it really is or not I'm sure many of us are at least thinking about which cookies we plan on making this year. One of our favourite recipes is for this 2 bite sized yummyness.

                      Chocolate-dipped Orange Log Cookies

3 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. baking powder
grated rind of 2 oranges

1 cup butter, room temp.
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

Mix first 5 ingredients together and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in dry ing. 
Form small logs and cut into pieces about two inches long.
Bake on parchment paper covered cookie sheets until just starting to show some gold colour. These should not be over baked or they will tend to be dry.  
350 degrees about 10 to 12 minutes

When cool dip each cookie halfway into melted chocolate and set back on the parchment to dry. When the chocolate has solidified layer them in whatever you are freezing them in separating the layers with either more parchment or even wax paper.

I seem to go through so much parchment paper! I use it for so many things. EXCEPT today I am making a meatloaf for supper and trying out the no stick aluminum foil just to see how that works. I am WAY too lazy to scrub a greasy pan after doing any sort of meat PLUS, as an almost total vegetarian I don't like dealing with meat OR the mess it leaves behind so I make it as easy as I can on myself.
Here are a few pics of my cookie making. You can see I sprinkled a bit of flour on the counter to make rolling the logs easy. If you try this recipe, let me know if you liked it. Maybe I'll be encouraged to post a few more of our favourites.

Happy baking,     Granny Marigold