Christmas Notebook

I promised more Christmas pictures, so am going to show you some from the kitchen today.

We didn’t put a tree on top the fridge this time. It always seemed a tad too big for the space and we were cutting out a few things to save on decorating. Not that you could tell! So no tree in the kitchen this year, except for the small half tree that hangs over one of the pantry doors.

Our kitchen was originally an enclosed back porch. It’s 27′ long and 11′ wide with a 12′ ceiling. One end is walled off as a pantry with two small doors, one on each end. A large gingerbread cookie cutter hangs over one door and a small half tree hangs over the other door. Family pictures hang over the catch-all dresser. The old walnut dresser came from DH’s side of the family.

We’re enjoying the amaryllis. I’d encourage you to try forcing one if you haven’t done it before. The flowers are so beautiful and the growth rate, once it gets going, is amazing. Something fun for the kidlets to measure each day. The lidded glass jar came from my dear mother-in-law. We have fallen into the tradition of keeping old fashioned peppermint balls in it at Christmas time. The photo on the dresser is of Older Son and Youngest Daughter and was taken in 1999. Now he is 36 and she is 17.

I love the four little elves my sister found at a thrift shop. Aren’t they the cutest?

The shelves over the kitchen table are decorated for Christmas. Don’t you love these shelves? A friend of ours made them to order for us in 2006 or so. The vintage canning jars near the top are filled with bead garlands, blue and silver jingle bells, tinsel, and small blue and silver ball ornaments.

This is a thrifted nativity. It came with identical twin wise men.

The angel came on a floral arrangement quite a few years ago. She graces the shelves every Christmas.

Even the fruit bowl was decked in red and green. And orange…

Just to the left of the fruit bowl is the window into the dining room. Remember, this room used to be a porch. I didn’t tidy the baker’s table for this picture…probably should have… The framed picture is a page out of a 1918 (I think I have the year right) magazine. It’s an ad for bread. Cute, curly-headed little boy in a high chair eating a slice of bread. The ad tells the mom how good the bread is for growing boys and girls. The door to the left goes into the front hall.

One evening last week, we had the most beautiful sunset. The entire sky was pink and purple and blue. This is looking south east. You can also see the garland over the kitchen windows with its collection of snowflake and icicle ornaments, and there’s a peek at my pie plate collection above the windows.

That’s it from the kitchen. I’ll do another room soon.

I hope your home is decorated and ready for the celebration of Christmas!

~~Rhonda

This was our 25th Christmas Open House. We began with an open house to introduce a missionary family to our church family. The afternoon was so much fun that we decided to have another open house for our church family the next year. And the next. And so on. Each year we invited more poeple.

We start in October with preparation. Putting up trees. Decorating. Baking. Yes, it’s a lot of work. We depend on my sister Genny, on our family and on our friends to help. We all work together to make it happen. Thanks to each of you who helped. And thank you to my husband who works hard to make it happen just because it makes me happy.

Here is DH, greeting our guests at the door.

We were presented a beautiful poinsettia from dear friends.

Just inside the door is a little Jesse tree. I have made some ornaments for it, but have more to make. Might need a larger tree if I ever get them done!

Across the hall from the Jesse tree is a small dresser that usually holds the guest book. During the open house, the guest book was on a table on the porch. The little tree on the dresser was decorated with candy canes for the littles who came by that day.

Next to the dresser is the staircase where we hang our family stockings.

Across from the stockings, guests rest on the old church pew, taking some time to visit.

This year, I used my Liberian nativity set in the living room. Older Daughter brought it home for me after a mission trip several years ago.

The family tree sits next to the fireplace in the living room. It holds all the family ornaments we have collected over the years and all the ornaments the kids have made.

This Christmas cactus belonged to my mother. She got her start from my grandmother’s house. It lives in the corner of the living room and has beautiful fuchsia colored blossoms. It always begins to bloom during the first week of December. I can remember my grandmother’s plant, heavy with blossoms. A favorite memory of her house.

We set up the cookie table in the dining room. I made large Putz houses from boxes…cracker boxes, butter boxes, medicine boxes…whatever worked. I used Christmas cards for the roofs. They turned out better than I thought they would. The frame on the left tells our guests which treats are gluten free. The one on the right gives all the truffle flavors.

The buffet in the dining room was used as the coffee station.

In the kitchen, my sister Genny (in the blue shirt) entertains guests and keeps the cookies coming. My thanks to her and to those who gave her some help during the afternoon.

We call this room the “music room” because this is where the piano lives. But it’s basically a hall from the kitchen to the library (family room) and from the main house to the addition. This fall we moved a small sofa into this room and also a desk where I am able to craft without taking the long staircase upstairs when my knee isn’t cooperating. Since then, the room is being used more often than it had been in the past.

Of course, I’m not able to craft at the desk right now because it is currently displaying the bubble light Christmas tree. This will probably be the first tree to come down!

The room also has our large chalkboard where Genny and I draw our chalkboard tree each year. This year, the theme was toys.

The next room is the library, which functions as our family room. This year, we put the glass tree up in the library rather than the upstairs bedroom. Middle Daughter is using that room right now. I gave both the girls the option of closing their rooms to the open house, which they chose to do. The glass tree is my favorite, so we put it in the library where I can enjoy it.

It was a good spot for some guest portraits.

The nativity tree is usually displayed where the glass tree was put this year. We took some of the nativity ornaments and decorated what had previously been the Three Kings tree.

My favorite nativity was displayed in the library. My mother gave me this one in 1983.

Here’s another nativity in the window in the addition hall.

Upstairs we go. The first thing we see is the mouse house. They’re decorating their tree!

The bedroom to the right is the smaller guest room. The old iron bed came out of the barn on my in-laws’ farm. We took it to an auto body shop and had it sandblasted and painted with white auto paint. I made both the quilts.

The Victorian tree in the smaller guest room.

We have a room for our eight year old twin grands. They stay over quite often. Their tree is a spiral of color. It’s a nine foot tree.

Even the stairs to the upper bunk were decorated. We put a garland across the steps so guests wouldn’t climb them. Snow White didn’t want anyone in her bed.

At one end of the upstairs hall is a bathroom. An iridescent glass ball tree hangs in the window.

At the other end of the hall is my wonderful craft room.

A vintage 1970s Sears nativity is displayed on the counter.

I made a lot of ornaments for the mission tree. We gave out ornaments as a thank you gift to anyone who gave a donation to our church’s mission fund. Thank you to all who participated!

Then it’s back downstairs for more cookies!

This post is getting long. I’ll try to get more pictures soon. Some with details of the rooms that you might enjoy seeing. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour!

My thanks to Peggy and Susan who shared some of their pictures with me!

~~Rhonda

Here is a quick peek at a few things we have going on.

I made large Putz houses out of miscellaneous boxes. I’m hoping to get them painted and decorated for the cookie table.

Made Brownie Biscotti. Drizzled it with white chocolate after it cooled.

Made two big batches of Chex Mix.

Made Holiday Petits Fours. I sent this picture to Middle Daughter at work. She replied “Yay!!” as this is her favorite holiday treat.

Candied Pecans Youngest Daughter’s fave.

And while I was baking and cooking and basically hiding in the kitchen, I was also FaceTiming with DH as he decorated. He couldn’t do it without my help, right? Isn’t technology fun??

Last evening, after I had retreated to the recliner to rest my leg, DH and I FaceTimed again. He walked all through the house and I dictated notes for a new to-do list. Older Son and three of our friends are coming over today to help. A new list was needed and I feel like I got a good view of all the decorations and where we stand. DH tweaked a few things for me and was very patient as I directed. “Move that blue vase to the left a few inches… Put that jar of ornaments next to the picture…” He is a most patient man.

I need to get back to work. Today I’ll be dipping things into chocolate and making Christmas Mice.

More soon! ~~Rhonda