Busy but great ... Advent time

Love it. LOVE it! I love being busy. Sometimes it is overwhelming what I WANT to do but of course that is self-inflicted. Luckily, dear James is not only understanding but also supporting the things I like to do. And quite often he helps.

The Chrismon effort! As you know it started more then 20 years ago in Paducah, KY. And when we moved to Virginia, our new church let me do it here too. I make a Chrismon ornament for every child in the church. This year it is an angel for St Martin's. 

80 angels are made and wrapped = check!
The ECW ladies helped make the boxes. "Chrismon Sunday" this year is 2nd Advent Sunday.

The Christmas-card-ornament is made for the HLG Christmas card swap  = check!
I had the bobbinlace heart made some time ago. When I found out after the drawing that my recipient is my friend Lise (a very accomplished bobbinlacer, much better then I ever will be) I included a tatted ornament as well (because that is one thing she doesn't do).

But it is not all work and no play. First Wednesday of each month is the CrossRidge (our community) women's meeting. December of course is the Christmas Party. A delicious free luncheon preceded by mimosas and followed by entertainment.
For a taste click here!

A week later James and I go to our CR Pavilion for a concert by the Glen Allen High School Choir. It was so great and uplifting. We decided that we can not miss this in years to come.
I took three short videos:
A
B
C

James and I usually walk to the Pavilion for things like this ... and we walked home with a swing in our steps.

Advent greenery arrangements made for ourselves, friends and the St Martin's bazaar = check!
The bazaar took place December 8. I sewed a good number of my "over-the-door-card-displays" which sold quite well and so did my Chrismon books. (Gosh, I have to work on #2)

After the bazaar I didn't feel like cooking. Sweet James took me to a Chinese restaurant and we had "Szechuan Hot Pot". We had it in Beijing and Chongqing. This was alright and awoke many memories. James had beef and I had seafood mix. I had mild broth and James spicy. If you look close you can see that the pot is divided. Don't be in a hurry when you want to do it.

And then one day we came home and our crape myrtle in front was decorated. We "accused" Sarah and Wade but it actually was our nice neighbors Betsy and Robert.

 Such a surprise!

O.k. it was time to decorate the house. Second Monday of each month: Colonial Lacemakers meeting! December 10 again in my house.
First I decorated the "big" tree in the dining room bay window (by the way, dear James set up all 4 of my trees in the house). The big tree is full of memories. All the accumulated ornaments of the many years including ornaments from my parents etc. With every ornament I  hang a flood of thoughts slow me down ... but that doesn't matter. I enjoy it very much. You can guess what this ornament is about? William's first Christmas.

Then there are three little trees. This is my Chrismon tree in the sunroom. Every one of my designs in small (for the church children or home trees) and the same in bigger for church trees.
Then there is a tree in the living room corner decorated only with straw ornaments = a very German thing.
And then there is the lace tree in the loft. I ran out of time to put the ornaments up before the lace meeting. James asked me about it and I said if my friends were bothered that the ornaments are not hanging, they would do it for me ... and James told me that he liked my attitude. Christmas is just so much more enjoyable if you don't stress. So what that my floors were not totally dust free?

I was able to make an apple Santa for each guest. Something we used to do a long time ago when my children were very young, and probably when I was a child too.

The table is laid. James did that. He put a Santa on each place too.

So I didn't know where this guy ended up. He was the one with his eyes closed and gave away the door prize.

This is almost our whole group. Unfortunately there is always somebody who can't make it.

After the lunch (which was my special mixed salad and my enriched "real" Turkish lentil soup) the ladies are making that year's Chrismon for themselves to take home. And if they want to, they may take the directions also to make more at home. Everybody did a good job.

We were so busy that we almost forgot to use the crackers on the table. Lali is reading her joke.

It must have been a good one.

Christmas time brings so much joy like my blooming amaryllis. How my father liked his amaryllises every year.

This year we managed to defend our camellia from the occasional frost so far too.

Gosh, one  just has to look around for all the beauty and enjoy the world. Isn't this gorgeous? Of course it helps when the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

Our CR community has so much to offer for everybody, we can't participate in everything. I do like the monthly "knit, stitch and chat" gatherings on the second Wednesday of the month. I saw this which gave me an idea (just a simple log cabin pattern) and a lady came in showing the place mats she was making in a very interesting technique I didn't know. Definitely have to try that first chance I get. I was very excited to learn about that.

What is NOT helpful to me are all those goodies everywhere around.

Have to take mental notes though. Doesn't this look nice? Couldn't really partake though because ...

... because straight from that meeting I went to my friend Julie's house who had invited several friends to a luncheon, a wonderful "sit-down and be served event". The funny part: she is one of my avid blog-readers and had enjoyed this one. Right after she had read it, she called me to tell me that she had to get back into her Christmas boxes to pull this little guy out. She had wondered what he was doing in her Christmas stuff and was happy to know now his story.

YES! My HLG Christmas card swap mail had arrived! Carol O. had made her card special and had included a tatted and ...

 ... a bobbinlace ornament. The spider (besides the hedgehog) is kind of an mascot for lacemakers = weaving a web! Carol included a note with the story of the Christmas Spider.

And right on time my (several) Christmas cactus(s) started blooming. 

And the latest ... I needed new glasses. I had not had my eyes checked for a while too.

The young lady doctor thought it was cute to take a picture.

Chihuly in Richmond, VA

Several years ago Dale Chihuly's work was exhibited in St Louis' Botanical Garden. My friends raved about it but I didn't manage to go and see it there. So when he came to Nashville's Cheekwood Botanical Garden we went to see it. That was in July 2010. I wanted to refer to the pictures I had taken but it was before I had started this blog site. Its a shame because the exhibition there was so different from what we saw this time.

We are members of the Richmond's VMFA. Every so often there is a new special exhibition and we try to see it. It's free for members so it is not a loss if we don't like it.

We were again very pleasantly surprised.

Title: Fiori and Float Boats

In Nashville this actually floated on the lake.

This is the "Drawing Wall".  Dale Chihuly began to draw after loosing his left eye and dislocating his shoulder to communicate his vision and design to his team.

Title: Persian Ceiling

Lots of his glass creations (leftovers?) are laying on top of a glass ceiling between two rooms and you can walk underneath it. It is really quite stunning and interesting.

The next room was dedicated to his huge collection of Native Indian blankets and baskets. In this series Chihuly tried to capture "the grace of the baskets' slumped, sagging forms".

I remember this from Nashville. It was on water too.

A close-up.

And another.

When you see James next to it, you can imagine the size of the sculptures.

Yes, quite impressive.

And if you want to know more, you can go to Dale Chihuly's website.

How does Santa know whether you were naughty or nice?

For the answer you have to wait a moment. First I want to talk about traditions ... Advent traditions ... Christmas traditions.

When I was growing up as a child every year my sister and I had an Adventcalendar. Of course when I was a little child it was just a pretty picture with little doors. The doors were numbered 1 to 24 and you started opening them December 1st. So you had an idea how long it was til Christmas. How excited we were when we saw another pretty little picture behind each door.

And then one year the Adventcalendar had actually a little piece of chocolate behind each door. Wow!

When my children were little their German godmother sent each of them a homemade one. It was a burlap wall-hanging decorated with felt. Very cute. It had rings with numbers sewn on and on each hung a little fabric sack with a gift. From then on in the following years we filled the sacks. And it evolved. By the time they were teenagers or even in college, the gifts were useful items like toasters etc. And the greatest benefit ... by the time Christmas had arrived the gift-giving was done and we could just celebrate Christmas how it was intended ... Jesus' birthday!

A few years ago I told the girls that it was time for me to retire from this and they were fine with it and understood ... but that didn't last. I missed it because I have too much fun doing it. So, here I go again.

When we were in Nashville for Thanksgiving this year, I had taken the things along which I already had so I didn't have to mail them. And we had time to go shopping there too.
See those two strips in the front? Those are dog-treats calendars for Silvi and Drifter, always the things in sack # 1.

I didn't bring enough of the right  size sacks so I cut "fat quarters" of fabric from my quilting stash and sewed some. Hope Helen will be pleased with the added gifts because she can just take the seams out and can add the fabric to her own quilt fabric stash.








Now to the question in the title: How does Santa know whether the children have been naughty or nice? Of course, he has helpers. He sends an elf to each child.
You can read about it here!
The elf shows up shortly after Thanksgiving ... somewhere in the house in plain sight. He sits there all day and watches. In the night he flies back to Santa to report and returns in the morning. I heard that children are very excited to search for him as soon as they wake up.

As long as I can remember my friend Lise (lives in Cape Girardeau, MO but born and raised in Denmark) talked at Christmas time about her NISSE (read about them here). Last year she shared some cute pictures on Facebook how Nisse helped her bake Christmas cookies and helped her decorate her house.

In Germany we have Heinzelmännchen (read more) , Zwerge, Wichtel (read more) and Kobolde (read more). I didn't know the story about Cologne but only that Heinzelmaenchen came in the nights to help if you are nice.

Well, this little elf showed up in our house in Virginia just when I was packing the rest of the sacks for Helen, Ben and William. I guess he was looking for William but had the wrong house. I said he should go into the box to hitch a ride to the right house but first he didn't want to. Here he holds on to my amaryllis.

Then he jumped into James' banana bowl.

 Ups, almost hidden in the vase.














But then finally he thought it was a good idea. I hope William likes him and I hope that the elf can give good reports about William to Santa.

When the parcel was on its way to Nashville to one daughter and her family, back to work on the sacks for the other daughter and her husband.

The weather was so nice and warm that I was able to make Advent greenery arrangements on the back patio.  

 A hint: you can get the greenery from any place were they sell and put Christmas trees into stands ... for free. I am thankful to Home Depot!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished thing but here is the German candle in the middle. You burn it every day (at your devotion time or dinner) to where it is marked for the next day. Another tradition. I love it. And James gets into the spirit of it too.













Sack # 1: calendars for Schatzi, Jimmy and Edy. Since Jimmy likes to "steal" things, the long strips hanging down don't work. A new "invention" this year. Hope it works. They came with 3M hooks (which are removable from the wall without trace).

Happy Advent!