Luke 2

This is an idea I saw at a Christmas walk when I lived in Illinois. One home had two Bibles laid out flat on her entry table, open to Luke 2. I believe one of the Bibles was in another language. It was a simple, but powerful statement of that family's belief that Christmas is all about the Birth of Christ. I have had a Bible open to Luke 2 every year since. This is my husband's childhood Bible given to him by his Grandmother, it's a little small, or better yet, my easel is a little big. I think it's marvelous with my special Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Checked out The Inspired Room for more Christmas ideas.

Ready, Set, Go

I've already taken the plunge into Christmas decorating. Why on earth does it take me ALL MONTH! Well, shoot, it has to be just so. Does anyone else tweak your Christmas decorations all the way to the 25th?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We hope you each have wonderful moments with your loved ones today and if they're far away send hugs their way.

Gobble Gobble

This is how you make Thanksgiving Turkeys. You need all these ingredients, plus stiff chocolate frosting. You start with a shortbread cookie or ginger snap on the bottom. You put a Marshmallow cookie on it's end with stiff chocolate frosting.

His head is a chocolate kiss. The waddle is a red hot.

Usually we use candy corn for the feathers, but I didn't buy them early enough this year. I improvised with pecans. I think they work nicely.

This could look neater with frosting from a tip, but this is a kid project. All that matters is the fun and the tasting. My big kids still like to do this.

Shopping in Palm Desert

It was a lovely day on Saturday to go shopping.

I wonder why they don't show these cars in my mall? FYI, it's a Mazerati.

Yummy lunch at the Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafe. I could only eat half.

My lunch and shopping companion, DD2. We found a really great sale at J. Crew. Unbelievable actually. The sale items were 50% off of the already marked down prices. I got a beautiful necklace for $7.50 that was originally $55.00! Not bad, huh? I also bought some beautiful ornaments at Shabby Chic's new store and forgot to take pictures! DD2 especially loved a vintage party dress that was a mere $1200.00. It wasn't on sale. Probably won't ever be. I knew Rachel Ashwell collects these dresses, but didn't know she sold them in her stores. She has them refurbished and gives them her own touch. How beautiful for a prom or bridesmaid dresses. I still can't believe I didn't take pictures. I was too engrossed in the store. Oops!

Palm Desert Weekend

We just spent two days at the La Quinta Resort and Spa in La Quinta, California. This fabulous, historic resort was built in 1926. It has cottages surrounding pools with beautiful landscaping everywhere. This was the view outside our room.

I should've been doing laps. Oh yeah, I would never make it from one end of the pool to the other.

This is by the main lobby, next to the restaurant and shops.

It's full of beautiful old doors and woodwork.

We went into Palm Desert and shopped while the guys played golf. I'll show you our shopping adventures tomorrow. Exciting stuff.

Trailer Park Houses

One of our favorite Christmas traditions happened quite by accident. For year after year I had hoped to make a gingerbread house with my girls. It never quite happened. I even would buy the candy and make the frosting. One year we resorted to making houses out of graham crackers. My oldest DD was her usual creative self and made her "house" into a mobile home, trailer, if you will. We loved it so much that every year we now make a Trailer Park. This is our cul-de-sac from a couple years ago. Please check in with The Inspired Room for other fun Christmas posts.

Gorgeous Lighting

These beautiful chandeliers were in the restaurant of our hotel, the Westin Excelsior in Rome. These were in the lobby.

This was in our room.

Not bad huh?

Beautiful Images from Italy

This is St. Paul's Basilica. I love the sunlight streaming through the windows. It's more beautiful that the ceilings and walls. This is a Chanel window display in Florence. Fabulouso! (I have no idea if that is Italian)

This is an urn in the museum at St. Peter's.

Alfredo sauce was invented here. Let me tell you, it's amazing!

These are images from The Forum and Colliseum.

Wedding Details

I thought I'd show you a few details of our daughter's wedding. It was set in a theater built in 1912. (I think) The wedding had a distinctly vintage feel. We did a lot of planning on the internet. Blogs were big sources of inspiration. My favorite wedding blog is Snippet & Ink. I wish I had put my high heels back on for this picture. But, my feet thanked me. My corsage was pinned to a vintage looking purse from J Crew.

We raided the Grandmother's jewelry boxes for pearls and bought the apothecary jar at Home Goods. I made the runner.

DD1's veil was off of the internet. I'll have to ask her for the link. It was absolutely beautiful.

I used a picture off of a post on Snippet & Ink for the inspiration for this backdrop. We used lighted balloons instead of paper lanterns. They are attached by fishing line to the floor. You just had to be careful where you walked.

DD1 bought plain gloves at Target.com and added her Great-Grandmother's buttons to them. Her sister wore some we bought on Etsy.com.

My Girls

The next natural addition to my thankful posts this November are my girls. They are wonderful girls. Both are unique individuals with different strengths and weaknesses. They keep me hopping. Their Dad just runs for cover. It is wonderful to watch them grow into fantastic young women. These pictures were taken in September at DD1's wedding. Below is DD2 who was the MOH. She's enjoying herself at the reception. She did a great job and looked beautiful. She is working hard at getting her degrees (yes, double major) and navigating the bumps and mountains of the 20s. Below is DD1. Doesn't she look beautiful? She worked really hard at having a uniquely personal wedding and pulled it off beautifully. She lives across the country from me and had to do most of the planning by herself. Even though she was working full time and taking college classes she managed to plan a perfect wedding. Right now she's a hair stylist, but her new focus is on young married life and reaching her next goals.

Here I am with my girls. DD1 is much taller. She must have been bending at the knees to get so even with DD2 and me. This was before the ceremony. The excitement was just beginning! More pictures to come later.

My Guy

As I noted in my last post, I was on my way to Roma last week. We had a fabulous time and are now trying to get rid of the jetlag. In light of this month's theme of Thankfulness I wanted to let you know about my amazing husband. I would never have had been to such interesting places or the had the wonderful life I have led without this man. He is my husband, partner, friend, soulmate. He works incredibly hard and is an awesome provider for our family.

This is not my favorite picture, but you can tell we were having fun. The first afternoon we arrived before everyone else and started exploring on our own. We got lost even WITH a map but ended up eventually finding our way to the Trevi Fountain.

It wasn't too busy that day. Over the weekend it was a crazy place. I also didn't know till later that you're suppose to throw coins over your left shoulder with your right hand and make a wish. Never did it. The wonderful thing about this place was all the nationalities that were represented and how they were taking pictures for each other even if they didn't speak the same language. It's a great place to people watch.

ARRIVE-DERCI!

I'm headed to Rome tomorrow. I'll be happy to share all about it on my return. See you next week!

Emphasis - Thankfulness

I'm contemplating that my November posts will focus on Thankfulness/Thanksgiving. Just a warning that it could get cheesy, sappy and mushy. But, there will be no shortage of decorating and recipes. I don't really care for Halloween, especially now that it's so incredibly over commercialized. The little fairies were cute last night, except for the "blood" that was pouring down their faces. Why on earth? Since when are fairies gorey? But, they all got a fist full of candy from me anyway, because I had way too much. I hope that Thanksgiving doesn't become the same. I saw an awful lot of "pilgrim" and "indian" figurines in a gift shop the other day.

So to begin my month of random thankfulness, I thought I'd start off with this couple.

Thanks Mom and Dad for being incredible parents. You've been consistent with love and discipline my entire life. You have given yourself to others without restraint or regret and you have shown Christ to countless people. What an example!