GINGERBREAD HOUSES

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? I love them. As I was getting ready to post about this it dawned on me that this is another one of those Christmas memories that I have never made.

I hope this year I get a chance to make one. No matter how small. So that is two things on my list I need to try. Building a snowman and building a gingerbread house.

These pictures all came from the Internet. There are some super beautiful gingerbread houses out there.

Look at all the detail in this big gingerbread house. Wow!

I love this pink one. I may have to make my gingerbread house pink like this.

How pretty!

This one is huge! I think it was in the lobby at a hotel in Disney World.

This one must have take months to build!

I wonder how many times this one started to fall before they got it set up perfect! Beautiful isn't it!

Look at all those tiny windows. Oh my a sugar bow too!

This says Christmas all over it with those candy canes.

Oh, I don't think I've seen gingerbread made into stones before. I love the door on this one too.

This church is just breathtaking! How lovely.

Yes, I love gingerbread house. No matter how big or how small. There is just something about gingerbread houses that make me smile.

If you have ever built a gingerbread house I hope you post it on your blog. I know I'm not the only one that would like to see them.

Don't forget to sign up for my Christmas tea cup & saucer and tea bag holder giveaway. You only have a few more days before I draw the winner. Just scroll down below to enter and good luck!

IT'S OFFICALLY TIME FOR CHRISTMAS NOW!

Well, Thanksgiving is over for another year. I've gotten up early to hit the stores for Black Friday. The Fall decorations are put away and now it's time to start getting the Christmas decorations out in full force.

I am going to start with my tree. But, I think I will wait until the weekend to put it up.

I love trees with lots of ornaments, dripping with beads and garland. Sparkling with little lights and having a vintage flair to the decorations.

I have so many ornaments I can't put them all on one tree. So I mix them up using different ones each year.

What about you? What types of ornaments do you have?

Do you have a real or fake tree? A green or white tree?

I love a real tree because it makes the whole house smell good. However, I put up a fake green tree. That way I can leave it up longer without the fear of it drying out and starting on fire. Plus, it's so much easier to put up. No dead needles to clean up.

Some people get creative with their trees. Look at this one made out of beer bottles. I guess that is one way to recycle.

I've noticed more and more colors are showing up for trees. I'm not a big fan of the colored trees. A green or white is the only one I really like.

Some people like big fat trees. I like more the tall thinner type. Not to skinny though.

I like the flocked trees too. Sort of gives it that fresh snow look to it. I've never had one though. Only green ones for me.

As a child, I remember having bubble lights on our tree. I love these kinds of lights. I think I'm putting them on my tree this year.

I also like to use little lights on my tree. Some years I use colored lights and some years I use only white lights. How about you?

I remember the big lights as a child. I don't really care for the big ones on the trees though. I do like the big lights for outside rather then the small ones.

I also like multi colored lights outside. We use a mixture of big lights and little lights outside.

So tell me, what do you like your tree to look like? Do you change it up every year? Do you keep the same look? Do you get a fresh tree or fake?

I'll be sure to post the photos of my tree as soon as I get it up.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

I want to wish all my USA friends a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful day.

This year I have so much to be thankful for. I have my great family, my health, my friends. But, the thing I am most happy for this Thanksgiving is that my brother, my hero, Gene, is finally able to walk alone with the help of a walker.

It's been 6 months since he suffered a major stroke. His recovery has been long and slow. However, he is still moving forward and while he has a long way to go, he has come a long way already.

Last week when I went to visit him he showed me "his new trick" as he calls it. Walking from one room to the other. I almost cried I was so excited to see that. I was so proud of him as I know how hard the recovery has been for him.

He will be coming to our house for dessert. He has not traveled this far since his stroke and he thought maybe coming all day and for dinner would be to much for him. So we are very very happy he will make it for dessert.

My sister, Patty, will be cooking dinner for my whole family. Of course, my other sister, Maureen and I will help her too, but she will do most of the cooking. Thanks Patty! I want you to know how thankful I am for you and Maureen too!

Then, in the morning I'll be getting up super early to hit the stores and all the sales with Maureen. The two of us have made this a tradition. We shop till we drop and then go have a yummy pumpkin pancake breakfast together.

God bless all of you and your family. Happy Thanksgiving.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you have not already done so. Just scroll down to the post and enter.

THANKSGIVING DAY SONG FOR YOU

When I was a little girl I asked my sister, Patty, to sing me a song at Thanksgiving. I have no idea where she came up with this song. She said she made it up. Well, I loved it and have never forgotten it. So, now I want to share it all with you.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It's sung to the tune of Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer.

Ready? Here goes.

Rudolph the red head turkey. Had a very worried look!

For Thanksgiving dinner, he was on the list to be cooked.

Then one foggy Thanksgiving Eve, the cook came to say "Rudolph with your head so bright, won't you be our dinner tonight?"

Then how the turkeys loved him. As they shouted out with glee "Rudolph the red head turkey, You'll be good with cranberries!!!!".

There are still a few more days left on my giveaway. So scroll down and enter if you have not yet done so.

MAKING A FUN CAKE

One of our fellow blogger friends, Renee at The Edingtons, hired me to make a cake for her husbands work.

James is the manager of his company and they had a goal of reaching so much money by the end of the year. His department not only reached their goal but they did so in record time. So, he wanted to bring them a cake to celebrate.

I was given free range to do what I wanted. I thought it would be nice to use the company logo and colors in the cake. Then to show that they "blew the roof" off reaching their goals I thought having it look like the cake exploded and money was shooting out would be fun.

This is what I came up with.

Everything on this cake is edible. Yes, even the money!

The top is a French Vanilla cake with raspberry filling. The bottom is a Triple Chocolate Fudge that even has mini chocolate chips in it. The filling is a banana cream.

Sure hope they like it. I know I had fun making it.

THE COLOR PURPLE ~ THE MUSICAL

This weekend my sister, Maureen and I went to see The Color Purple ~ The musical. Our other sister, Patty, has season tickets and she wasn't feeling well so she let us go. Thanks Patty! We hope you get better really fast.

We saw it at the Orange County Performing Arts. It's only 2 blocks from where I live. So it's where we frequently go see plays, musicals and concerts.

Most things come here shortly after Los Angeles gets the big hits. So it's worth the wait for us.

If you have not seen the musical The Color Purple yet, let me tell you that you must go as you will be so entertained. It is a wonderful musical. You will laugh and cry. You will feel anger, disgust, happiness and joy.

The music is lovely and the story is beautiful. It's about love. Love two sisters share in hard times. A bond that can not be broken even though they are kept away from each other.

There are three women who gossip about everyone. I think we all know women like these.

The one sister, Celie, is ugly and has been raped by her father who took her two babies from her and gave them away. The father marries her off to a man who beats her, turns her into his slave and forces her to take care of his children.

Her husband wanted to marry the other sister, Nettie, the pretty one. But, the father wouldn't let him. So when she comes to visit her sister the husband tries to rape her and when he isn't able to he sends her away and never lets Celie see or hear from her sister again.

The Nettie was played by LeToya London who was one of the finalist in American Idol the same time Jennifer Hudson was on. She has such a pretty voice.

I won't tell you the whole story or the end just in case you get to see it yourself.

I loved this musical. I think it is one of my top three favorite musicals I've seen and I've seen a lot.

It was great being able to see it with a sister I love too. The first time I saw it, last year, I was lucky enough to see it with both of my sisters. That is a day I will always remember.

DECORATING THE KELLOGG HOUSE FOR CHRISTMAS

Yesterday I met up with some of the ladies from my Victorian Tea Society to decorate the Kellogg House. It is a a beautiful house that was built in the 1800's. They have tours go through there and a lot of the schools go there for field trips.

The children learn the way life was 200 years ago. They learn to make butter, see how the children dressed, the toys they had and how much harder life was then then it is now.

It's also the house where we have our Christmas tea.

I got to work on decorating the Christmas tree along with another lady. We had so much fun. Laughing and talking. The time flew by.


We didn't get the house finished as it was getting late. But, we got a lot done. Another group will come and finish on Monday.

They didn't have a lot of the decorations that we have. Back then a lot of garland, greens and wreaths were mostly used.

Of course they didn't have the fake items we have today. So the decorating we used is more just to give the feel of that time. Since we have the decorations up longer then would have been, using real greens just wouldn't work.

We used, pine cones, flowers and ribbons to weave in the greenery.

Some of the ladies donated items they had sewn. Since most of the women did sew back in the 1800's these items are true to the time period.

At my house I normally do all the decorating by myself. Doing it in a group was so fun.

After we finished we all ate dinner together. It was such a fun and festive night. I really enjoyed myself. Now I want to get my tree up and decorated.

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway if you have not already done so.

HURRY! IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME...

This giveaway is over. Donna from Party Wishes is the winner. Congrats Donna. Please email me your address so I can get this out to you.

Yes! You heard right. It's time for a giveaway. We all love getting little gifts and getting something free is even better!


Since Christmas is upon us and the nights are starting to get chilly, I thought it would be fun to giveaway this vintage Christmas tea cup and saucer. It's so pretty with it's green holly and red berries surrounding the cup and saucer.

But, that's not all. I am also giving away this cute little tea bag holder. Since I love snowmen, I fell in love with this. I hope whenever you use it you will think of me.


Normally, my giveaways are open to everyone and all you have to do is leave a message but this one is different.


I thought it would be fun to have this giveaway only for the people who follow my blog.


So, in order to join in this giveaway you will need to:


1. Follow my blog. If you do not already do so just click on Follow me that is on the upper right sidebar area.


2. Leave a message saying you want to enter.


3. If you want more then one entry you can post about this giveaway on your blog and have a link back to this post. Let me know you did this and you will get your name entered 2 more times.


4. To get even another entry have someone you know come and join in the giveaway. Make sure they tell me you sent them and I'll add your name another time.


So there you have it. You can get four entries if you like.


I will announce the winner on Dec. 1st. That way you will be sure to get this in plenty of time for Christmas so you can enjoy a nice cup of tea in your vintage Christmas tea cup and saucer.