FOYER CHRISTMAS DECOR

This year I went with the rust, greens and gold through out the foyer and stairway. This wreath was a large candle ring that I added a bow to, and I have hanging next to the door.
Here is the foyer, after seeing the picture I don't like this poinsettia there it needs something bigger and more grand.

I really love greenery, so I put some around my monogrammed picture with pine cones, and added pine cones to the shelf. The cross you can't tell in the picture but it has the nativity scene all through it. And on the corner cabinet I have a musical nativity scene on top shelf then the next to shelves are my deers. The very top of the cabinet is my Christmas cactus, it has a couple blooms on it but it was full over thanksgiving.

My Christmas sleigh, I got this about 18 years ago and it has been redone more times than I can count, This year I do not have lights in it, well because lights and I were not getting along this year...so in my effort to SIMPLIFY...I just didn't put them in...relief....But I do miss the lights sooo I may add them again...

Here is the swag i made for the front door. This year I am so into red and I don't know why. I usually never use it but this year I even have it in the family room and kitchen, They say you change with age I say I change with the seasons. I can also see that come spring this door needs repainted, and new door handle...Oh pictures sure do show it all..

Later I will post the dinning room, it has been taking about 5 minutes per picture to download. So that is why I don't have it all on one post. Hope everyone is getting their decorating done and their shopping and moving on to baking. Have a wonderful week and those of you hit by this stormy weather be careful we are to get rain today then tonight change to snow and sleet. Hopefully not freezing rain. It's coming from west. I want to get out today and get some things done so I can stay in tomorrow.

Love to all,

Jolyn

OUR FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON

See our little dusting of snow we got today, it is so pretty. This is taken out my front door. And this is out my back door...There has been flurry's all day today. I have the Christmas music playing and the tree lights and mantel on...But now I'm heading out in this cold weather to pick up Autumn from school and take her to her Ortho appointment. After that we need to go buy her a pair of black dress pants...

Now that the snow has begun it is like Christmas all around..Love to all.

Jolyn

OUR FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Come with me as I take you through last night at our Family Christmas Party. You may want to get a cup of coffee or hot tea this is a long one. Let me start here with the real Lenox men of the Family... Left to Right is the 2ND to the oldest and 1st born grandson to the family, my cousin Chris, then my moms oldest brother my Uncle Larry, 3rd grandchild is my cousin Danny and next to him is my mom's baby brother Jerry, my youngest Uncle, we are ten years apart and his birthday is the day after mine. Next to him is the baby of my cousin's little Jerry and he is getting married in April..

This year we decided to have the family Christmas get together at this place instead of trying to get us all in one of our homes plus this seemed much easier. So my cousin Sara the 2ND grand daughter, out of us ten grandchildren, and I went ahead and handled the get together this year. This place was so nice and it worked out so well we may even do it here again. Maybe next year have a d.j or something more. But as we were getting things ready and we were waiting for all my wonderful family to arrive, someone else had a hard time waiting...honey are you hungry?? You just got caught, look at the guilt on his face...BUSTED

Here is my MIL, my Hubby and my Autumn standing in front of the fire place. It was so toasty and comfy.

This is Sara and I's big helpers...The Elves!!! They really helped us out in getting ready. Thanks Guys.

Everyone had plenty of room to walk around and visit, here is Sara's mom, my Aunt Elsie, a side view in black w/blue on, then my Aunt Karen in black this is my mom's youngest..sister,and in the green is my Mommy, next to here is my cousin Ricks wife Jen and their youngest son Brent drinking his juice box. Brent is the youngest of the 2ND cousins. Hopefully Lord willing Tyler will be the youngest...Tyler is the one my Brother and SIL are trying to adopt...More on that around the 21st of the month please pray all goes wonderful for them in court on the 21st. Also they were not with us here tonight they are in New York for their Anniversary. Missed you.

This table we had set up with some drinks and a couple fun things. My Uncle Larry is writing down a question to put in the bag about either my Grandpa or Grandma. Then after dinner I would draw each question one at a time and read it out loud to see who could answer it. This was a lot of fun and away to include my Grandparents that are no longer with us here, but will forever be in our hearts and mind. They were so loved by us all...And yes some of us thing they were the favorite and others think they were the favorite..I tried to tell them all I was...I was first born Grandchild and the Favorite...So I guess if we all feel like we were the favorite, that shows how much we were loved by my Grandparents....

Any way next to my Uncle Larry is my Uncle Earl married to my moms sister Karen, then in the red vest is my Daddy...Two of my Grandparents best Son in Laws....Yes Dad we do know Grandma's favorite thing to call you...LOL

Dinner time, wow we had a great variety of food. Everyone brought a side dish and a desert. Plus we had fried chicken and honey baked ham..Oh so good. By now if you have read my blog any length of time you know this is my Autumn and my parents. Autumn never misses a camera shot!

How sweet and cute is this, Kennedy and Ben are trying to guess how many M&M's were in the jar sitting on the table...Hmm Kennedy might be close she guessed 75..Ben is still thinking..There were 914 in there... And Aunt Karen won the prize for this, and the prize was the jar of M&M's.`

More eating.. my cousin Chris and his wife Sheryl, my cousin Danny and his wife Janet and my MIL

Moving right along to another table eating. First is Stan, we all got to meet him for the first time, and he was very nice, he is dating my cousin Tracy, she is the 3rd of the grand daughters sitting next to her is her daughter Olivia, she needed to fix her hair or she was avoiding the camera, what was it Livi??? in the red is Julie she is marrying my cousin little Jerry and of course Miss Kennedy, Tracy's youngest. We sure do have some nice smiles at this table..

On to some serious matters...a good game of euchre.. this looks tense my Dad is plugging his ears so my Michael must be saying something, by the looks of it they seem to be beating Hubby and Kelly...because those two don't look to happy..hmmm

A group picture of the 2ND cousins I will save you from me putting all the names down. We are missing 4 of them. Lauren, Sydney, Tyler and Brian...we missed you..

Aunt Karen, her daughter in law Jen married to my cousin Rick, and my Uncle Earl getting a call from work.

Oh know Miss Kennedy isn't getting arrested, just carrying on a conversation with our police officer we had to get if there was any alcohol served. What a nice man he was. He has only been a police officer for one year.

My cousin Chris again, He is an air traffic controller, can we say stressful job.....but he doesn't look to stressed in this picture and know he wasn't working after the party, and know both of those beers weren't his. Or were they???? Stephanie and Brent playing connect four.

Stephanie saying look and of course I was ready to take Sheryl's picture, this is my cousin Chris's wife and she too is an air traffic controller. I interrupted her talking with my Uncle Larry her FIL. Hmm could that mean a photographer can be rude? Please don't think that of us, we just love you all that we take pictures of, and want to treasure them for many years...Right Blogger friends?

Are you still with me or did I lose you at hello, I mean at the 2ND picture. If you are still with me this is my cousin Mikes wife. She is talking to him, he couldn't make it because of his job. When he isn't here to control Kelly you never know what might happen or be said...She is one of my sports buddies..But no we do not like the same teams at all....I like the good ones and she likes the bad ones...I yell at Autumn for pictures with her tongue out and there is Kelly...Adults now a days!!

Gabby and Olivia warming up by the toasty fire.

Last but definitely not least is Emily, her mom Sara and Sara's son Sam at the end of a nice time with our family.

I love when we can all get together and the ones that couldn't make it were very much missed and talked about, I me thought of...Hope we have everyone with us next year. We get together the whole family every year on Labor day weekend and at Christmas...Then when ever we can through out the year...Our next time is 2010 for the big wedding in April for Little Jerry and Julie...

To my family I love each and everyone of you, Thanks for coming and have a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous, Happy, Healthy, Blessed New Year...OXOXOX

Hugs to All,

Jolyn

OOPS.. I had a picture floating way down at the bottom..sorry girls. This is two of my 2nd cousins..both basket ball players. Have a great christmas Stephanie and Emily..

I FINALLY DID IT..AND I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER

Well everyone I did it..If you read my previous post about how tired I was of dealing with Christmas lights you know I have had enough. So I threw all the lights away that I plugged in and 1/2 would work..That's it it is gone finished not to be mest with again....awww it felt good. So I finally went today after years of saying I was and bought a PRE LIT CHRISTMAS TREE!!! Hurray for me.. I got a 7 1/2 foot Blue Spruce at JC Penney's it was originally 400.00 I got it for 200.00....shhh I never make a big purchase with out telling my hubby or talking about it BUT I did this time it happened so fast, well lets just say I will wait and see how long it takes him to figure out its new....I'll let you know... I am so happy... I love it and once I got all the branches fixed how I wanted them I plugged it in and it lit up...

This picture is dark, sorry for the stuff on the dinette table I'm still moving things around.

Oh my Autumn, God love her, she was supposed to be decorating the tree not herself !!! She flips and flops so much. when I was getting tree out of the box and got the first bottom part on she said I'll be right back, let's just say I was done with putting tree together and fixing branches when she pops back in the room and says Mom you are done...I say are you okay? Autumn says yes why...(me thinking she was in the restroom the whole time)I said where were you....Now remember she was to help me.....I was in the computer room downloading my pictures off my phone why??? Good Grief...never mind...

My Michael just got home from bowling practice says Mom the tree looks great.. and we started decorating away...

Me putting up my two turtle doves.

Has anyone else been so frustrated with something but you keep using it or fixing it...until you have had ENOUGH!!!

Why did I not do this years ago???

Now I'm all done complaining about the lights and I am moving on. Till next time love to all and have a Jolly week.

Hug,

Jolyn

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN SOMEONE IS TAKING YOUR PICTURE

I was sitting at my desk reading my e-mails when I looked up and saw this....I thought what in the world...who is that??? He's taking my lights!!! Of course I had to get a picture out of the front door side window....Hubby won't believe this.. Still digging through..

Wow he took the whole container..wait my Michael wasn't supposed to throw away the container just dump the contents out...hey hey that's my...Oh well to late

All I can say is I hope all those lights don't stress him out like they did me. One persons trash is another persons treasure....Merry Christmas Sir...I hope you have patience...I'm sure he will have a wonderful tree with tons of lights...

Called Hubby he said he will use copper in them and sell it..Glad I can help in anyway, now I need to go out and by lights that work....Don't tell my wonderful loving husband I said that he might turn into the Grinch....he he

ITS BEGINING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE.....

A BIG MESS....Oh I mean Christmas..wow this looks bad, Monday night and we can't even get to the dinner table, well Autumn and Michael found a spot for their dinner... Oh boy and to think this is just family room and some kitchen decorations you should see the rest of the house...NO WAY...I might be crazy to show one but I haven't totally lost all dignity.


Well it all started on Sunday evening after having a nice birthday dinner at my MIL house for my hubby, this is what I started on as my children brought Christmas boxes from the downstairs. I went thru them one by one by one....and got rid of about 5 box's full so far.
But here I am taking last years lights off my wreath that goes above garage door and putting all white lights up for this year. Of course I'm also watching Sunday night football. he he




Mike has to stand on the top off his truck bed to get our wreath up, I put so many lights on that big wreath a plane might land there!!! Oh no, I forgot the huge red bow...That will have to wait for hubby to get back, He'll love me....

Now on to today a little sneak look of the foyer..

And of the dinning room

Of course our home would not be complete without the Grinch...Sneak look at my Grinch room.

So today is the last day of November and a very special day in our home for the Man of the house...It's my Hubby's birthday ....All my love hubby...and I pray you have many more happy healthy years to come.

I need to get off this computer you all saw how much work I need to get done. More pics soon.

Happy decorating to all and to all a goodnight.

HUGS,

Jolyn

THANKSGIVING DAY AT OUR HOME

My baby girl helping light the candle for Thanksgiving dinner. This year we had 16 guests for Thanksgiving, here in the dining room we had 6 and in the dinette area 6 and on another table 4. This year our family was so honored to be able to have a guest in our home, that just got a home for himself. See our one guest was homeless 3 weeks ago sleeping where ever and had nothing but clothes on his back. Now he does work, he takes bus back and forth now from his home. It was truly a blessing to see how grateful he was to come to our home. We have helped him get some things he needed like a bed, new set of clothes a coat, towels and other items along with food. This gentleman is 45 years old and had been having a lot of bad times. So to see him so Thankful for everything and when we were getting ready to eat he said he hadn't ate since the day before and that was a bowl of soup. My family and all that was in our home on Thanksgiving day welcomed him like he was one of us...Johnny talked and laughed and boy did he eat....alot....I loved it. My Aunt made a cake and Johnny tried it and he lit up like a Christmas tree Oh my this is awesome he said my birthday is Dec. 9Th....we all laughed....But you know what I will remember him on that day and looking forward to treating him to a wonderful birthday...So as he was preparing to be taken home I said Johnny I'm making you up some left overs to take home...He said Oh thank you Mam...I would love that...all I have is 2 eggs in the frig!!!! Lord God How I Thank You For Johnny and his wonderful spirit....
So moving right along, to this wonderful picture Thanksgiving morning still in my gown preparing our meal for the day

My Autumn took this I was getting sweet potatoes ready for the oven. I thought this looked so good, and it was.

My Mike took care of the Turkey from start to finish. He did something new this year it was soaking our turkey overnight in brine, and followed one of the guys directions from the food network on baking it Alton Brown. It was all by temperature not time. Here it is almost down except some browning but I needed to get gravy made and did this ever give me lots of juice for gravy and Oh so GOOD!!!

Well with thermometer in hand, temperature at 167 turkey is done and ready to rest for 1/2 hour.

Oh so moist. This is first time I didn't stuff the turkey with stuffing.

My Dad carving the turkey for dinner. It was a 25 pound turkey and almost every bit gone.

Thank you all that came and spent this day of Thankfulness with us. But we need to all remember every day is a day to be thankful...

NOW ITS TIME TO PREPARE OUR HOME FOR CHRISTMAS AS WE CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF JESUS....

Love to all,

Jolyn