Christmas Day 2008

Casa Linda Bakery made our wonderful cream-filled tree pastry for Christmas morning.

My husband was happy with his Christmas presents. You can see a smile when he got his new shower radio.

Mother enjoyed her new Dooney and Bourke purse as a present. We enjoyed being at her house on Christmas Day.

She had more smiles as she anticipated her present.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family.

Shelby in back yard playing.

Christmas Tree and All the Trimmings

The Christmas tree is up with it's wintry snowflakes. It has been cold enough for snow outside from the unusual artic blast. I believe the rain turning to ice this morning is the closest we will see. The weather will warm to the 6o's by Christmas Day.

The presents are all wrapped. They are surrounding our Christmas tree. Now the anticipation of seeing everyone opening their gifts is heightened.

The colors of red and green from the Christmas packages make the house seem so festive.

The tree is fiber optic which changes the colors of the tips of the tree and the snowflakes. This causes the tree to change from greens to blues to reds to purples with white in between the colors.

The sweetest present under the tree is our precious collie,Shelby. She posed just so and didn't move until I told her she could.

Shelby looks christmasy in her red velvet collar with gold jingle bells. What a good girl to cross her paws just so for her Christmas photo!

Weekend Christmas Shopping

Sunday, we were out and about in the Great weather of 78 degrees. We first went to Firewheel Mall to the book store. I wanted to find some Christmas magazines before they were gone, such as Tea Time. We went on to the new mall at Allen to the Home Goods store. They were having 25% off of their Christmas dinnerware. Bert was needing a a gift for party at work so I found 4 snowmen plates with different sentiments. I thought the bear could hold up the snowman plate.

Trip to Austin for Textbook Conference

We were traveling to Austin and stopped to shop in Hillsboro. The Victorian Santa was meeting eveyone and was nice enough to stop for a picture.

The conference is held once a year for the textbook coordinators of Texas. My husband has been President in years past. He made a presentation and is always stopped by others for information for he is a wealth of knowledge. We stayed at the Omni this year, this the gingerbread village the chef had prepared for the Christmas holidays.
During the conference, Bob from Mesquite was dressed as a terrific Santa and carried his dachshund, Dixie. He has written a book "How the Dachshund saved Christmas". Bob and his wife had a booth, where they were selling the book. He also had a carol he wrote and would sing about my husband and P. D. Thomas.
While shopping in Austin, I found the pink lusterware teapot in the "House" pattern at Whit Hanks mall. The price was nice after negotiating with the dealer. My husband and I also made a find at one of the consignment shops of a set of Haviland with pretty pink flowers.
A beautiful San Marcos church with stained glass windows is decorated for Christmas. San Marcos has a pretty downtown and I found a lovely resale shop called Second to None. I found some terrific cups and saucers at 30% off. It was very hard to pick from the selection.
Gruene Dance Hall in Gruene and pronounced "green". You must notice the motorcycle a Texas vehicle for the The Texas Hill Country. These are someof the pictures from the great historic town.

The Gruene Antique Mall store Christmas windows are of the antique toys of years gone by. The whole town on the river is dressed for Christmas.
Inside the antique mall are the shelves of the old store, they now display assorted antiques.
Even though it is December, this part of Texas in the hill country is warm enough to grow beautiful flowers and cactus. This is the entrance to The Gristmill restaurant, which overlooks the river and the rafting in the warm weather.
The Gruene Historic Inn is decked out for the holidays with garland and lights. Another of the beautiful gingerbread buildings, it is now a hotel for guests visiting Gruene.

A Great Find
Catching up on my blog, the picture is of the pattern "Spring time" by Paragon. I bought the teapot and trivet at Snider Plaza in University Park awhile back. When I was at my favorite store, I found the hot water pot. I knew the rectagular trivet wasn't for the teapot and now I know it fits the hot water pot.

Texas Longhorns

Go LONGHORNS...........................

Monday and everyone is gone except Shelby and me. We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Christopher was home from college, he seemed to relish attention and food. We loved seeing him and listening for his sound around the house. He left for college and work on Friday, he had to be back by 5 o'clock. Due to rain and heavy traffic he bearly made it. Today he told me, he is mad about the BCS ripping UT out of the Big 12 playoff game.

The sweetheart and I were off for a very late lunch Friday. We had Taco Bell, it helped with our colds due to its spicey ingredients. Saturday, we went out again to allen Outlet Mall just south of Mckinney. Thank goodness that he was driving because the parking lot was full and he could just dropped me off by the door. After my visit to the Waterford/Wedgwood shop, my husband said you were only going to look, but just look at you soooooo wrong. The store had 35% off everything in the store sale, I could not resist. I looked and looked and finally settled on a teapot in the petals pattern. The store called San Marcos shop and found a creamer and sugar bowl for me which I will pick up next weekend while my husband is at a covention in Austin. Of course I always go to the outlet mall when we go to Austin.

This is the great pattern "Old Vine" in purple by Wedgwood. I purchased this for it has such a lovely dark hue. The dealer had some of the dishes in Plano and McKinney at different antique malls. I had a lot of fun finding it.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

A happy Thanksgiving to all. Just a quick, friendly hello on this Thanksgiving's Day. The Fall table in my dining room is Royal Doulton, "The Coppice" with light green and plum glassware.

We are off to mimi's for a Thanksgiving feast and then Cowboy football and the Longhorns to follow. The guys are in sports heaven with football and food.

VIOLETS IN THE TUREEN

November 26, 2008

This is my window sill above the kitchen sink. As you can see, I have several blue and white transferware pieces decorating the sill. I have just bought an old blue willow transferware tureen from my favorite shop. Of course, the lid is long gone! The placement of a violet plant in it seemed natural. The tureen was needing a place so here it is until a better place is found. My photo was lucky, for yesterday the sun was not shining on the tureen when I was trying to get a shot of the tureen and the lone violet blooming. All the violet plants around the little tureen are blooming! The top photo is of the other violets blooming and this photo was taken the day before. It does make a difference the time of day when photos are taken. The tureen was really the reason for the photo, for I was thrilled with the purchase.

Texas Tea Party

I welcome you to my blog. I hope you enjoy tea and all the wonderful joys it gives us.