Pre-Christmas Potpourri

I fell in love when I went to visit my lovely daughter-in-law Debbie yesterday.

My purpose, besides just visiting, was to snap a photo or two of Emma from Berlin as she made German Christmas cookies. 

When I walked to the dining room, however, and spotted Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, standing in the garden window next to the table, I could not stop looking.  

Their wonderful facial expressions and movable body parts are downright mesmerizing.

Debbie says she's known this pair for as long as she can remember.  

They belonged to her grandmother who passed away last year. 

The pair, with their lovely and like-new colorful apparel, inspire a touch of magic, especially with yesterday's window winter scene as a backdrop. 

So, I went a little crazy taking pictures. Please bear with me for the multiple postings this morning, as I couldn't get enough of Mr. and Mrs. Santa. 

If ever there were a scene to inspire Christmas nostalgia, this husband and wife pair have provided it. 

While I was moving chairs and snapping pictures and trying to get my flash to work, Emma stood at the stove carefully forming crescent-shaped cookies from dough she had prepared earlier in the day. 

Meanwhile, cookies dabbed with strawberry jam baked in the oven. 

When I left to head home, after a nice visit with Willie and Debbie, Emma was about to coat her crescent cookies with a special sugar mixture.   

She had more batches of dough in the refrigerator, so I'm sure she put in a full day of cookie baking. 

Over here at the Lovestead, I'm thinking I may have baked my last batch of cookies for this season:  Russian tea cakes.

In between trips to the oven, I also decorated the beautiful grand fir Christmas tree which Bill brought home on Saturday. 

Twas all completed by the time he came home from church.  He asked how I liked the tree, adding that he had inspected the inventory, looking for the straightest trunk. 

He did well. 

I reported to my hubby that this is probably the first year ever that NOT ONE CUSS WORD has left my lips while setting up the Christmas tree. 

Everything went smoothly from start to finish, and I'd say the decorated tree is one of the prettiest we've ever had.

Of course, it's adorned with the same batch of ornaments I've acquired over the years. 

Many remind me of Christmases past with special, nostalgic vignettes to go along with them. 

I thought of my classmate Dora who painted the ornament with Mt. Rainier, my friend Mow who parted with some of her Border Collie ornaments and my daughter-in-law Debbie who purchased a lovely card with a rustic Christmas scene, etc. 

There's even an ornament filled with candy that a sweet young lady from one of my English classes gave me one year before I retired from teaching. 

Almost every ornament has meaning, just like Ma and Pa Santa Claus do for Debbie.

It was a wet, sloppy day yesterday, but holiday scenes both inside and out, reflecting special touches and special memories, made everything A-Okay and feeling a lot like Christmas. 

Happy Monday.