it was a happy Christmas

 It was a happy Christmas and January:

this is one of the reindeer I added to my collection this year

and I think I already showed y'all the gold sparkly one:

I love the old Christmas carols and hymns we sing at church during the Christmas season:

On Christmas morning the bright birds were fluttering about

I think these are very young females:

the Camellias in bloom for Christmas, bright red:

Christmas with our Fairy Granddaughter:

It was gently raining and I love to make pictures of the raindrops glistening on branches!

We have umbrellas and boots, so we were ready to go!

We took a good long walk in the rain before we opened presents

I try to re-read this little book each Christmas, the story of Mary and Joseph:

January has been slow....yet it FLEW BY! I've tried to get to some of my book stacks.

Winter is great for reading.

right now I'm finishing up this book:

She's a great writer and I have a whole stack of her books I've not yet got to

I finished up these two old Helen Van Slyke novels:

The story goes through all these years, and all these cities. I especially loved the 1930s and 1940s. The Mixed Blessing is the sequel to the first one.

And I love our daily walk-abouts out in the fresh country air. Cold, hot,  rainy, mild, warm.....we try to go.

One of my favorite Christmas presents, this pitcher and bowl set. I love the color and I love the pattern.

this was a chilly day!

This day was warmer, one of those nice 71 degree days! And the moon looked pretty.

I love watching the birds every day. We have a lovely flock of Cardinals that swoop in at the same time each day. I love to watch them flutter about, swoop, eat, and splash in the birdbaths. They took right to my new seahorse birdbath, I loved seeing that!

On cold, quiet winter evenings, we've been watching the Waltons. We are now in Season 5 I think. They sure don't make good family tv like this anymore.

The series was based on Earl Hamner's book, which I had only recently got around to reading!

Not very good pictures, but we do have cyclamens and pansies in full bloom:

and the animals keep us very busy!

Here are the ladies digging into a feast! Oh, how they all love spaghetti! LOL

The big Wolf Moon was bright and gorgeous!

and I enjoyed lots of these!:

We always have house projects going and we are also planning our spring and summer planting.

And some days, I take my dolls Tracie and Amybelle outside to play and make pictures!

It was a good January, and I hope yours was as well. 

Are you reading any good books or found any good shows to watch?

What do you like to do in the Winter?

Merry New Year!

 A big Sweet Tea toast to the brand new year!

I love this little muslin bag, because it held that beautiful windchime (made from a fork) with beads and spoons on it, from a special friend. It makes the most sweet dainty little tinkle-bell notes! I do love windchimes, we sure enjoy them.

Tansy showing us her Christmas tree:

Tansy is a great decorator, and she STILL PRANCES around in those HIGH HEELS! How does she do it? (ssssssshhhh---she's in her 60s!)

Tansy trying to decide what to wear for the evening

a special friend sent us these fun glasses!

Tansy finally decided on her New Years Eve dress. She loves glamourous, sparkly ensembles! LOL

(below)Amybelle sure looks excited!

Tracie too!

"Arm Candy" (my dolls never leave home without it, ha ha LOL)

Good-bye, 2023!!

Our new years day supper was rolls this year instead of the traditional cornbread. I did make a big pot of the traditional black eye peas for the holiday though, as usual. I "doctor" up my black eyed peas--I added whole green beans, navy beans, onions, red and green peppers, and the good large butter beans. They cook in the crock pot all day.
(below)...out for a little walk on New Years Day.

But first I wanted to show you my favorite present from Christmas LAST YEAR.

See, I got this beautiful blue and white swan. She's a porch planter.

And she's to plant flowers in and to look pretty in the summer. But, try as I might, and I DID TRY, LOL....I just could NOT put her out on the porch. I loved seeing her and wanted her where I could see her more.

So she ended up on a big shelf in the living room. Now I can look at her anytime while I'm sitting in my chair or watching t.v. I still set flowers in her.

The reason I'm showing you this is because FOR YEARS, I've wanted on of those seahorse bird baths. We've tried EVERYWHERE. 

Every lawn and garden center (they had plastic ones), and all the regular stone/monument places. (where we go for stepping stones, lawn ornaments, and concrete birdbaths. They all told us they are hard to find to order them.)

 Sometimes we spot them in the front yards  in older neighborhoods, but I can't go steal someone's birdbath, LOL. 

Mr. Front Porch finally found me one clear in North Carolina! LOL

I got this beautiful golden seahorse for Christmas and I love it:

and Mr. Front Porch totally surprised me with my beautiful seahorse birdbath I'd been on the look-out for for so many years!

(below)   So here I am on New Years Day, Mr. Front Porch had finished assembling it and putting the birdbath and the other tiers on it. I WAS THRILLED! All those years I kept looking for one, all I'd EVER seen was the bottom 3 seahorses with the bath on top of them. This one has tiers, and I've never seen one like that before. So I was double, no triple (tier), thrilled. Ha ha Ha, LOL

I love it so much.

New Years Day 2024

now, the funny part of this whole story is that swan. Remember the blue and white swan that never made it outside? Well, when Mr. Front Porch asked where I would like my new seahorse birdbath PLACED, I told him "well, I want it where I can always look at it and enjoy it.....kind of like my blue and white swan! How about we put it in the living room!?" You should've seen his face. LOL

(this concrete birdbath is VERY HEAVY)

I hope everyone has had a lovely start to our brand new year and that you had a peaceful and happy New Years Eve.