Christmas in a Nutshell

Today I received the following quotes in an email. Perfect timing. I needed to be reminded of this so I can look within me and work at changing the inner me so that my outer experiences will change. Christmas had it's ups and it's way downs for me, so instead of blaming others I know more will be accomplished if I accept that it is work I need to do... and do it.


So, here are the quotes that I feel as so appropriate for me at this time:

"Any situation that you find yourself in, is an outward reflection of your inner state of beingness."

~ El Morya


We have discussed that OUR WORLD MIRRORS WHO WE ARE BACK TO US. When
we get upset by something outside of us, our reaction shows us that we have an inner wound to be healed.

Just as we can be unconscious of our wounds, we can also be unconscious of our strengths. If you are really drawn to the positive qualities in another person, you are being invited to own those same qualities in yourself.

"The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors reflecting their beliefs. So relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth... if we look honestly at our relationships we can see so much about how we have created them."

~ Shakti Gawain

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."

~ Henry Ward Beecher


I also wanted to include a quote by Maya Angelou, but I can't find the specific quote I want. It is to do with people doing the best they can with the knowledge and understanding they have at the time... and when they know better they do better. I know this is true of me and of others I spent Christmas day with... so I forgive them and I forgive me, and I know we all will eventually do better. I'm sure I'll come across this quote eventually, and I will post it when I do.

Merry Christmakkah

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah...
or some other religious holiday... or nothing at all...

I WISH YOU A HAPPY DAY!!

May you and yours be blessed now and throughout the coming year.

I would love it if all of you post comments here telling me about your religion/spiritual beliefs, and what, if anything, you celebrate... now or other times of the year. I love learning about other cultures/races/religions/etc.

"The only gift is a portion of thyself"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Christmas Tree

On Clairegarden, Rambling Irishman said it would be nice if everyone posted a picture of their Christmas tree to their blog, so we all could see what each other's tree looks like. Well, as usual, I am happy to oblige... lol.

It is a fibre optic tree, so the ends of a lot of the needles are lighted up. It's really quite pretty, though it doesn't really show the lights in this picture... it just looks like little dots of white. I figured a few candy canes added a bit to the tree. On the top is a small stuffy bear with a Santa hat on, but it's on the other side of the tree... looking out the window when the curtains are open (which is most of the time). To the right of the fibre optic tree in the red pot is a live Spruce tree. I think I'll plant it into a larger pot soon, then have it inside for next Christmas too.

Okay, Rambling Irishman... let's see your tree. AND I pass this "challenge" on to all my blogger friends.

Dinner Is Served

Here's Reba's dinner:

Blue Rare Sirloin Steak, with a side of Crumbles and a large water.

Hey... that's not Reba!! I just turn my back for a moment and someone's porking down the beef, lol. This is Shadow, enjoying his "sister's" steak dinner.

As soon as Shadow had a wee snack and left, I opened the door... in came Reba and in 1.5 seconds that Bowl o' Beef was history!

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to be able to eat this kind of food, and to feed it to my animals. It is just beyond words. I am so grateful!

Christmas Came Early

Christmas has already started for me.

When Dan was by today, not only did I give him his gift, but he also gave me one. I wouldn't have opened it until Christmas day, but he wanted me to. He gave me a $25 gift certificate gas card so I can go out and have fun over the holidays without worrying about gas in my truck. He also gave me $4o cash to use for gas or whatever else I would want to spend it on. In a card he wrote "Have a gas this Christmas", LOL.

"Where's the beef?"
In my freezer!

My other early Christmas present is Beef. Free range beef. The other day on Freecycle there was an offer giving away what she called half a deep freeze of beef for your dog. I have a rottweiler so figure any extra food for her is a bonus. I wrote and asked for it, as I'm sure many people did, and I got it. Also, the lady lives about 45 minutes out of town, but goes right past my place on her way in, so she was nice enough to drop it off here when she next went in to town.

She told me that a fellow had owed them money, so gave them all this free range beef to pay his bill. They cooked a roast but didn't care for the taste of the gravy from it. She said the meat was probably just fine for human consumption, but because they didn't like the taste she doesn't know if anyone else would either, so figured it would be good for dogs/cats.

This is one T-bone steak! So big it almost didn't fit in my frying pan! I decided to cook one and see how it tasted, though must admit I was almost scared to taste it in case it tasted gross. It smelled just fine before and during the cooking, so I gave it a try. It did taste a bit strange, but not bad. I figure it's likely due to what the animal was eating... wild plants on a range rather than hay and grain in a feed lot. As usual, I added a bit of steak sauce to it and it made a marvelous dinner for me last night. Reba (my dear dog) really enjoyed all the scraps and the bone. I still have a huge chunk of it in the fridge for supper tonight.

I totally emptied out my little freezer of everything except the chickens and pigeons I butchered earlier this fall. Well, I ate one chicken already, but the rest are still in the freezer. Then I filled it as full as I possibly could. Then I made as much room in the fridge freezer and stuffed it full too. And there is still more. It's out in the back of my truck, lots of roasts. Hopefully the weather will keep it frozen until Monday so I can take it to my Mom's and put it in her freezer for now. Or maybe I'll "re-gift" it to a few people. That would be fun.

As I brought it into the house, I weighed it all. First I stepped on the scale and got my weight with boots, jacket, etc... then out I went for the first bag. Coming in I stepped on the scale and got the weight, subtracted my weight and got the weight of the bag o' beef. I did this with all of them, then added it up.

93 Kg of Beef!!
That is 205 pounds of beef!!

To me that is amazing... almost like a ton of gold. Food for me and Reba, and even some for my cat Shadow. We will have a wonderful winter... and then some! If I get a chance to go to a Pot Luck I'll volunteer to bring a roast, haha. There are roasts, steaks, ribs, stir fry, loads of ground beef.

PROSPERITY!!!!

I am so grateful for this wonderful gift.

Another Christmas Present Made

My friend Dan never wants me to buy anything for him. He says if he wants something he just goes and buys it for himself and he doesn't want me to spend my money on him. So fine... this is good. But he can't go buy himself a hand made, one of a kind cushion. Well, maybe he could, but he wouldn't, haha... and even if he did, it wouldn't be made by ME. So I dug out a box material the other day just to find it full of mouse poop and such. Grrrrr... I was not happy! Everything in my laundry room will have to be gone through and washed... again!! I have lots of boxes of craft related stuff stored in there.

Anyway, I had to wash the entire box of scrap material, so that put me behind a day or two on getting this project under way. I finally got to it yesterday and did what I could until my body would not allow me to work on it anymore. Today I finished it. Dan phoned this morning to say he was coming over, but I told him he couldn't until later in the day, haha. He was obviously very confused by this, and asked did I have "company". I said no, and that he would understand later. I needed time to get this finished before he got here, LOL. When I gave it to him he was very happy with it.

I hesitated to add the white stripes in due to showing dirt more quickly, but needed the extra color in there, and I really do like the look it adds to the piece. Each strip was 3" wide, including seam allowance, so around 2.5 inches after sewing them together. The entire cushion is 20"x20". I put a zipper on one side to make it easier to take the cover off and wash.
When I started, I originally planned to leave the seams out, so they could fray and give a cool look to it, but being short on time and having never done that technique before, I ended up putting the seams inside instead, so it now is showing the "wrong" side of the denim squares instead of the "right" side. It looks okay though.

The cushion inside is made out of an old nightgown (quick and handy material to work with) and is stuffed nice and full with sheep fleece of a quality not good enough to spin, but it works good for this kind of thing.

Chistmas Bear Goes Riding

Chirstmas Bear (a.k.a. Willy Billy Bear) was a gift from a Surprise Santa last year :o) and these are my two saddles. Though I no longer have a horse to put under them, I still have the dream and am no where near ready to give up the saddles or other tack I have "stuck away".

The saddle Willy Billy Bear is sitting on is the one I've had the longest. When I was 9 years old my Dad bought this saddle from a fellow that had brought it up from Mexico. I was the kid that needed the saddle, so it became mine. Dad and I had a joking argument for years as to who's saddle it actually way. He said "I paid for it" and I said "yes, but it was me that rode it all those years, it was my butt that wore down some of the carving, and it was me that (did this damage when my horse... etc)". Finally, one day when Mom & Dad gave up their last house and moved into a condo, Dad brought me the saddle and "officially" gave it to me. I can't see parting with this saddle as long as I'm alive.

The saddle in the front I bought myself when, as an adult I rode old Cowboy Joe's horses, mostly Whiplash, a Appaloosa/Arabian cross gelding, for almost 10 years. I bought the saddle from Joe, though I was using it for free for some time already. He needed money and it was a way to help him out. Now I could really use the money, but no way am I about to sell the saddle. Too many wonderful memories, hopes and dreams ride on this saddle still.

I dream of again having a horse to ride, and people to ride with.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Today I came across this silly test to see which of Santa's Reindeer you are. I took the test and this is the result.

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

I challenge you to take the test. Let me know if you paste it to your blog, or come tell us here which one you are and why.

REMEMBER THIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME:

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

Poinsettia Arrangements

As part of my support for my Spiritual Centre, I did up some poinsettia baskets. The other day I found some very inexpensive poinsettia plants as well as some different kinds of ivy and a dieffenbachia plant, all at low prices. I have lots of dieffenbachia here already, but this is a different kind that I have growing here, and most of what I have is way too big for this, and the rest is young ones I started that are not really big enough yet. Do I have you convinced yet that it was okay to buy another "dieff"? Do you believe I really need any more plants of any kind? More about that in another post, but for now... The Centre has only one little window in the office area and the blind on it has to be kept closed when we are not there so people can't look in and see the computer and such. So that means that it is not a good place for living plants of any kind. So these will live with me and I will take them to church with me every Sunday for the rest of this year. This is a bit of "a pain" in that I usually catch a ride to church with a friend, but will now have to take my truck. There is no way my friend would make it up my driveway, so I would have to make several trips up and down to get all my "stuff" down to her car, then the same to get it all back up again. 3 baskets of plants, eggs I take to sell, briefcase I keep with treasury stuff for the CPL has to go with me every time, my purse, oh and this week a big dish of bread pudding for the pot luck Christmas lunch we're having, and sauce for it. I'm sure I could be forgetting something else too, like the book of songs I need to have with me each week too. But I digress... back to the plants :o)

I love this little poinsettia with it's beautiful multi color, and beside it is a plain ivy. I put the plain ivy so it wouldn't take away from the poinsettias beauty. I had another little plant at home I could have put into this arrangement if I'd had a bigger basket to put it in. This was my egg collecting basket, but I needed it so it now has these 2 plants planted in it.



This basket is just on loan to me for the occasion, so I couldn't actually plant these into it. What I did was put some wool (not good enough for spinning, so keep it for stuffing) into the bottom of the basket to fill excess space. Then I put the 3 plants into baggies and arranged them into the basket. Some of the plastic showed, so I stuffed a bit more wool in around the top to hide that. It worked pretty well. A pink & white poinsettia, a variegated ivy, and a dieffenbachia. I put together about 3 of the little ones I started from cuttings this summer, mostly green with a bit of white markings.



A red poinsettia, a plain ivy, and that dieffenbachia I told you about at the top of the page... my new one that is different than all my old ones I already have. Pretty with all the white on it, isn't it. These are all planted in the basket I "stole" from some other stuff I had in it, and lined with plastic before putting the plants in.

I had no problem with the transplanting, I've done a lot (and I mean a LOT) of that over the years. Deciding which plants to put together was fun, and seemed to "come naturally" for the most part. The ribbons and bows, however, were a different matter. Hannah gave these ribbons and wire ribbons to me to use on this project and I've never used ribbon for anything other than decorating gifts, and never even touched wire ribbon before. However, I think it ended up okay in the end. At first it took away from the plants, but I think I over came the problems and now the bows just are accents.

Christmas Questionaire

I got this through an email, and I also remember reading it on someone else's blog, but can't remember just now who's it was.


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate, please!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Neither! That's Mrs. Claus's job to wrap the presents.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Colored lights everywhere!! I love color!!

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No... it would never get used here :o(

5. When do you put your decorations up?
I don't usually decorate as I always go out for Christmas day, but when I have done it, I've decorated just shortly before Christmas. This year I did a bunch of it yesterday and will finish it off very soon.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Sweet Potato Pie!! Mmmm goooood.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
When we were kids my siblings and I got up very early as we were so excited. However, we couldn't open our gifts until Dad got up, went out and did chores (milking cows, feeding animals, etc.) and ate his breakfast. It seemed to take him FOREVER to eat that bowl of porridge!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
What truth???

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
When we were kids we always opened one gift on Christmas Eve. As an adult I don't tend to because if I did there would be nothing to open on Christmas {well, there would be something, but not a lot ;o) }

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
I just have a 2' fibreoptic {don't know if I spelled that right} tree that you plug in and the tips of the needles light up. It's not one you'd decorate as it already looks so pretty when plugged in. However, I do have one ornament on it...

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Dread it on my driveway... Love it everywhere else!

12. Do you ice skate?
I haven't done that in years.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I love everything anyone gets for me! It's all special to me.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Time spent with family and friends. Exchanging gifts we made/bought while thinking about each other.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
All of them! With maybe a bit of a preference for Bread Pudding and my Mom's Naniamo Bars.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Don't really have one.

17. What tops your tree?
... the one and only thing on my little tree is, sitting on a branch at the top is a small teddy bear wearing a Christmas Santa Claus type hat.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
Both!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Leroy The Redneck Reindeer!!

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum

Okay... now it's your turn. If you decide to take up the challenge and put this on your blog, let us know so we can all come and read your answers!