12 Days of Christmas Countdown

With 12 days left until Christmas Day I’m ready! It looks festive in our home. The house has been decorated since the first weekend in November. (We celebrated Thanksgiving at our son’s.) I made a master list of all the goodies and menus I wanted to make complete with an ingredient list then my sweet husband went to the store for me. I placed all the goods in empty Christmas storage bins and set them in the bottom of my pantry ready to go. It saved time and stress like you wouldn’t believe!

   All I had to do was figure out when to make what so everything would stay fresh over the holidays, yet available for our eating pleasure. The freezer came in handy. 

   The best part of planning was I had goodies on hand for hostess gifts, party contributions, and gifts for the neighbors.

   We give cash gifts to our family and service people which seem to be most appreciated and is a huge time and energy saver.  Our gifts to each other are personally chosen by ourselves so there are no disappointments. We give to our church as an added blessing to us because God has blessed us so much! 

   One insight I want to share. I love beautiful dishes but especially Christmas ones. I was spending so much time surfing for vintage Christmas teapots that it took a morning devotion on coveting to give me a wake up call. I already have seven teapots and one is silver. I don’t need a Christmas one. So here’s what I did. When I’m tempted to surf for dishes I get a book and read! It keeps me content which is a virtue and keeps my husband from worrying that I’ve gone off the deep end.

Merry Christmas to you all. May we continue to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior as we celebrate the season.

~Nancy Jill Thames

Bucket Lists as we Age

So, how many of you have a bucket list? I used to until that list grew to be overwhelming. I archived it on Pinterest just to avoid looking at it. As the photo suggests, we need things to look forward to whether it involves travel or learning a new skill. Great! Nothing wrong with that until...yes, we begin to slow down and eventually run out of gas!
   Since no one knows their last day on earth I decided to only plan a day or at the most one season at a time. And then enjoy the journey.
   This season I feel healthy and happy therefore I will only undertake new cooking skills that I find both creative and enjoyable. I will bake five new kinds of cookies, try my hand at a few candy recipes (but no candy thermometers, please-they’ve been disastrous in the past), and a few new appetizer and salad recipes that look good to me. My husband doesn’t have to eat them, either!
   I’m reading a few new authors while enjoying my old favorites, too. If you like beautiful settings for armchair travel and an amateur sleuth who’s into gardening and afternoon tea, you may enjoy the books I’ve written. Please check them out if you’re interested on my Books page. 
    Thanks for joining me today. Please let me know how your bucket lists are going.
    Until next time, Happy Holidays!

~Nancy Jill