Magazine Memories

I was over at http://hazelruthes.blogspot.com/ looking at show and tell and Cathy was showing how she would save old magazine stories and put them in a book. I have a wonderful collection of old Christmas magazines and thought I would share some of them. This is a Family Circle from Dec 1966. That was before I was even born! :) The cost was 15 cents. I love that the cover says 'how to make gay Christmas ornaments'. I could just see that on a cover today. I just love the cover of this Family Circle from 1960. This one is so adorable. The little boy is showing his cat how he has hung his stocking by the tree.This ad was in the shopping section. For $1.25 you can buy a record that has santa talking and he will mention your child's own name. Wow, that is cheap!It is funny how the food in these books look so unappetizing. Not that the food itself would be bad, but the pictures are just awful!

I received an award! I will be back later to show you and to pass it on!

COOKIE EXCHANGE

Last night my friend Stacy and I hosted our first cookie exchange. I had all my cookies and some friends cookies loaded in my car. It is a 35 minute drive to her house, so I was taking the interstate. Well, people around here do not understand how to merge! Suddenly, all these cars started hitting their brakes and the car in front of me just locked it up! Not much I could do but slam on my brakes and sure enough- I heard all the cookies fall. The plastic container my friends peanut butter boiled cookies were in cracked open and my tray of woopie pies went flying in the floor. I did not want to stop on the interstate-not only for safety reasons but because I did not want to see the damage that had been done. As I continued on my drive the smell of peanut butter overwhelmed my car and I just knew it was not going to be a pretty sight.
When I arrived, I was pleased to see that all but two of those cookies fell into the lid and were safe for eating. However, I was not able to salvage one of my trays of woopie pies as the frosting was a sticky magnet for any dirt. We did manage to have a good time of hanging out and talking. We did not have as many people show up as we would have liked to, but for being our first try it was ok. We may try again next year.
LESSON OF THE DAY: If you are transporting baked goods of any kind, put them in the floor of your car and not on the seat! :)

Friday Show and Tell

For today's show and tell hosted by Kelli over at kellishouse.blogspot.com, I would like to show a few more of my Christmas decorations. Here are all the boys' stocking hung by the fire! Also notice my vintage Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause. I paid 3.00 each for these at a yard sale. They are so cute. They are made of that stiffened fabric and are pretty big. The picture does not do them justice.
All of the items in the stockings are WRAPPED! This was a tradition that my mother started when I was real young. I was always awake around 4am, so excited about Christmas. Well, mom and dad were not too happy about waking up this early, so mom started to hang our stockings on our bedpost and carefully wrapped each item. That way I could spend some time opening my special treats and give them more time to sleep! I have always done the same except they get hung by the fire. I even wrap packs of gum!
Here is a tree and some reindeer in my yard. You can see a little bit of my big polar bear in the corner.

Snowman heads light the walkway. This is my manger scene. I painted these also. Sandy built the manger for me. I regret that I never bought the other ceramic pieces to finish the scene. That store has long gone out of business. Sandy is also working on a star for the top.
I just have too much to show for one post, so please stop by again to see more of our Christmas display!
Check out my elf family:

www.elfyourself.com/?id=1374860839

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

So, Saturday I was outside finishing up my outdoor decorating for Christmas. Christmas? Is it December? Oh, look...flip flops? We are having very warm weather- like in the mid 70's. Even for the south this is a bit warm for December. Even the flowers are confused. I noticed these guys peeking thru. Wow! I sure would love some snow! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AUSTIN DEC. 4TH

Austin's birthday was this week. He turned 13! Wow, he is now stepping into those wonderful teenage years. It seems like yesterday he was my little boy.
Austin was a surprise pregnancy. I really thought that my family was done, but I guess God had other plans. The pregnancy went very smooth. I was never sick and the time passed so quickly. I knew he was a boy early on. During my labor I was told that I had meconium and I was terrified. I knew someone whose baby had died from this. The doctors wanted the room to be very quiet when he was delivered. This was hard because I had my husband, sister, sister in law, best friend and 5 doctors in the room! Austin came into the world on Dec 4th, 1994 weighing in at 7lbs 4oz. He seemed so tiny and frail to me. (His brothers were all big babies.)
His tiny feet were badly bent and he had dark red places on his eyelids and forehead. But to me he was perfect and beautiful. As he began to grow people would ask me if he had a cold, or what was wrong with his eyes. I grew fearful that this would get worse, but by the time he was 2 they were completely gone. As he began to walk we put him in some corrective shoes and the problem with his feet was also completely repaired. God also blessed him with this beautiful blond curly, curly hair. Oh, how people loved his hair. When he was old enough to start school, he wanted it all cut off. He did not like his curls at all! So most of his young life he wore it short. Now, at 13 it is long and curly! LOL! This is one of my favorite school pictures of him. He is just so cute. When Austin was in third grade he underwent plastic surgery for a rare condition of trichofolliculoma. This is a tumor of the hair follicle that usually develops in older women and presents itself in one or two places. Austin however had hundreds of them on his face. They were tiny clear bumps and you really could not see them from far away. He was misdiagnosed by many doctors and I was told he would out grow them. But they actually were multiplying. I finally got a biopsy done and found out what they were, but no one knew what to do. Generally they remove one or two but he had so many and some close to his eyes. I spent many hours emailing various plastic surgeons but no one wanted to touch him for all the uncertainty. I finally found Ram Kalus http://www.plasticsurgerycarolina.com/ in Columbia and he was so wonderful. I cannot say enough about this man. He changed Austin face like you would not believe. You can not even see his scars. It was a six hour surgery but worth every tense minute. Austin is now a perfect, handsome teenage boy.
As I sit here this morning typing this and remembering back on these things, I find it hard to believe that my baby (he will always be my baby!) is 13. Each year I long so much for him to stay the age he is at. It just tears me apart to know that he is growing up. Over that past year he has visibly 'grown up'. Everyone cannot get over how he has changed this year. He is becoming a man. I want to hold onto him as long as I can. I cannot imagine the day that he leaves home. I am afraid my world will crumble. I still have time for that so I will enjoy each and every moment in his life now as he ventures into his teen years.
I love you Austin- my baby!
Happy Birthday.

SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY

So you must stop over at Kelli's place to learn all about show and tell http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/. She is such a wonderful person :)
Today I would like to show you some of my Christmas village houses. Back in 1990 when I lost my girls, I took up the hobby of ceramic painting. That was the in thing then! I bought several of these houses and painted them.


Over the years I have never been able to find anymore of the same type and scale. So a few weeks ago I was in the goodwill store and was so surprised to find a whole shelf of unpainted houses-exactly like mine. And what a wonderful surprise to find a donut shop- Austin's favorite place.

And a taco place- Aaron's favorite place. I also found a chocolate shop-my favorite place.
I still have about 7 more to paint and doubt that I will be done before Christmas. And then I have to clean up this big mess I have created.When I get them all set up I will post more pictures. I have lighted snow that goes under my houses and they look so pretty lit up! Thanks for stopping by.

Favorite Ornaments

The tree is done and the presents are beginning to pile up! I wanted to share some of my favorite ornaments with you. I got this ornament for Billy when he was 7. He was so much into music and he always had headphones on. When I found this I knew it would be perfect for him. It has two tapes that you can change and they each play a Christmas song. Last year the batteries finally died and it does not play anymore. Every year Billy searches for this one on the tree.

This is an ornament that my dad made for me when I was real little. I was always a math whiz and was so proud when I started taking algebra. He made this little chalkboard and even made a 3d apple on it. This will always be my favorite.
A few years ago I started a collection of vintage Christmas ornaments. My sister and I would buy them at yard sales real cheap and then resell them on ebay. I always kept my favorites. So, someone gave me a free box of old ornaments and these little books were in there. They have several pages of Christmas songs in each one. I just thought these were real interesting. They came with a hanger but I do not know if they were originally ornaments or if someone made them to be.

Below is a macrame tree that I made when I was very little. I remember my sister and I would spend hours on the porch making macrame pot hangers. This is a wall tree I have. It is flat on the back and you just hang it on a wall. This year I have the vintage silk strung balls and these little vintage pixies on it. I have this in my den. (sorry I didn't flip the pic)
Thanks for looking at some of my special ornaments and I will share some more soon.