Secret Santa Swap 2017

I joined in on the Santa Sack Swap again this year which was hosted by @madaboutbags on instagram. Below is what I received from my partner Rachael. This was such a lovely swap and I love everything that I received from my partner.

I will show what I sent to my partner in part two of this post. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

SSCS 2017 part 1

Hi everyone, I do hope your Christmas was a wonderful time with family and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with our family, which for us was missing one important member this year my dad. This was our first Christmas without him and it was really hard on all of us, but we made it through sharing memories and stories of past Christmases. Then on Monday night I was hit by a nasty virus that has kept me in bed until today and my son came home from work on Wednesday night with the same thing. Not fun at all. Today I have been able to keep down a bit of yogurt and pedia lite for kids. That's it. Better days ahead. Now on to the good part of this post. This is my swap parcel from my partner for the SSCS 2017. We make one ornament and a gift for our partner then send it out and wait patiently for Christmas to arrive....

I love both sides of my ornament!

The pics of this table runner do not do it justice. It is so gorgeous!

Hi everyone, I do hope your Christmas was a wonderful time with family and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with our family, which for us was missing one important member this year my dad. This was our first Christmas without him and it was really hard on all of us, but we made it through sharing memories and stories of past Christmases. Then on Monday night I was hit by a nasty virus that has kept me in bed until today and my son came home from work on Wednesday night with the same thing. Not fun at all. Today I have been able to keep down a bit of yogurt and pedia lite for kids. That's it. Better days ahead. I should have posted sooner, but just opened this on today. Look at my beautiful ornament and table runner that Maria made for me! Absolutely stunning is all I can say about both. I joined SSCS 2017 this year. I have participated in all but one of these and I always enjoy swapping and making a new friend. One of my favorite swaps. I will post tomorrow what I sent out to my partner. Thank you Chooky for another great swap.

2017 Christmas Tree

My tree for this year is up and decorated. Not my big tree this year in the living room, just a smaller tree. My sweet Bliss purchased this purple tree for me several years ago. I decided on white and silver theme for this tree, which is actually the tree for my bedroom. This year with my back issues I am minimally decorating for Christmas this year. I love how this tree looks with all the ornaments placed about. One of my favorite items is the lace poinsettias that I found for this tree. They remind me of the lace I have learned to make from my classes with Karen Ruane. You can find her here. I hope each of you have a wonderful and Merry Christmas this year! May your home be filled with love, happiness and much joy during this happy season!

Snow Cream and Playtime

Jazmine and Auntie Bliss playing in the snow before coming in and eating some snowcream that I made for them. They had so much fun making snow angles, a snowman and rolling around the yard in all that snow. They were soaking wet and cold when they finally came in after dark. Both of them had such a wonderful time playing in the snow. I laughed while making these short pics and a video of them rolling around in the snow. Today was such a wonderful and relaxing day for all of us.

Snow 2017...picture heavy

The above pic is of the snow coming out of the tire treads of Bliss's suv when we went to my moms to check on her today during all the snow. I like the pattern it made.

Looking down the right side of my drive from the front porch

part of the front yard with one of the plum trees

Looking up at the house from the lower driveway to the house

Snug as a bug

A lovely concrete bench my sweet husband made for me a few years ago. This was so hard to move here when we moved last year. I was determined to bring it with me. :) I love to sit here in the spring and summer months with a cuppa.

wind blown snow

a winter wonderland

There were some rabbit tracks in the snow early in the morning

One of the bigger plum trees. This one has those big green ones that turn a dark purple.

cozy

Looking down the lower side driveway

Lower section of the property

The rose beds fully covered

Looking up at the house from the lower driveway

Way in the back you can see the massive gardenia bush loaded down with snow

lovely view 

Looking down towards the road on the lower driveway, it also makes a circle through that large section you can see in the pic right after the rose bushes on the right here, which have roses on them!

All those azaleas have blooms all over them and are now frozen in time.

Looking at the side yard which goes deep into the wooded area

Plum, crabapple, pear and crepe myrtle tree in the forefront of this pic towards the side yard

Looking across my side drive to the lower part of our property. This was filled with rabbit tracks this morning. They live in that clump beside the tree as I did not have the heart to run them out and burn the brush pile we had made over the summer months while under a no burn ban.

This tree is about 80ft high and was so pretty today

more of the front from the porch perspective

looking out at the birdbath which will need to be cleared and filled with water for the birds that are hovering in all the bird houses that we put out.

An early pic of the snow starting on yesterday morning

I love the snow

One of my big holly bushes. I need to get some trimmings for my fireplace mantle for the holidays

view of my driveway coming up directly to the house

One of my camilla bushes and a flowering tree that I have no idea what the name of it is

one of the crabapple trees

Those little spiky bushes are actually sprouts from the big crepe myrtle tree and will be transplanted come early spring

I hope you enjoyed all of my winter wonderland pics on today. I know there were a whole lot of them, but we hardly ever get snow like this in the deep south. I love it when it does happen and make as many pics of it as I can. We ended up getting eight inches in my area and it will take a few days of temps above the 30's to see it all melt, but for right now it is so beautiful and I love it! Hope you have some unexpected beauty in your life on today.