Is it too soon to plan a Christmas tea party?

So, a number of years ago, I hosted a little St. Nicholas Tea Party here at our house in VA, for all the Pearl gals who were six and up at the time (although I did adjust that for a granddaughter who was five but only months away from her birthday).  As much as I would have loved to have the littler Pearl women, too, I wanted it to be an in control, proper and elegant ladies' tea party--so no crazy (and adorable) toddler girls were included.  Just the "big girls" and the four daughters-in-law who lived near us.

It was so wonderful!  It really was. (I blogged about it here, in case you're interested in revisiting that post--or visiting it for the first time.)

It's been five years since that first St. Nicholas Tea Party, which I hoped would become an annual event here at Grammy's house, but somehow didn't. Life gets so busy, doesn't it?

Four of the granddaughters in the above photo, the oldest of our firstborn's seven kids, moved out to the Midwest not too long after that little holiday celebration.  But in the years since then, four of their wee girl cousins in VA have been growing up (way too fast!) and now fit the "six and up" age criteria.  I think that means that it's time for another tea party!  With the five granddaughters we have in the area, the three daughters-in-law, an old college friend of two of my girls (who has become like family), and myself, we would make a party of 12 and that sounds just about perfect to me.  I don't know what got me thinking about this six months in advance...but there you have it.  I'm already making plans.

Too soon?  (Don't answer that!)

I recently ordered a hardcover book for inspiration, and then like a crazy woman, I printed out some invitations that I made up on my computer.

The answer to "Is it too soon?" is obviously "YES!" Because even though St. Nicholas Day actually falls on a Sunday this year and that seems like a perfect time to have such a party, I have no idea if people will be available.  As it gets closer, I imagine I will be making up new invitations!  (Fiddle-dee-dee.  I'll think about that tomorrow, as Scarlett O'Hara would say.)

I'm enjoying deciding which scones, tea sandwiches, and desserts I'm going to make, and how I'm going to set the table.  I've already decided that at each place, there will be a small framed picture of Jolly Old St. Nick, which will serve as both a table decoration and a party favor for each guest.

Okay, full disclosure, dear readers...I found an Etsy offering that I couldn't pass up, with about 30 downloadable vintage-style Santa images for under $3...and I had some of them printed at Walgreen's in wallet photo size, and then put them in some inexpensive frames found on Amazon.  Yes, I did this already.

Cute, right?

But I have a problem.  I admit it.   Party planning for family events is one of my favorite pastimes; but doing so this far ahead might be beyond the pale, even for me!

I'll be back in December to report on this tea party, if it indeed ever happens.  (Fingers crossed.)  In the meantime, I'll be thoroughly enjoy collecting ideas for how to make it the best ever!  

Christmas 2025 Re-cap

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Virginia! We were celebrating with the families of the three boys who live nearby (as well as some in-laws of theirs) in the days leading up to December 25, and then sons #3 and #4 and their families joined us for a party on Christmas afternoon, after Santa's gifts had been opened at their own homes and everyone had been to Mass.  I got to use my new professional-style stainless steel chafing dishes to serve up roasted pork, hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, and Buffalo chicken dip.  We had lots of other snacks and desserts to enjoy as well, and the kids opened Christmas crackers (which was always part of our Christmas Eve tradition when our boys were growing up).  Corny jokes were told, paper crowns were worn, really cheap prizes were fought over and broken, and all was right with the world!  I was living in the moment, mostly, so I didn't get many pictures on the Lord's birthday.  It was a peaceful and relaxing day. (Son #4's gang even came in their flannel Christmas jammies!  It doesn't get more relaxing than that.)

The day after Christmas, our oldest son packed up his 15-seater van, and he and his wife and seven kids started a two-day road trip from WI to VA.  They arrived the night of December 27. Then on the 28th, we got everyone together for yet another family party at our house, this time with four of the five boys and their families: 10 adults and 21 children altogether. (We were missing our youngest son and his crew, who were out in MI with his wife's family for Christmas this year.

I can't even put into words how much it warms my heart to see my menfolk hanging out together, talking, laughing (a lot), and solving the world's problems.

In order to respect the wishes of our oldest son about not posting images of his children on the Internet via this blog, I'll just share this one redacted photo we managed to get of all the kiddos who were there. Look at this crew!  And two were missing!  How abundantly blessed are we?!?!  Talk about a stairway to Heaven.

It was so wonderful having this WI family with us for just over a week.  Each of the brothers who live here in VA wanted to host them at their homes while they were here, so there were lots of little get-togethers throughout the week--on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and other days. It was a full and busy visit for them (and there was a little head cold/fever kind of a bug running through their family that put a bit of a wrench in the machinery here and there, but fortunately didn't ruin their week entirely). They left to make the 1,000-mile trek back home yesterday morning, and I miss them so much already.  

But of course...this quote from my favorite philosopher, Pooh Bear, is absolutely on the money.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, dear readers!  And that you will be blessed with peace, happiness, and good health in 2026.

Blog Keepsake Books, and a Holiday Photo Dump

For years, I've been wanting to have keepsake blog books made.  In my early blogging days, I was printing off all my posts and putting them in plastic pages in big binders; but two years in, that became way too hard to keep up with, and if I'd continued with that, by now I'd have an entire bookshelf filled with binders!  But the idea of hard copies has always appealed to me, especially in recent years.  For one thing, that would keep my blog--all those archived posts filled with memories!--safe from disappearing.  (I always imagine the Internet just shutting my site down, and never being able to figure out what happened to it.  That would probably never happen, but I have an active imagination!)  The other reason I love the idea of having actual books to look at is that ever since I got my first digital camera more than 15 years ago, I stopped making old-school photo albums.  I miss photo albums!  And I thought blog books could become our family scrapbooks/photo albums.

 

Well, I finally did I it! After receiving a modest, unexpected inheritance from my mom’s estate (not a lot, mind you; but enough to make me feel like I could splurge just a little), I recently had hardcover blog books printed up, with my favorite posts from each year since I started String of Pearls in 2011.  I used a site called PixxiBook, and I have been so pleased with the books I've received so far, eleven volumes altogether: Best of 2011, 2012, 2013 (which had to be split into two volumes, so prolific was I that year!), 2014, 2015, 2016-2017, 2018, 2019, 2020-2021, and 2022-2023.  I already have most of the next volume, Best of 2024-2025, ready to go, as soon as we get through the Christmas season and I can add the last few posts of the year to it.

I think the common way to use this site is to plug in your blog address, and then PixxiBook turns the entirety of your blog archives into one book--but only if it would be less than 300 pages long. If there are a lot of posts (for me, that was 1,600+ over the course of my blogging life), they divide them into a set of numbered volumes that are no more than 300 pages each, deciding on where to separate them without your input.  The layouts for the pages are also automated, which takes away all the design guesswork for the blogger.  When you're getting your books ready for print, you can remove any posts that you don't want included, and I definitely had to do that or I would have had so many books and this project would have been ridiculously expensive!  And I definitely wanted my volumes to be divided specifically by year; so I worked the system and figured out how to make my blog posts fit into books separated that way.

And I must say, these books really are so beautiful!  They are big, 8-and-1/2 x 11" (that is the only size offered), and I had no control over the sizes or placement of the pictures that accompanied each post. Some of the decisions they made about which pictures would fill up whole pages and which would be kept rather tiny are not decisions I would have made; but as the site explains, the automation takes all the burden of designing each page off the blogger, and I have to say that the end products are just lovely.   (By the way, I'm not being paid to promote this company or anything.  I just thought other bloggers might be interested in checking it out.)

A collage cover is automatically created for you.

The pages are thick--I think the quality is top-notch.

The color photos look amazing.

Okay, then, enough about that and on to the topic of holiday happenings in the Pearl family this joyous Advent season.  I am basically going to do a lead-up-to-Chrismas photo dump today, so that these pics will get into my latest PixxiBook volume.

Included are some pictures from a sweet girls'-day-out a few weeks ago, for "A Christmas Carol Tea" at a local tea house, with my daughter-in-law Braveheart and her two girls.

And then there's a photo my daughter-in-law Ginger, wife of son #2,  texted me recently of her hubby and their five boys in front of the tree...which gives me a distinct feeling of deja-vu, not only because we had five boys as well; but also because the littlest guy is wearing one of the red corduroy rompers I made for his dad and his dad's older brother to wear at Christmas back in 1985, along with its matching 40-year-old store-bought plaid shirt.  (Ginger loves to dress her boys in the few vintage hand-me-downs I was able to pass on to her.)

About a week ago, we got to watch some Christmas shows at the Catholic school about an hour south of us where eight of our grandchildren are students (one in 5th grade; one in 4th; three in 2nd--including the triplets and their cousin; and two in kindergarten--a pair of little girl cousins who are BFF's).  We got a picture with son #3, his in-laws, and his two youngest on the night his oldest two kids had their show.

Papa and Grammy sporting their Ugly Christmas Sweaters!

We also got a picture with his two oldest after their Christmas show--with both of their sets of grandparents!  #blessed

In the group shot of the Pearl gang, taken after the younger ones had their night to shine on the gymnasium stage, only the little guy on the far left is not yet a student at the Catholic school his siblings and cousins attend.  But it won't be long before he joins them.

Last night, son #3 and his wife hosted their second annual family Christmas party, a munchies-and-desserts affair that is so much fun for kids and adults alike.  We brought our gifts to the families of son #3 and son #4 (who live very close to one another), because even though the plan is for them all to come over after Christmas morning Mass tomorrow, for a little luncheon party, I wanted to make sure they had them. You know, in case (I hate to even say it!) anyone gets sick and we don't all end up getting together.  The kids were begging to be able to open their gifts from Papa and Grammy early, and we decided to let them. So they all got their personalized Rosaries.  And the girls got their capes made with velvet fabric from my late mother-in-law's attic (which I blogged about earlier in the month, in this post).  It was so adorable the way the girls reacted to those capes!  They loved them and all wanted to wear them right away.  I was touched by their reaction, I tell you.  And did they ever look adorable in them!  (I made eight more of these capes, one for each of my 13 granddaughters.  Someday maybe I can get a picture of them all wearing them together!)

I later found out that the two girls on the left put their capes back on, over their jammies, after 
showering last night; and the cutie pie second from the right brought her cape to bed with her.

The granddaughters were darn cute, indeed.  But my husband and two sons were pretty cute as well.  One of our boys and his dad even ended up wearing matching t-shirts, with no pre-planning.  Great minds.

We had lots of laughs, which is par for the course at Pearl get-togethers.  I was particularly tickled by a hilarious (and never-ending) exchange these two brothers had going on the family text stream, with the three brothers who weren't there at the party.  Son #3 started it when he posted this:

This is one of their favorite conversations to have: the debate over which one is Mom's favorite child.  (Which is why they all got ornaments like this from me in 2009.)  They all claim to hold the title. (Actually, they all do!  I always tell them it's a 5-way tie!)  But the texts and memes were flying back and forth for quite a while, and I couldn't stop laughing. At one point son #4 said, "It's cute watching you guys compete for second place. Sad, but cute." And son #2, who always insists he's my favorite, said, "When you know, you know."  I have the funniest boys.  They have given their father and me a lifetime of happiness, and I can't even imagine life without any one of them.  And I do love this humorous debate they like to have, because I know if they actually believed I had a favorite, it wouldn't be the source of amusement and laughter that it is.

And I think that's a good place to end this, as I ponder the many blessings I've been given.  I adore my sons! And tomorrow, God's only begotten Son comes into the world to save us all, because God loves his children so much--all of us exactly the same, without a favorite!

God bless us, every one!  Merry Christmas!

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin!

Last night we went to the most lovely Christmas party.  Our #3 son and his wife Preciosa rented out their friend’s coffee shop, and in a nod to her half-Cuban heritage, they had it catered with a traditional Noche Buena feast from a local restaurant: lechon, which is slow-roasted, mojo-marinated shredded pork shoulder; rice and spicy black beans; cucumber salad; roasted plantains; and toasted Cuban bread. Noche Buena is celebrated by Cubans on Christmas Eve, and if you really want to get serious about the meal, you roast a whole pig for it.

Guests brought some charcuterie and desserts to share.  Wine and beer (and delicious coffee!) flowed like…well, they flowed like wine, you could say.  Our contribution was a double-sized batch of the Oreo trifle that I always used to make for our boys’ Friday night team football dinners when they were in high school. It goes by many names, but we call it “Heavenly Dirt.”

There were about 30 people there, maybe more—and we were probably 30 years older than most of them (LOL!  But true story!); it was a predominantly young crowd, but we were so glad to be included.  What a delightful bunch!  We got to hang out with two of our boys and their wives, just us adults— and as much as we adore our grandchildren, this rare grown-ups-only time was so precious.

The friend who owns the coffee shop was actually a classmate of our second-oldest son when he was at Notre Dame, and this guy also got close to sons # 3 and 4 when they joined their brother out there. And now he lives right down the road from son #3. His establishment was such an ideal place to have a party like this.  If you’re ever in the Charlottesville area and you want to enjoy a great cup of coffee (or a latte or a chai tea or whatever), and sip it while relaxing in a really amazing space that feels both airy and spacious and intimately cozy at the same time, you should check his place out (First Free Coffee Bar).

I absolutely love this time of year.  I love having a party to dress up for, and meeting up with friends and especially family (THE funnest people I know), and eating delicious food prepared by someone else while Christmas music is playing in the background…it just doesn’t get much better than that.

Here’s wishing you all the joy of the Christmas season, dear readers. May your days be merry and bright! If your Christmas is also white, that’s a bonus; we don’t get those very often here in Virginia! But as much as I love seeing snow on the ground on the 25th of December, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be right now than right where I am.

Merry Christmas 2023

I woke up early this morning and was sitting in the living room, which was still dark except for the tree lights, drinking my coffee and thinking about how very blessed I am and how I wouldn't trade my life for anyone's in all the world.  I have five sons whom I adore, they have five wives who feel like daughters (and who love my boys, which is the only important trait a mom looks for in a daughter-in-law, right?), and I am a Grammy to 22 of the most extraordinary little people on God's green earth.

Joy to the world, indeed.

My house is quiet.  Much has changed since I was raising those five boys who are now husbands and fathers, living in their own homes, with their own lives, and raising children of their own.  They are establishing holiday traditions for their own growing families, so our family celebrations don't look anything like they used to.  As someone who by nature has always resisted change, this has been difficult to accept at times.  But ever since our move from NH, where we raised our five sons, down to VA, where we live close to three of them  (and 14 of our 22 grandchildren), we know that we will spend at least part of every Christmas with a good portion of our family gathered together.  What a gift that is!

On the 23rd, we were able to get all of our VA gang over to our house for an early Christmas celebration.  (By some miracle, no one was sick--I think we all still have PTSD from last year's epic stomach bug fiasco!)  The grandkids had a wonderful time running around the house, and it looked a bit like a bomb had gone off in here after they all left.  But it was just the best, and I hope my husband and I can stay healthy enough to give them this one crazy party every Christmas season moving forward.  I'm never happier than when my home is full of my people.  And my husband and I truly live to hear the sound of our sons' laughter in the house.  That is the best gift of all.  We don't want their presents; we want their presence.  (I just made that up!  But I'm probably about the millionth person to say it, so I suppose I can't take credit!)

There are no little people opening their stockings in this house on the 25th.  It's quiet here.  But it's peaceful and I've got the best husband in the world and I am feeling very happy. 

I hope you are having the merriest of Christmases, dear readers!  

A Lovely Second Sunday of Advent

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to a Christmas gingerbread house-making party at our second-oldest son's new home.  All the VA gang--sons #2, #3, and #4, and the 14 children they have between them--were going to be there.  Our boy spent hours the night before, dutifully carving up graham crackers to glue together, so that the houses would be ready for the kids to decorate with icing and candy the next day.  (He made 20 houses!)

Our daughter-in-law, who is such a great cook and truly the hostess with the mostest, was going to make a nice meal for us, and I had put together a double batch of caramel brownies and two pans of hash brown casserole to contribute to the spread.  

But as usual, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans!

Yesterday morning as my husband and I were leaving morning Mass, we got a text from son #2's wife saying that one of their boys was throwing up and another had a fever, and they were going to have to cancel the party.

Before we even got home, we got another text from son #4, who wondered if they could swing by our place after Mass.  Their four young kids had been so excited about having a party with their cousins and were all bummed out, and he thought coming to see us might take the sting out of their disappointment. (Note to parents of littles: never tell them something good is going to happen until it's happening!  LOL)

Papa and Grammy were up for visitors, of course.  Plus, I had some hash brown casserole on hand already, and a bottle of watermelon mimosa from Aldi's (the greatest place to shop; if you haven't checked it out yet, you should!).  So I just fried up some bacon and sausage, scrambled some eggs, and took some cake balls that I'd been saving for Christmas out of the freezer.  Et voila!  Brunch is served.

They stayed for three or four hours.  The kids played like angels in our basement playroom while we chatted down there (it was one of those "don't say anything, don't look at them, we don't want to break the spell" situations!).

Then on a whim, we decided to watch one of our boys' childhood Christmas favorites, Jingle All the Way (which is so bad--so, SO bad!--that it's good!  Very funny!).

So even though we didn't get to go to the party we'd all been looking forward to, we had a lovely second Sunday of Advent here.  How about you?

Christmas Celebration Preparations

I just realized that I forgot to push the "publish" button on this post this morning.  Oops!  So I'm sending it out a tad late.

Good morning, dear readers!  And happy day before Christmas Eve! 

I’m  just sitting here by the light of the tree, drinking coffee and thinking warm thoughts, getting excited for the coming days.  (Our super awesome overlit Griswold family tree has many light settings, and this one is the candy cane/red-and-white-lights-only option.  The photo doesn't do it justice; but isn't it pretty?)

This will be our fifth Christmas in VA.  And each year since we've been here living near our four oldest sons, we've floated the idea that since we get to see them so often throughout the year, we would be okay with having a family celebration on some date before or after the 25th, so that they can either stay home on Christmas with just their little ones or enjoy time with their kids' grandparents and aunts and uncles on their moms' side.

But in spite of the lack of pressure to spend Christmas Day itself with us, that seems to be what most of our VA peeps actually want to do!  Our youngest son is in MI with his wife's family this Christmas.  But the four sons who live near us down here have all agreed that an Open House party at Papa and Grammy's centrally located home is a good idea.  So as long as everyone stays healthy until Christmas, we could have as many as 33 people here that afternoon: 16 adults (including not just our four sons and their wives, but a couple sets of their in-laws, plus the brother and girlfriend of one daughter-in-law) and 17 kids.  

Because the group is so large and figuring out how to time a sit-down meal is pretty much impossible (believe me, we've tried, and it gets complicated; especially with people driving from 1/2 hour to an hour away, with babies and small children and their nap schedules to figure in--not to mention Christmas Day overexcitement!).  So this year, we are having a come-when-you-can, stay-as-little-or-long-as-you-like, heavy hors d'oeuvres and snacks, old-fashioned cocktail party kind of a party. 

We have tried cooking a beef tenderloin for our gang here.  We have tried a buffet-style menu, with lasagna and pulled pork and other hot casserole-type items in chafing dishes.  We keep fine-tuning, trying to figure out what we can manage best without a staff of catering professionals on hand to make sure all goes smoothly and everything stays hot.  (A quick aside here: How positively dreamy does a catered party sound?!)  So I am actually kind of excited about trying this more relaxed format for a Pearl family party, and I've been working on my menu.  Here are the items I'm planning so far: Swedish meatballs; cocktail weiners in barbecue sauce; piglets in blankets (yes, Little Smokies are going to play a major role in this shindig!); deli meats and slices of deep-fried turkey (my husband has always wanted to try cooking a turkey this way); rolls for sandwich making; Tostitos with salsa and guacamole; Buffalo chicken dip with Fritos; loaded baked potato dip with Ruffles; Pimento cheese dip with crackers; veggies and dip platter; baked stuffed mushrooms; deviled eggs; fruit. There may be more items added, but that’s it so far.  And the guests are bringing stuff to share as well.   (I'll also have mac and cheese as a backup for any picky eaters in the younger crowd!) I have crockpots for keeping the meatballs and Little Smokies warm, but most of the foods we'll have out won't need to be heated.  I THINK this is going to be our most stress-free party yet.

For dessert, I'm making a red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting and several batches of Christmas cookies, and I've also got plenty of store-bought goodies, too, including lots of chocolates and chocolate-covered treats.

If you have any egg allergies in your family, like we do, these are great
(and easy!) eggless cookies: 1 box red velvet cake mix, 1/2 c. water,
1/2 c. oil, white chips, and sprinkles; bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

I will break out some of my pretty Christmas platters and serving dishes (because if they never get used, why even have them?), but otherwise, it's going to be paper and plastic all the way, so there won't be much to clean up afterward.  (She throws her head back and guffaws loudly, remembering that after every giant family party--disposable plates or not--she and her husband joke that perhaps it would be easier to torch the place than to clean it!)

I've been collecting party supplies here and there for the past month.  The planning part of having a
party is one of my favorite activities. :)

BTW, do these chips look fun to you...or sort of gross?  (I’m going with fun.)

I'm going to take a break for the next few days, until the excitement dies down, and just enjoy being in the moment with all the people I love most.  But here's wishing you all a blessed Christmas.  Joy to the World!    Let earth receive her King!

Planning a Holiday Tea Party

These days, it would be very easy for me to fall into a pit of despair over what is happening in our world.  I could sit paralyzed with fear, worrying about what kind of future our grandchildren will have if things don't change, and fast. I'm not going to go into details here, because this isn't that kind of blog.  But there are goings-on afoot that truly terrify me--and some of them are hitting way too close to home.

But my husband and I are doing the Bible in a Year study with Fr. Mike Schmitz, which makes us realize that none of the things that are happening in the 21st century are new at all. Throughout salvation history, misguided and sinful man has time after time turned away from God and suffered greatly for it.  But in the end, God our merciful Father is in charge and He does love His children; so in spite of our disobedience, there is always hope for us.

ANYWAY, sorry for starting out as a real Debbie Downer on this Monday morning (as if Monday mornings aren't kind of the worst for many already!); I'm going to change my tune here and tell you what I'm doing to combat the blues:

I'm planning a St. Nicholas Tea Party/Brunch/Cookie Exchange in early December, for all the Pearl ladies here in VA (including my five oldest granddaughters)!  

I've got lots of ideas for the food and decor already, but I find myself doing Internet searches for "Christmas Tea Party Ideas" quite frequently now, and here are some of the images that have popped up that make me feel all merry and bright.

I'm trying to decide if I'll use my beloved blue-and-white transferware for the party.  Or instead, I might use the lovely holiday china that my mother-in-law left me, as I have exactly 10 place settings of that and there will be 10 of us around the table.  I'll be sure to post pictures of our event--which will probably not quite live up to these Pinterest-worthy images, but I'm going to do my best.  I can't tell you how excited I am about this little all-girls party!

With visions of sugarplums (and dainty crustless tea sandwiches) dancing in your heads now, and all the gloominess of the beginning of this post hopefully blotted out of your mind, I wish you a wonderful week. Enjoy your families.  And make every day a holiday!  (That's my new motto!)

A Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hadn't made the decision to revive this blog in time to do a lot of Christmas posting, so I thought that today I'd do a quick catch-up or re-cap or what-have-you.

We had a beautiful and blessed holiday season--especially since our youngest boy and his wife, whom we hadn't seen in more than a year, were able to be with us for about two weeks. We had a family party the day after Christmas (all five sons, their wives, and their 17 darling offspring aged newborn to 9) at our centrally located VA home.  It isn't the biggest or the grandest house, and the yard is...well, it's so small it can hardly be called a yard.  But we are perfectly situated for all four of our VA-based kids to meet here with their families.  (We just have to entice our baby and his wife, who currently live in OK but will be moving--east, hopefully!--this summer, to end up settling in VA, too. Ha ha!...But really, we do.)

 

Aside from the family party, we had our second annual adults-only party on December 30.  (I wrote about our first one in this post last year.  It's a fun post if you have the time.) This is a tradition that my husband and I love so much, a real highlight of our holiday celebrations.  It's wonderful to have all the little ones running around the house together; but it's so incredibly special to get our grown children and their spouses gathered under our roof without their kids, so that we can all relax and enjoy real conversations that aren't interrupted by boo-boos, cousin squabbles, or poopy diapers.  We had drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and desserts, and we did our Five Favorites gift exchange (which we've decided we prefer to a Yankee Swap).

I wish I had posted pictures of our Christmas decorations here at the blog in the days leading up to Christmas (I was busy posting them over at Instagram instead!).  I think our house looked particularly lovely this Christmas...but maybe that's because it was so often filled with family.  My boys have always been my favorite element of home decor--and wherever they and their dad are, that's my home.

Now that I've decided to blog again, I have so many things I want to write about!!  I can hardly wait to get started.  So I'll be back before too long.  In the meantime, here's hoping that 2021 is being kinder to you and yours than 2020 was. God bless you!

(P.S. For those of you concerned: thankfully, almost all of the adults, and a number of the kids, in our family had already had and recovered from Covid before our Christmas get-togethers.  We had herd immunity going big-time!)