It seems I took an unplanned break from blogging.  It’s really been on my mind and I’ve been taking pictures.  I guess the holiday busyness just got in the way.  But I’m back and ready to share a little of what happened over the last month. So here we go…

 Not too many inside pictures I realized after, the lighting in our house is a challenge.  We live in what was my grandparents 1930ish  Sears, Craftsman style house (with an addition to fit a family with 5 kids), which I love, but it is a little on the dark side for picture taking. We still have all the original unpainted woodwork, which I also love, but it is dark.  Here, by the way is a link to a book I found on Sears houses, in case anyone is interested.  Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company.  Back in the day they had a catalog of house kits you could order from.  The train use to run down the center of our little village and that is how our house came to be.  I like that, it’s fun.  While hunting this link I found a children’s book on Sears houses also The House in the Mail.

So we’ve had a lot of cold weather.  It snows, then turns a little warmer and rains… melts the snow…turns cold again and leaves us with ice!  Life in the great northeast!

We went to a couple of Christmas parties.  One hosted by my very talented sister and niece.  Above is just a sampling of the deliciousness that was there to tempt us.

We also attended a Christmas wedding for the son of some very dear friends, a beautiful evening.

A couple of Christmas pages from my journal.  The Beekeeper wrapped all my gifts in coordinating paper, so I glued a piece of each in my journal with a note of what gift was wrapped in each kind.  Kinda goofy looking, but a good memory!  He is a good gift giver.

These are the Christmas pictures of my grandbabies.  Love my three sweeties!

Here are a couple of cookies recipes that I made this year.  The raspberry almond shortbreads were a big hit with the Beekeeper.  The red velvet crinkle cookies are super easy and just looked Christmasy.

So now that I’ve said all that…let’s move into 2014!