Merry Christmas 2014

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

Banff Springs Hotel, December 2014

Wouldn't you know it, I've come down with the flu.  I was so achy and feverish in the night I was sure I was dying.  Just up for a bit today and wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas.  

I think my Christmas Eve plans will involve a blanket, chicken soup and  perhaps a dose of Nyquil while David enjoys the festivities at his mother's house.  What impeccably bad timing these bugs have.  Hopefully I will feel a bit better tomorrow.  It seems to not be as bad as it first appeared.

A big hug to you!

xo Terri

A Simple but Useful Gift

There is nothing I love more than a simple and inexpensive but very useful gift

(actually, I also like posh, expensive and useless ones, but that is another post).

For Christmas, I received this lovely basket from someone who was paying attention to my needs (I might have dropped a hint):

You don't normally see this end of the console table, as it houses David's old stereo which has phenomenal sound (we play our iTunes through it), so it is something kinda ugly that we live with (yes, I know I could get an ipod dock)

The basket is useful for one reason:  

To hold my favorite, and well-loved, throw blanket for the sofa!

This means I don't have to ball up the throw and put it somewhere when I don't want to see it on the sofa!

It is amazing how one small thing can make you feel very organized.

Merry Merry!

To you and your family...

Miscellany

It seems that many people post night time Christmas tree photos, but it is nearly impossible to re-create the joyful mood inside your soft, glowing room when you have:

(a) finished all your chores for the day and finally sat your weary bones down

(b) a cat on your lap

 (c) a glass of (much needed) wine

(d) lovely music playing in the background 

(e) no intention of digging out the equipment from that nighttime photography course you bought and never used.

Oh well, here is the glowing living room:

Here's the rug whose colours I adore but want to replace with something neutral (and without a border)

I hope you like it.  It is much better in person (there is a lot of chocolate and baked goods around if I need to bribe you).

I forgot to mention that David and I spent last weekend in Banff and had a splendidly good time.

We stayed here:

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel (photo by me from across the valley)

We rested and ate and walked and even went to the spa (me...a Christmas gift!).  I had a crushing headache all weekend, so it wasn't nearly as much fun as you might think.  My favorite part was the afternoon nap after a cold walk, and watching "Shawshank Redemption" on TV.  Nothing is better than a spontaneous nap and something good on TV and having nothing that needs doing.

I didn't take many photos this time.  I just felt like being there instead of documenting!

But here is one photo I took that I quite like:

This captures the essence of The Rockies:  cold and stunningly beautiful!

Have a wonderful Christmas weekend.  I am enjoying virtually visiting all your beautifully decorated homes. I wish I could visit you in person!

xo Terri

Christmas Beginnings

For some reason, it took forever for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year. 

I think my very long run of terrible headaches really took the light out of my heart a bit this year.  But, fear not, the spirit of Christmas is now happily present in our house!

I moved the blue painting back to the dining room!  I have never used blue at Christmas, but this year, I added a few blue accents to tie the painting into the Christmas decor:

  I really like the more vivid blue with the brighter green tree clippings and little boxwood wreath.  I haven't used these white wooden trees in ages, but they seem to work with the new painting...

I also used little bits of blue in the adjacent living room (to make it look like I know what I'm doing).  I have acquired a small but unintentional collection of Christmas trees, as you can see from the photos above and below:

The Christmas tree is probably my favorite Christmas motif.  The old "found" silver tray came from Rob Kurkut's wonderful store, which I featured in previous posts.  The little blue bowl and the crystal clock were gifts from my mother.

Here is the tree, a real Fraser fir with coloured lights! I use our myriad collected ornaments, which together with the coloured lights, makes for a bit of a decorating disaster (considering that I'd rather it be all white and silver):

But the tree always looks wonderful and I love each little thing on it.  I have a secret for making the tree look coherent with all the assorted ornaments - I liberally use all-white garland and tons of white balls, which I add after all the special ornaments are placed.  This gives it an overall "white" look despite the chaos.

I don't really decorate the other rooms for Christmas, but I sometimes put one or two things in the bedrooms.  Here is a little vignette I started on the sideboard and then moved to a dresser upstairs:

 I also love this little Christmas sachet, on a bedside table.  It smells of clove and cinnamon and all things Christmas...!

Hope your home is taking shape for Christmas.  It's only 11 days away!

A Christmas Lunch (What I Ate) to Remember!

Each year, David takes me out for a Christmas lunch date at the gracious Fairmont Palliser hotel in Calgary.

I have blogged about this before but thought I'd share a few quick photos of our much-anticipated holiday lunch!

This is my favorite event of the season, by far, as I get to spend it with David and it is such a charming atmosphere.  It is our gift to ourselves.

Here is the hotel, from a distance, next to the (once grand) Calgary Tower:

There is snow here already, but not much downtown

The hotel is always prettily decorated for Christmas:

The dining room is lovely (and awaits a company Christmas party to arrive):

The buffet is to die for. This is just the salad bar:

Excuse the wobbly and hurried iphone photos

Our table had pretty (if slightly crumpled) flowers:

For our first course.  At this lunch, I always start with the wonderful Caesar salad and I always have bread (a rare occasion when dining out, but there is nothing nicer than a good bun with butter):

For our main course.  I avoid the prime rib, fish, pork, and myriad vegetable dishes and stick with the classic Christmas fare.  I eat so many vegetables that I was happy to avoid them today:

With my apologies to vegans and chronic dieters.  I ate about half of this (and one of the Brussels sprouts), if you are concerned...

And for dessert, we had this dilemma to contend with:

I chose something chocolate (naturally) and the Stollen (one of my favorite Christmas things!) and a cup of decaf (caffeine is very bad for my headaches):

We had such a nice lunch and I was still completely stuffed, even though I didn't finish my plate on any course.

After lunch, David and I went for a walk (much needed) and did some Christmas shopping downtown!

Do you do anything special with your loved one at Christmas?

The Time Has Come...

We're getting our tree tomorrow...

I always wait until December 1st so I can truly savour the season.

Tonight I started to listen to my favorite Christmas music.  

I love quiet choral music most.  I am currently listening to the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.

~ Happy December! ~

Merry Christmas to You!

There's still time for one last blog post before Christmas.

Today is busy - I am baking (a favorite thing) and wrapping presents and we're having people over for Chinese food tonight (how festive)!

At the grocery store this morning, I bought myself a little pot of paperwhites (marked down!), which I wrapped in brown tissue paper and placed next to my pretty angel Santos that a few of you noticed:

She came from an antique store a couple of years ago, but I think she is more vintage than antique...

I love paperwhites, even if they smell a little funny. I think they are poisonous to cats, but luckily Biscuit shows zero interest in plants after eating some lilies and throwing up all over the house a few years ago (I felt like a bad kitty mommy).

I like all the golden-orange accents in this vignette. My mother always used golden-orange balls on her Christmas tree and this colour reminds me of her!

Since coming home this morning, one of the narcissus has opened up more, as if to say "hello". I think it likes the warm house. I like it here too (it smells like cinnamon and nutmeg and pumpkin and there is nice choral music playing)!

And before I go...I'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

You are each a dear, kind friend to me and I appreciate your love and support all year long. I wish I could give you a big hug this Christmas. Drive safely, eat lots and lots, and have a very merry holiday!

Terri xo

Christmas vignettes

Hello dear readers:

I've been meaning to post some pretty Christmas vignettes for days now, but the perpetual winter darkness and lack of flattering natural light in the house has really restricted my photography!

On Sunday we got home earlier than planned from Lake Louise, so it was time for photos!

Here's the sideboard:

The little ceramic tree is from the Christmas store in Banff. The small paper boxes were from my friend Noel's Etsy shop last year.

I decorate our lovely china cabinet with a little faux boxwood wreath and place a few pretty Christmas cards inside. The china inside is Haviland Concorde; many of the miscellaneous pieces are Haviland Limoges with a similar ruffled and gilded edge:

I like the old "D" tag, which of course is for "David". I really like classic green, white, silver and gold at Christmas:

I did not buy much new Christmas decor this year - only three things! One of them is this beautiful little rose bowl/candle holder. I love crystal (and have a little too much of it):

David's cardinal "Welcome" sign hangs at our front door. I am not a great red fan, but David is fond of this, so it hangs especially for him!

I find it challenging to get good photos of the tree, which sits right in front of the window!

We have coloured lights on the tree (David's preference) but I use a lot of white garland and balls to soften the look. Many of our ornaments have a historical look:

The small pillow in the background is from Pottery Barn, new this year. The small ceramic tree in the background was my Grandmother's.

Here's another view of the room. Our tree is a real balsam fir and it's huge! I love my pine cone wreath hanging on the mirror:

My model was uncooperative, preferring to look at birds out the front window:

Here he is in the background, looking perturbed:

I've been needing a small clock for the living room, and received this darling crystal oyster clock (foreground) from my mother as an early Christmas gift.

I bought this little Christmas sachet at a favorite local shop, Melange for the Home. It is filled with balsam fir, buckwheat hulls, cinnamon chips, allspice berries and whole cloves! It was made by P.Flynn Design of Portland:

~ Merry Christmas! ~

Christmas Eve...

The gifts are all wrapped and the baking is done!

I'm enjoying a relaxing Christmas eve afternoon and will go to church at 4pm for the afternoon service. I love Christmas eve, when all the rushing stops and the joy of the season truly begins. Christmas eve is my favorite part of Christmas, with all the work behind and all the anticipation (of joy and good times and good food) to come.

I love listening to Christmas music whilst wrapping my gifts. I am very fond of classical and choral Christmas music. All day I've been playing songs by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, including my favorite Christmas carol, "Once in Royal David's City".

Tonight we'll go to David's mother's house for the night and a lovely Christmas day ahead with his mother, brother, sister-in-law and dogs. All my family is far away but luckily his family is here and we love to spend time with them.

Here are some pretty gifts I wrapped today. I love this brown paper (I am so into brown right now) and the vintage-looking tags:

The wrapping paper below came into the office from one of our suppliers and we all took home a roll. I usually don't care for blues at Christmas but I think this is so pretty - a lovely colour combination:

I often recycle old Christmas cards to make new tags:

Here are some things under the tree. David prefers classic Christmas colours (red and green), so most of his gifts are wrapped in bright colours, which make him happiest:

And since I forgot to do a post on my Christmas ornaments, I thought I would show you two of my little wise men, who I picked up at a craft sale. I think they look very wise:

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas...and that most of all, it is filled with L O V E.

~: Merry Christmas :~

Spent!

I don't know about you, but I am spent. Christmas isn't even here and I am all partied out. In the past three weeks, I can't count how many Christmas parties we've attended, from a swanky company party in Lake Louise to numerous open houses, lunches, and family events. I have to work all week and hope I can get some rest at my desk.

On Saturday David and I hosted a small party for some friends and their kids. I made a lovely chocolate cake. I snapped its portrait while I was setting up and bringing out the booze, so I didn't forget!

I also took a portrait of my new hall mirror wreath. I am very fond of it and think it looks like a nest. I need to lower it a little but haven't gotten 'round to it.

Here is another photo snapped while setting up for the party. We bought chocolate Callebaut letters for the kids, which are sitting on their plates on the half-set table:

I have been quite amused by Biscuit who has not left the Christmas tree unattended this whole week:

I snapped this picture early this morning after I finished the last of the cleanup. The tree is more pretty when it is unlit, in the broad light of day.

I hope I make it through the week. I'm looking forward to having Friday off, going to church, and taking a deep breath and rest for a few days. I am glad all the events are over. Sometimes more is less. I think next year I will say "no" to more as the fun goes out when you are drained at your own party and yawning...

Hope your Christmas preparations are joyful and not too tiring...I must remember the true meaning here and hope to focus on that more in the days ahead.

xo's Terri