December Daily- Cheers and Cheerful Greetings

At lunch I went to Tuesday Morning [again], I was hoping to find a tree topper and candles for the mantle, but didn't see anything that would work.  The other day I saw some lovely Spode China Christmas pieces, and sorta passed by as I don't really need Christmas dishes and having everything exactly the same isn't quite the look I'm going for; HOWEVER, today I saw the Spode stemless wine glasses and my resistance failed me.  I also saw a regular glass in the same pattern and decided I'd get one of each so I'd have something special to use during the holidays.  I'm sooo tempted to go back and see if they have a few more of both styles so that I can use them when we have company.  I can't decide-I did make a festive cocktail in the glass using my first batch of homemade gin. 

 Pretty tasty- the cocktail recipe includes:

1 oz of spiced simple syrup
1/2 oz of lemon juice
2 oz of gin
top with ginger beer
Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice-shake then serve over crushed ice. Not too bad!

The botanicals I used for the gin are:

2 T Juniper berries
2 Star Anise
2 Cardamon pods
2 Black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
The recipe also called for coriander seed, but I only had ground, and wasn't sure how it would impact the taste.  I look forward to trying other combinations such as lavender, lemon and rosemary.

So far we've gotten 3 cards-2 have been from the UK-I love the stamp withe silhouette of the Queen and the other of the traditional red post box.  I hope to get some of my cards out this weekend, but we shall see- I need to do some baking and hopefully some knitting.  Happy Friday and Cheers!

December Daily-A few of my favorite things

I have a couple Christmas-y wine bottle stoppers but this one is probably my favorite.  I don't even remember where it came from, but I think he's super cute.  I also bought 6 bottles of 19 Crimes and prosecco at Costco today-so I'm definitely smiling like he is!

Sending Christmas cards-this year I've opted for regular Christmas cards vs a letter or a photo card.  The photo didn't happen and I want to get my cards in the mail sooner rather than later.  I've done a letter the last 2 years, so I think it's time to switch things up a bit.  I found some really cool retro ones at Tuesday Morning.

Amaryllis watch 2018/2019 will include 2 pots.  The one from last year [on the right] did fantastic in our apartment, so I'm hoping I've discovered another great spot.  My cutting/sewing table is not the prettiest, but I think it'll provide the perfect morning light.  I may end up moving them both back to my desk, but will keep tabs on them for now.

December Daily-Holiday Baking

When I was a kid we didn't bake cookies at Christmas in fact we didn't have much by way of traditions except for putting up a tree. Since Steve and I have been together we've continued the tradition of his family of baking and sharing cookies using family recipes.  Needless to say over the years I've made a TON of cookies.  One year I made 17 different kids of cookies, but in recent years I have scaled way back on my baking.  Today was day 1 of holiday baking and I started with gingerbread.  I used Southern Living's gingerbread cookie recipe and I'm pretty pleased with the results.   I also took the time to measure out the dry ingredients of the rest of my baking which will include spritz [special request by Andrew], chocolate bark, oatmeal cranberry cookies [half are for a co-worker as her Christmas gift], gingerbread biscotti, and Karen's pecan/cheesecake bars that she made at Thanksgiving.  I may add one or two more cookies to the rotation, but we'll have to see.

This is what happens when you can bear to roll out the scraps and use one more cookie cutter, but you can't stand the idea of wasting the dough!  They do make great nibbling.  Are you baking anything this season?  I look forward to sharing cookies with our new neighbors.

December Daily-Up on the house top

I have always wanted Christmas lights on our house and this is the year that it happens.  Steve put up non-twinkling colored lights.  I'm sure the fact that our house is one level and our roof is not that high played a part in this getting done.  The photo isn't the best, but maybe I'll get a better one before they are taken down.  Now I just need to plan a day where I'll go and look at other people's lights.

December Daily-Road tripping and a new addition

when I found out I was going to travel to South Carolina to facilitate training I made a point of seeking out a place where I could get an ornament for our tree.

The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality across the south and the Caribbean.  Apparently in Charleston women would hand a pineapple, considered a luxurious fruit, to show that their husbands had returned home.  I had a vase [not sure if I still do] that had a pineapple etched into it from my first trip to Charleston.  I thought this ornament so fitting, not only to represent my trip to SC, but also the hospitality that I try to extend towards our guests.  After my training session I went downtown and explored the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, so interesting.  I wish I had more time, but since the parking meters downtown only allow you to pay for 1 hour at a time-made exploring very difficult when you have to dash to put more money in the meter before it runs out- ugh!  I saw Rainbow row, ate a delicious lunch and cocktail [I had the Garden and Gun], maneuvered cobblestones and rode back to my hotel with the top down.

Shrimp and Grits for the win!

A lovely fountain by the Ashley River

I would love to go back and explore some of the historic homes, but for now I'll enjoy my pineapple ornament.

December Daily-Ready for the holidays

I think we are pretty much ready for the holidays.  The tree is up, decorations are out and we just saw a Christmas themed play at our favorite community theatre- Stage Door Players.

I made great use of our pool table [that we inherited with the house] to spread out all of our ornaments and decide which one's would be used going forward and which ones would be retired until Andrew is ready for a tree.  I put notes in the boxes of ornaments I have sorted and wrapped along with the date the sorting occurred.  I did purchase and ornament in Charleston which I will save for another December Daily post.

We still need a tree topper so I think I will see what I can find that will be "just right".  I'm also hoping to add Roswell and Kennesaw State University ornaments to our collection.  While I really like having a live tree this one is truly the perfect size for our house and Steve was able to put it up in like 5 minutes.

We are in our 3rd season as subscribers to the Stage Door Players, and while we're no longer 10 minutes down the road on a Sunday afternoon we're still less than 30 minutes.  Sunday matinees are providing to work very well with our schedule and new location.  This year's Christmas production did not disappoint. 

Hopefully I can keep up with a daily posting through Christmas.  There are other things around town I hope to do, and of course, we've got our girls cooking baking/exchange and family gathering planned.  Tomorrow I hope to mix up the first batch of cookies.  I'm going to give gingerbread a go- stay tuned!

Sunday morning exploring

Most weekends I take Sophie on a very long walk- we "call" it exploring and we usually walk 4-4.5 miles. Our route is pretty much the walking around Roswell that I did as a kid. Last Sunday Andrew took the dogs to the dog park and I asked Steve if he wanted to join me; I knew we'd go a lot faster without Sophie smelling all the trees, bushes and lamp posts! He was a bit hesitant when I told him how far we'd be doing and we ended up walking 5 miles total. The day started foggy-this is our view from our kitchen area.  Our tree is just to the right and I love that you can see it from the walk way.

Part of our route was through the Old Roswell Cemetery which was established in the early 1800s.  I have grand, great-grand and great-great grandparents buried here.  I'm hoping to get more involved in the preservation of this cemetery next year.  Love how the fog makes it feel eerie.

One of the Victorian homes on Canton Street, it has a lovely stone wall around it separating the property from the sidewalk.  It was all decked out with large sized Victorian figurines.  I tried to capture it, but I think I probably should have been across the street. I think this was built and occupied by one of the mill supervisors, but I forgot to take a photo of the marker for the house.  This street is filled with old homes that have been converted to offices and boutiques, but a few are still private residences.

Steve wanted to explore the area around city hall.  We had seen this pumpkin on a trailer on a side street near our house-so apparently Roswell does a Great Pumpkin thing-not sure how we missed it, but we will definitely be on the look out next year.  Steve wanted me to stand by it for scale- I'm 5'1 so-yea that's a big pumpkin!

We continued over and around towards Big Creek; this runs parallel to where the original Roswell Mill was located.  It is also part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area and we walked along this until we took a detour toward our house.  The trees were so pretty, but I'm sure by now the leaves are nearly gone.

I hope to post more about our exploring and hopefully this winter won't be so cold and wet that it keeps us indoors.  There are several things already on the calendar of events that should provide enough blog fodder.