Happy New Year 2025!

Hi everyone!  It's been a minute, no?  Five months since I've posted a real post here on the blog.  I've missed blogging and I've missed you.  Our year got very busy in the last half, and then I kind of lost my blogging mojo.  Writing takes practice, and I'm a bit out of practice.      

   

It's Christmas 2024

Merry Christmas Dear Ones!!  I wish you a happy day with those you love most.     

   

"And To All a Good Night"

   

Advent

'Tis the season -- Peace be with you.        

    

Happy 2023

A new year has begun -- ready or not.  I remember how glad we all were to usher 2020 out the door, and then 2021 was not a whole lot better, as I recall.  Turns out that 2022 was not the best of years, either.  Yet, we're still here, and I'm thankful for that.     I hope you all had a good Christmas holiday; we did here at Forest Manor.  I'll share a few pictures from our Christmas decorations (for posterity).  😉  I'll try to show a few touches that were different this Christmas, since I mostly decorate the same way every year.  When reviewing Christmas 2022, there were a lot of small things that made me happy, and the small things are sometimes the best.   

Merry Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas Everyone!!     

   

From our house to yours...   

A Blessed Advent

'Tis the Season, everyone!       

      

Christmas Pictures

Hello Friends!  What a quick week this has been.  Are you having a good one?  When I was growing up, New Year's Day was officially the end of Christmas at our house.  My mom worked full-time, and she used that day off from work to get her decorations taken down and put away.  After she and my dad retired, they left the decorations up a little longer because they've always loved Christmas.      Because we always get a fresh tree at Christmas, I could never bear to take ours down by January 1st and often left ours up until the middle of January.  These days, I consider Epiphany (January 6th) to be the official end of the Christmas season.  As much as I've enjoyed our decorations, I'm mostly ready to start taking them down for another year.  Hal and I have another household project we are anxious to start (it's one we can do ourselves).  However, I need to get most of the Christmas things put away first.     I was disappointed not to share any pictures of our Christmas home this year, so I'm just going to share some now before I start taking everything down.  I took a lot of pictures (as usual) 😏 but I'm only sharing my favorites.  I hope you don't mind seeing a few more holiday images here in January.      

   

   

Welcome December

        December brings the shortest days and longest nights of the year.  Derived from the Latin word decem  (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March.  The month in which Christians celebrate Advent and Christmas -- the birth of Christ.         

Merry Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas Dear Ones!  I'm just barely squeezing in under the wire this year.  I was so busy all day yesterday and today -- no time to write even a short post.     

   

A Christmas Advent Wreath

Only three full days now until Christmas Eve -- are you ready?  I'm never ready until the last minute, and this year is no different than any other, in that respect.  😉  Yesterday, we drove to a church that's about twenty minutes from our house to see this advent wreath that my mother-in-law told us about.   

Christmas Music

The sun is shining and it's cold here -- a perfect day to put up Christmas decorations andlisten to Christmas music.   

     

Biltmore Candlelight Christmas

Hi folks -- Happy Friday to you!  I'm seeing some really pretty Christmas decorations on your blog posts.  I'm still putting ours out, and I've a ways to go before I can share any of mine here.  I'm almost through with our tree, and I hope to finish the living room later today.  In the meantime, I'm sharing some pics from the Biltmore House back in January of this year.  Hal, my mom, and I went to the Christmas Candlelight tour on January 4th, and I told Hal later that it was one of our best visits, in my opinion.  We had a delicious meal at the Stable Cafe, and it snowed while we were there.  Not the icy kind that makes driving so risky, but just a soft, white snow.  Talk about atmosphere!       This trip made our fourth time to do the Christmas Candlelight tour.  They do things a bit differently each year, and I thought the decorations were especially pretty on this day.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.   

Christmas Reading

In mid-November here in the northern hemisphere, the shadows lengthen and the darkness falls early.  Last night we were doing errands, and there was a beautiful sliver of a new moon -- an eyelash moon.  When I took Duncan out at bedtime, the stars were twinkling and were a beautiful sight to behold.  I love this time of year.  When we're out, I like to see lamplight in people's windows; it projects warmth and coziness to the outside world.  If you're lucky, you might catch glimpses of bookshelves filled with books, pictures on the wall, or family gathered around the table for dinner.  Perhaps the curtains are drawn and you'll only see the warm glow behind them.  Nevertheless, it speaks of home and hearth.     I know some of you have already begun decorating for Christmas.  We have not, but we'll probably need to start soon.  As part of the season's rituals, I like to start my Christmas reading around the end of November or first of December.  I usually read the same books every year, but they always seem to make me happy.  I am thinking of finding some new things to add to the list though.   

"God Bless Us Everyone"

Merry Christmas From Our Mailbox To Yours

Hello Dear Friends.  I know it's only Monday, but I hope you're having a good week.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we were planning to address our Christmas cards in calligraphy this year.  Well, we did it.  I was really nervous at first, afraid I'd mess up too many envelopes, and those cards aren't cheap.  But it went well, overall, and I had fun doing them.   

'Tis The Season!

Happy Advent and Christmas Season to you!!  It's a busy one, isn't it?  As usual, we have several things going at once here -- just like all of you.  :)  Thank goodness we went to the mountains for our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving this year; we heard on the news later that several of the N.C. tree farms had to close early this year due to a shortage of trees.  This shortage started a few years ago, and will probably continue for several years.  Apparently, the trees grow about a foot per year, so...you can do the math for a six to eight foot tree.     

Christmas 2018      

Holidays Are Almost Over

The sun has returned to our corner of the world today.  Of course, we knew it was there all along, right?  But sometimes lately, I think we've all had our doubts.  I truly don't mind a few rainy (or snowy) days, especially this time of the year.  The rain makes things that much cozier inside and makes me want to fluff the nest a bit.  :)  But the amount of rain we've had in 2018 just boggles the mind.  It seems that the eastern United States and particularly the mid-Atlantic states have all had a sopping wet year in 2018, but thanks to two almost back-to-back hurricanes in the fall, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia really got slammed.  Decades-old rainfall records were broken.  Read here to find out more.   Yesterday seemed like one of the dreariest days of all.  I'm not sure why except that it rained non-stop all day, and the sky never brightened until near sunset.  Soooo, I turned the Christmas tree on in the morning, and left it on until bedtime.  I thought I'd enjoy it one more time before we take it down.  I also took some more pictures because I realized that I hadn't taken any in the living room or foyer with all the candles "burning."  Sorry guys; I said in the previous post that those were the last of the Christmas pictures.  😏      

 

Better Late Than Never

It's December 26th; are you tired?  I am a bit, but not as much as I thought I'd be.  Our Christmas day weather was perfect -- cold but not bitter and not raining.  Hooray for sunshine.  :)    I so hope that all of you had a good Christmas, filled with the people and things you love.  We had a lovely Christmas with our families, and it's been wonderful to rest a bit today.  I also took the opportunity to take some more pictures around the house.  I honestly have not had a spare minute to post any pictures before, so I'm sharing now.  If you're sick of seeing Christmas decorations, you'll want to skip this post.  ;)  

Merry Christmas 2018

    Wishing you JOY in the birth of the Christ child, born to save us all.