Christmas Eve Recap - on New Year's Eve!

Finally... pictures from Christmas Eve,

appropriately posted on New Year's Eve!

(For your New Year's Day enjoyment,
I will be posting pictures from Christmas Day.)

Happy Christmas Eve breakfast!  Cheers...

Notice the center candle isn't lit until tomorrow!

We always travel to my parents' house for Christmas Eve.

We attend the service at my old Episcopal church and

then have dinner and presents with my sister's family.

Here are Sumter and his cousin, MS.

The masks have been worn every year.

My mother has gingerbread men, Santa and Mrs. Clause

and other tacky Christmasy characters!

 

My cute sister, my mother and me.

(My mother obviously forgot to tell AS and me that we

needed "cullah (color) on our lips" aka lipstick.)

Jackson and MS are extremely close and the best of friends.  

 

And littlest cousin C loves, loves, loves biggest cousin Sumter!

He was very excited that he got to use his

namesake's silver julep cup.

 My mother always sets such a lovely table.

We are getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday Jesus"

and blow out the candles on the cake she bakes every year.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Piggly Wiggly ketchup

next to the nativity scene on the buffet!

Still can't remember why it was there...

Now it is time for telephone calls from Santa!

Sumter is starting to wonder about this, but he gets into it regardless!

Love me my niece!  I call her Crazy C... she is such a mess!
And I must have found the lipstick - thank goodness.

And here she is with Mike.  She's tickling his ear with their elf.

(Oh, and get a load of his pants!!!)

The boys' big gifts from Mimi and G-dad were Red Rider BB guns.

They were so excited! 

 

It was a monogrammed Snuggie Christmas for my family.

Of course my sister and her girls had pink with green monograms!

 It was a great Christmas Eve... boys are getting tired

and ready for tomorrow morning.

 

I know your Christmases were blessed...

My Name is Bevy and I am Now a Tweeter

As of a few days ago, I have officially become a "twit" or "tweeter" or whatever you call it!  Sweet (or should I say "Tweet"?!?!?!?!?!  I kill myself!)  Jessica at Entertaining House has kindly become my first follower and had the joy of being the recipient of my first "@" tweet.   In fact I sent her two as I never saw it post the first time.  (Now I know that direct messages post privately.) I'm following a few of you but would love to share my golden days with you too!  Here's my ID:  bevysc.  Look forward to hearing from you!!!

(Oh!  And if your Twitter ID is different than your Blog ID, please let me know so that I know who you are!!! LOL)

Musings a Few Days After Christmas...

I honestly have been too busy/tired these past few days to even look at blogs, let alone write anything.  The husband and I have been chugging those $2.50 energy shots.  I am NOT KIDDING!  Traveling back and forth to Columbia on Christmas Eve and then back again on the 26th for my family gatherings, and then Christmas Day in between with my husband's family at our house (20 total) makes Bevy a tired girl!  So now I am catching up, still in the pjs and drinking coffee out of my new Lilly travel mug - oh, so cute!  (No, we didn't make it to church.)  The boys stayed overnight in Columbia with my parents so that their grandfather can take them out to the county to shoot their Red Rider bb guns this afternoon.

So I sound like I am complaining... I'm not.  I love our Christmas traditions.  As you can read in my December posts (and some of November), I absolutely love this holy season.  We are so blessed to have my husband's family here in Aiken.  And my family is only a little over an hour away.  Oldest son, Sumter, said, "This was the best Christmas ever!"

But youngest son, Jackson, summed it up best in a "journal" entry he wrote Christmas morning:

Funny how our children are able to say it best...

Wishing you a Blessed and Holy Christmas

 Thank you God, for Your gift of Grace...

given to us in the form of a precious baby

born on this blessed night.

Have a Blessed Christmas

Mike, Beverly, Sumter and Jackson

Why I Love My Husband... Reason 42

Need I say more?

Have a Merry Mermaid Christmas!

Reindeer Cookies

I'm not sure on whose blog I saw these cute reindeer cookies - I really tried to find the old blog post, I really did, so that I could give you the credit!  Sumter and I baked and decorated all afternoon for the neighbors (and ourselves).  We had a little assembly line going:  I frosted and he decorated.  Then I wrapped the goodies in cute containers and red grosgrain ribbon, and he delivered with a smile and a "Merry Christmas!"

 

Jackson finally got into the festive mood

(after playing football outside!)...

 

The finished products...

 

...And they tasted good too!
 

Christmas Edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends"

I've read a few of these on your blogs and thought I might put my two cents in!  So... welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your blogger friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire post and paste into a new post on your blog, if you have one. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

I love to buy gold and silver wired ribbon at Hobby Lobby (always 50% off!) and wrap with Sally Foster holiday paper.   As my mama says, "It's all about the presentation."  This year, however, my sister's family will get gift bags as their gifts really can't be wrapped.  BUT, I'll find some way to use the ribbon!

2. Real tree or Artificial?

Two "faux" trees:  one small one on a table in the dining room and a 9 foot in the great room.  Both are pre-lit.  Never thought I would go that route, but my husband is in a wheelchair, and it's just much easier to get it up this way.  I do have lots of Thymes Frasier Fir candles to get the smell of a real tree!

3. When do you put up the tree?

The Sunday after Thanksgiving - or a few days after that.  I like to have it up by December 1.

4. When do you take the tree down?

Immediately before I have to go back to school.

5. Do you like eggnog?

One or two cups is about all I can take during the season!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

The Donnie and Marie Show stage with Donnie and Marie in their purple and pink outfits.  I also got the Farrah Fawcett doll who made frequent appearances on the show!

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My father

8. Easiest person to buy for?

Sadly, me...(I'm right with you, Jess!)

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Three:  one that I made as a child, one china, and one that you can't move the figures around.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail is the only acceptable way in my book!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

This weird velvet hat my cousin gave me...

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Love "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (That Linus is quite intuitive and insightful) and "The Year Without a Santa Claus"  (How about those Miser Brothers?!?!  Love their song!)  As for those for adults:  "Love Actually".

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

Whenever the mood hits me.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

I don't think so... unless it was for a White Elephant Gift Exchange.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Yorkshire pudding

16. Lights on the tree?

White on both

17. Favorite Christmas song?

I will listen to just about anyone sing "O Holy Night".

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

We go to my parents', who live around an hour away, for Christmas Eve service, dinner, and gifts.  My sister and her family are also there.  We drive back home late that night in order to have Christmas morning at our house.  Then my husband's family (about 30 of them!) come over for the afternoon for a hysterical Chinese Gift Exchange.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?

Yes.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

Angel on one and a silver bow on the other

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

See #18.  Then all other presents Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Watching the news and seeing all those people who want to take down Nativity Scenes and Menorahs around cities and towns.  I don't know anyone who really hates Christmas or Hanukkah for goodness sake!

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color?

My southern ornaments -and of course those made by my children!  Also, all my nutcrackers.

24. Favorite for Christmas Dinner?

We have started a tradition of having steaks for Christmas lunch/dinner... yum!

25. What do you want to do for Christmas this year?

Keep the true meaning in everything I do.  ALSO, not eat too much! 

26. Favorite Christmas tradition growing up?

Going to my grandparents on Christmas Eve.  Now that my parents are the grandparents, we have continued the tradition at their house!

27. Favorite tradition now?

Getting in our pjs, slurping Sonic Blasts (I know that doesn't sound Christmasy) and driving around looking at tacky Christmas lights.  They are THE BEST!!!

28. Favorite Christmas Memory?

1988 Debutante Season.  The Assembly was five days before Christmas, and the Cotillion was four days after.  It was such fun being a princess during the Christmas season!

Help Us Remember During this Hectic (yet Blessed) Season

 

Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children...  

...or maybe a married mother of a 4-year-old hurrying to get home because said 4 year old was in the back seat throwing up in a paper bag.

 

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

 

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

A friend of mine, Corey,  posted these statuses on her Facebook page this past week.  She is in my Sunday School class where we have been studying/discussing how we are called to show GRACE - not only during this blessed season, but throughout our lives.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago myself in Grace Filled. 

Thank you, Corey.  You have helped me remember. 

A Preppy Christmas Thought Just for YOU!

Today was the last day of school before the Holidays.  Hooray!

Yesterday was Polar Express day where we all donned our best flannel pj's, drank hot chocolate with marshmallows, and watched the (new) holiday classic.  What fun!  Today was the all-school sing-a-long which was just as crazy as you could imagine with a million children all dressed in red and green, singing holiday songs at the top of their lungs.

Today was also our class party.   Before the feeding frenzy, we made painted glass ornaments.  I do this every year and the kids love it.  The parents love it too, because the finished product is actually très beautiful.  The children swirled two different colors of paint inside the ornament and went to town!  We had Christmas music going. and they started dancing around the room shaking their ornaments to get the paint all over the inside!  What fun!

Of course I had to make one to show them the steps.

And... sweet, cute friends,

when I chose the colors,

I thought of YOU!

Pink and Lime Green!

Isn't is too cute?!?!

Preppy Blessings...

Our Home for the Holidays

So today I realized that I AM Super Woman and that decorating

your house for 100 women is not that overwhelming.

(At least I realize that the day after!)

The ladies were precious and loved everything.  One even asked my about my window treatments, which I was MORE than happy to share with her.  Lots (like a lot of you) asked about paint colors.  Maybe I went into the wrong profession - LOL!  It was so nice to be able to tell stories about different decorations and ornaments.  Another coop was that I had fresh baked cookies out for the ladies to enjoy!   In a nutshell, I absolutely loved it and loved sharing my home for the holidays.  (I only wish I had pictures of the event, but I was too busy "hostessing"!)

Now understand that my home is a REAL FAMILY'S HOME with two boys, a husband/dad in a wheelchair, and a school teacher wife/mom who is pulled in a million different directions.  I have seen many of your homes - mine can not EVEN compare to your style and elegance.  But try I did!

The Entrance

These are the presents on either side of the front door.

Foyer

Love my antique marble top table with my collection of Santas.

If you zoom in, the picture is of S and J

with their cousin MS about four years ago...

New to the family is our three foot Santa welcoming

guests as they arrive for Christmas merriment!

 

Dining Room

I had it all in candle light for the tour, but

those pictures didn't turn out.

The Nativity scene is on my buffet.

You can see the small tea candles behind and beside.

I love seeing a Christmas tree in a front window from the street.

I covered the base of the tree with fruits and nuts.

Colored balls from the Dollar Tree in

sterling silver compotes and Revere bowls.

(Love the dichotomy!!!)

Kitchen

This is how we display our Christmas cards so that we can

remember our friends throughout the holidays.

At the center (zoom in) is a lovely Nativity plate to remember

that our Savior is the center of all of our relationships.

A festive wreath (I surprised myself and made!!!) on the door

out to the garage.

Breakfast Room

(Now my favorite room in the house... see 3 blog posts ago!)

Door to the back porch and deck 

Antique chest of drawers with lots of festive treats!

Love my Art of the Spirit pottery.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above..."

This plate collection is also from Art of the Spirit and handpainted.

It tells the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke.

Advent Wreath with three candles burned...

Study

Didn't do much in here as it really is a working office.

This funny lady used to sit outside our store, Tea Garden Gifts.

Now she is my husband's muse...
(When she's not chilling out, reading back Christmas
issues of Southern Living!)

Master Bedroom

Again, not much here but a Woof n' Poof Santa chillin' on the bed.

Living Room

This is my absolute favorite room...

My collection of Nutcrackers I started years and years ago on

my favorite piece of furniture:  an antique Imperial mahogany
chest that was my very first furniture purchase!

The basket of Christmas books by the fireplace

The other Nativity scene on the other side of the fireplace

The tree!

One of the two trees I have on my mantle

The needlepoint stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

So... there you have it.  Our home for the holidays.
And we are so blessed...