Claire,
That bottle is for St. Nick!
It makes his cheeks rosy and his Christmas merry.

Dottie, I know Tammy and Annie will have an idea for you, but I saw Martha using metallic bronze and gold powders to paint pomegranates a few weeks ago. (she was scolding the celebrity for not doing it right!) Maybe that would work.

I, for one, am learning lots about native flora from this thread. Picture the yankee girl in her kitchen yesterday encrusting magnolia grandiflora pods in silver glitter. They are more delicate than pinecones. (strict constructionist G-Webbers gritting their teeth)

Tammy, I think we're ready for a new spin-off of G-W Carolina Style..."Tammy's Holiday Garden Crafts"...my home is available whenever you want to start! Annie, you seem qualified too...we'll have to stowaway with John on his next trip. And about your version of "Santa's cookies and milk," I'm sure he needs a good stiff drink at some point Christmas Eve.

For those of you who suggested nandina, I can sure see how indestructible it is. Can't find any wild though.

I didn't know that we could grow kiwi here or that it was all curly and decorative. That curly birch i bring to the swaps and try to pawn off on anyone passing by, is also a branch that can be spray painted and looks artsy.

peace and happy holiday decorating, claire

claire, thanks for the kind words. all that info was an amalagation of many seasons- i am no martha with a staff to flog mercilessly. :) i always have more ideas than i have time or energy for. as an example the gourds mentioned sat around for a few yrs before they finally got a spray paint coat. they've held up for 2 yrs now- when one cracks or breaks, i hide that side. i have a sneaking suspicion the same fate may be in store for the persimmon 'flowers'.

we do 80+ homemade cards, and i do @ 20+ cookie plates/homemade goodies for friends & family, so the house basically ends up with the same decorations each yr with a few new frills. i wish i had more time & energy, but at least my imagination has a perfect little house steaming smoke and looking cozy blanketed in snow and in its holiday perfection for me to visit sometimes. needless to say, it'll stay firmly in my mind, or on the front of a greeting card. lol. so, no i don't think i'll be doing a spin-off, sorry.

i don't know how to take cuttings of the kiwi to get it to root, but it's a really neat thing to have if you like fresh fruit. takes a while to get going, but watch out once it does! that sucker grows so fast i have to trim it 3 or 4 x a season(like 4-10' each time). it's pretty, too- heart shaped green leaves with red petioles(word for the day?) fragrant creamy flowers in spring followed by grape like fruit til fall- which i might add is more flavorful that store bought fuzzies. the hardies are small- grape sized, and smooth, so you don't peel them. and you have to have a male & female to get fruit unless you get 'issai'. the best fringe benefit is all the curly extra vines to use.

the important thing is to just have fun and relax with your family. sometimes i have to remind myself that, but it's the whole point, right? give your loved ones a hug today! :) tammy

Does anyone have a good idea what I should do with a bumper crop of locust bean pods? They are from 8-14" long, dark mahogany brown and dried stiff. They sound great rattling up on the tree but the tree has dropped about 50 pods so far and the squirrels aren't touching them this year.

Oops, sorry for the double post
Actually, the artistry I did up North used metal powders so I have every color under the sun.
I can handle the painting portion, I just need ideas what to do with the pods besides stringing them up.

Dottie - I've seen wreaths made with them as the sole ingrediant and as part of a mix. Same with Trumpet vine pods. The best was a wreath made entirely out of 'antelope horns' a prairie weed with long curvey dark horns on its seed pods.

Lately I've been eyeing the winged elm shrubs at the park down the street. There has got to be a way to work them into something.

stay tuned

I made a large wreath for my front gate a few years back, using some rusty barbed wire and briar vines as the base.
I hung colorful cotton work gloves on it, a bow made from a red bandana scarf and added some little gardening hand tools for ornaments.

I made another one like that but tucked in a bit of cedar greenery with their blue berries and some bare branches off of Sumac.

Virginia Creeper vines made wonderful wreaths. They are very flexible and last for years. You can even drape them around your Christmas tree for a "natural tree" with birds nest, and all kinds of natural things like that. Really pretty.

Candles are a great part of Swedish Christmas tradition, because of the long spells of darkness in the winter in the arctic cirle regions. They have come to symbolize the Light of God - hope and peace and love. "Sankta Lucia" is a special tradition involving candle lights and Lucia bread and the drinking of "Glg"*, a fruity, spicey hot wine & whiskey drink that really keeps you warm in Sweden when you walk through the deep snow to church. (don't drink this and drive - Most Swedes walk, ride bikes, or take a train. lol)

I keep these traditions going in my family, and I hope my kids will keep them now in their homes.

I make ice votives for candles every winter to set outside on my front porch. If it is cold enough, they will freeze outside and last for days, but if not, I make them in my freezer just to burn on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas night.
{{gwi:589609}}

Freeze water in a plastic bucket or ice cream tub, & etc., but not solid. Only the outside edge should freeze solid. (Plastic containers and buckets work best because the ice slides right out). Dump out the water and set the ice votive on your porch or patio area in a safe place. I set mine directly on one of my concrete pillars, but you can set them on an aluminun pan or some other fireproof container that will also catch the melting water. You want to set it where you can see it and where it can be seen by others. Set a medium to large candle inside your ice votive, a size proportional to the size of the ice votive. You could make several in various sizes and shapes and arrange them together.

The ice reflects the candle light like crystal and is really lovely and so simple. I use soft colors. I use Hazelnut scented candles or Vanilla, but any soft hue will work as it adds to the warm glow produced by the flickering flames.

You can get really creative with these ice votives. For instance, you could freeze fresh flowers or flower petals and holiday decorations or greenery in them too. (Rememeber the top will be the bottom when you dump it out. You want the decorations at the bottom, away from the flame.)

* If you want my Glögg recipe and/or the Lucia bread recipe, too, let me know. I can post them.

God Jul!

~Annie

ooh, post the glogg recipe, please(pardon the lack of an oomlaut- can't find the sucker). i worked with an intern from sweden yrs ago and she made us glogg at her christmas party. it was so good- and made the whole apartment fragrant. she regaled us with funny stories of how they put up their trees last minute and hated them so much by the time a week went by that they gleefully have a big bonfire in which they all get burned. it was funny when she told it. we still exchange christmas cards, though it's been nigh on 15 yrs since i've seen her.

the ice votive is gorgeous! so, just to clarify- the bottom of the bucket doesn't freeze solid- the top is what ends up making the thick bottom? i'd have guessed it would form an even thickness along the sides, top and bottom. or do you break away the part you don't need? so if i got it right, you'd want things that float to decorate the base then, right? sinkers could do the top of the sides. about how long do you freeze it? thanks for a great idea & any clarification.
tammy

It seems to make sense that the top would freeze first...my dog buckets work that way. That photo is so gorgeous, annie. Your photography is as artistic as your ideas.

Post the bread recipe for us too. Like yourself, I try to keep the Italian traditions going, but without a daughter, it might be tough. Better get my son ravioli making this year.

Tammy, I love the idea of handmade cards. You should post a picture of one to all of us.

Annie,

All of your holiday traditions sound very nice.

Your ice votives reminded me a little of these snow pillars that are in my newest Martha Stewart Living magazine. The are beautiful in the photo.

Here are the instructions from the magazine article:

Pack the snow into a nonstick or tinned-steel Bundt pans. To release form, tap bottom of pan firmly. If snow "cake" doesn't come out in one piece, pack the snow in again and let the filled pan sit outside for about thirty minutes to harden; release. Trim the wick of a pillar candle to 1/4 inch so the flame stays small. Secure candle on a flat surface, such as a step, by packing snow around it. Once you have three forms, stack them over the candle. Lightly spritz pillar with water; everything will freeze in place. To light the candle, use a long fireplace match.

~Angie

Sorry Tammy,

I stated that all wrong. Let me try again. (duh)

The top is the top and the bottom is the bottom. You can see in my photo that the ice votive took the form of the plastic bucket. I let it partially thaw, and then dumped out the melted water that puddled in the middle. The bottom was much thicker than the sides and top. It is last to freeze, but also last to thaw.

So....To add flowers &etc, you need to put a few inches of water in the bottom of the bucket, add your flowers or tiny pinecones, cranberries, evergreen twigs or whatever you want to use, and freeze that. Use only things non-toxic so you won't poison children, animals and birds.

Freeze solid.

Then add more water and freeze it again.

You have to play with it to see how it works for you. The ice will melt and the candle will naturally sink down as it melts. If you put a pan under it, you will need to dump the water ocassionally or it will douse your candle. You can see, I just set my votice right on the concrete pillar. The water runs off into the flower beds below.

(Sorry, I was not plain and it didn't make much sense in my earlier post. Hope this clarifies things).

You can also use this method to make ice rings to float in your holiday punch bowl. Put a small amount of water in a fluted bundt pan and add edible flowers or fruit slices. Orange, lemon and lime slices look great with whole strawberries or cranberries. Freeze and then add more water, or some of the punch itself till about half-filled. Freeze solid. These can be kept for a month in your freezer. I made these for my son's garden wedding here at the house. I used blue Corn Flowers (bachelor's buttons), small red and pink roses and pink baby rose buds, Pot Marigolds (Calendulas) and red and orange Nasty-urtiums.

I also froze pink baby rose buds in mini-ice cube trays. These dainty little ice cubes were very elegant and really lovely touches for the drinks that were served. I made these for 6 weeks, bagging them up and freezing them until I had enough for the wedding. Would be a nice touch for Christmas drinks, too.

ok- that makes it all clear, now. thanks for the clarification. the snow pillars sound lovely, too- but we rarely get snow here. i'm always to obusy playing in it with the kids to do crafts! lol. wonder if you could just do the sides with ice, like the snow pillar idea? then, the water could run off and your candle wouldn't douse. guess it would depend on what safe things you had to set the candle on. i'd heard of the ice rings for punch bowls before, and they are gorgeous. always wanted to try one, but never really had the occasion. your son's wedding sounds lovely! how special for him his mom added so many personal touches!

claire, as to the cards- they aren't handmade, each one individually. i design, photograph, retouch, and print off as many as i need each yr. since i'm a retoucher by trade, they get pretty elaborate. it's a labor of love and we've done some humdingers, so expectations are high. this will be our 12th one- the only yr we missed was the yr my dad passed dec 8th. it's a great way to incorporate news, new family members, pix of kids growing, family pix, etc. because we live so far from family, and my extended family is huge, i look at it as the one way i can keep up with everyone 1x a yr. i'll be happy to post a picture once this yr's is designed. i've been meaning to go back to the old cards since i have them all in digital form and make pdf's so i can reference them easily & or show them. maybe i'll make an album when i get that project done. just don't hold your breath! i keep thinking i could email a lot of people and cut down on my writing, printing and stamping time, but it feels like cheating somehow, so i send all the ones i can via usps. i do email the ones i have no snailmail for. when i first began doing it i ran them off on full sheets of paper and had interesting folds to close them, so those would be hard to represent digitally. the past 5 yrs or so i realized that postcards fit 4 up perfectly on a letter size sheet, so i run them off 2 sided(newsletter on back for out of towners & simple sentiment for local friends) and just have to trim them. saves paper, postage & time. not as interesting, and my newsletter font is tiny- i get a lot of requests for magnifying glasses. keeps it short- which is a good thing. i wish i had time to make them homemade- but it would take me all year to do the 80 or 90 i send out! as it is, it takes a lot of time- we still write a small message on each one & sign it. it just doesn't feel personal enough otherwise. sometimes i think i'm anal!!! rotflmao!! think we have our idea for this yrs- just have to shoot & execute it. hoping to get it mostly wrapped up this weekend, early next week. coming up with the idea is the hardest part, though. tam

Just visited Weymouth Center in Southern Pines if anyone wants to see their holiday decorations see my album below.
Pauline

Here is a link that might be useful: Weymouth Center Holiday Decorations

Hey Ya'll!
I posted my Swedish recipes for hot GLÖGG, Swedish Gingerbread cookies, and Lucia bread.
Hope you'll have a peek.

~Annie

Pauline,
Your photos are just breathtakingly lovely. I felt like I was there visiting, too.
Thank you for sharing with us.

~Annie

pauline, I live a stone's throw from southern pines. can't wait to see some of that garden decor up close and personal...lovely!

claire in sanford

Walking the dogs this AM, I noticed this light gray/green mosslike stuff growing along with moss on the north side of the street. The tiny stems are almost configured like coral. It would make a real pretty matting for a topiary or any kind of holiday/winter container. It's the color of dusty miller. What is it?

Also, Chapel Hill Marsha, our internet maven, showed me a site this AM (ajc.com)that has a tree made out of red Sumac. They have an excellent weekend gardener column with Q & A.

Pup,
I sent you an e-mail with an attached picture of some silvery blue fungus I found on a walk in Greenwood, SC. Take a look at it & see if that is the same stuff.
Have no idea what it is. I searched for its ID, with no luck.
If you find out, let me know, too, okay?

Annie

Annie, that is definitely IT! What a sleuth! Now for the name. Right now it is very lush, must like the cold weather.

sounds like a lichen...

Annie had a picture, but no name and marsha had a relative. Tammy, you pointed me in the right direction with the word 'lichen'. They are fascinating, well, to a wannbe geek, I guess. Seems they are very fragile in the environment, soak up toxins like a sponge. Ecologists judge the age of an ecosystem by their presence and diversity.

This type is truly gorgeous, not like lichens you see on gravestones or tree limbs. It is so delicate and detailed.

Here is a link that might be useful: powder puff lichen

beautiful lichen, pup, and you're right - it'd be beautiful as a container accent. i've been walking the woods lately, looking *up* for mistletoe - i'll have to broaden my focus :) i wonder how well lichens take to re-location ...

in all the online & reference book lichen-looking i was doing yesterday, i was astonished by the vast numbers of varieties we have in nc.

marsha's like'n lichens.

Tammy...Yes!
It is a lichen! Of course!
I have always been facinated with Lichens. California has so many kinds of them, many growing on the huge Granite rocks in the foothills & mountains around my childhood home. There were the woodland varieties as well that grew on the trunks of the Live Oak trees and under them, usually at the edge of the woods near outcroppings of boulders. The soil was very fertile - deep sandy loam, made up of mica, quartz and granite and ancient volcanic ash thrown in for good measure. There were of course, many varieties of ferns and fungi (mushrooms) - "Toadstools", my Grannie called them. As a child, I would spends hours looking at them and marveling at their complex designs, colors, and delicate 'leaves'. There were shield types, cup types, and some that had stick-like or fern-like protrusions. The stick-like ones frightened me. Don't know why.
I loved the mossy, fern-like kinds best. I would pretend I was a tiny faery happily dancing amongst them. I totally believed in Faeries. My brother and I would make tiny gifts for them and leave them in a little faery clearing way out in the woods or under a toadstool. The next morning, after breakfast, we would dash out to the site to see, and sure enough, the gifts would be gone! The faeries had come in the night and taken our gifts. We were delighted because that meant they really liked our gifts! If they were still there, that meant the faeries did not like them. We went there as early as Mother would allow, hoping we would chance upon them. Sometimes to this day, I think they do exist and that only children and believers can know of their existence. I still find peculiar evidence that often makes me wonder to this day!

So...Thanks for identifying this beauty. I have a collection of lichens in my yard that I have gotten starts of from local environs. My eldest son used to help me collect them. He would drive all the way out here to the farm just to bring me a lichen he found somewhere - "for Mom's collection". I have one that is called a "Staghorn lichen". It is tiny and forms a dense soft mat, but grows a staghorn like "flower" for reproductive purposes. When the Stghorn Lichen dries out, it turns brownish and you might think it dead, but if you put just a little water on it, it immediately turns bright green, almost chartreuse. It it MAGICAL!
You can lift lichens intact like a piece of carpet or dried laytex paint and move it someplace else. All you have to do is lay on the ground or a rock (in same environament as where ever you obtained it), water it and it will continue to grow.

I fell instantly in love with the silvery-blue "Powder Puff Lichen" when I found it in the woods in Greenwood, SC. It was growing in orangey-colored sandy soil near a wetland area under some oaks and gum trees. There was a piney wood beyond there. I had hoped to get it growing in one location of my yard, At least I would have it to put in with my rock collection, to add interest.
I love that website. Thanks! I bookmarked it for future reference. After reading many of the articles there, I now feel that I should do a more extensive photo documentation of all the Lichens I encounter in this area of the country.
Thanks Tammy, Claire and Marsha!
Love you guys.
~ Annie

thank you, pup for that awesome site! what fun looking through those gorgeous lichens. and reading some of the traditional and not so traditional uses. anytime i find lichen lying oon the ground that's fallen from my trees i find some interstig spot to tuck it. i think lichens, moss and fungi are so interesting and beautiful. that one you guys found was especially pretty. did you see the info on that one that was really long and stringy possibly being the first tinsel? i thought it was appropos for the season.

i'll be posting my christmas card to all of you very soon. just have to reformat it for email/web. tam

Claire, ditto the thanks on posting that site. One of my first posts upon moving here was in connection with lichen. I had noticed quite a bit of it growing on various trees and bushes and was wondering what it was. Then this past fall I stumbled upon a bed of powder puff lichen on the side of the road. I thought it would make a cool addition to a rustic basket, bonsai planting, etc. but did not want to disturb the bed. I might just try a piece like Annie and see if I can get it to survive.

Annie, I love reading your posts, they are so inspiring and give me many ideas. Gets the creative juices going. Thanks

Tammy, I'm looking forward to your Christmas card.

Adele

Adele,

Just a thought about trying to transplant some of the Lichen. Dig out a piece, dirt and all when you move it. That will help. Also, take note of the light direction, how much light it gets and how it sits north to south & east to west. Is it growing in leaf mold, or just sand? Is it growing in moist soil, or dry?

TTFN
~Annie

Garden Supply Company sells Ice Lantern Molds - just saw it on their site - and they are even on sale now :-)

Set of 2 Ice Lanterns

~Angie

Angie, with couple of dinner parties coming up, I think I'll try that. That's a great picture featuring the add-ons that Sweet Annie suggested. Although the star shape is tempting, I think I'll go the homemade route and save my pennies.

claire in sanford

I think I'm going to try it as well - we're having a small gathering of coworkers over on Saturday evening. If I can find the time to get these going, I may give it a try (the homemade route as well because no time to get the molds in even if I wanted to).

Thanks for the great idea, Annie :-)

~Angie

Well!
I thought I invented the Ice Votive three years ago!

ok- i was trying to do this earlier and couldn't get it to work. turns out my files were cmyk instead of rgb. duh. anyhow, here's our well seasoned greetings to all of you loverly folks! :)

front of this yr's postcard:
{{gwi:589610}}

back of this yr's postcard:
{{gwi:589611}}

i don't get it. so sorry the first pix is so big, folks! i resized it down 2x, not sure why it's not reflecting that. they really are supposed to be the same size. at any rate- merry christmas!

Tammy, I have been anxiously awaiting the posting of your Christmas card. What a loverly photograph, the richness of it is astounding. Thanks for sharing it with us. Adele

Good job Tammy! Your birds are beautiful and the kids adorable.

Merry Christmas!
Shari

Tammy, both kids and birds are great actor/models! How about next year, having the parrots with caps and scarfs, awaiting the snow and the children in flight like Wendy, Michael and John!

You are so creative...what fun!

Happy Holidays back at you and your crew!

claire in sanford

I love it! Specially Livian glancing off to the side like she's thinking up some trouble to cause. And the knockout leafy border. And the placement of the birds. I could go on and on.

I love sledding also - much more fun than skiing in my book.

Dear Tammy,

Very artistic work.
Your children are beautiful. What a lovely scene.
Their sad little faces...sitting upon their sled, waiting and hoping that it will snow. Ho hum. Will it EVER snow? Looking dreamily off, daydreaming about snow and all the fun she could be having if only... Holding that little red maple leaf, perhaps thinking, "The only thing that falls to the ground here are these dumb leaves" and maybe wishing it was snow ball...Nostalgic image.
Adorable image of your children.

I will show my Mother your birds. I really love their your birds names. Mother has always had birds. My happy childhood was a home with the happy sounds of singing, chattering, talking birds. They lived in the laundry porch off the kitchen where there were lots of windows on the east side of the house. They especially loved the sound of the washing machine on laundry day and really chattered and sang along with it when Mother did the laundry. We had one blue and white parakeet in particular, who flew around loose in the house, pretty much most of the time. One day during supper, she flew right down off her perch and dove into the bowl of Orange Jello Salad and began taking a bath. She threw jello everywhere and we kids laughed and squealed with glee. Pappa was madder than a wet hen, but Momma, who is always a good sport, laughed right along with us kids, while she quickly cleaned up the mess. Mother gave Pretty Bird a bath in the kitchen sink to wash off the jello. That bird NEVER forgave Mother for that bath. After that, she had to be put into her cage during suppertime.

My brother liked teaching our Mexican Love Bird to swear. Mother did not know he was doing this. One day a Minister came to our house. Mother invited him in, and fixed him a lovely cup of tea while they chatted. After a few plesantries, the minister began preaching hell fire and damnation at my mother, yelling at her and telling her that she and our entire family were doomed to go to HELL unless we repented and blah, blah, blah. My gentle, kind, proper mother was beginning to get irritated by this self-righteous ilk, but the lady that she is, she held her tongue and waited patiently for the right moment in which to escort the rude "gentleman" to the door. Our Love bird was in her cage in the dining room where they were "visiting" and I guess she heard certain words that triggered her memory, words like "damn", and "hell", and suddenly, every curse word my brother taught that bird came flying out of her beak, one right after another, words that would make a sailor blush. Mother was of course, mortified, and the preacher fled from our house like the devil himself was after him and NEVER came back. We all shouted, "Yipee!" and danced around and clapped our hands! Mother blushed and scolded us and told us to hush, but she could not keep the corners of her mouth from turning up ever so slightly. She cleared her throat and smoothed her dress, and said, "Well, now", and marched our brother down the hall to discuss the "proper re-education of that Mexican Love bird".

I am sure you have many funny stories to tell about your birds, too.

Thanks for sharing. Brought back many wonderfull memories for me.
Merry Christmas Tammy to you and yours!
~Annie

Annie, Martha had a Swedish soap opera actress on today...all about St. Lucia (originally Italian she said)...the gingerbread cookies, and wonderful salmon hors d'oeurvres. It's on the website today.

You should write to Martha. She has non-celebrity people on all the time. I think she would meet her match in you and your crafts, cooking and lore.

BTW, Tammy, I love the names of your birds too, especially Lazuli...a word I first came across in a Browning poem years ago.

Yes,
Sankta Lucia Natt has Italian roots.
This is what I have posted on my website:

SANKTA LUCIA NATT (St. Lucia Night)
- THE SWEDISH TRIBUTE TO LIGHT

Sweden's "Lucia Festival", on December 13, is held at a time when darkness falls in that country by mid-afternoon. The name Lucia, or Lucy, means "light", which is something Swedes especially treasure during the long winter nights.
The real Lucia was a kind and curious Christian woman who lived in Italy in the Fourth Century. It is said that on the night before her wedding, Lucia gave all her money to the poor. Because no one could understand why she did that, Lucia was accused of being a witch and was burned at the stake on December 13, in the year AD 304. Even after her death, however, Lucia was said to continue helping those in need. For that reason, she was eventually made a Saint. When Christianity came to Sweden, St. Lucia's role was combined with that of Berchta, the early goddess of the hearth, or fireplace. This goddess was loved for her good heart and for the special care she was said to give to children. According to Swedish tradition, the oldest daughter of the family pretends to be St. Lucia on the morning of December 13. The "Lucia Queen" dresses in a long white gown and wears a special crown of evergreen boughs and four candles upon her head. She rises before dawn to prepare coffee and special saffron buns and serves them to the rest of the family, while they are still in bed. As she goes from room to room, the Lucia Queen sings a song of promise that the darkness will end soon. The sight of this Lucia Queen, with the candles burning brightly on her evergreen crown, is one that brings hope, light, and happiness to all.

This traditional Swedish Festival of Lights, is now a Swedish family tradition in which the eldest daughter, dressed in white with a crown of candles on her head and assisted by her brothers and sisters, brings Lussibread and coffee to her parents at dawn on the darkest day of the year. (The name Lucia is derived from "lux", Latin for "light.") As the Swedes and other Scandinavians began to emigrate to other parts of the World, the custom spread, and today, even in these new lands, Swedish peoples participate in Lucia processions along the streets and in hospitals, schools and offices, all parts of the tradition announcing that Christmas soon will he here.. It is celebrated wherever Swedes and others of Scandinavian ancestry live, including many communities in the USA.
In Sweden, On Sankta Lucia Day, the villagers walk in processions to church, sometimes for many miles in the deep snow, singing as they walk. Very early on that morning, a young girl from the village (who has been chosen for that year) is dressed as Sankta Lucia, with a long white robe and a crown of evergreens and lighted candles encircling her head. She delivers freshly baked Saffron rolls, studded with raisons, called Lussibread. They are generally shaped into figure eights with a raison in the center of each loop. In each family, this scene is often repeated, and the family "Sankta Lucia" must rise early, bake the rolls and make the fresh coffee to serve to her family.

In Sweden, the Santa Claus is called "Tompte". He is a little fat Gnome who rides in a stone boat (a sled used for hauling things) pulled by a pig.

God Jul!

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's website about Christmas in Sweden & Santa Lucia Night

Here is the link to my Christmas pages with Irish and Dutch Christmas and "A Visit From St. Nicholas" by Clement Moore (1822), and "Sinterklaus", the Real Saint Nick:

Here is a link that might be useful: More about Christmas that you may not know

so, santa's a gnome, huh? how funny! thanks, annie for the hilarious story! have you ever read the posionwood bible? i think you'd enjoy it tremendously! i'm surprised the bird was into the jello bath- they do love baths- but sticky jello? in fact, zu really was taking a bath hanging upside down- which is how she prefers to bathe- in that shot. it's her favoritist thing in the world almost. that and cardboard boxes.

thanks for all the sweet compliments! john- you nailed it- liv was probably thinking about trouble! :) we had fun shooting those- it was hard to hit the balance of melancholy without looking like spoiled brats. livian was making some horrid faces. keegan's such an actor, he didn't have as much trouble. the silly shots we did when we were all done were a trip! some were shot at the park- i can't imagine what people at the shelter thought we were doing on a nice afternoon bundled up. the kids are very happy to be headed north for christmas, especially since they already have a good bit of snow this yr. our relatives up there weren't quite so taken with the concept of the card! lol! i get right out there with the kids when we go sledding up there & so does pete. never been skiing- but sledding seems like it'd be more fun. i never have quite got that balance thing down yet, so....

claire, your idea is not too far off from our alternate idea this yr, but we decided it'd be too hard to shoot them in flight(kids and birds!) lol.

we chose the birds that we named names carefully- casey came with his name(and we don't like it that much, but so far it's stuck). mango just fits- she's got all the right colors, and she's sweet as can be. she lives for kisses. lazuli was a bit of an inspiration- we have a couple rock hounds in the family, and i've always liked lapiz lazuli, the color is just about the color of her head, so.... she has a lot of nicknames, now though- zu, zuzu(but she didn't lose her petals), zootie-doot and zuzi. we're convinced casey is actually KC, which stands for krazy chicken. he's a trip, but is quite obnoxious by times. he's a talker, and can say quite a few phrases- but is hard to understand. zu only says a few things clearly, one of which is 'how's the doggie go?' to which casey replies arf, arf, arf!! in a yappy- schnappy dog bark/voice. he knew it when he came, and zu learned the command quickly. they seem to get along ok but not to the point of playing. mango doesn't like either one, casey less than zu. she doesn't talk. despite the images, they aren't fully flighted- they were retouched. mango & casey can do controlled short flights- zu, since she's only 1 and had a bad clip when we got her, is growing hers out and learning to fly. a little too well, sometimes, but she still needs to work on her landings. once she's really got the hang of it, she'll get the controlled flight clip like the others. it's really dangerous to let birds be fully flighted- too easy to slip out an open door, into a hot pot of water, etc. plus, as annie's family discovered, they get cocky and really much too independant. before we clipped mango, she'd follow me around the house- endearing, to a point. lest anyone be worried, they molt 2x a yr, and clipping wings is like clipping our fingernails- not painful. btw, none of our birds swear. my bird sitter has several that do, though- some quite proficiently and loudly. not that she taught them- but that knowledge never goes away. hopefully ours won't pick it up when they stay there while we go out of town. i'm sure they'd pull it out at the worst possible moment.

merry merry to one & all! tam

That is such a riot about swearing. Glad yours don't, can you imagine mango, laz, and casey with little gag rags in the back room when the minister, elementary teacher and grandmother visit!?

That's one thing about plants and dogs, you can cuss and curse all you want around THEM. Dogs get upset though whenever the tone turns negative...wonder if plants do!?

they say plants can detect the vibes around them and the intent, so i bet they do sense tone. there was some famous accidental experiment yrs ago. they had plants hooked up to monitors in the same room as a couple tanks of krill or brine shrimp. for some reason, at a certain interval the shrimp were to be killed(some other experiment), and the plants 'emotions' or reactions- whatever they were measuring- went up hugely right before that happened. if i recall right, they had just been studying whether they reacted to being spoken to- the shrimp thing was not part of the study. so, then the researchers would just think about killing the shrimp and the same spike happened(without actually following through). so then, they thought about burning the plants, same spike resulted. mind you, i read about this as a young teen, so it was early 80's- i bet they've done much more sophistcated research since. i'm still always careful not to think bad thoughts around my plants. i feel bad when i have to prune.

i can picture them gagged sometimes when they won't cease and desist! lol. actually, a blanket over the cage when they get outta hand works wonders. well, except for casey, who keeps on grumbling for a while. i did say he was obnoxious, right? we love him though- he's very funny. what you'd call a character. :) tam

OMG, Tammy, my poor plants...every other thought I have is negative...guess I better fertilize my brain or train myself to mentally trip the light fantastic while I'm gardening. Good thing I'm not raising Triffids!

BTW, I have a dog like Casey, who is "a case," very human with a gamut of emotions. He was just diagnosed as diabetic...never realized just how much I love him til he was quite sick...he's doing great now, thank God!

More about our birds. . .
How we came to have the parakeet is a story in itself.

Mother was out in the garden hanging up the laundry one sunny day and out of nowhere a blue & white parakeet flew right down and landed on Mother's shoulder. She nibbled lovingly on Mother's ear and mother said, "Well hello there" and the bird said, "Ooooh. Hello!" And Mother said, "So, who are you?" The bird replied, "Pretty Bird!" So, she kept her name. She never flew away after finding a nice home, having no desire to try living out in the big free world ever again. We never did find out from whence she came.

I would like to add about the Mexican Love Bird. . .

. . .that after cursing out the preacher and telling him to "Go to Hell!", and saying things like "Well, -uck a duck!", our love bird never said any of the really foul swear words ever again. Mother said it must have just been a cleansing thing for her, but I have always wondered just what Mother did to make her "repent" and come clean.???

And as for our parakeet, Pretty Bird? After her jello bath, she began saying, "Oooooh, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird is a dirty bird!" We kids got so much fun out of her.
She loved Orange Jell-O, not just for bathing but for eating it as well. She especially loved it when mother made it into a salad by adding grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Yum yum! She would walk across the table and sample everything. If she found something she particularly didn't like, she would make a mess of it and have a fit! So afterward she had to kept up during meals. She would fuss and squawk at us from her cage, demanding to be loosed at once!
As you said, covering her cage was helpful in quieting her down. She would then say, "Good night Pretty Bird!" which would then of course, set us all into a round of giggles.

~Annie

My knockouts are in bloom for the holiday season! Well, my husband put bright pink lights on them to simulate their blooms. They are on either side of a white silhouetted nativity scene with white lights.

I thought how fun it would be to bedeck some of our shrubs that still have branching structure with lights the color of their in-season blooms....such as a mass of twinkling yellow rudbeckia, white paniculata hydrangeas, blue mopheads, crepe myrtles and buddlea in all their various hues.

On another creative note with ivy, my friend here in sanford has two amazing giraffe topiaries...Angelo and Guido, about 12 and 9 ft. respectively. They are all lit up and each with a huge red bow around the necks. They have gorgeous ceramic heads. I guess Edward Scissorhands was once her yardboy!

annie, those stories are a riot! pretty bird sounds as if she knew just what she was after in finding your mom. some of them are so intelligent! and to think the lovebird didn't swear again after that one incident. that's wild. my one great grandmother was a complete witch, but had a way with birds. she chased her husband around with a carving knife around the house one day, yet would feed the birds out of her mouth and taught them to talk. go figure. i never met her or him, reputed to be a saint(you'd have to be to put up with that!), but grew up hearing the stories. perhaps that's where i got my love of birds, but am glad to say i've never chased pete with a knife! i do have a wicked temper- so maybe he better watch out. lol.

never tried giving ours jello, but they love yogurt and fruit tea. mango & casey love anything fruity- zu is picky, and doesn't care for anything wet(yet-we're working on her). we'll have to try that the next time we have some.

pup, your lights sound pretty, and so does the idea of stringing appropriate colored ones for the plants. one of my roses was blooming just a week ago, and i bet red cascade still has blooms on it. i havent had time to be out in the garden, and rc's up by the rd, so i'm not sure it didn't get zapped, but it's typically blooming by christmas still. my only gripe with it is no scent.

those giraffes sound really neat! i think topiary giraffes are about as fun as it gets- dunno why, i just do. maybe penguins would be a close second... tam

Wow, tammy, a christmas rose that's actually a rose, not a hellebore or camellia! I'll have to look into RC. The last one I had in bloom was around Thanksgiving, Gene Boerner, which I call Margaret's Rose in memory of an outstanding friend I made while delivering Meals on Wheels.

In my walk with the dogs this afternoon, I came across the motherlode...a huge pile of choice clippings of holly loaded with berries, lacey blue-berried cedar and gorgeous Little Gem, mildew-free magnolia. It pays to walk amongst the mansions (I think they pay florists to decorate). Now I'll put that huge Boston fern on the porch out of its misery. (was going to try to overwinter, but was warned by TJ not to...cooties). On it's bare pedestal, I'll place a huge arrangement of my native treasure trove held tight by the potbound soil of the fern.

Noticed also in my walks that there is paniculata clematis and forsythia blooming out of season in a couple of spots.

you are more than welcome to a cutting of red cascade, pup. it roots really easily. it's a red mini semi-climber. from the 50's if i recall right. no fragrance, but blooms its head off from early spring through late late late fall into winter. heavy bloom in flushes- a few sprays here or there otherwise. fairly thorny. the individual flowers aren't that pretty, like many minis, but taken together or in sprays, they are really nice. it's a classic red red. some yrs it's still got color for christmas, others it's done by thankgiving. just depends on the weather. your arrangement sounds really pretty! tam

Tammy, I would really love that. Thanks so much. I used to be a pretty-in-pink/ no-red girl, but that has all changed since I fell in love with Don Juan and Hot Lips....whewww, i hope my husband isn't lurking!