What does Christmas Look Like at Your House?..(Link-up)...

Well, OK...if you insist...Linking up with my blog friends here to get a glimpse of a California Christmas.  We actually did have rain all day yesterday and beautiful snow on our local mountains this morning.   For us Californians, it was pretty cold this morning.   When Ted left for work at 6:00 am, it was 29 degrees...I don't know what it was when I left, but I had ice on my windshield . 

These are the last of my banana chiles that I plucked  out of the garden on Sunday before the rain.  They looked so Christmassy, I put them in this crystal container and displayed them on my kitchen desk shelf.    

Sunday, I also started the cookie baking.  This is an important tradition.  I love to try out new recipes, but mostly stick to some old favorites that are tried and true.  I miss Tim in the kitchen at Christmas.  Staying up until 2 in the morning  making cookies, was one of our crazy,  favorite,  hyper things to do.  We always gave most of the cookies away to neighbors, work, and school.  So here is the mess still there today...I have some made, but can't show you yet...

My dining room table though looks nice and cleaned-up for once. Way in the back there is my snowman collection.  A couple of years ago, we had a secret Santa thing going on at school.  I kept getting the cutest snowmen in my box or delivered to my classroom.  That was a lot of fun since I had lost so much of my Christmas things in a fire.  










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I love Snoopy.  I try and collect snoopy things when I can.  So here are my snoopy's hanging out on my stairs...The handrail garland was made by my dear friend Becky's  daughter,  Courtney (who will be getting married 12/31)  check her out at www.flollisdecor.com.   Courtney came over and decorated our townhouse for the first Christmas without Tim,  while I was gone to church one Wed. night. (Christmas '07).  

The moose are trying to get their point across here about "personal space"...Do you think anybody's getting the message?  

2007, that was the first year, first of everything  without Tim. On Thanksgiving that year, the three of us  went to Disneyland from 7:00 a.m. opening until 12:00am  closing.  A few days later, I composed a poem about our day there, and sent it off to share with a few friends. My same friend Becky,  actually forwarded the poem to Disneyland.  They loved the poem so much, they sent us these Christmas Mickey and Minnie's and three  50th anniversary shirts.  That was very cool.  I will share the poem on  my blog some day.  These are my Timmy and Corey trees; my mom's Bible from her teenage years opened to the 23rd Psalm.  




Placed over an existing picture for the holidays, pictures of past Christmas's and winters with our son, Tim.

I have this beautiful frame with these "words" of Jesus out on my table all the time.  It just seems appropriate to have it next to the Nativity here at Christmas time, for Jesus is the Reason for the Season and the Reason why I  can have Hope and Peace in every Season of my life.  


                                         

Santa fills it with sweet memories

And of course, there is a family who lives here....Corey left for school when I was snapping these...but here is Ol' man Christmas...I mean young at heart-man Christmas...still believing in his Trojan Team!  (Well there's always next year)...Merry Christmas Ted!  

So, that is Christmas in the VanTilburg house, so far anyways,  for 2009.  It's only the 8th of December, and  no official Christmas tree yet and but if we do, you'll be the first to know!