Christmas 2015 recap

 Just a quick catch up this morning on all that has been going on in the Rayner household!  We have had a very busy couple of days (just like all of us) and today I will be cooking our "At Home" Christmas dinner as yesterday we were out and about.  I cooked a turkey for Doreen on Christmas Eve and sent it over to her.  She had been going to go to her son's for Christmas Day but changed her mind as she wasn't feeling very good.  I knew we would not be at home but I didn't want her and Billy to go without a Christmas lunch and so I thought she would enjoy some turkey.  Billy only had to cook some vegetables to go along with it.   I am fairly confident he could handle that.



We, of course, spent the day with these lovely youngsters  . . . .




Elder Johansen got a goofy hat from his kids that he was wearing . . .




Sister Johansen loved the apron I gave her.   She is always cooking for the kids, even though she says she doesn't like cooking . . . .



Elder Rayner was rockin' his new Christmas tie . . .




The  youngsters were loving just sitting around, eating, watching the telly (only certain things allowed) that they are not normally allowed to watch and getting to skype with their families back home . . .




I was rockin' the first selfie of myself that I don't utterly despise, lol . . .

I need to get a fringe I think  . . .




These two sweetie pies were enjoying new toys and jimjams around the Christmas tree . . .




The annual sock, jimjam and tree pic from Bruce and Sara . . .

And  . . .  we have a new family member . . .





Meet Lucy  . . . a beautiful little springer spaniel Pup, a younger sister for Baxter.

Isn't she just adorable?   She reminds me a lot of Mitzie when Mitzie was the same age . . .



 Clearly cuteness runs in our family.  Oh . . .  she was such a little cutie pie, and she still is.  She is loving having Tatiana here.

And that is pretty much what's been happening around here!  It's been all go!



I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas! 

  

Our day was capped off with the Call The Midwife Christmas special.  No spoilers here, but it's just lovely.  You'll see . . . 

I've been missing you!



There is a delicious Turkey and Stuffing Casserole in the English Kitchen today  . . .

Have a fabulous Boxing Day.  Wherever you go and whatever you get up to stay safe and warm, and don't forget . . .

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 And I do too!



 

Merry Christmas!

  

Merry Christmas to you all my friends!  May your days be blessed with love, family, friends, good food, good health and more blessings that your cup can hold.  Thank you all so much for your support through the year and your faithfulness in visiting me.   I think you are all pretty special!  Love you to bits.

I hope he doesn't mind, but I am sharing Kyle's video with you.  Kyle did his mission here several years back and we loved having him in our home for meals and visits.   I had no idea at the time that my friend Valerie was his mom and she had no idea that we were the Rayners he spoke of in his letters home.   I think this video is just brilliant and he is so very talented.  I predict big things for this lovely young man.  Enjoy!




God bless you all!

Christmas Eve . . .

DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun,  it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.


VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.


Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.




Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.


You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.




No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.


 

I was ten years old when I asked my parents about Santa Claus and my mother told me that she and my father were really him (with strict instructions not to tell my brother and sister of course!).   That was the first year I heard his bells jingling as he put the gifts beneath our tree on Christmas Eve.   I can still hear the bells as clearly now as I did then.   There was a huge part of me that did not want to believe that what I had been told was true . . .  the mind is a powerful thing, and I did hear his bells.   I truly did.  Could it have been the innocence of childhood leaving me?  I don't know  . . .  in any case it is a memory I treasure, and somehow made the loss that little bit less painful!

I have always loved this piece, which was first published in  The Sun Newspaper, on September 21, 1897 as a response to a little girls letter to the editor.  The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamp.  It warms my heart each time I read it!



Tatiana is here!  I snapped this with the iPad last night as we were sitting relaxing after we got back home here.   Plenty of hugs going on.   I am so happy!  I am sure our visit will pass far too quickly.  Today I am cooking a turkey for our friend Doreen, and I have a potato salad to make for our Christmas day lunch with the Missionaries.  I am going to get Tatiana to make the peanut butter balls.  We will spend the day chatting and laughing and then this evening we will drop Doreen's turkey off to her on our way to the chapel for our Christmas Eve Carol Service! Looking forward to that, and bonus!  Second day in a row waking up to very little pain!  Praise the Lord!

I just know it has been all of your well wishes and prayers that have helped me to feel better.  Thank you all so very much!  I know that medicine also helped.  ;-)

A thought to carry with you through today . . .


¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ...¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories 
and love of kindred, 
and we are better throughout the year
 for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” 
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder.
¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ...¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸




Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Mince Pie Muffins.  So good!

Have a wonderful day today.  Don't work too hard.   Remember . . .

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And I do too!!

Oh . . .  and a very Merry Christmas!  With love from our home to yours.



 

Wednesday This and That . . .

Today is going to be a great day.   You might be asking yourself, how can I know that for sure?  Well . . .  today is the first day I have woken up in over two weeks without being in abject pain.  It only a little niggling pain and some tickly irritation.  Seriously.  I have not had to take any co-codemol this morning.   Just my Aciclovar and I am on the last day of taking that, which means that the worst bits of having the shingles is probably just about over.

Yay!!



I am all ready for Christmas and except for a bit of gift wrapping there is nothing left to do.  Yesterday we braved the traffic and I went to the grocery store to pick up some fresh fruit and a few odd bits.  Job done and the traffic wasn't even that bad.  I expect that today and tomorrow it will be positively manic.

Once again I did not get into Chester to see the Christmas village in there, but that's okay.  It will be there again next year.

Yesterday I even got my craft room all tidied up, which didn't take me that long afterall.  I just had to put things away.  When I am into a project, nothing gets put away.  It's all go and chaos until I am done what I am doing, and often beyond.  Which is kind of wierd really because, when I cook it's way different.  I am a clean as you go cook.




We had some carolers at our house last night.  Just three children.  A girl of about ten and her two brothers.   They sang, "We wish you a Merry Christmas."  It was so sweet.  Mitzie really enjoyed them also.   I gave them some Christmas chocolates.  I don't know if that is what you do, but that is what I did.  It was really nice.

Christmas brings out the nice in people, whether they know it or not.  Nice is the spirit which prevails throughout this season.

Oh, I am not as naive to believe that it is so with everyone, there is also a heavy thread of sadness that prevails, but we won't dwell on that.

Just pray for those who are sad and down hearted, do your best to make a difference for those in need, be a friend to the friendless, remember the lonely and the sick and the poor, put the Christ into Christmas.    You can do no more.

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to others."
~George Eliot




"A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably."
~William Penn

So excited that we are going to pick up Tatiana at the airport later today.  We have been waiting for months for this day.   It will be so nice to have her here over Christmas.   She is a dear friend, but also like a daughter to me. I have long wished that I could have a special friendship with my daughters like this.    I am close to my oldest daughter, but by virtue of her developmental challenges, it will never be the same relationship that most mothers and daughters have.  Its difficult to explain.  Its special but its not like the relationship I have with my own mother.  My other daughter is very distant from me.   I don't really know why, but there is this huge wall between us and I am powerless to break it down.  It's been like that for years and years now.   It happened all of a sudden with no explanation.  I can remember talking to my friend Lesley about it before we even moved down South to Kent, so it's been going on a very long time.  I try to communicate . . .  but it is only ever rarely acknowledged if at all.  I have come to accept that it is what it is . . .  but I do mourn sometimes that relationship that has been lost.   Especially when I see other moms and daughters and I think about what we could have, but for  . . .  I don't know what!

That is the hardest.  Not knowing.   You can't fix things if you don't know what's wrong, but again . . .  we won't think about that.  There is much to be happy about!  The daughter of my heart is coming today, and I get to spend nine days with her!  Yay! 

 

This could tempt me  . . .

 

So could this  . . .

 

And this  . . .

We'll see what 2016 will bring.   You just never know.

But back to today.  Today is going to be a great day!

"Some friendships are made by nature, 
some by contract, 
some by interest and some by souls." 
~Jeremy Taylor



Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Skinny Layered Mac & Cheese.    Really good stuff.

Have a beautiful Wednesday.  I hope you have a great day too!  Don't forget . . .

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And I do too!

The Simple Woman's Daybook . . .

 

FOR TODAY, December 22, 2015

Outside my window ...
It's totally dark and very cold.   The days will start drawing out now that we have experienced the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice.  It will be a while before we really start to notice a difference however.

I am thinking ...


Thinking about the England Manchester Mission Christmas Party today and how much I am going to miss going to it.  I had been really looking forward to it.

I am thankful for ...
The miracles of modern medicine which mean that I am not as sick as I could be.  Also thankful that so far Todd has escaped.  At the age of 77 he does not need to get the chicken pox.  I continue to pray that he does not get them.

In the kitchen ...


Skinny Sprout and Carrot Gratin.  This is delicious and at only 110 calories a serving, something you don't need to feel guilty about tucking into this Christmas!

On my "To Cook" list ... 
 

From View from a Great Island.  Copycat Trader Joe's Gone Bananas.  These look fabulous!

I am creating ...


Holiday Cheese Wreath.   From Five Heart Home.   This looks really cute.  What a novel way to serve cheese!

 

From Growing a Jeweled Rose, Christmas Play Dough.   These sound good enough to eat!

  

From Attagirl Says.   Shadowbox Christmas Ornaments.  I love these.  There is a complete pictorial tutorial.



No source, but loving these snowman painted jar lids.   What a great way to recycle!



Mason Jar Lid Holiday Wreath From Kristen Duke Photography.  So simple.  It's just mason jar lids and washi tape.  People are so clever!

 

Popcorn Snowman gift.   Love this.  It's so cute.  From Fun Free Christmas.

I am reading ...



Lineage of Grace, by Francine Rivers

In this compilation of the five books in the best-selling Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers, we meet the five women whom God chose—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary—even scandalous—challenges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.

I love these types of books and I love Francine Rivers as an author. Scarlet Thread is one of my all time favourite books of hers.

Looking forward to ...
 

The beds are all made and decked out in their Christmas finery.   Tatiana arrives tomorrow!  Only one more sleep. I got all my bedding at Asda, and it was not too expensive either.   Just what you want for bedding that will only be used once a year!

Makes me smile ...
I won a giveaway from Happy Loves Rosie.   A box of photographs from  Cheerz Retro.  I decided to make it a box of grandchildren photos and I was smiling the whole way through picking out which ones I would use.

I am learning ...
That there is no end to the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father. 

Dreaming about ...


Pretty blouses . . .



Pretty Cardigans  . . .

 

Polka Dot shoes  . . .  red ones  . . .



Woolen overcoats in muted plaids and cable knitted shawls . . .



Pin tucks  . . .

A favourite quote for the day  . . .
(¯`v´¯)
 `*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ¸.•´¸.•~♥♥♥~•.~
ღϠ₡ღ¸. ✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ. ( ¸.❀⁀
⋱‿✿“` * .¸.* ✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ..

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, 
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. 
~Norman Vincent Peale

One of my favourite things ...


Serving with these fabulous young people, from left to right, Elder Hollingsworth (Las Vegas), Elder Loelsi (New Zealand), Elder Singsam (New Zealand), Sister Gregson (Utah), Elder Judd (Utah), Sister Holmes (Canada).



Don't you just love the Christmas Jumpers?

A peek into my day ...


I just love making my husband happy and taking good care of him.  I can't imagine it being any different.


And that's my daybook for this week!

 ⋱ ⋮ ⋰
⋯ ◯ ⋯ Take time to enjoy the small *´¯`.¸¸.☆
  ⋰ ⋮ ⋱ blessings in life.*´¯`.¸¸.☆

✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿
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Wherever you go and whatever you do, I hope there's a great day ahead of you! Don't forget!

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And I do too!