Saying goodbye to Christmas

This year's Christmas season was absoulutely crazy for me. I saved alot of vacation days for December as I always do. This year the days were spent boxing and bagging things to be moved to the new condo. If I wasn't such a pack rat I would have been moved in a long time ago and December could have been spent attending Christmas events and concerts, tree lightings and holiday open houses. So to my mind, Christmas was all messed up this year.

I even worked some of my vacation days and came in to work on Saturdays I was not scheduled to work. So forgive me, if I linger just a little while longer over my Christmas decorations. They are old friends I hate to put away in January. The good thing is it's just me and the kitties in the condo so I can leave my tree up until April if I want to.

So I decided this weekend was the time to pack away the Christmas things. So here goes:

Goodbye Starbucks snowglobe. I'll toast you with the last gingerbread latte of the season.

Goodbye, to the very stylish Dixie Hackett in her faux mink stole. She got a little tipsy from the
cinnamon eggnog. And goodnight to Carol Lynn and Charles, her neighbors who are sitting behind her in the sleigh. They are camera shy.

Ok, this egg I will keep out through the winter because it's sooo special (and unfortunately does not photograph well). My sister gave it to me as a Christmas gift several years ago. Actually it was 1994. I collect Russian lacquer eggs and I have a few with characters from the Nutcracker on them. I gave my sister one with a Snow Queen on it. Russian lacquer eggs are gorgeous. Anyway, my sister knows I love ice skating, gazebos, and anything Victorian so she painted me the most spectacular egg. The egg is made of wood and she painted it black. Then she painted two Victorian ice skaters on a frozen pond on the front of the egg. On the back of the egg? A beautiful gazebo, brown wooded with icicles dripping from it's beams, there's a bridge too and some children skating in the background. This is absolutely my fantasy place where I would want to hold an ice skating party. Do you now how hard it is to paint on a round surface? And the detail of the icicles on the gazebo, oh my goodness! Perfection! My sister has unbelievable artistic talent. The egg is phenomenal and very precious to me. Ok, I just convinced myself it is staying up all year round!

I got this plate at an antiques store in Winchester many years ago. It reminds me of England. One year I used it as the center of my Christmas wreath for my front door. It has a mate but it's packed away, somewhere in a box I hope.

Another gift from my sister. This Christmas she gave me a Jim Shore angel. Since I rescued my kitty Oscar from my building parking lot last June and my other cat, Molly was adopted by me after she was rescued from a trailer park in Hooksett, NH, my sister said I was a kitty angel. So

I proudly display my angel on top of my dining room hutch. I have another kitty angel given to me by my friend Debbi. It was a housewarming gift. So the collection begins.

I love my brass reindeer and he's pulling a brass sleigh. I think he's so elegant. Sometimes he carries ornaments and sometimes candy. I think he was mentioned in a prior post too.

The wooden skates I've had for years and I can't even remember where they came from but I know I like them. And who doesn't love books published by Victoria Magazine? I think I have all of their Christmas books. They used to publish them every year and I have about six of them. I was missing just one year. One time my friend Lisa gave me one of these Christmas books and it was the book for the year I was missing. She didn't even know I collected them. Isn't that a happy accident?

Pottery Barn had a sale on velvet stockings so I bought one for Oscar and a matching one for Molly and had them monogrammed. Don't worry they're mini stockings. As much as I love the kitties I don't think I overindulge them!

Here are the french doors between the living room and dining room. My first Christmas decoration that I put up was the red berry garland you see here. Friends Don and Debbi were helping me move and we decided why not put it up instead of packing it away. This was in November so it was a little early for Christmas.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Christmas decorations. It's still very wintry outside and so it's been fun to stay inside and reminisce about past Christmases.

Until next time, stay warm wherever you are.

Fresh memory card and fresh snow

We had another snowstorm last night. I think it has snowed nearly every day since the official start of Winter. The most recent storm did not produce as much snow as expected so the roads were cleared rather easily and I was out and about in no time.
Armed with a shiny new memory card for my Fuji, I headed to Winchester for a photographic journey. If you've read prior posts on this blog you will know that I love Winchester. It is a beautiful town and I thought it would be especially beautiful with freshly fallen snow.

I like to photograph churches in the snow and especially at the holidays. Today,the churches still had their Christmas decorations up which was great.

I love how the snow got lodged in between the stones on the facade of the church.

The church was set up on a hill so I took a view of the "village" below. That tall building is Winchester's Big Ben. That's what we used to call it when we were little.

I met this cutie outside of Starbucks. As fashionable as she was in her little pink coat, she

was not allowed inside Starbucks. I would have let her in.

She was watching me drink my Cafe Mocha. Her owners had left her some food while they

drank their coffee inside.

I told the baristas to make my Mocha real pretty because it was going to be photographed and put on my blog. I think they did a fine job!

The snow really added to the whole Starbucks experience today. Warm inside, cold outside.

Good people watching from my windowside table.

The people were just walking by. No one was sitting on these benches today. Or anytime soon

according to the 5 day forecast. Brrrr!

Even the duck pond had frozen. The ducks must have headed to Starbucks to warm up!

Guess this is where I stop. I don't want the local firefighters to pull me from the ice.

Actually I saw them go out on a call so no risky phototaking today.

Just snow no ice on this side of the street.

Oops, this isn't Winchester. This is my hometown. Our town common is still decorated for

Christmas.

The gazebo is newly built by the Rotary Club, the Town Hall is in back of it. At this point, I was chilled to the bone. The Cafe Mocha was a temporary fix. Time for me to go home and get worked up over the football playoffs. Did I mention the New England Patriots didn't make it

to the playoffs this year? Oh yeah, I think I did! Well it still stings!

Tomorrow it's back to work. A good week to all. We'll talk soon.

Winter

Today's weather was beastly. Snow, rain, slush and then freezing rain. The temperature dropped quickly this evening and the result was ice! Ice everywhere! I needed skates to make my way from the garage to my back steps!

I do love Winter but today not so much. I must remind myself why I love Winter. Snowflakes, ice crystals, clean, white snow and ice skating. Keeping this in mind I have for your viewing pleasure a You tube video featuring my favorite skater performing one of my favorite songs. Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbgrkv3hDc

First Weekend of the New Year

It's now Sunday night and I thought I would share some of the weekend's activities with you.
But first I have to tell you that it snowed again, a few days ago. When I wrote my last post I was not sure if my New Year's Eve party would have to be canceled due to the weather. It wasn't and we all had a good time.

Saturday afternoon, I thought I'd go out and photograph the snow before it melted. Ha, not much chance of any melting as the wind chill was 20 below zero. Winchester, one of my favorite towns, has a duck pond in the center of town so I decided to start there.

It was peaceful, no ducks, and bone chilling cold. Just a few photos and I was outta there! I returned home to get ready for my friend Don's birthday party and off I went out into the cold night. We had a great time with friends and Don was really happy.

Sunday morning some of us got together to celebrate my friend Debbi's birthday. We have a tradition of going out for breakfast for Debbi's birthday and then we usually walk off breakfast at a nearby wildlife sanctuary. We bring bird seed and the birds fly down and take the seed right out of our hands. It's really cool! Today it was again quite cold so no bird feeding. Of course, we did the breakfast part.

We went to one of our favorite breakfast spots, the Village Pancake House. The house was originally built in 1660 in the Saltbox style. Forty years later it was remodeled into an Early American Colonial.

There are seven fireplaces. Lots of little rooms. It's just full of charm.

They serve the usual fare, eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc. Lunch too.

I opted for the cheese omelette, crispy bacon, home fries, hot apples, and...

in lieu of toast, my favorite cinnamon pancakes which I split with Debbi. I had to share with her, she was the birthday girl after all!

Here's where Debbi lives. These birds were sunning themselves on her windowsill.

So we did see birds after all!

I thought this silhouette was interesting.

After breakfast, I visited with my mother at the nursing home. The poor woman

had to watch football with me, which she hates. I think she thought I wouldn't be watching since

MY team, the Patriots, didn't make the playoffs this year but she was wrong.

Later on the winter sky was so colorful, I stopped my car and took a photo. I love a beautiful sunset.

Oops, I forgot to mention my rescue kitty Oscar is home with me after being fostered by a friend since July. The introduction to the new home and my other cat Molly has been a little rocky

and often amusing. But that story deserves a blog post all it's own.

So until next time ....

The Passage of Time

It's New Year's Eve! I am having a small party this evening- I hope! Due to the wintry weather it is very much in doubt. We're having a snowstorm and it's icy and freezing outside. Windy too!

I have all the food ready, the party hats and the makeshift Times Square ball. But possibly no party guests. One person has already called to cancel. I told her that safety is more important than any silly little get together.

So this evening if I have no party guests, Molly, me, and Oscar will reflect on the year 2008.

The year I bought my first home, added Oscar to the family, had one great vacation to Martha's Vineyard, celebrated a birthday with a zero on the end of my age and started my blog! Careerwise, a very good year considering I work in the financial sector.

Ok, dear readers tell me about your year! And have a very Happy New Year!

The Year 2008 in review

The Year 2008 in review
Originally uploaded by cafechatelaine

I am participating in Cindy of My Romantic Home's Blog Party. I am supposed to create a photo collage of the year in review. So here are some significant snippets of my life from the year 2008.

I bought a condo and added a new kitty to my family. Vacationed at Martha's Vineyard and took a business trip to Philadelphia. Took daytrips to Maine and New Hampshire and enjoyed Autumn in New England.

Wishing you lots of photo opportunities in 2009!

Christmas Tradition

One of my favorite Christmas Traditions is to visit the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire during the week after Christmas. The inn is exquisitely decorated for the holidays and so this is the best time to make the trip.

I always make the trip north with my sister and we meet up with our friends Lori Lee and Duane. Lori Lee used to own a vintage clothing shop so she has the most spectacular outfits and jewelry. She looks like she could have lived at the Inn in Victorian times.

We had a wonderful evening at the Inn last night. What a dining experience! My meal was delicious. I had orange dusted sea scallops with tomato orzo and sauteed spinach. We had a tiny shrimp salad compliments of the chef and several breads (anadama, focaccia, lavash, and multi grain). For dessert, I had a chocolate bag which had a chocolate exterior and chocolate mousse, white cake, raspberries and blueberries on the inside. Yum!

Our server assembled my sister's dessert table side. She had a warm ginger souffle with cinnamon ice cream and caramel sauce. It was fabulous! (She let me have a taste).

After the meal, we took a tour of the various rooms of the restaurant, looking at all the decorations. Each room had it's own designer. Some rooms were very elegant, others more simple. All were beautiful.

I photographed the rooms but my pictures do not do the Inn justice. You can click on the photos in the mosaic for a larger view. I tried to use available light as much as possible but some of the rooms were too dark.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Inn. If you find yourself in New Hampshire, specifically Southern New Hampshire, I would encourage you to visit the Inn for lunch, brunch or dinner.