Many beautiful things ~ Christmas, Princeton, Friends, Beauty and a good Dinner

I've been talking about Christmas

for a good month already.

Of the (artificial, allergies and 

practicalities necessitate) 

Christmas Tree

I hope to get and have by our bay window...

Actually I thought of that before we even bought the house,

back in March :)

*

Today I worked on a 2014 Nativity plan...

like I did last year, I've decided that Nov 15,

the beginning of the Advent/Nativity Fast for 

my new calendar friends and family,

is when I will publish this list, which I consider

now to be my annual list...

*

It's exciting to be building family traditions like this,

and I admit that Christmas is one of my most beloved times...

my Grandma's too... she and I were already talking last week

about how she hopes to get her tree up shortly after 

Thanksgiving...

*

Well,

this past weekend Mr. Husband and I were in Princeton.

  

Cleo missed us but was well cared for as usual.

(though I changed her water bowls last night and forgot 

to add water to the new bowl and felt horrible about that :( ).

*

I met a new friend who has a remarkable amount of

similarities to me in interests, reading and crafting.

So that was cool.

I drove only a very little bit but hope to drive more again soon.

I saw another few friends as well 

and visited a lovely knitting store.

*

And then at church I was given a gift of yarn and some 

crochet hooks!

So hope to learn how to crochet at some point...

I've been wanting to (and also learn to quilt/sew) but it will take time...

things are so busy...

*

I am one that has more ideas for things than time.

And, then there's Sunday School lessons that I need to work on yet...

things have been going great with that though;

I come back after being gone for 3 Sundays,

2 of those Sundays being taught with lessons I wrote and posted

before I left and the kids are getting out the 

komboskinis and praying the Jesus Prayer before I even said,

let's pray the Jesus Prayer now!

I love my Sunday School kids... :)

*

So more Pictures of Princeton,

whose beauty I love and whose pictures of the chapel

were the last pictures I ever showed my Oma who died

just days later.

It was such a sunny beautiful day.

Mr. Husband had work that day so I played 

Princeton tourist and went around by myself,

taking myself first to the chapel...

See the man walking to the right...

gives a sense of how large this chapel is!

I can never resist taking pictures...

It is such a lovely place to be in,

to pray....

I met two new friends, a couple,

in Princeton and had a very lovely 

lunch with them and then

time talking with the wife of the couple for

an enjoyable afternoon of tea, 

talk of books, crafting and the like.

We stopped by Princeton and went to 

the yarn shop,

seeing the window shop lovely antiques on the way.

And this was a dazzling blanket at the yarn shop!

Afterwards we went out for (vegan for me) ice cream

as it was a Friday of ordinary time (which means a fast day).

*

So it was a lovely day.

*

Today Mr. Husband has the severe sniffles/cold

and I made two pots of tea for him tonight...

And I made a really easy chicken dish:

Flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder in a bag for shake and baking the chicken,

pan fry for light browning,

then put in coconut oiled pan and more coconut oil on top and bake

about 20 minutes or less on 425 F (I was using boneless chicken thighs

which were not overly thick).

*

Will try to post recipe on this soon...

But for now it is time to close with hope 

for a fun yarn along day tomorrow!