Dear Friends,
I am going to take a little break…I will be to busy with mollycoddling my boys!!
Thank you all so much for your support and interest. Blogging is really a global delight with likeminded spirits!!
Lieve Allemaal,
Ik ga even op Kerstvakantie om mijn jongens eens goed in de watten te leggen. Bedankt voor weer een jaar met zoveel plezier, interesse en support! Het is zo ongelooflijk leuk om wereldwijd te communiceren met gelijkgestemde zielen!
Love and Liefs, Johanna
Finally, the house is in Christmas glory!! Much later than other years for two reasons. Well, my previous posts already revealed that on account of that crazy long summer weather my seasonal clock was a bit confused. Kerry’s fantastic blog helped to get me in the mood and I shared many memories and thoughts with her…might as well use them here to accompany the many photos I made this year ;o)
The other reason is, that the Walker Boys are coming home for the Holidays!! These hardworking, studying lads normally have to work all through the season and we travel to Toronto. But this year, they made it happen! The Oldest Walker Boy is arriving on Boxing day and the Youngest Walker Boy on the 30th!! We will have a proper Christmas on New Years Eve. And of course, by that time, I do not want to be bored with our decked halls and trimmed trees, the young menfolk love the Christmas decor!
So here goes…the Walker Residence in Mid Century Modern Christmas Style! Some photos look a bit weird because I used a wide angle lens.
My dearest ornament is this strange glass bear-like creature. It was given to me when I was a little girl in the sixties and my sisters and I had our own ornaments and of course a big part of the holidays was spent on moving the ornaments in such a way that our own hung most prominent ;o) It hangs since a few years in my own tree and its a tiny miracle it survived many moves, attacks from pets and curious little children hands!
A lot of our furniture and nicknacks I found at garage sales and the likes. But Ikea understands Mid Century Modern too ;o)
Christmas music: I love of course the fifties golden oldies but my favorite Christmas song is Faye Lovski, “Christmas was a friend of mine” https://youtu.be/GnXdnUZmJ_o. She is singing about the Christmas of my youth! And I really like Jonathan Jeremiah’s “Happiness” https://youtu.be/ZjsbbdsFOOU because it reminds me of our long distance family traveling to each other for Christmas !
Horrible Christmas Memory: I was once in a Christmas pageant, I think I was 8 years. I was a rather clumsy little girl, due to late developing motor skills. Oh how I wished to be the Angel but the teacher for saw many troubles with me so she decided I could be one of the shepherds. Disappointing for me, but still at least I was ‘in’. Alas..I managed to get my robe hooked on the manger, it tumbled over and baby Jesus (thank goodness represented by a baby doll) rolled of the stage. Everybody was in shocked horror and I could add another moment of shame to my long list.
Splendid Christmas Memory: Years later I was head of the ‘children department’ in the church where we lived at that time and together with the other moms we started Christmas celebrations for the tiny toddlers. It was just 15 minutes (taking short attention spans in account) and there was always the delightful squeaky old wooden donkey involved who would bring Mary on his back, pulled by Josef into the church. A little story, a little song and a treat…and than outside for the live Nativity Scene. Oh those shining little faces!!. Within a few years hundreds of people came to it. It made me really happy and when people complained about tumbling toddlers in the church, you can understand they were met with stern reproaches and a quote of Jesus himself who stated “let children come to me!”.
(I grew up with many different churches and beliefs…to me its quite simple: as long as Love and Peace is the message, I am happy.)
Christmas Reading: I like to re-read “Miss. Buncle’s Book” by D.E Stevenson..not really Christmas, but so cozy. And of course never a Christmas without a good Murder Mystery of the Nice Kind:Snow storms, chique family, big mansion and butler are key ingredients. And the sweetest Christmas book of all: The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien. On our honeymoon in Great Britain in 1988, we searched high and low for a copy which in itself was already a joy. But we finally found it in gorgeous bookstore in Edinburgh …one with dusty windows and mahogany bookcases. It was the best!!!
Love and Liefs, Johanna
To all my fantastic blog friends with lots of love!!!
See you in 2016.
Love and Liefs, Johanna
‘If you see a fat man, who’s jolly and cute, wearing a beard and a red flannel suit;
And if he is chuckling and laughing away, while flying around in a miniature sleigh;
With eight tiny reindeer to pull him along;
Then – let’s face it – Your eggnog’s too strong!!’ (-Author Unknown)
So the lovely Bekki took on a challenge to tell three Christmas jokes on her blog and asked her friends in the blogosphere to join in. Here is to you Bekki!!
Love and Liefs, Johanna
Haven’t done much studying or drawing, I admit. I was too busy putting up the tree and decking the halls. I love Christmas, I really do. I love the soft twinkling of the lights, the ornaments in the trees, the excitement of planning the dinners and lunches, the fuzzy warm feeling when receiving an invitation to one.
And above all, I love what Christmas represents. For me that is, love, gratefulness and new beginnings. I can not help it, that is how I feel, always done so;0)
I happily sing a long with my vintage fifties Christmas songs, exclaim oh and ah when the lights are plugged in again for the first time and secretly smile with anticipation when I wrap the presents.
Mr.Walker is true man from the Northern parts of the Netherlands…that means a man of not too many words, solid as a rock and true to his word…but also a man of not too many frills. So when his wife starts unpacking the boxes with shiny and glimmering stuff, he secretly sighs.
When he hears the fifties tunes again..he shudders a little. When I start singing along in the stores, he will give a stern look and a raised eye brow…I will bow my head and keep silent ;0) He is the centre of my universe and I respect where he draws the line in all this Christmas yodeling.
However, since he knows how much I love Christmas and above all whole heartedly agrees with what it represents…he has bought for me a Christmas ornament each Christmas time for as long as we have been together and that is more than twenty five years. These little doves were the first…by then I already knew he was The One.
Meneer Walker is een Noordeling, tja en dan is al de glitter en franjes rondom Kerst wel iets om even heimelijk van te zuchten. Maar Meneer Walker is t ook met me eens dat Kerst vooral gaat om liefde, dankbaarheid en weer een nieuw begin. En omdat Meneer Walker een fantastische vent is, die weet dat zijn vrouw heel erg van Kerst houdt, koopt hij elk jaar voor haar een kerstversiering. En dat doet hij al meer dan vijfentwintig jaar!
Love and Liefs, Johanna.
Mrs. Walker Gets Cozy 