'Tis The Season...

Every year I indulge a bit and buy myself a Christmas present. Things are really tight this year, but I couldn't let the tradition die. My little package arrived in the mail Tuesday, and I was just tickled pink! Or maybe I should say tickled red... After having put together many Treasuries on Etsy in which I included some of my fellow local artisans, I wanted to patronize their shops. I now have 3 lovely peace cranes hanging in my silk ficus tree in the family room, with a few mini-cranes nestled in a pile of little ornaments next to my rock candle. Thank you Nancy McNally, i.e., localcolorist, for making such lovely art! If you folks aren't familiar with Nancy's peace cranes, you MUST check them out!

Localcolorist Permanent Peace Cranes

Here's my John Lennon peace crane hanging in the ficus. I also purchased the Annie Lenox peace crane - she's red and gold as well. The third crane is the Maya Angelou crane, which has blue, green, pink, and dark rose flowers on a white ground. She's a beauty!

Here's a picture of the 2 white and silver minis, which were a complete surprise. They're perfect in my little ornament heap.

I actually started writing this post on Tuesday, and while I was in the middle of it I got the Treasury "blue box" on Etsy. Here's the treasury I put together. I thought that tranquility would be a nice subject for the holidays.

Now I'm off to bed. It's almost 1:00 a.m. and I just finished up the food prep for Christmas day. I'll be having a few folks over in the early afternoon, and then there will be 9 of us at dinner. I'm going to make my annual peppercorn-crusted salmon filet. I got the house all stinky earlier on Wednesday making the brine in which it will soak for about 8 hours before I finish preparing and baking it for dinner. Geez, that liquid smoke stuff sure smells funky - and it really hangs in there! But oh, the salmon is divine.

I just finished making 2 loaves of pear bread, 4 dozen oatmeal scotchies (cookies), cranberry orange bread, 4 dozen cranberry oatmeal pecan cookies, and a really tasty salmon spread to go with the brie, goat cheese, pate, and roasted red bell peppers with cream cheese. I'll be serving all that up Christmas afternoon - anyone want to stop by for a snack? C'mon down! We no longer exchange Christmas gifts, I just do a lot of cooking and baking and have folks over for food and conversation. We all like that much better.

And so I will leave you for now with heartfelt wishes for a peaceful and happy holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or no holiday at all. Joy to all of you!