Silver Bells

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air
There's a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing
People passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on every street corner you'll hear

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day

Strings of streetlights
Even stop lights
Blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush home
With their treasures
Hear the snow crunch
See the kids bunch
This is Santa's big scene
And above all the bustle
You'll hear

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day

Silver bells, silver bells
Soon it will be Christmas day
Soon it will be Christmas day

___________________________________________

This is one of my favorite secular Christmas songs. Every time I hear it, I think of mom's worn sheet music with the grey cover and her playing it on the piano. Having her play it is on my wish list every time we go home for Christmas.

Kitchen Challenge

Barb issued a challenge over at Cook. Eat. Repeat? to make something with squash. I ran across this recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta earlier this fall and after a quick scan of the ingredients, bookmarked it. Anything with pasta, cheese, and bacon is usually going to be a winner in our house.

The challenge was the perfect push to try the recipe, which I did tonight. The verdict? I loved it. Jason said it was good, but the squash was "different." I don't think I've ever made (fall/winter) squash, which means it will take a few times before he warms up to it. This recipe is actually very similar to another one of our current favorites. The squash is the biggest difference and a nice change. I tried a few pieces of the squash when I was checking to see if it was roasted enough and I think I could have eaten a good helping of it just the way it was.
One thing I wasn't overly thrilled about is the number of pots and pans that ended up on the counter by the end of the prep. But, that's not enough to keep me from making it again. I made a double batch so we'll be eating leftovers for lunch and supper tomorrow. I hope it will be just as good reheated.

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

Today I am posting as a continuation of Veteran’s Day and honoring all who have served and are currently serving in the US military. I’m participating in the Operation Write Home blog hop to help raise awareness for the organization. If you didn't arrive here from Sandy's blog you can visit OWH for the first link and continue your journey from there to be sure you don't miss any of the stops.

The OWH mission is, “To support our nation's armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.” Since 2007, there have been 246,076 cards sent to deployed heroes and notes from service members and the recipients of cards they sent are enough to see that such a small gesture can go a long way. Here are a few of the comments:

“I received several crafted cards from my husband while he was deployed last year. I still have them and will always treasure them!”

“Just wanted to let you know that the box of Christmas cards you sent have arrived here at our unit in Iraq. Thank You! Every ones eyes lit up when I said that the cards arrived. I must say what beautiful cards they are! We all really appreciate all you do for us men and women who are deployed.”

“I wanted to send a special thank-you to all the wonderful and creative folks that so lovingly put the cards together. When the box arrived it was a lot like Christmas as everyone gathered around to pick out a few perfect cards to send to their loved ones. As the Soldiers would pick up a card and look at the design and message it would cause them to think about a specific individual in their life. I enjoyed hearing about so many wonderful people and why "this" card was made for them. I just wanted you to know that your groups love is now going to be passed to our loved ones who are patiently awaiting our return.”

“I want to thank you for the cards. These cards are like gold out here. It is a great avenue for our Airmen to communicate back home with loved ones and friends. My sincere thanks and gratitude.”

The deadline to submit holiday cards has passed so I have started on Valentine's Day cards (due to OWH by January 8). Here are three of the cards I'll be sending:

Do you want to help by making cards? I’d suggest taking some time to read through the information at OWH, card maker tips, and even more notes from heroes on the Hero Blog. If you aren’t interested in making cards but still want to help, OWH would gladly accept donations for shipping and envelope costs (click on the "Donate" button on the OWH home page).

The next stop in the blog hop is the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog. Maggie and the team inspire crafters with their challenges, tutorials, tips, and ideas. They also give away some fantastic prizes to lucky participants. If you've never seen their work, I highly recommend looking through the archives. You will find some amazing projects, many that could be used for creating handmade gifts. One of my favorite project ideas can be found here, but do yourself a favor and spend some time looking through the others.

Thank you again to our military men and women, past and present, as well as their families. Today, we are flying our flag in your honor. And now, when I put out the flag, "it" all hits home a little more with my nephew among those in active duty. This is for you too; stay safe.


Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

Blog Hop

Check back later today for my blog hop post. The blog hop will start at 3 pm Eastern.

Freedom isn't free

Graphic by Cathe at Just Something I Made

This and that

*We have been working on leaves here and there. Just after the front lawn was cleared (a few weeks ago), we got a big rain and wind storm that knocked most of the remaining leaves down. There are so many it's unreal. I say the same thing every year, but each time it still catches me off guard. We have not bagged any this year though. They will all go to the edge of our property where I'll let them decompose. I started composting this past spring with some of the leaves left from last fall so I plan to do more. It's a slow process with so many leaves, but sure beats filling 50+ bags and still having leaves left to deal with.

*Jason had his annual check up with the specialist for his liver. Everything seems to be okay so he won't need to go back unless his primary doc sees something else down the road. Good deal.

*Harley's been a pretty good pup. She loves to play and is still very curious. Whenever I sit and scrap at the coffee table, she's right there sticking her nose in everything. We have not succeeded in training her to vacuum and mop, unless you count licking the floor as she's been doing a lot lately. For now we're satisfied that she can sit, stay, shake, and high-five. "Lay down" and "go to bed" are the current works in progress. She just doesn't get it.

*I've been making a lot of cards. I found out about Operation Write Home through a contest at Elle's Studio and will admit I'm hooked. They collect blank handmade cards to send to the troops overseas so they can use them to write home. I'm finding it's a great way to play and be creative while using up some of my overwhelming paper crafting stash, not to mention it's a great cause. Here's one of the Christmas cards that I sent:

*I've been in the holiday mood ever since I started making Christmas cards. I've pulled out my CDs and am ready to start putting up the few decorations we have. I'm holding off for a bit since it's still a little early. Maybe in another week or so.

Down Memory Lane

I go through spurts where I take long breaks from blogging. I get to thinking about why in the world I started and why I should even continue. When I started, I didn't expect anyone to read it because I was more or less keeping a journal of our comings and going and random bits of our life. Then, people (mostly friends I've met through scrapbooking) started to read and my crazy self got weirded out. You're probably saying, "Duh, if it's public people can read it." That meant I started posting less because for some reason I felt like I had to entertain people or make my posts interesting...and quite frankly, I don't think my blog does anything remotely close to that.

Today, as I sometimes do, I sat down and looked through some of my archives and I had to say I'm glad I've blogged about the random stuff. It's fun to look back and see what we were doing a year ago, when our first snowfall was, when we did this or that... I haven't been very good at scrapping so in a way, my blog is my scrapbook. Since we lost so many of our photos with our EHD crash this past January, in many cases, the photos here are all I have.

In that regard, I am making a note to self. "Greta, blog more. This is for you, not for them. If they want to read it they will. And if not, that's perfectly fine." :)

Happy Halloween!

May the tricks be few and treats be plenty. :)

Fall at our house, in photos

From our house to yours