A Window on the Past

Tonight's blog picture shows the manger scene that our family used when I was growing up. My sister sent it to me in with our Christmas gifts this year. I had been trying to figure out a place to display it and last night when I was putting angels on top of our china cabinet I thought that it might fit in the middle of the top shelf of the china cabinet...and, it did! It is pushed together a bit more than it would be in a larger space, but it is in a place that we can see it and enjoy it. This scene is made of cardboard...though it doesn't look it. I guess the amazing thing is that most all of its pieces still exist and some of them are quite small. The tabs that hold it together are a bit worn and have been mended a few times with tape, but they still are there and continue to hold the scene together.

It has been a pretty busy day for both Woody and me. Woody has checked on the roofers at Nathan and Kathy's several times. Things went well and they have a new roof on their garage and house. Woody managed to get the rest of the leaves mulched. He ran several errands...the last of which was to attempt to purchase some turnips for our Ham and Barley Soup. He had purchased a rutabaga by mistake yesterday, which I think could have been substituted for the turnips...perhaps we will try both in the soup this time...after all, "it's soup". We often say "it's soup" when we are making soup and not following the ingredients and/or the amounts in the recipe exactly. We have found that you don't have to be exact when making soup and that you can often change ingredients and you still "usually" end up with a tasty end product. I have made enough different soups at this point that I usually know what will work and what won't. I have pretty much stayed busy in the house working on cleaning and decorating. I have done a little bit of this and a little bit of that...vacuumed carpets, shampooed carpets, dusted furniture, polished furniture, washed my cup and saucer collection, dried the same cups and saucers, put the cups and saucers back in the display shelf, taken down decorative items, put up Christmas items, emptied boxes of Christmas decorations, filled boxes with everyday decorative items, gone up and down the stairs numerous times, made the pile of boxes shown in last night's blog picture higher, moved furniture, moved same furniture back, and when I sit down to take a rest I have found myself dozing off...once in front of the computer and the other time when I sat in a chair in the living room after completing the shampooing...best for me not to sit on days like this! Seems like a long day...but I can see some light at the end of the tunnel (but that light is still pretty small!). Woody managed to get our big Christmas tree box out of the closet and down the stairs so it will be there when the moment comes that I am ready to put the tree up. This has definitely been a "Tis the Season kind of day! Hope I survive till it is "Tisn't the Season!"