Author: Louis Dell'Olio

……………The Christmas Holiday has always been Jac and my favorite time of the year!…….We always went all out decorating every room of the house including the bedrooms and bathrooms!……Over the years we have collected and MADE so many decorations, that whenever we brought them out it was like having old friends over………The three photos at the left are of a large oblong wooden bowl that we brought over from our first house in Darien….so it’s been with me for a long time. I change the decorations of the bowl with each season….It sits on our farm house kitchen table…..For Christmas we always filled it with natural pine cones, birds that we purchased many many years ago, and red tiny bows….This year I decided to change it up a little…..I sprayed some of the pine cones GOLD…..added some red berries, and changed the red bows to TARTAN bows, which has become a theme….The same birds are nestled in…….One of the major things I have added through out the house are my GOLD SPRAY PAINTED HYDREAGEAS which I added sprigs of red berries to…….They are in a variety of vases….some clear glass, and some in gold vases. In the bottoms I have piles of glass ball beads just to give it a nice finish, but crinkled up saran wrap in green or red would look beautiful too! The photos across the top are vases of hydrangeas in my gathering room…….The three photos at the bottom right are in my green library…..The gold hydrangeas are in a gold distressed vase……Spraying the hydrangeas is an easy and inexpensive way to add impressive touches. You can spray them any color that works with your decore……In my dining room I have SILVER hydrangeas…..However, they are VERY brittle and fragile….so the less you play with them the better!……Now to finish decorating the rest of the house!

………………..RAIN….GLORIOUS RAIN!……….No one is complaining about the rain we are getting in the north east!……..It has been a record breaking dry spell….they say HISTORICAL……We haven’t had any significant rain fall in over two months, and for this time of year that’s unheard of……Hearing the rain fall on my windows is a wonderful sound….we needed it so badly…..The fires, due to this horrific dry spell, have been in almost 5 states here in the north east…..This morning on the news stations they haven’t even mentioned the fires that have destroyed thousands of acres of land, so I can only assume they are now out or under control. They are predicting the rain will be on and off until Friday………..GREAT NEWS!…..I have lots of projects to do inside…..so it’s all good for me.

………………The “CHANTAL’ chicken dish was so go the first time I made it that I decided to have it again…….Cathy also made the chicken for dinner, and said her husband loved it so much he had seconds!……However, Cathy added POTATOES and CARROTS….so I did too…..I drizzled my carrots with HONEY……OH BOY….was it good!…..The best thing is I have plenty of leftovers, and I still have a bowl in the refrigerator with chicken in the marinade that I haven’t cooked….so I know what I’ll be having for dinner tonight!….and tomorrow night too!!………….This is one chicken dish I won’t get bored with!

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………………..This morning the sunrise was absolutely beautiful…..but the again….it ALWAYS IS!……………..Today is decorating day……….Since Thanksgiving and Christmas are so close this year, I’m not waiting for just after Thanksgiving to start……Everything for each room is there, now I just has to assemble it all…….I’ve added some new things to my Christmas decorations, but it’s always the old things that Jac and I collected over the many years that I enjoy the most revisiting each Christmas……………Okay….suns up……..I can hear the tea post whistling…………….so it’s time to get to work!