OMG! Even more snow!

Can you see how much new snow we've got last nigth? How is the little Robin supposed to find his birdseed today?

The European Robin

has finally visited my birdhouse today where I've served him a special treat out of oatflakes and hashed raisins and I took this photo:

Isn't he cute?

I'm not getting tired

of taking snow pictures of my garden

This is my new Cocoa set

another lovely and nostalgic gift that I've got from my mum :D

and I also love the collage paper which my sis has got me for Christmas:

My favourite gift

This is a picture of my favourite gift that I've got for Christmas. It's hand crafted by a very talented friend!

The snow is back again!

And my daughter took some photos very early this morning:

I have to show you

my mums Christmas tree too, because I find it beautiful

X-Mas Mail

I've got these on Christmas Eve. A gorgeous tag card from Shell of "Sacred Heart Arts" from Australia and another x-mas card from Australia with vintage hankie from Maureen. Thanks a bunch ladies! :D

To those who

wanted to know what have been hidden in the gift box that I've posted earlier, it was a silver tea pot for my mum which I've bought from my favourite online webshop "Emily and Ivy" and my mum loved it too :D

We've had a truly wonderful Christmas Eve, the dinner my mum has cooked was yummy, so was the vine and everything else and my daughter has played Christmas songs on her brand new guitar and we all sang together and my Dad even got his 57 years old harmonica (harp?) out and played Christmas songs on it as well. We've been exchanging beautiful presents (oh I've got such nice gifts, will make and post photos later) and I've had the impression of everyone being happy :D

My x-mas tree

So today it's Christmas eve and like it's German tradition we are exchanging our Christmas presents this evening, after a nice Christmas eve dinner. This is a picture of our Christmas tree:

and another one:

and a last one lol

My daughter an I are going to be at my parents house this afternoon and eve to celebrate Christmas with them and my sister and her husband, so I'll take a picture of their Christmas tree later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!

x-mas surprise!

When I came home from work the day before yesterday I found a surprise on my doorstep

It was this cute Christmas decoration, a delightful decorated broom stick, saying MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm still not quite sure who has left it there for me, but I hope to find out soon. But to who ever it was, thank you so much, it was a real lovely surprise for me :D!

Christmas mail

This is the last mail I've got from my swap friends before christmas, a funny x-mas card with a beautiful light green hankie with stiched white flowers from Laurie of Rose Cottage Blog (for those who don't know about it, Laurie and her family are living in Ocean Springs Mississippi and they have been hit very hard by Hurricane Kathrina so that they have lost their home and I really look up to her for being so brave and even still paticipating in Robyns swaps. They are currently living in an rv which I think is kind of a big camper, bless) , next is a cute x-mas card with Santa and a snowman from Thea from Australia along with a pink vintage hankie and last but not least a lovely letter and x-mas card from Samantha from Canterbury in England who was my seasonal swap partner and who forgot to add the letter and card to my parcel. Thank you very much Sam for sending it on :D
I also hope to receive my vintage x-mas gift parcel either today or next week.
A huge thank you to all my new swap friends (especially to Robyn for organising all the swaps so well) it was a wonderful new experience for me being part of the swaps and I'm already looking forward to the 2006 swaps! Merry Christmas!

Angel time

More blog decoration

It's time to wrap up the last presents!

So what could be in this present? All I can tell today is that it's something for my dear mum.

It's just a red bauble

More snow photos

Some more bauble and ornament photos

of my x-mas tree, just because these pictures make my blog look so christmassy :D


@ Maria: I'll show a picture of the whole tree on Saturday ;-)

I've got more x-mas mail today

I've got 2 more Christmas cards with hankies today. A beautiful hankie with lace from Cindy from California and a divine Christmas smelling one from Wendy (fairycakegirl) from Scotland. Thank you ladies! :D

Christmas baubles and ornaments

My daughter took these photos of some of my baubles and ornaments from our Christmas tree with my digicam:

Lots of new snow

My "Let it snow" sign which is hanging beside of the front door is still helping lol it is snowing since friday afternoon!

See my stone statue in the front garden has got a nice hat and coat out of snow :D

Luckily

it was very quiet at work today, after 2 weeks of stress I 'm really thankful for it. Tomorrow will be another stressful workday and in the evening we'll have our office x-mas party and on Saturday I'm off x-mas shopping with my daughter, so I don't know if I'll find the time to post here, I promise to be back on sunday though! Wishing y'all a nice and stressless advent weekend!

I've got a lot of mail

I've decorated the gifts (the peg snowmen and the wreath of pine cones) from my swap partner Samantha on my fake mantel piece:

And I've got lovely christmas cards from Amy, Naomi and Robyn last week and this week from Maggie Ann, Kali, Barbara, Dixie and Juli and from my friends Anja and Gerlinde too! And a gorgeous letter and a garden mag from dear Wendy. Some are from the christmas card with hankie swap, some from the postcard swap and some from no swap at all. What a lucky mail week :D

Thank you all so much! xox

I've displayed all my cards and took a photo:

And last but not least yesterday I've got another surprise, this time from the lovely organiser of all swaps our dear Ms. Robyn, an Australian country magazine and a lovely tag and adorable collage. Awww thank you Robyn that is so sweet I love it! :D

Hopefully I forgot noone, I so love coming home and looking in the mail box these days!

Old Christmas tree stands

My mum is collecting old/antique Christmas tree stands, I think they are so much nicer than the new ones that you can buy today. Usually I'm using one as well for my tree that she gave to me, but this year I've bought a tree that is planted in a container, which I have put in a nice big basket. Here are a few photos of her collection:

Seasonal Swap December

This is the content of my seasonal swap december parcel from Samantha. All self crafted by the looks of it, which I really appreciate, I was just a bit disappointed that there was no tag, nor card or letter added, nothing, no personal word, as if it comes from an absolute stranger. So Samantha if you read this, thank you very much, I like the colours of the scarf!

Victorian Tags

I absolutely love the "Victorian Times", that's why I was trying to make some "Victorian Style" tags this time. I think they do not look bad as decoration on the christmas tree either, it makes the tree look even more nostalgic. So here they are:

Memories

Yesterday my Dad gave me this old photo. My Grandma used to sell Christmas trees ( fir trees) on their courtyard when I was a child (my Grandpa was a forester in a very woody German region called the "Harz") and my cousin and I loved to play hide- and- seek between the trees. Aww good old times!

Christmas Fair

You might have heard about German Christmas fairs, like the "Nürnberger Christkindl Markt" for example which I think is a very famous one. Well we have a beautiful one here in Bremen too. In fact this year we have two of them in the citycenter. One of them is a historical one. The picture of today is an advertisement for our Christmas fair from 1993, that I hang up on my wall every year at christmas time. I think about going to the historical christmas fair today. It is all about the mediaeval times. People are even dressed in mediaeval clothes. If I go I'll try to take some photos.

As promised

here are a few more pictures of our friends house in the countryside of Schleswig Holstein, that I took during our stay there last month: