Ruby Trees

November 4, 2009 my Granny, Ruby, lost her battle with brain cancer. During her last days, I prayed diligently for her to no longer experience pain, & when she passed I was relieved to know that she was now walking with our heavenly Father, pain-free. My family was very close to her; literally, we lived 2 doors down the street. Granny had one of those huge traditional southern homes, & we were always at her house. Her house was so big, that there was a room in her house that was only used for Christmas; we called it The Christmas Room (clever, I know hehe). Last Christmas, the first since her passing, the family pulled out all of Granny’s decorations & decorated the entire house. We quickly realized that for a big house you need a lot of decorations. My aunt Karen thought we should decorate each room with a theme; I was totally down with that idea, everyone knows I love themes. We had a bird tree, a blue tree, a candy tree, a mini tree, and on and on. There were so many themed-trees in Granny's house that we could have easily burnt the place down in a matter of minutes. Thank goodness we didn't though. Here are just a fraction of the trees that were up last Christmas:

The famous Christmas Room with a candy themed tree

The dining room

The blue tree in "yonder" (or the family room if you don't speak southern)

A mini tree a the top of the stairs

On the flight back to Richmond after Christmas, I was thinking about my granny & all the wonderful memories I had with her, especially at Christmas time. Then I remembered that I had 2 Christmas trees that have been sitting in boxes for a couple years. At that moment I decided that I didn’t want them in boxes during the Christmas season anymore. I decided that I was going to turn them into themed trees & call them My Ruby Trees (again, I am so clever at naming things, aren’t I? haha). For my themes, I decided that one tree would be a candy tree, just like Granny’s, & for the other tree, I decided that since Granny practically lived in the kitchen (& made the best New York Style Cheesecake that has ever graced my lips!) and I love to bake as well, that I would have a baking themed tree as well. Since last Christmas I have been hunting for tree skirts, tree toppers, ornaments, & garland for my Ruby Trees. It has been such a fun way to honor & remember her throughout this year. So, in addition to our regular tree, this year we have 2 Ruby Trees.

My Candy Tree

My Baking Tree Miss you Granny and we love you! Thank you for making my childhood so bright!

A Hawley Jolly Christmas

Can you believe that it has taken me this many years to think of the "Hawley Jolly" rhyme?! haha I'm so slow!

Anyways, it’s become a tradition in the Hawley house to spend the Friday after Thanksgiving ignoring the frantic Black Friday shoppers & transforming our house into a winter wonderland; this year was no different. We got our tree & decorated the entire house on Black Friday. I just LOVE to wake up a little extra early in the mornings, when the world is still quiet & the house is still dark, to sip my coffee in front of the lighted Christmas tree. Such peace fills the season & it brings me such delight to take time each day to make sure I’m focusing on what matters most, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.

I love this nativity scene. There is corresponding scripture for each piece.

Here is the mantle. This was the first year that I made my own garland. I think I did pretty well for a first-timer. Clearly I was on a bird kick when I was making it though. Aren't the his and hers ice skating stockings so cute?

The coffee table.

It's hard to see, but there are snowflake crystal votives on each side of the bowl filled with red Christmas balls.

The dining room table

This little Santa helps us countdown to Christmas, but no matter how many times I put the little candy cane on the correct day, I always seem to find it in his mouth later. hmmmmmm, no wonder Santa is a little on the chunky side.

I got these snowflakes, but I can't figure out where to hang them. I'm open for suggestions. I tried to hang them in the living room, but even standing on the bar stool I couldn't reach the 15 ft ceilings. I thought about putting them outside, but they are so glittery and pretty that I'm concerned they will be ruined. So my last idea was here, but I don't like them here.....they are not symmetrical. Again, I'm taking suggestions.

Here is part of the living room.

Do you see our "fire"? "They don't have white Christmases in Houston" :-)

Everyone loves Christmas sweets, right?!

Our Tree :-)

Two other trees that I will tell you about in a later post.

Can you tell that we're ready for Christmas? We are!

Thanksgiving & the Uptown lighting

This past Thanksgiving was wonderful. After an early breakfast, we spent the first half of the day at a nursing home and an assisted living facility. Often the residents in these facilities are overlooked during holidays so we brought them some Thanksgiving cheer and most importantly, just conversed with them. I hope it was as rewarding for them as it was for us. When we got home I made the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

For breakfast I made cinnamon rolls and biscuits with gravy and sausage.

During the day while I was working on dinner, I made a pumpkin dip for apples and a camembert en croute.

This was the dinner spread.

Some of our turkey.

This is what we had on the table, in addition to the rolls, deviled eggs, and that unusual, yet somehow a tradition, cranberry jelly-roll goo from a can.

And of course it isn't Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie :-)

In the evening, Phil surprised me by taking me to the Uptown lighting of the trees event. There were choirs singing, Santa and his reindeer, and fireworks. I had never heard of fireworks on Thanksgiving before, but it was awesome. Since the fireworks were shot off from the tops of the office buildings, they were exceptionally beautiful because they were reflective in the office windows. I particularly liked how the fireworks were accompanied by Christmas music, and how the last song was the Hallelujah Chorus. What a fantastic way to dive into the Christmas season!

Amazing!

This is what I woke up to after a long exhausting week of traveling. Isn’t my husband AMAZING?!

San Diego

In early November, I spent a week in San Diego. This was my first trip to California, and it was a great trip. I especially liked the San Diego zoo. Here are some photos from the trip:

A look at La Joya

The Gaslamp district

Listening to Glenn Close present on her new philanthropic project: bringchange2mind.org

Riding in the Sky Lift; this is the view of the zoo

An otter

Some piggies- I just thing pigs are the cutest!

Everyone loves the meerkats

Giraffes- this one is for you Kellyn!

I found this camel to be quite humorous...he had a saggy hump :-)

Koalas are adorable when they curl up to sleep

This is a snake turtle- check out how long that neck is!

2 of the 11 Panda bears in the US. This is a mamma and her baby.

There were 3 different flamingo exhibits, but this one was my favorite.

If you've never been to the San Diego zoo, it really is the best zoo ever and I recommend the visit. The exhibits are large and filled with enrichment for the animals. Not to mention the zoo is gi-normous! I spent about 7 hours there and only saw about 1/2 of the exhibits. I guess this means I will have to go back again soon to finish!