Winter Wednesday

[helia]

China - we have dh's grandmother's china, and we use it only on special occasions, like Christmas dinner! It is Arzberg, elegantly simple, plain with a pattern etched in gold around the edges. She was Dutch, but I think Arzberg may be German? We don't put any of the pieces in the dishwasher b/c of the gold etching. Unfortunately, the girls in our house while we were on sabbatical in Australia used the Arzberg dinner plates quite regularly when they ran out of other plates -- and they put them in the dw, so the etfching on some of them is faded or gone in spots. The dinner plates are pretty accessible, just on a high shelf above our regular dinner plates, which are Dansk. Our Dansk pattern is extremely plain, white with 2 blue ribbons around the edge, which I was not happy with at first - more dh's idea than mine. But over time, I've been very glad for the simple pattern b/c (1) after 20 years, this "pattern" is still being produced and (2) we can buy other more elaborately decorated Dansk pieces and they match!

This is our DAnsk pattern: http://www.dansk.com/pattern/index.cfm? ... patId=1961

--Adding: LOL! I originally posted the wrong pattern b/c the Christianshavn pattern is SO close to this one. In fact, I think we have replacement pieces from it too -- to illustrate the mixing and matching idea.

[Indiana]

It is raining and in the 40s. We tied for the latest measurable snow fall a few days ago. We are getting mixed forecasts for this winter. It should be like last winter with lots of snow. But on the other hand since our first snow was so late history says very little snow.

I got my nails done this morning. This afternoon there is a party for Friends of "Campus" for those that donate to the foundation. I'm looking forward to it.

[Emptynester]

China?!?!? Don't (never did) own any. Right now I have 3 plates in the house and 4 plates in the MH of square, white Correl. (not even sure how to spell it.)

Silver (?) is a mix mash of some I bought at a thrift store in Quartszite and some stainless from the old house. Nothing matches so I don't have to worry about that. But it gets the food to our mouths - so that is all that counts.

I've been on the phone with Dr. offices this morning. Canceled the surgery for now as primary Dr. won't sign off until we see the cardio Dr. about the blip on the EKG. Can't get into the Cardio Dr. until Jan 11. That is just before we go to Q for the season. I'm hoping we can work the tests that I'm sure he will order in between the commitments we will be having in Q.

Next up is cookie exchange this afternoon. I put the recipe I made up in the Cookie thread. If you like mint, chocolate and pecans - and I do - I think you will like them, too.

Best get lunch in my tummy first. TTFN

[OKay]

I've declared blanket time for the boys while DGD is down for her second nap of the day. That means I get to sit down too.

I'm configuring an early Christmas/birthday/mother day gift from DSon - kindle fire. I can surf the web (and post here) but it uses silk browser and I'm not very proficient using it yet. Probably wont use it for that purpose very often.

I miss having a coffee pot instead of endless cups of coffee. I knew when the pot reached empty that I was done but I find myself drinking more coffee since there is never an end

[Harmony]

We are a bit warmer here than usual. I'm glad it's not "bitter" cold for us (bitter being a relative term!) but I could use a little less degrees in the middle of the afternoon. I do love snuggling under a light quilt at night, but it's been too warm even for that.

China, my 2 "sets". Sunny gave me a small set that was DMom's and I would dearly love to get more pieces of it. It's a pretty pattern and I've seen it on those replacement sites, also on eb ay (cheaper) by the whole set...someday when I have nothing else to spend my money on. I've been my whole life wanting a nice set of china, never managed to accomplish that. One year I was moaning about not having a whole set for company and DMom came up with a nice set of buy-by-the-week at the supermarket dishes. I bought some of the accompanying pieces, Sunny bought me salt & pepper. When I moved out of house and changed my life that set became my everyday. Oh, and the super inexpensive W-M Christmas set I bought a few years back which pleases me to no end. Maybe when one has less they appreciate them more?

Out running errands with DH today. He uses up a lot of time. Anyway, last stop was bank to find out why 3 statements never came....someone put in an address change for us and we were concerned. Turns out they merged our checking account and mortgage accounts into same folder and dragged up old address..of course post office wouldn't deliver there and once something comes back undeliverable to bank they make a note of it and pfffft there goes any correspondence. Wondering why they didn't at least call to ask? Sheesh! I'm in & out of that bank several times a month, no note was made in computer to ask....maybe if I'd quit paying the mortgage??? Anyway, fixed now, and I'm going to open up online banking so at least I can look at stuff.

It took over an hour to reconcile 3 months' statements. Sheesh.

LOL (sheets) hanging. Throw rugs are in washer. Turkey is in the roaster. I better get busy again.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I have Christmas glasses (from my mom's) and mugs I've gathered on my own (mainly garage sales) and they please me a lot. I'd love to have a Christmas set of dishes or perhaps just a winter set but that's just playing into my hoarding china weakness so I don't.

I love the idea of plain white or Helia's simple blue trim and then dressing up or down. For instance, if I had plain white, I could justify a set of Christmas chargers. My sister had chosen plain blue trimmed dishes with some chargers that were ornate and her table looked lovely.

My own bone china set is dishwasher safe because I got married when the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market so even silver trimmed dishes were unaffordable. Now I feel completely blessed by that! The other two sets aren't d/w safe so I find myself choosing my set to use unless I have more than 12 here at once (a very rare event.)

Dh and I took the movies back and picked 5 more. I just picked one of the five, I don't have time to watch movies now. Just remembered I have a meeting tonight and volunteered tomorrow to drive a friend shopping in-between dropping off and picking up dh from the hospital. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!! So tomorrow is now fully booked.

I've got the I've Got All Month Syndrome and that's not true. First Christmas is on the 25th, not 31st and secondly, it is the 14th today!

[Harriet]

blessed, oddly, my dmother loved, with all that china in the display... ... her ironstone. Her plain white small pitcher (for cream, perhaps? although large for that) was the single favorite and she gave me to display.

blessed and helia! Through with the semester/books! ( ♫ schoooooooool's out... for...... alittlebit! ♫ ) Woo Hoo! I'm so glad to know educated folks.

Well, Wally and Toys R have both stopped shipping the amazing toy NEEDED by a starry eyed toddler. Sigh. I will either have to actually show up (horrors) at a toy store or pay the big bucks for another scenario. HRH is a little aghast at my attempting the show-up part since Wally is a point of diminishing returns and Toys R is faraway on the other side of the giant traffic snarl. So it's a tug-of-war between the starry eyes and common sense. I don't want to travel without my young cohort, but if I take her, how do I KNOW the cost just went up.

And I didn't realize that this sat here while I went out to the store and handled it. I called a much closer Tarjay and got a helpful lady who advised me come right away to get the last 2 on the shelf. So I have wrapping to do tonight, boocoodles, because there were other things I found!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet brilliant job at snagging that must-have toy.

I gave dh the option of cooking his 'last supper' or ordering pizza. He chose pizza.

I've been struggling through with the last of the Christmas cards. All but one of the ones to mail are done. All the ones for tonight and tomorrow are done. I have about 1.5 dozen of neighbourhood/church ones to do. The church ones will be delivered on the weekend.

We'll do the neighbourhood ones over the next couple of days.

I just remembered we have a neighbourhood party tomorrow night if dh is up to it.

And my weekend is really full too so am getting more upset. I have a border run with ds, have to do baking in the afternoon, a party on Saturday night, church on Sunday morning, another neighbourhood party/cookie exchange in the afternoon and dinner and a concert on Sunday night.

[lucylee]

I have Pflatzgraff (did I spell that right? Can't check others this far into topic.) Mine is the blue & white pattern -- Yorktowne, I think. We started out w/8 blue glasses, I think, but only have 6 now, at last count.

And y'all are not going to believe this, considering how infrequently I cook -- but I also have a beautiful set of fine china, 12 place settings, with beautiful pale, pale blue glasses. My china pattern is Noritake Anticipation. http://www.connectedcollector.com/photo ... 763498.jpg
The picture doesn't really do it justice -- it has more blue in it, seems like, but anyway, I love it. But we never use it, b/c we generally eat on styrofoam & paper take-out boxes. My silver (stainless, actually) is Oneida, I think, w/a sorta delicate daisy pattern. All this I picked out at 18 years old, but I still love it.

However, I am sorta tired of the Pflatzgraff. I would really like to have Fiestaware, in all different colors, I think -- OR -- all white. My dmom started out w/all white Russell Wright china.
http://www.decoramashop.com/Pages/Iroquois.html
You can see from these pictures, it came in a million colors, just like Fiestaware. Dmom's was the "sugar white." It looked sooo sooo nice on a deep green or deep red Christmas table cloth, and as y'all mentioned, she could use it with EVERYTHING, for EVERY occasion. Dbro lost a bunch of in college moves, and I tried to replace it w/ebay buys, but for some reason, she never uses it anymore. * sigh * I don't know why.

Oh well... I've enjoyed looking at china, but I must start looking at student papers. MUST STAY AWAKE TONIGHT!!! DS & dh are going to dinlaws to watch a ballgame on cable (we, and ds, have D*rectv) so I will have a couple hours alone-time.

ALSO -- guess what -- lady @ S*ars called and said my vacuum cleaner HAS BEEN FOUND and WILL BE ON THE TRUCK NEXT TUESDAY. * I've heard this before, basically, but she sounded very confident.
I did love your solution, Kathryn! That was very smart thinking!

[Indiana]

I won't be here tomorrow. See you Friday.