“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”
Luke 1:30-31 ESV
We don’t see reindeer this far south except maybe on Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning. I found out that they might come earlier though, as there is sometimes a need for scouting the territory for Santa. I think we never see one because they are very nocturnal. But, as I was out very early one morning last week, I do believe I witnessed a reindeer slipping low along the fence in the shadows!
I suppose thoughts of reindeer in the early morning, convinced me later in the day, that it was time to also start thinking about some fresh greenery and preparations for a bit of decorating. This past week was very busy, but that is typical as Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to be competing for our time and attention long about now. A variety of weather too, beautiful and warm early on, rain and storms on Tuesday, and then much colder for Thanksgiving. Some people had storm damage, power outages, and even a couple of tornadoes in the state!
Mr. and Mrs. Claus sent us their family photo for the 2025 season. Faithful to work very hard, bringing joy to children for many years, Mrs. Claus is also Pam’s first cousin. Having relatives at the North Pole isn’t a bad thing, or in Kentucky either. And what about Santa…that beard has been growing a long time, it’s the real deal!
Even with all the holiday excitement around, nothing quite compares with watching our Queen and Princess in the Nutcracker Ballet. We are loved by Royalty, that being the King of Kings, and these two beautiful ballerinas. We are blessed indeed!
As we begin to transition from Thanksgiving and the harvest, to all things Christmas, it is time for our thoughts concerning seasonal colors to change as well. Finding representatives of both seasons is rewarding…like the red and green of Yaupon Holly with an autumn sky and changing leaves as a background!
This cat has no home. He chose to visit us on Thanksgiving. Before you think, poor cat, he is probably the most well cared for cat in the vicinity. The community cat, as I call him, roams from farm to farm and house to house. He has been around for months. Our grands, along with other kids that live nearby, have all agreed on a name. This is Garfield. He visits our garden at times and is always welcome!
If there is anything worse than piles of leaves in the yard this time of year, it is possibly sweet gum balls. Some of the large sweet gum trees along the edge of the yard undoubtably produce thousands of these round, brown irritations. Even so, it was Thanksgiving when I took this photo, so I felt guilty not to be a little grateful for sweet gum balls!
A very nice looking shrub, still green and healthy last week, and it bloomed all summer. I have decided however, this will be our final time to plant oleander. A non-native evergreen, which is a perennial along the coast, is an annual here. We were not aware of the extent of the plant’s toxicity to animals and humans. It can even be deadly, and comes with a lot of warnings that I never knew about. It is strictly an ornamental. We’ve seen this plant for years along the gulf coast. I think we are done with it. Danger often wears an attractive disguise!
I ventured downtown to the gigantic Christmas tree on Friday during the mid-morning. The ice rink, food vendors and other fun holiday things are only open at night. And, it was what is known as black Friday so everybody else was shopping I guess…I had the place all to myself!
I found quite a few spots where I believe a lot of fun holiday photos will be taken every night. Santa had his arm all ready for the first visitor. I should’ve tried a selfie but didn’t think about it at the time. I later offered to photo shop Pam sitting on the bench with Santa but she refused the offer.
Maybe we can return at night when there are a lot of festive and cheerful visitors, bright lights, and a chill in the air. I thought however, this guy looked fairly nice standing guard at the foot of the steps leading up to Santa and the big tree. He caught my attention because of our own nutcracker story. After many years we are not displaying our two large nutcrackers this season.They are too far gone for a decent showing and we officially retired them…sort of. WL saw them behind my garage ready to go to the scrap pile and was so sad about it that I couldn’t take them away. They are currently still behind the garage standing together with other stuff that we have no idea what to do with. WL is happy they are still here and it doesn’t matter if they are part of the decorations or not! What we will do for a little boy!
I mentioned having the place to myself. I felt welcome at Frosty’s, but it was lonely after a while. I was also hungry, and no food was offered. I did finally talk with one individual who was tending to the ice…the skating area is just to the left of Frosty’s. The city employee tending the ice was glad that below freezing nighttime temps had arrived, at least for a couple of nights! The event and venue is called Christmas on the Coosa, Coosa being the river that passes through our area.
As I was walking back up the hill away from the Christmas on the Coosa area, I couldn’t help but take a photo of this display that is not far below the huge Christmas tree. It looks sunny and warm, but Friday was a breezy cool day. We are thankful this Thanksgiving weekend for the USA!
The Williamsburg Fan has returned to its original and long time traditional location above the door of my shop. You may not remember, but two years ago ‘possums discovered the apples and climbed the greenery and feasted on the apples at night. Nothing like that had ever happened before. I had to place a trail camera to view the door to learn what was eating the apples. I would replace them, and the next night apples would be partially eaten or gone. I firmly believed it would be a raccoon but I was wrong!
Last season I made the traditional fan on the same form as I had for many, many years (we can’t remember exactly how long). We decided to place the fan above the porch of the Sunshine Cottage. While it was protected, well beyond creature reach, it just wasn’t the same. The only rightful place was here where it has been displayed for longer than we can remember. I went ahead and put the flood lights in place and set the timer so the opossums would have adequate lighting in case they returned this year!
The whole idea of the Williamsburg Fan and the wild critter issue led me to go way back for a throwback. This was Christmas Day, 2010, our only ever white Christmas!
Honestly I have battled the “crud” for about 10 days and just finished antibiotics today. That said, I really haven’t been out roaming as much as normal for a couple weeks. Yesterday I was finally feeling like moving about and was walking in the pines behind the back pasture. I guess it’s a popular place for a Saturday stroll. If you look closely you will notice he wasn’t alone. I can’t pass these off as reindeer. I guess it’s clear they are whitetails!
A typical late autumn sunset as we come to the close of a good week, one of Thanksgiving, one of blessing, yet one that was bittersweet…our first Thanksgiving without Pam’s dad (Pawpaw). Sad he was not with us, grateful for his many years!
December is arriving so buckle up!
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Linking with:
Pieced Pastimes, Between Naps on the Porch, Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Life and Linda
Butch the Williamsburg fan is beautiful. I look forward to seeing it every Christmas season! Happy holidays. Gina
Thank you Gina. Maybe the critters will leave it alone this year. Happy holidays to you. Have a great week!
Butch and Pam
Happy First Sunday if Advent, Butch and Pam. The seasons and holidays colliding this past week will be but a memory as we begin the Advent season today. Your ballerinas look so cute, and the return of the Williamsburg fan on the workshop is a welcome sight. I’ve had a crud too, and thankfully, last night was a night without cough medicine in almost two weeks. I think raking moldy leaves had a lot to do with mine!
Have a great new week.
Thank you Rita. I’m thinking mold causes a lot of crud stuff we have these days. And yes, the first Sunday of Advent has arrived, seems this time is upon us so quickly now. Glad you are doing better. Have a wonderful week!
Butch and Pam
I’m glad to see the Williamsburg fan has returned. It is beautiful and I’m sure a lot of work. Hopefully the possums will leave it alone. Glad you’re on the mend from the crud. Maybe you can find replacement nutcrackers for the porch of the Sunshine Cottage and WL will let you dispose of the “retired” ones.
Thank you Rachel. We found large nutcrackers but the quality was not the same and they were about $500 each. Maybe WL was wise in wanting us to reclaim the old guys. The porch may have to remain bare where they have stood every year. Have a pleasant week!
Butch and Pam
Good Sunday Morning. The girls look so beautiful. Love the Williamsburg fan. How funny it is opossums that are eating the apples. We are in full Christmas mode with 9 inches of snow to help make it feel like Christmas here in the midwest. Glad you are feeling better. There is so much stuff going around. Have a great new week as we head into the new month. Hugs. Kris
Thank you Kris. Cool and rainy here but no snow for us. I forget the actual odds of us having a white Christmas but it’s very very small. I’m 74 and there’s only been one in my lifetime. Have a great week!
Butch and Pam
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at your place! You have to look hard to see the reindeer this time of year, but I do believe you caught one.
Thank you Carole. The kids say I only saw a bush but I’m holding out for a reindeer. Have a wonderful week!
Butch and Pam
The Williamsburg fan is beautiful. The girls are so pretty in their outfits. The downtown area looks festive and fun. Hope you continue to improve from the crud. It is truly winter here today. It’s only in the mid 30’s after a cold rainy day yesterday. Enjoy your day. Clara❤️
Thank you Clara. I’m much better from the crud but your cold rainy day is here today. The fan has survived 2 nights without incident so maybe the critters won’t discover it. Have a great week!
Butch and Pam
What a beautiful stroll with you this morning. No favorite spots, all are so interesting and so in the spirit of the season.
Thank you Nonie. I’ve not been strolling as much for a couple weeks but improving this weekend. The season is upon us. Have a wonderful week!
Butch and Pam
Happy Sunday! I wondered what would happen with the nutcrackers this year! Will to their rescue!! Yellow kitties are my very, very favorite…I have two! Garfield looks very well fed, can you trap him for a little snip snip at the vet?
The Williamsburg fan is outstanding! Wonder if spraying it with bitter apple spray would keep the possums away? My vet recommended it to keep the pets off my dining room rug. Hope you feel better and better this week.
Thank you Roxanne. I think being a roamer makes it likely that Garfield is a boy but I’ll let someone else do the vet honors. I have some granules that are supposedly a repellent that can be sprinkled and keep all sorts of critters away. I’m going to try that around the base of the greenery where they climb up. Hadn’t heard of the bitter apple spray. Have a blessed week!
Butch and Pam
That was a lovely stroll on this bright sunny Spring Monday morning here in Australia ☺️
Butch & Pam.
I’m glad you’re feeling better Butch. And that although Thanksgiving was sad without your Dad Pam that it was also a time of gratitude for his long life with you all.
May you both have a blessed week, Jennifer
Thank you Jennifer. Bright sunny spring sounds good to us on this cold rainy day. We know you’re glad to have such a Monday. We’ve had a really nice autumn so no complaints about today. I am better and Thanksgiving was very nice. Enjoy this spring week!
Butch and Pam
So glad to see the “fan” back above the door Butch. I have a “tree” that I use for apples and such as a centerpiece for inside that I need to dig out of the closet. Our weather has been very cool for us…in the low 50’s at ‘first light’ which is when I love to venture out and about. It will warm up during the day but not til mid morning. I love the peace and quiet of those early mornings…I talk with HIM and observe nature at it’s finest hour…as I know you do too.
The Captain and I have also been doing a bit of declutter of anything Christmas and our nutcrackers may make it another year. They are so large and take up so much space in our garage that I have mixed feelings about them. Have a great and wonderful week. (The Crud which I call the creeping crud takes forever to go away)
Thank you Kari. The creeping crud…what a good assessment, just when you think it’s going away it comes at another angle. I can relate to the nutcrackers taking up storage and I don’t think they will go back to my garage again. They’re heavy and hard to handle too. The first hour and last hour are the best times of the day. Have a blessed week!
Butch and Pam
I am so happy to see the Williamsburg Fan. I look forward to it each year. So beautiful! Stay away critters!
Your ballerinas are such sweethearts. I bet they just love it when you come to watch them perform.
The downtown area is so festive! Taking the family there will be wonderful.
I sure hope you feel better. It’s never good to be sick during the Holidays.
Thank you for the stroll.
Enjoy your week to come.
Thank you Nancy. I am better and hope to stay that way for a while. Maybe the fan will survive the critters. I placed some repellent around the base of the door post just this afternoon. It listed about everything you might think of that needs repelling but I noticed it did not include opossums on the list. Surely they would be included if the stuff works at all. Have a great week!
Butch and Pam
My grand girl just finished her chapter of Colonial America and she and her auntie hosted a “Williamsburg Tea Luncheon.” We all dressed in period clothing and it was just so wonderful. So I looked in our library and found two wonderful picture books on Christmas at Williamsburg – and so many of the great pics were of wreaths. They are just so natural and stunning. Your W fan is incredibly beautiful. SO sorry you have been sick. That is no fun at all during Thanksgiving! I kinda wish I had been sick to leave the mashed potatoes, thick creamy gravy and all the pie alone. I sure have overeaten this year. For shame. Best wishes for a blessed Advent season. Get well soon.
Thank you Michele. Pam now has another idea of something to do with the girls, they love dressing up and having tea parties and such. I’m better but even when sick I managed to eat way too much. We began our Advent season at church today and many people also do so in their homes. I think I’m well enough for mashed potatoes and gravy. Have a wonderful week!
Butch and Pam
I’m so glad you brought back the Williamsburg fan! It’s glorious. So, too, is the downtown tree and the delightful sights you shared. Mrs. and Mr. Claus look smashing and so do your two sweet angels. Wonderful images throughout!
Thank you Jeanie. Yes the fan is back in its rightful place. Mrs Claus is Pam’s cousin but they live in Kentucky and we rarely see them in person. We do see the angels often however. Have a pleasant first week of December!
Butch and Pam
I’m late to the party today. Today was our first very cold day. Low of 11 and a high of 22.
Your Royal highness and the princess would need fur wraps to keep warm. It was too cold to watch the star put up on my roof. I love seeing the Williamsburg arrangements. It’s a beautiful start to the Christmas season at the Richardson house. And I’ve never seen one here. It’s possible that’s it’s a southern decoration and that’s a sweet thought for me. A ice skating.rink is a natural here so it was a surprise to see it today in your post. Your town Christmas tree is huge. Sure Santa will be able to see it from the North Pole.
Thank you Alice. Keeping ice here for skaters is a challenge for the ice man but I don’t think he would have much trouble at your place. The original Williamsburg Fan and how to make it was shared by Southern Living magazine many many years ago. That’s where Pam ran across the idea. I’ve made it ever since. Our girls probably don’t own the right clothes for your kind of weather. Have a blessed week!
Butch and Pam
I tried so hard to find the reindeer in the first picture with no luck.
I absolutely love your Williamsburg decor above your door and thoroughly enjoyed the opossum story.
You live in a beautiful area. Thank you for sharing it all with us.
Thank you Lisa. So far the repellent I’ve sprinkled around has been a deterrent to the opossums. Every place has it’s own unique beauty. Have a wonderful first week of December!
Butch and Pam
Your granddaughters danced right into my heart this morning! Love the Williamsburg front door look, let’s hope the four-legged critters stay away!
Thank you Mary. The repellent to keep the critters away smells somewhat like strong garlic and onions so I’m not even getting too close. As long as it doesn’t keep the little dancers away it’s ok. Have a great week!
Butch and Pam
I do hope that your Williamsburg Fan makes it through the holidays instead of being an all you can eat buffet. I’m glad to read that you are feeling better. Hopefully the rest of the family stays healthy.
Thank you Karen. I am better so hoping that last for all of you and all of us. It’s the time of year for stuff to be circulating around. Maybe the buffet smells so bad now that it will not be appealing. Have a wonderful week!
Butch and Pam
Oh my goodness, the tree is done – what an amazing feat that is. I cannot quite believe the size of it! Santa and Mrs. Claus are pretty amazing too. But of course, nothing can outshine the beauty of those two darling ballerinas and I’m guessing it was a fantastic performance. The Williamsburg Fan is gorgeous and it looks fabulous on your shop door. The snow on your white Christmas looks so funny with the greenery in the background. We have lots of snow here as of last week and you are most welcome to any and all of it! I’m glad to hear that you are feeling better and I hope you all had a most wonderful Thanksgiving!
Thank you Kim. I’m better and we had a simple but very nice Thanksgiving. We only want the snow for a day so the kids can play but then we need it to go away. I guess the snow does look strange lying on all the green stuff, hadn’t thought about that. We enjoyed the ballerinas and of course to us it was a perfect performance. We hope you have a wonderful first week of December!
Butch and Pam
I’m so sorry. I know how hard the “firsts” are. Not that it ever goes away, but it just seemed like the “firsts” after losing my Mom and Daddy were the hardest. I pray that God will bless and comfort your hearts in every moment of grief. I hope you are feeling completely well by now. May the Lord keep all of you this Christmas season!