Still no snow….I don’t think we are gonna have a White Christmas, but we did have a successful launch from the Cape.

AND DON’T FORGET MY SHOP (ABOVE) OR THE OTHER ONE AT ETSY (https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu)

JUST GOT THE TREE YESTERDAY AND GOT THE LIGHTS ON SO FAR…It’s a Michigan Tree.

I’M MOVING IT TO A STONE CIRCLE SO I CAN HAVE MY TREE BEFORE I GO THROUGH

AND FIND JAMIE

I thought with the holidays we might look at what we can eat to keep us healthy during the hustle and craziness during the holidays

For FIBER AND FLUIDS:         

Pears, baby carrots, celery, Kiwi fruit, string beans, apples and red bell pepper slices.

For PROTIEN

Almonds, hummus, almond butter, walnuts, low-fat cheese, Peanut butter and Greek yogurt

Use one from each group for a snack (i.e. apple slice; with a dollop of peanut butter.)  Or try to stick to these which may be available at party snacks.  (www.Prevention.com)

AVOID:  The not so obvious

Baked Potato Chips  (substitute popcorn with the crunch but also fiber and fewer calories)

Gummy Fruit Snacks (Substitute fresh or dried  helps prevent cancer and are loaded with immune-boosting antioxidants).

Light Ice Cream (substitute  soy or coconut milk ice cream with fewer calories)

Diet Soda  (Substitute flavored seltzer water not only free of calories but artificial sweeteners as well)

Low-Fat Cookies (Substitute Oatmeal cookies when you have a craving you get whole grain)

MAINTAIN OR START AN EXERCISE PROGRAM OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Tests done at Washington University School of Medicine found that sugary foods can cause the blood vessels to lose their elasticity and can increase the rate of heart disease over time.  They also found that moerate-intensity cardio exercise program could help alleviate this issue.

CONTOL Your Choices

At parties stick to the plain fruits and vegetables and legumes..

Don’t starve yourself to cut down on your intake for the day  before the party, you’ll just eat more and defeat your whole purpose.

Eat slowly, savoring each bite and take a 20 minute break before returning for more food–it takes that long for fullness to register.

If you feel hungry try a cup of coffee or tea (sugarless) as caffeine inhibits the appetite.

and now the Christmas feature:  Looking for the gift for the gift difficult person

TODAY:      WIND & WEATHER (www.windandweather.com)

FIRST A LITTLE ADDITION TO YOUR DECOR FOR THE HOLIDAYS

 Holiday Spinner Solar Red and Green Dots Spinner 1035559

Love this One:

New! Hand-Knitted Stuffed Wool Lamb

Pet Gift Set with Snack Launcher and Laser Toy

Give your coffee table or countertops a touch of retro style with our Repurposed Record Coasters. A workshop in England has trimmed down genuine 78 rpm records from 1959 or earlier into rugged coasters backed with durable English felt.

Handcrafted Beaded Cat Bird Feeder 

Dragon Garden Sculpture With Solar Globe

Shut The Box    Echoes an antique, felt-lined sea-chest, this English pub game sets a merry-old tone as soon as the box is open. One player rolls the dice and lays down the matching, numbered tiles until there are no more matches. Lay down all the tiles and “shut the box!” for the win

THERE’S LOTS OF STUFF IN MY SHOP TOO  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonLaire?ref=hdr_shop_menu

From home to home and heart to heart from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, bring us closer to each other.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/DragonLaire=    one of my sponsors–my etsy store.

OK it’s in the 70’s and will be up to 80 today—cold spell it was 81 yesterday.  Ready for Christmas yet?  My cards are mailed, my presents bought.   I rock.

AND SO DOES JAMIE FRASER

Today’s Small Florida place is

ZELLWOOD

Zellwood is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,817 at the 2010 census.  It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zellwood,_Florida

This town is named for Colonel T. Elwood Zell, who established the place in the 1870s and built his winter home here.   (PLACES IN THE SUN/Bloodworth & Morris).    Zell was a Philadelphia publisher.  His brother-in-law and business associate John Williamson also built a winter home here.  Williamson’s home, which was one of the largest in the entire area, became a center of the community.

Zell, retired military, sold land to other Army veterans who established homes and citrus groves.  The town had a period of growth in the 1880s and became a haven for retired military officers as well as many wealthy northern families including Pittsburgh steel magnate James Laughlin, Jr. who built a home christened Sydonie.

In the 1920s a fern grower marketing association was formed here.  During the depression they had to diversify into other varieties of ferns and indoor foliage which eventually made this area a key growing area for small indoor plants.  (FLASHBACKS/Robison & Andrews)

ZELLWOOD CORN FESTIVAL

The event started in 1974 as a small corn boil to raise money for community projects. Since then, the event grew and gained as much fame as the town’s corn.   Back in 1975, former Miss Florida Delta Burke sat with then- and still current Apopka Mayor John Land to munch on some corn.  In its heyday, high-school bands earned money for new uniforms by shucking tens of thousands of ears of their velvety husks. The perennial family event drew music giants such as Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell and Creedence Clearwater Revisited.  In the 1990s, the state purchased and shut down many of the nearby farms in northwest Orange County to start the environmental cleanup of long-abused Lake Apopka.  But one commercial farm had remained the festival’s chief supplier of corn — Long and Scott Farms, which provided about 3,500 crates, or 170,000 ears, for the event.  http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2009-02-04/news/zellwood04_1_fresh-corn-sweet-corn-festival-farm

ZELLWOOD MAZE

Sydonie’s architecture was Arts and Crafts, mixed with an Oriental aesthetic, with inspiration from the Alhambra, the Moorish palace in Granada, Spain, especially in the gardens behind the house.  Work began on Sydonie in 1895 and continued for a decade, resulting in an 18,000-square-foot mansion of three stories plus basement, with 41 rooms and 7 baths. The home was named for Laughlin’s wife, Sidney Page Laughlin.  http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-05-05/features/os-joy-wallace-dickinson-0505-20130505_1_winter-park-phillips-collection-tiffany-chapel    THOUGH THERE HAVE BEEN SOME SPECIAL INSTANCES OF OPEN HOUSE TOURS IT IS NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Lake Ola Baptist Church                                                                                      North side of Sadler Rd., between Orange Blossom Tr. and Cemetery Rd. (6551 Sadler Rd.)                                                                            This church began as a mission of the First Baptist Church of Mount Dora, holding services as the Lake Ola Baptist Chapel in the “Bird House” next to the Lake Ola Motel to the north on Orange Blossom Tr. It was established as a separate church on October 4, 1964, with Rev. Tommy Parker as the pastor. The original sanctuary here, now used as the fellowship hall, was completed in 1964. In 1990, the present sanctuary was built.     http://www.reocities.com/yosemite/rapids/8428/hikeplans/zellwood/planzellwood.html

And as part of my holiday celebrations a catalog feature:  TODAY featuring those interesting food Items

Mackenzie                                                           http://www.mackenzieltd.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQiAhvujBRDUpomG5cq_mI0BEiQA7TYq-ne4tehm-s8M5BeeypmZ_16kgOgFfXY6GuvyAodKlM4aAiuH8P8HAQMackenzie Limited

Cheese Tortas

Fine cheeses layered with fresh and innovative flavors. Creamy Gorgonzola, pistachios, sun-dried tomatoes, and garden-fresh pesto

Salmon Asparagus Bundles

• 

  Cranberry Sausage Stuffing

  $29.95

 

 

 

 

 

Baked Polenta

$34.95

Cognac Pumpkin Cheesecake

$54.95

CHECK IT OUT THERE’S LOTS MORE

for more present check out my store above….or

my Etsy location:     https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/DragonLaire/

 As long as there’s Christmas, I truly believe
That hope is the greatest of the gifts we’ll receive.–Don Black (“As Long as There’s Christmas”) 

 

Eat your heart out all of you in the cold north.  It’s in the 70’s here, sunny and heading for a high of 81 and not a bit of snow in sight—but there’s lots of snowmen appearing about my house.

STAY HIGH AND DRY LIKE JAMIE

TODAY IS OUR LOOK AT COLLECTIBLE DAY AND WE’RE DOING

COOKIE JARS

COOKIE PANDA cookie Jar, unknown maker, unmarked (paint chips on hat) skid at Auction 2013  $48

In the United States and Canada a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing flour, eggs, sugar, and either butter or cooking oil, and often including ingredients such as raisins, oats, or chocolate chips. Most other English-speaking countries would call it a biscuit.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie

BRUSH POTTERY HUMPTY DUMPTY COOKIE JAR, yellow beanie, Don Winton design marked “Brush W18 USA” on bottom, (blemish on beanie, crazing) .  Sold at same auction $108

Good morning–it’s beautiful outside here—in 60s already and I actually started walking again.

Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest

THIS ONE IS A QUOTE FROM THE NOVEL I’m WORKING ON:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/483151866248809296/

JAMIE FRASER

NICE KNEES

As today is the first day of December thought I’d do something seasonal.  So what is a better Christmas tradition to look into than were we got the tradition of kissing under the Mistletoe.

First the plant is a parasite that attaches itself to trees and shrubs and penetrates the bark, living off the plant’s substances.  It is toxic (there’s multiple references on site of it’s toxicity though it has been used since ancient times for multiple issues including infertility) and should be handled according and kept out of the reach of children.

The plant became famous for its fertility properties because when the trees lost their leaves in winter it remained green, something that appears to be very impressive to the ancients.

The Greeks reportedly used it and it is part of a Norse Legend where a Goddess brings her son back by making it non-poisonous with her tears.  But the Druids seem to have the main nod as to the creators of this practice  with Roman sources telling us that it was used as some sort of fertility charm.  It was also placed on the doorway to Celtic homes to prohibit fighting.

The tradition has continued:  Victorian England’s tradition was that a girl who refused a kiss under the plant would not receive any marriage proposals for the next year.

So another tradition from our distance past that still clings to us today, even in the modern age of computers and mass communications.  We kiss under a poisonous, parasitic  plant;  which was once used to insure fertility and avoid physical altercations;  for no particular reason except we can.  Works for me.

OK my daily suggestions on where to find those hard to find items or gifts for those have everything persons on your lists:

TODAY’S FEATURE:  FRESH FINDS www.freshfinds.com

Mind Twisters Puzzle Set (E1442):  Each brain-bending puzzle is linked to the world’s “Great Mind” who inspired it, putting your intellectual prowess to the test. Comes with a brief history of their life and achievements. Set of 5     $19.95