Holiday Prep 2017 C

Lea's Adventure Continues

Pennsylvania German Christmas Market

Goschenhoppen Historians Folklife Museum

Hey! Thank you for coming back! At least, I hope you're a returning reader. If you're new, that's super cool and you should check out parts A and B.

So yesterday I showed you the decorated and shopping area, when we finished on that floor we turned the corner and found more stairs!

These led up to the folklife museum part of the building. I heard some really cool music coming from above and when we reached the top we found a guy playing the ancient pipe organ. 

The tune sounded familiar. Xyra looked over his shoulder to see he was playing On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry. Perfect for the season.

The first thing I noticed in the main area was a pulpit with lectern. I'm not sure what church it came from, but it was really cool. I checked out the Bible citation...it was in GERMAN!

Check out the egg tree. So many ways to decorate eggs. See the onion skin ones at the base of the tree?

I love these rag balls. I just know Lady Vanyer could do wonders with them.

Hey, this dresser and horse are perfect for me. I wonder if Butterbrandy and Steps High would push it?

This is a nice size tree. 

Back in the 17 and 18 hundreds many houses were small with only a few rooms. Having a small tree like this made the house festive without taking away needed space.

What?! Can you imagine making so many cookies you would store them in a laundry basket? 

Xyra says this was a common practice.

I love the china cabinet. Each set has a neat design on it.

As we headed down the stairs I noticed this commemorative poster celebrating the ELCA's (that's Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) 150th anniversary. 

Hey, we're close to 2018 so that means another anniversary...um...two hundred seventy years! Wow!

Goschenhoppen Country Store

Next stop, the general store museum. It does remind me of Coolspring. Here's a barrel of salt.

I dropped my letter to Santa in the outgoing mail slot.

Who knew there were so many types of needles!

Postcards. Not sure who to send one too.

Here's a nice collection of goodies; all would make good Christmas gifts. Check out the pretty doll. She comes in her own box.

We didn't take any photos in the bottom level of the market. Very busy, but that's where the bake sale and lunch counter were. We picked out some really good looking cookies and had ham sandwiches for lunch with thin pretzels and red beet eggs. Yum!

Schwenkfelder Library

This is a different place. Much more modern than the historians' building in Green lane. The Schwenkfelder (that's pronounced sh-whenk-fell-der) library is in Pennsburg on the campus of the Perkiomen School (that's per-key-oh-men, wow I never realized how many place names people might need help pronouncing). Anyway, it's a neat place and we stayed on the lower level for this trip. This was one of my favorite displays.

Love that punch bowl set. And the coffee grinder.

I can't imagine using a stove like that! do you see the basket of kittens?

This is a neat doll house.

On this side you can see the handles and the electric hook up.

These Santas are cool. They'd look great with the tree in Green Lane.

I think these are elbedritsches, but more fancy!

This bed looks so comfy! The poncho and hat are my favorite color - orange!

Isn't this bunny darling?

I found a friend in the one area. She said she lives in the library. 

That could be cool and spooky at the same time. I wonder if there is a tablet like in the movie Night at the Museum?

After our visit here we each took a cookie. I had a plain cut out. Xyra took what she said was an ice box cookie similar to what her Grammy made at Christmas. It was cut much thinner than she remembered, but was just as tasty!

So that was my wonderful day at Christmas Market. Do you have a favorite photo from today's post? What is your favorite Christmas or holiday treat? I hope we make some cookies of our own. I know we'll be baking breads later.

Tchau! Até mais tarde!

Holiday Prep 2017 B

Pennsylvania German Christmas Market

Goschenhoppen Historians Part 1

Hi! If you follow us on Facebook, you saw a sneak peek of this post. Early Saturday morning, Xyra told me I'd be going with her to Green Lane and the Goschenhoppen museum.

I got dressed right away, but Mel told me the antlers might be a bit much for the outing. She said it might be crowded and they'd get bumped.

You might want to grab a beverage and snack. This is going to be a long post. (giggles)

It was a warm day. I was perfectly cozy with just this sweater as a coat. Green swags and red bows decorated the outside; I hoped the inside was just as pretty.

Oh, wow! Look at these stairs!

[Side note: The museum is not easily accessible. Stairs everywhere. There is discussion about installing a chair lift for inside, but just discussion at this time.]

The very first tree I saw had white paper stars on the branches. We have a few paper stars for our tree, but they are green and red. I like the white ones too.

I haven't met Great Auntie Mame yet, but Melody said she would have loved this year's displays. So many Creches or Nativity scenes. From all over the world.

Oooo! The Scrooge Trees. 

Nana Kestrel helped with these! She has a huge Scrooge collection.

The felt ornament tree set close to the piano where students were providing the musical entertainment for the day. They were good. 

I found this cute kitty near the "fireplace."

And these great bears. I kind of wanted to sit with them. The chair looked comfy.

I don't think we could decorate our entire tree with Santas. Angels maybe but not Santas.

Here's another tree Nana Kestrel decorated. It's the Elbedritsch tree, that's pronounce el-beh-dr-itch. Let me know if you can't read the photo with the explanation and I'll add it to my post tomorrow. Yep, Saturday was so full it's at least a two part-er!

She made the elbedritsches with gourds, paint, feathers, and a bit of glue.

All through the hall were vendors you could buy Pennsylvania German style gifts. I love this calico giraffe and clothespin Santa...he's wearing blue!

Okay, so that's it for today's post. Do you have any favorite trees or decorations or photos? Or questions? If you could make a theme tree, what would the decorations be? Leave comments please!

Come back again tomorrow!

Tchau! Até mais tarde!

Holiday Prep 2017 A

It's Holiday Season!

Bake Sale

Grace, Lanie, both

Hi! Do you bake for the holidays?
Or do you visit bake sales?
Maybe you do both.
This past weekend was the Goschenhoppen Historians Pennsylvania German Christmas Market and we helped Xyra with the baking.
We looked through different recipes and made a list of four things we wanted to do.
We made two cinnamon coffee cakes (giggles) by accident.
I measured out twice the milk required and added it to the batter.
When we realized what happened, we kicked into high gear and made another batch of batter, minus the milk of course.
The coffee cakes came out great!
Then we decided to double the gingerbread recipe.
Still made 4 items to contribute.
We had enough gingerbread batter left over to make a cake for us. 

The edges got a bit dark, so we cut them off, but otherwise it's a-okay! (giggles)

Gift Ideas

Hi! This time of year is filled with gift ideas, holiday bazaars, vendor fairs, fundraisers, etc. Plus great Pinterest ideas on creating the perfect gift basket for your friends and family. Well, if you have a tea lover or honey lover on your list, you may come across these "honey spoons."

The look really cool!

Sadly, they don't quite work like they are supposed to. The "honey" part is wrapped twice. Under the first layer the spoon is shrink wrapped. That part is hard to get off. Then it's solid like a lollipop. Kind of cool looking.

Unfortunately, it doesn't melt well and whatever they use to make it solid changes the taste of the honey and leaves a strange aftertaste. So skip the honey spoons and look for honey straws or sticks that are little plastic tubes with liquid honey inside instead.

Photo by The Bee Folks

What are you doing to prepare with the holidays?

Best wishes,