Friday, January 01, 2010

Friday's Fave Five #68


HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope everybody had a wonderful holiday and a great New Year's celebrations. Welcome to the first FFF of the new year, the first FFF of a new decade. I, myself, cannot believe it's 2010. So let's get right into kicking off the new year. If you are new and need to guidelines or details you can make a stop here and then join right in.

It was so hard to narrow down this whole week down to just five favorites but I think I did it.

1. Christmas itself. I love Christmas and all it represents. The celebration of the birth of Jesus, God made flesh, the greatest gift of all, come to earth for you and for me. It just boggles my mind, that the God and Creator of all loved us so much that He left everything to come down to us.

2. Family all together and here for the holidays. So nice to have us all together for the holidays, just being together. We didn't go a whole lot of places or do a whole lot of things, but we spent a lot of priceless time together.

3. A gift of hoar frost on my birthday. So gorgeous. God truly showed his artistry that morning! My son and I went to the lake for a bit and it was just beautiful. Now the pictures are sort of in reverse order. Blogger for some reason is not letting me "slide" the pictures down very easily lately. But it doesn't make a difference to the beauty, just the order of the story.

No it is not snowing in this picture. It is actually the hoar frost falling off the trees as a lick of a breeze knocked it off.
It was so crisp outside. Everything just stood out against each other.

This is not snow on the branches but the frost. Look how thick that is.

Such a peacefull scene. The white in the foreground is actually the lake covered in ice and snow.


The contrasts in greys, whites and browns was stunning.


An absolutely amazing day. I could have stayed here taking pictures all day if my fingers hadn't have been freezing off. This is just a sampling of the tons of pictures I took.

4. The whole week off to spend time with my kids. That is really rare for me with my job. A whole week off at Christmas. And the way the holiday days fell made for an extra long holiday! The time was precious with my girl home from school and my other two kids.

5. Anne of Green Gables marathon with my girls. This is a favorite thing to do with my girls each year. We watch it through once a year or so. It's a mom and girls time. No guys allowed.

6. One extra one this week was hubby taking us out on my birthday to a brand new restaurant in town. Another special family time. I can't believe, me the rule follower, just broke my rules. :v)

I know it's hard to narrow down a week like this last with Christmas, but what were your favorite fives? If you do a post, please sign on to Mr. Linky so we can come and visit. I look forward to that tomorrow with a nice cup of coffee.


30 comments:

Susannah said...

Happy New Year! A new decade, and (hopefuly) new friends. Your hoarfrost is lovely. Thanks for hosting FFF. :~D

Lisa notes... said...

I don't think we've ever had a hoarfrost like that. It looks quite amazing. Hope you had a great birthday breaking your rules. :-) Happy New Year!

ellen b said...

Love your 5 Susanne. Christmas, family. The Hoar Frost is amazing. I love marathons! Happy New Year! I cheated again this week and my post is way too long because it is a recap of 2009!

Barbie @ Mamaology said...

Happy Belated birthday:)! Wow what a beautiful scene of snow! That is sooooo amazing!

I think my girls and I need an Anne of Green Gables marathon. I read the whole series this paste summer and now I need to watch the movies again:).

Happy New Year.

Kari said...

Happy New Year Susanne to you and your family.
Looks like you have had a great time with your children home.
Your photo's are beautiful.
All the best for 2010.

Melli said...

As much as I don't like snow... I CAN understand your excitement at having the world all aglow for your birthday! I'm pretty sure I would accept that as God's gift too! It sounds like you've had a really spectacular week Susanne! I hope you have 52 of them THIS year!!!

Happy New Year!~

Laura@OutnumberedMom said...

Love your blog, and loved this post! I'm trying to jump into your Friday Fave Fives, but had some technical difficulties. Still working on it.

I'll be back!

nikkipolani said...

Happy Happy New Year! The frosty gift for your birthday was quite pretty. And a week off feels rather decadent doesn't it?

Barbara H. said...

It was indeed hard to narrow the faves down to five this week! And an exception can be made for most rules. :-)

The hoarfrost is lopvely, and, like you, I treasured having all the family together at Christmas. Who knows how long that will last, but I will treasure it as long as it does.

I liked the way Christmas fell this year, too -- the week just seemed longer. This week as well -- yesterday felt like a Saturday, but I still have a Friday and Saturday to go before we go back to routine.

Carrie said...

Thanks for hosting this again - into another brand spankin' new year! =D

The frost and snow is BEAUTIFUL! And happy birthday to you!

Hey! Blog about your Anne Marathon and you, too, can be a part of the L.M.M. challenge. ;) Just sayin'.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!

Much Ado said...

I never tire of reading your fff's! Love the photos in this one too!

Willow said...

Happy New Year, Susanne! Even when I lived in Chicago, I never saw hoarfrost. The results are stunning. I vote that it's ok to break the rules on your birthday :)

Michelle said...

What a great 5 Susanne!! Happy New Year

Anonymous said...

Great 555 my friend. Hau’oli Makahiki Hou to you and your family :)

Brenda said...

I love all of your favorites and would say they are my favorites too. Except for the cold. I don't know if I would be happy to wake up and see my world like that! I'm happy when I wake up to a hot, sunny day :)

Jerralea said...

I love love love your pictures! And I totally love Anne of Green Gables. To me, when I think of Canada, I think of her!

the voice of melody said...

Thanks for sharing your beautiful blankets of snow! They are postcard perfect. :)

Happy belated birthday wishes Susanne, and a very happy new year to you and yours!

Sis said...

Okay, actually committing to fff in 2010! Thanks for hosting it. Tell me if I mess up. lol

Faith said...

Happy New Year, Susanne! I am sorry I couldn't post my fave five yet. I will try to get to it tomorrow a.m. My uncle just passed away today and I was busy on the phone all afternoon......

Your pictures are stunning....you live in a beautiful place....
Loved all your 5 things!! my girls and I had fun watching some old classic xmas movies...tonite we are doing HOliday Inn one of my absolute faves....because we didn't get to it during the month of Dec!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Susanne! I need to find out when Anne of Green Gables is on...fun idea!

Laura@OutnumberedMom said...

Happy New Year!

I love Fave Fives, and I did my best to link up. Hope it worked.

Karyn said...

Happy New Year....and Happy Birthday, as well.

Great list! #1 is perfect. What other 'god' has ever lowered himself to become human - to relate so intimately with mortals? Amazing.

Love your frost photos!

An Anne marathon with your girls sounds like a great tradition.

So glad you had so much time off!

Sis said...

Love the frost pics! Beautiful. We get some nice frost sometimes, but not like that!

Happy birthday!

Katrina @ Callapidder Days said...

Wow, absolutely gorgeous pictures! Happy New Year, Susanne!

Mountain Mama said...

Happy New Year! Your photos are wonderful. I have not seen frost that thick here, but a week or so ago it did pile up for three days. I was going to take sopme pictures on the forth morning but it had warmed up during the night and the frost was melted.
Walking in that kind of scenery must feel like a winter wonderland!!

Jean Wise said...

Love Anne of Green Gables. We are blessed this summer to travel to Prince Edward Island and see all the Anne stuff, You could almost feel her there. It was beautiful and a great visit. Thanks for sharing

Jean
http://www.healthyspirituality.org

Sandra said...

I love Anne of Green Gables :)

Happy New Year Susanne!

Beck said...

I hope your birthday was wonderful, dear Susanne - it looks like it was a beautiful day.

Grace said...

Such awe-inspiring winter beauty! Thank you for sharing it with us, Susanne. Sure makes me miss Canada! May your 2010 be abundantly blessed.

Karen said...

I absolutely love the photographs, Susanne. They're gorgeous.