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And now for a few Personal Notes...
For the New Year, I am trying something different with my 3 times weekly posts....
On THURSDAYS,
I will feature what I cooked and ate during the week, showcasing local
cuisine and a few recipes for things that I actually made...
I decided that on SATURDAYS, I will showcase What I Have Been Up To in the past week, sharing events and places I went to, if any....
On MONDAYS, I will be featuring What I Have Bought or Been Gifted Recently, if anything...
Last weekend, my parish's Community group, which I am part of, hosted a Meet and Greet for our new priest, Father Michael......
We filled every table after the Saturday evening Mass.....

We served pretzel bites from Auntie Anne's as the local franchise is owned by a parishioner....
Cookies from Sam's Club......
Along with other sweets....
And grapes....
And these bags of snacks were a hit with the children and even some adults.....
The food table after the 2 masses on Sunday morning.....
My friend Joanne....
Juices....
Cookies, coconut and cinnamon pastries...
Grapes, danish and kolachi...
Bagels....
Again, all the tables were filled.....
And Father made his rounds to every table both days and spoke to everyone who attended.....

Father Michael was thrilled with the turnout and so were we!!!
We had our first Pastoral Council Meeting with Father Michael on Thursday evening and I am very happy that he is our new pastor....
Totally different personality than Father Alex but so very nice and really funny and Father Alex knew he would be a good fit for our parish as he recommended to the Bishop that Father Michael be his replacement...
Today, I am starting my America 250 posts......
I am ever so proud to live in PA, one of the original 13 colonies, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.....
known as one of the bloodiest battles and defeats ever...
Growing up in West Wyoming, I walked or rode my bike past this Monument more times than I can count....
They do a ceremony and reenactment here every year on July 3rd.....
I usually only decorate my Living Room for the Patriotic summer holidays but this year, I decided to also decorate my Dining Room buffet, which I will be sharing in a future post....
Today, I am starting my Patriotic tour of the Living Room with my 7 ft. slim Seasonal Tree....
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I decorated the Living Room for the Patriotic Summer Holidays in the beginning of May....
Every year, I try to do it a bit differently and this year, I added red and blue LED lights to this Tree.....
Next, I added a beaded garland.....
It is embossed with roses on it....
These are some of the ornaments that I made, over many years, for this Tree and the 4 ft. Tree in my Living Room that I decided to keep up for the Patriotic Summer Holidays this year....
The top of the Tree......
I used several Patriotic ribbons including one that says "God Bless America"....
One of the new things I added this year is the red candle ornaments that I kept out after Christmas.....
I also kept out the sparkly white baby's breath picks after Christmas and tucked them into this Tree.....
You can see that there is also red bow ornaments and silver birds on the Tree....
This year, I am big on shopping my own home instead of buying new decorations as I honestly think I have more than enough, don't you??????
LOL!!
So when packing away my holiday decorations, I took a good look at everything and thought about how something could be used for other Holidays.....
You will see through this decor tour that I used a lot of red decor from other Holidays....

The red bow and red star ornaments were bought several years ago after Christmas.....
I add the picture frame ornament of me and my late husband Joe, which was taken for our 30th Anniversary, to this Tree all year round anymore.....


I also decorate the platform, that my Dad built for me 48 years ago, that this Seasonal Tree sits on.....

On the left side, is a vase filled with Patriotic florals.....
I made 2 of these firecrackers out of paper rolls.....
IN the back is a gold bottle brush tree and a red ceramic tree, also left out after Christmas.....
I used them to fill a blank space....
More firecrackers I made, using Pringles cans this time.....
Uncle Sam was bought at a yard sale....
You may remember that I bought these bells after Christmas this year in Penney's
$8.99 for BOTH of them.....
They reminded me of the Liberty Bell so I attached Patriotic bows I made, from an old flag banner, to them.....
This Patriotic vintage styled Mail Truck honors my late husband Joe , who was a Mail Carrier for the US Postal System......
On a bench, sits this pretty Patriotic Miss!!
On the side of the bench is a mini sweater that one of my bears wore but my twin granddaughters took the bear home with them last year!!
She sings "God Bless America" when you press the button on her paw and was gifted to me by Joe.....
I pinned some of my late neighbor Elly's Political pin collection to her outfit.....
In front of her is an Avon Fostoria cobalt blue Patriotic creamer, produced for the 1976 Bicentennial.....
When I went to take the close up picture, I realized that I had it backwards after one of the twins had picked it up when they visited for Memorial Day....
Mount Vernon is on it and I bought it for 99 cents in Salvation Army many years ago....
Since it is now over 50 years old, it is considered vintage....
In the right side....

I also leave out year round this white ceramic tree that I bought in Walmart 2 years ago.....
I simply hung a few red and blue ornaments on it.....
In a child's mini Flyer wagon, that was my late neighbor Elly's.....

One of the bears from Elly's bear collection.....
I also pinned a few of her political pin collection to his sweater.....
Another one of the firecrackers I made and a hat from Dollar Tree is in the wagon......
An Uncle Sam nutcracker that was also a yard sale find....
And another firecracker I made.....
Plus the other bell I bought in Penney's....
A mailbox ornament in honor of Joe....
I added candles and a string of lights, both are battery operated.....
I did do both the Tree and Platform a bit differently this year and tried to think a bit out of the box, using decorations from other Holidays, shopping my own home.....
I am happy with how it all turned out and will enjoy it until the 2nd week of July when I will change the Living Room over to my late Summer "Under the Sea" decor.......
I hope you will stop by to visit again on MONDAY for my next post continuing my tour of the Living Room decorated for the Patriotic Summer Holidays......
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
And try to find JOY in every single day!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE
give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to
reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check
back......
I am linking up to these parties:
THURSDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
You are one busy lady, your decorating for your July 4th is spectacular, here the focus is on Canada Day. I was so luck to be a high school graduate on our 100th birthday celebration, lots of water under the bridge since then. The slope looks really good as does the garden by the road. We have had a wetter than usual June with fluctuating temperatures. Today is cloudy with a chance of rain (not meatballs!) I much prefer the temperatures like this instead of hot and humid. Summer (astrological) starts tomorrow so I guess we will expect hotter days as well. Have a lovely weekend.
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