Category Archives: Christmas

Pabst Mansion Christmas Twilight Tour

Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate Christmas! I am sitting here writing to you from cozy and Christmasy northern Illinois. I have a fire in the fireplace, the Christmas tree is lit, and the finest powdered sugar snow is falling outside. It’s only been snowing for a short time; the grass is still bare, but the rooftops and paved surfaces are frosted white.

Today I have more photos to show you from our Twilight Tour at the Pabst Mansion.

I wish I was able to capture the entire vertical space of the grand staircase. It is quite impressive to say the least. It rises up 3 stories with a landing and multiple turns between each floor. So, you go up about 8 stairs, turn right and go up some more stairs, then you reach a rectangular landing with doors that open to the outside along the left and a little balcony that oversees the foyer on the right, after walking along the landing you then turn and go up the last 8 or so stairs to get to the next floor. At the very top of the staircase is a huge stained glass skylight that opens for ventilation on warm days.

The photo below was taken on the main floor looking up to the first two sets of stairs.

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The photo below is taken standing on the first balcony and looking down to the foyer.

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This was taken on the third floor, standing on that floor’s foyer. You can see the doors or windows that open to the outside for warm weather ventilation.

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And another from the third floor.

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Today I’d also like to show you Elsbeth’s room. She is the granddaughter whom Captain and Mrs. Pabst adopted. Elsbeth had a huge bedroom on the second floor. It faced the front of the house, and must have been a sunny room having southern and western facing windows.

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Elsbeth’s portrait hangs above the fireplace. She is the only child to be raised in the mansion. This room is still going through renovation.

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Elsbeth’s bathroom still has the original marble sink and tile. Off the bathroom is a little dressing room with another gorgeous windowsill and built in closet.

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I hope you enjoyed today’s Pabst Mansion tour of the Grand Staircase and Elsbeth’s Bedroom. I still have lots more to show you, but…

I’ll say goodbye for today. I know we all probably still have lots to do for Christmas.

Sending you a Christmas Eve blessing for everything wonderful on this magical day.

❤

It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

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Hello! What a beautiful morning we have here in northern Illinois! It snowed last night, only a tiny bit, but enough to make everything white and beautiful, and oh so peaceful. The front porch light was on, and it was still dark when I took this photo. It’s so magical.

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And as light comes to the day, so do the birds come for breakfast.

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I love learning something new this time of year. This year sock knitting has caught my interest. Sock knitting seems like something impossibly hard, so I knew I needed a visual class to learn. So far this Craftsy class by Susan B. Anderson has taught me Judy’s magic cast on, which is how she starts the sock. I have the toe completed, and am now knitting away at lengthening the foot. Slowing down the lessons has helped me a lot, and Susan is very thorough. I have no doubts that I’ll be able to figure out how to make the whole sock.

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This past week I baked another apple crumble. If you need dessert, like we seem to in our house, this is one of the healthier (Is there such a thing?) ones—lots of apples, oatmeal, nuts, and little sugar. My recipe is from here, but I keep adapting it. I found that half the topping seems to work fine for 2 pounds of sliced apples. We prefer lots of baked apple yumminess and not super sweet—you can eat more that way. 😉

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Even though I have no photos to show you, I have been working on dolly things. One dress needs a new sweater, and one cape/cuddle cap set needs a new dress. Sometimes things don’t go as planned.

I hope you all have a most festive weekend. Take it slow, and enjoy every moment.

Ah, it’s snowing again here, big white flakes! Bye for now, my friends.

❤

In Progress Around Here

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The first week of January has, of course, flown by! With my daughter still home (by the way, I love having her home; I am not at all complaining, just mentioning it. 🙂 ) I am not getting as much done as I normally do, but I am making some progress on a sweater dress for the Little Darlings, and also writing a pattern as I go.

I finished up the embroidery on the sweater dress yesterday, and got the buttons sewn on. I chose a pink wool heather since I needed some pink in my life after all the red and green Christmas colors, and before that, autumnal colors. The very subtle shades of lavender and warm red in this pink heather make it a yarn choice that I go to again and again.

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This is the only piece of the ensemble completed. I’m still trying to decide on either a headband or beret.

Right now all three of my Little Darlings are clamoring to model this ensemble for me. Hmm, I wonder whom it will be . . .

On another note, yesterday was a day of putting away Christmas and making an “Unthanksgiving Dinner” to get rid of extra Thanksgiving ingredients that have been hanging around in the freezer and pantry. The end result was so much like a real Thanksgiving dinner; the only thing we didn’t have was a pumpkin pie!

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My daughter turned her dinner into a healthier version with turkey (no gravy) and a zucchini sliced like spaghetti. She uses a spiralizer to make her “zucchetti”.

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Even though it’s great to get the house back in order, it’s sad to put all of the decorations away. The house seems so dark without the Christmas tree lights twinkling in the living and family rooms. We do leave the strands of white lights around the kitchen bay window; I enjoy them very much on these dark days.

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