A Couple of Flakes...

These two are a couple of silly flakes.

Every year when winter rolls around, we starting thinking about and looking forward to the first snow. We wonder if it will lay, how many inches we will get and how long will it last? We are a family that loves snow. Here where we live, we are not drowning in snow all winter . When we do get snow, it is a real treat. We try and enjoy every moment while it lasts.

 Several years ago, when our children were young, we started cutting snowflakes with them for decoration. We usually started them around the time we would put up the Christmas tree and they would remain on the windows until spring.

We still continue cutting the snowflakes with our granddaughter and will teach our grandson once he has mastered using scissors. We started a few nights ago working on them. Papaw always cuts the best ones but this year, Doodles really did a good job with them too. We ironed the ones we cut and put them on our windows on Saturday. We will still be adding a few small ones here and there but I think they turned out pretty perfect this year.

As you can tell from this photo, it is a rainy, snowy looking day here. Our weather man says, it will snow in the mountains and higher elevations tonight. Doodlebug is just in hopes we will have a white Christmas. I hope we see a white Christmas too.

Blessings!

Just the Girls...

A few days before Black Friday, Doodles, Granny and I went shopping. We hit a few of the craft and fabric stores. While we were looking at fabric, Doodles checked out the pattern books for a few new patterns for her dolls. She really picked out a few very cute patterns. I snapped quick photos of them and decided, we would wait for a pattern sale. I sure wished I would have went ahead and bought this one. I would love to make a few things from this pattern before Christmas.

We also ran across this very nifty, retro Alexander Henry fabric with a sewing theme. I wished now too, I would have grabbed a few yards of this too. I think I will be going back there next week and getting some to make new curtains for my sewing room. While I am there at the fabric store, I will probably go ahead and get at least one of the patterns that Doodles picked and get busy doing a bit of sewing.

So the gals had a good time to just goofing off a bit while shopping.

 

We actually managed to get Granny to try sushi and squid salad. We were shocked she tried it. She actually liked the squid salad.  

It was a good day just spending time with the gals. 

Holiday Thoughts...

With Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, I have been thinking about what the makings of a perfect holiday must consist of for me. I have learned in my forty nine years here on earth that, a perfect holiday isn’t about the fixings. It isn’t about that recipe that has been tried, tested and family approved. Although, deviled eggs are a must at every holiday meal for our group and they like them just with the right amount of mao and mustard.

For me, it isn’t about setting the scene; however, I do love to decorate. I think the ingredients for the perfect holiday are, family coming together with an open heart, a willingness to share their hearts with family and friends and genuine love for one another. When those ingredients are present, love lends way to the most blessed of days, filled with smiles, words of appreciation for one another and laughter. Hearts can be restored through our kind words and loving attitudes on these blessed days.

I know I cannot control the attitudes of those who place their feet under our table and say grace with us each holiday but, I can pray each time that our holidays will consists of some of these ingredients. I also can make sure that my heart is open with a willingness to share, engage and be present in the moment, even if I over cook the turkey. I will have to fill you in on my orange Christmas ham sometime. I am still trying to live that down but that is a whole other story.

Many blessings and I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Museum of Appalachia

A little video from our field trip at the first of the month. You will need to go to the bottom of my blog page and pause the playlist player.

I was reminded this morning...

Only 49 days until Christmas! Doodlebug informed me when she woke up this morning. Are you getting ready? All I can say at the moment is, whew! Where did this year go to? I know I listened for years to parents and grandparents talking about time flying by as you get old but man, they were not kidding. I don't know about you all but, I had just gotten use to writing and typing 2011 on checks and such and now, the year is almost over with.

Well, I have bought a couple of Christmas gifts for the grand kids and have been picking their little brains for ideas. Doodlebug is being so helpful coming up with ideas for her little brother and I can bounce ideas off of her too. Now, I only hope she can keep a secret.

Yesterday we went to the toy store to look around and just see what sparked interest and of course to pick up the Big Book of Toys catalog. I have decided they each should have one. I ask them to write their names on them and circle photos of items they may like or items their sister or brother would like. Hopefully it will help me do a bit of shopping for them.

At Thanksgiving the adults will draw names. It just seems easier thing to do rather than rack our brains and stress out over trying to figure out what to get everyone. I am pretty set on knowing exactly what to get depending on the name I draw, so it should be fun.

Last month went by in a flash and I never seemed to get time to just sit down to catch up my blog. So, below I will post a few photos from last month as a catch up. October was a good month and our fall here in east Tennessee was very pretty. We had lots of beautiful colors and believe it or not, we still have a bit of colorful leaves and tiny reminders of fall around us now. The leaves will be gone in a few days with all the cool weather we have had. It has been a lovely fall and is my favorite time of the year.

Doodlebug's Birthday at the first of the month.

 The afternoon of Doddlebug's birthday, we left for a 10 day trip to drive up the coast through the New England states. We left after the party of course. It was a wonderful and needed time away. It was nice for Papaw and I to spend good quality time together.

The harbor in Salem, MA

On our drive up, we went to see a few of the light houses.

Papaw ate lobster and or clams at every single meal except breakfast.

Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

We got home from our trip just in time to attend one of our son's friends wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. We also took Doodles with us. It was kind of bitter sweet for her. The fellow getting married was her very first crush. He had always been so very sweet to her and he made a bigger impression than I think he knew at the time. She would ask her uncle Joe Joe about him from time to time. I wished we would have taken a photo of her when we told her, he was getting married. She finally said, she would be OK with it and have no objections as long as his wife was pretty, sweet and good to him.

Joey, Nick the groom, and Cory.

Nick and Ashley are a beautiful couple and Doodlebug approved. She really did like Ashley too. Ashley was very sweet with Doodles and teased her a bit. It was so sweet and kind of them both to include her in several of their photos.

We took Doodles to a story telling night for our Halloween fun at a local historical site. It was really lots of fun. They had a costume contest. There were some very cute and some very scary spooks there too.

They had several storytellers and a bonfire. We went into this little cabin for the very scary tales. The gals telling the stories in there were very good. I truly enjoyed it too. There was even a release form we had to sign because the stories were so very scary.

The stories were truly, nail bitting scary.

It has been a very busy but wonderful month and we know, it won't slow down until the new year. Hope you all have had a very blessed fall too.

Many blessings to you all!