Celebrating November and December

Well it has been almost two months since I last posted. Oops! I really think that I will be doing well if I manage to post once or twice a month. I have a very full life these days, and time spent with my honey and in going to church, along with working some overtime and spending time with my kids, has really kept me busy.

Oh! My boyfriend, Pastor Mike, has just begun his own blog Soul Nachos. Please visit him. He will be doing eDevotions and sometimes sermon snippets. He is just getting started and only has one post so far, but I love his little nuggets of wisdom. He has a very folksy, relatable way of getting his story across that I just love. It's one of the things that attracted me to him before we actually met in person. If you do visit, please leave a comment and let him know I sent you. Pretty please!

The fall season began with me finally getting around to decorating my porch for autumn. Since money is especially tight right now, I used only things that I already had.




We had a fairly warm autumn, so I was still able to sit out on my porch occasionally.

Next thing you know, it was Thanksgiving. I worked third shift the night before and went straight to work cleaning house and preparing for dinner. My table setting was not too different from last years, but in a different home.

This year the centerpiece was my wreath from outside, and a cornucopia shaped planter.


Family started to arrive!


My sweetie Mike carved the turkey.

My son Jared's girlfriend Kylie, of the pretty gray-blue eyes, was able to join us and took her place beside him at the table. My older son Sean and my brother Dave were there too.


Here are all three of my children and my little brother.


On the other side of the table were my brother Dave again, daughter Tara, and sweetie Mike. Not sure why my son-in-law Mike S. is missing from that empty chair. He was there, I swear!


Even my dummy dog Jake got in on the action, scavenging for goodies underneath the table. He didn't have to go far. I found out a couple years ago that the kids were slipping him scraps!


Soon enough, it was time to decorate the porch for Christmas! Again, I used things that I already had around the house. My poor Santa was so much worse the wear since he was always being blown over at the last couple places we lived. I had to use Gorilla Glue to put him back together. Almost good as new!




I loved how my lit tree looked through the window. The metal blinds inside the window panes made it look like lights were streaming down.


My honey, Pastor Mike, decided to do an advent series on The Christmas Carol and donned Ebenezer Scrooge-type jammies for a couple Sundays. Then he dressed as the Ghost of Christmas Future, complete with a Scrooge's headstone that he had crafted.



All three of my children and my son-in-law were here Christmas morning. I love that they are all adults now. They didn't even try to wake me until 10 in the morning. Later in the day, my brother Dave and my sweetie Mike joined us all for dinner.

I had it all set for Christmas with special plates, placemats and candles.


Here is the centerpiece that I found at Goodwill last year for only $3. I added a trio of candles that I purchased at a deep discount during post-season sales last year.


Yummy food! Candied yams, green bean casserole, and ham were among the goodies served.


Everyone looked ready to eat, including my brother Dave,my son Jared, and my sweetheart Mike.


My daughter Tara and her hubby Mike S. took their places at the table.

Dinner was good! Wow, I really love that empty box decoration in the background filled with stuff that was thrown in hastily after Christmas morning.

I had a home party in November, and got this cool beverage server. I put it in the freezer before so that it would keep the apple cider cold.


Mike's favorite gift EVER was this camera I bought him for Christmas! I'm so glad he liked it.


As you can see, he had a lot of fun with it.


So no pics of me? Okay, here is one from November on a day that Mike was visiting. He did a pretty good job as my photographer!


Hope that all of you had a great holiday season too, and a very Merry Christmas! I'll be visiting when I can.

Fall Holiday Fun

Wow, time has sure got away from me this last month! I am so far behind in blogging and visits. I just do not have the time for it that I used to have, so please don't think I am singling you out if I haven't come for a visit lately!

Anyhow, this last Thursday, my children and I got together in my home for a Thanksgiving dinner. My brother also joined us. This is the family picture that will be going on our Christmas cards.

From left to right, oldest son Sean holding Jake the dummy dog, daughter Tara and her husband Mike, myself, and youngest son Jared.

Here is another pic without the dog.


The table was all set for dinner with lots of yummy food...


...including these yummy pies that my daughter made!



My brother Dave carved the turkey.


During dinner, Sean looks at me with suspicion as Jared chows down. I set the table with lovely dishes, but he still prefers those old plastic Tupperware plates!


Dave looks all amused here. I don't know why his face is so red.

Actually, I think this is after my daughter played some silly ring tones on her new phone. There was one song I was completely unfamiliar with, and as I listened, I said, "Why are they singing about Vag-o-cream?" This, of course, brought out gales of laughter when my daughter told me what was really being said!

Here is Tara and Mike. This is not the best picture of her.


Guess that's why she took her own pic!


Anyhow, dinner was over much too soon. What does one do after such a filling meal? Snooze of course! Mike and Jake catch a few Z's.


Prior to Thanksgiving, there was Halloween! Yes! I am actually posting this a month late, lol. I haven't participated in Halloween for a great many years. This year, however, a friend invited me to a party, and I decided to go as a vampire. I am all caught up in the Twilight craze, and now in a series of books called the House of Night novels by P.C. and Kristin Cast. The first is called Marked, and I am wearing the crescent moon tattoo that all vamps have in that book.


I am so authentic as a vampire, that if you look closely, you can see real batwings on my upper arms!


Here I am with my friend Stacy who invited me. I love her eyes in this! She went as a dark fairy, complete with pointy ears and big copper colored velvety wings.


Her sweetie Brian is a wizard.


Here is Stacy with Angel, the spider woman! Her face makeup was really cool.


I also ran into an old friend Mickie with her beau Jason. He was a G-man and she was his moll.

It was great fun, probably the most fun I've had in a long time! I'll have to do this again next year.

Two more big holidays are yet to come! I can't believe the months are flying by so quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As of this morning, the turkey was stuffed, and now so are we. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by your loved ones. I had my usual holiday dinner with my children and my brother in attendance.


Here's a little table vignette. I wish I could say that I had a beautifully set table that would just dazzle you all, but this is about is good as it gets. The candle smelled darn good though, and lent a certain ambiance. The glass pumpkin with pumpkin potpourri smelled lovely also. I should probably have left the lid on for aesthetics, but then we couldn't smell the potpourri! Don't you know that if you don't cook the pumpkin pie you have to have something in the kitchen to smell like pie?

I bought these little pilgrims on sale after Thanksgiving a couple years ago. They came with a votive, but one got broken and the other is lost. I thought they were so cute, but after photographing them and looking at them more closely, they seem a little creepy with no mouths. At least they were quiet at the table. They didn't give us any sass, unlike the dog who shamelessly begged.

I am no Suzie Homemaker. Seriously. I hate to cook and clean. The following has been my solution for the past few holidays...turkey dinner in a box from Chief Supermarket! See it has everything: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie, dinner rolls, and green beans! So this is how we roll.

Of course, it came with a turkey too! All I had to do was heat everything up.


This is how we all looked after we had decimated the dinner table. We look pretty satisfied and satiated! My single brother is the fella on the left. My son Sean is in black, son Jared is in gray, and that is my daughter Tara and her fiance Mike on the right.


Here are my boys eating dinner rolls. I think that is their favorite part of each holiday meal as they had at least 3 rolls each.


Jared decided to change into a different shirt after dinner so we could take the family photo. I think that he is looking all GQ here. What a cutie!


Unfortunately, we had to wait while the camera charged as Tara ran down the battery while taking pics of herself with others. Here she is with Sean.


And here she is with her sweetie Mike. Pretend that there is a nice denim slipcover to cover up that butt ugly couch. It had been washed, and we ran out of time to put it back on.


My brother took pictures of us in the backyard. It is actually just above 40 degrees here and we are pretty cold.


I think I like this pic the best though. This will probably be the one that I use in our Christmas cards. I like that you can see the river in the background of this one.


My daughter and her fiance have moved to a town well over an hour away, so it was sure great to have them spend a little time with us, and it was also wonderful to have my brother come over as he doesn't often get the chance.

Time spent with loved ones...the perfect holiday!