Christmas 'round here...

We are having a grand old time getting ready for Christmas!  We went to the mall to see the decorations there, did a little shopping, got Chick fil-A for supper and Larry asked Santa something...and of course, I wasn't privy to that conversation but I swear I heard the words "pink Pyrex".  :)

We've been looking for a nativity to put out front in the yard but nobody has one!  I bet we'll be on the lookout for one next year at all those estate sales and yard sales we'll be going to!  I found an adorable little set at yonderstar.com and although we could have gotten it for a less expensive price somewhere else, I liked that they donate 10% of their profit to The Nature Conservancy and Food For The Poor, as well as nearly a dozen other causes, all to help children, the disabled, fair trade, nature or the environment.  I'm all about that.

Here they are!

 

We've been out looking at Christmas decorations, too, and have plans to go see the Tripp Family Christmas Lights next week.  We saw this house that has hundreds of hard plastic blowmold outdoor Santas, snowmen, nativities, candy canes, just all kinds of stuff.  (Larry just reminded me that they didn't have no Pooh Bear!  Ha!)

It was amazing.  All the way around their house.  

I told Larry that's gonna be us in five years!

We watched Rudolph...

Banjo's been in reindeer training for months.  He's been practicing his reindeer moves, as I call 'em, jumping and running and trying to fly.  He got his antlers today!  He'll be ready come Christmas Eve, I just know it!

I found these amazing vintage Christmas ornaments today at Goodwill.  For two dollars.  

We've been putting up signs.  You know, 'cause signs.  :)

 


And we've been wrapping a freckled little Baby King in a blanket 'cause it's cold.

Decking the Halls (and the Schneiders!)

Ha!  How do you like my little play on words?  Decking the Hall, that's ME!  :)

We have been as busy, busy, busy as Professor Hinkle writing, "I am very sorry for what I did to Frosty" a hundred zillion times so maybe, just maybe he'd find a new hat under his tree Christmas morning.  

We got our tree Monday afternoon, a beautiful Frazier fir (my favorite!) and got it up and decorated, Larry spent all day Tuesday putting up lights outside and we decorated the inside the past two nights.  Whew!  Maybe we're finished...

Here's the house!

I've had this Pooh Bear for ten years.  It was given to me by my cousin, Kim, when his kids outgrew it.  This is the first year Pooh has been lit up!  Larry fixed him up with his own light today.

Sweet little snowman that we picked up at a yard sale last summer.  

 And my old Santa Claus, who follows me everywhere.  :)

I borrowed this idea from Miss Margaret (Corley).  She has pictures of four of my beloved aunts and uncles at a Christmas party at her house in the 60's.  I just love those pictures!  So I hung tinsel garland over the opening from the living room to the kitchen and hung vintage ornaments on it.  Vintage ornaments that I got at an estate sale last summer ten for a dollar.  These six are all that survived.  They have hairline cracks and are verrrrrrry fragile and I broke four of them trying to put them up.  I don't expect these six to be long for this old world either so I'm going to enjoy them as long as I can, especially since my 6'4" husband hits his head on them coming and going.  :)

I just love this pink one!

And I love how my tea cart turned out!!  It's perfect for displaying the vintage Christmas stuff I've collected this year!

Here's Santa all lit up! 

Larry found this beautiful vintage Hazel Atlas egg nog bowl and cup set at a yard sale for three dollars!  

I've replaced the every day dish towels with Christmas ones and we've wrapped a few presents.  When I think back to about this time last December and how much has changed since then, I want to slow it down and savor every minute of this Christmas.  We were rushed to get a tree, rushed to get things done at the last minute.  Not this year.  This year we are going to enjoy every second of this beautiful, magical month!

Lots to be thankful for

We had the most wonderful of Thanksgivings.  Larry and I have SO much to be thankful for.  This was our first Thanksgiving together, in our new home, and our families were coming to celebrate with us and help us give thanks for this amazing, incredible year we have had. 

This Thanksgiving was also the first time I had ever roasted a turkey.  Crazy, I know.  Forty-seven years old, never cooked a turkey.  I've just never had to.  Mama always does the turkey and the dressing.  This year, though, since we were hosting dinner in our new house, Larry and I decided we'd roast the turkey.  We were excited to try out our new roasting oven so we got up at 5:30 and rubbed that turkey down with butter and seasoned him up good and I stuffed bunches of rosemary, thyme and sage in the cavity.  That was the extent of my "stuffing" that turkey.  It's dressing down here in the south and we make a pan of it and serve it beside the turkey.  It gets nowhere near, ahem, that area.  It's okay if you do the stuffing thang, we just don't.  Okay, so we get that sucker all ready and put him in the roaster and start the clock.  The instructions say for a boy this big (22.1 pounds!), he is to cook at 350 degrees for 4 1/2 hours.  Well, I'll just tell y'all it's a good thing I watched his temperature like a crazy woman with a pointy meat thermometer because he was DONE in just under three and a half hours.  We started him out breast down and after three hours, that breast was 165 degrees.  We took him out, flipped him over onto a roasting pan and put him in the regular oven to brown another half hour.  He was completely done and registering 175 by that time.  We could have easily taken him out of the roaster at 2 hours and browned for 30-45 minutes.  Just giving y'all a head's up in case you ever want to buy/use an Oster roaster oven.  The instructions are wrong.  We'd a'been eating sawdust and dressing if we had followed those instructions. 

He was beautiful!!  Brown, juicy and delicious.  Not one place on him was dry.  Here's Larry carving him up!

We also cooked a 12-pound ham and I added a brown sugar glaze once it was done.  It was most yummy!!

Mama made this adorable cake (red velvet, my favorite!) for us.  

 Here are me and my mommy right here!

I used as many of my vintage dishes to serve in as I could.  This one is from a set of three Glasbake dishes that Rhiana and Juan got for me at an estate sale in Atlanta last weekend!  I'd seen the sale advertised online and Larry and I just couldn't go.  We were both nursing some ailments, Larry's back and my neck. So we asked them to go and I said to just get me one piece if they were even still there.  Not only were the pieces all still there but they got me all three pieces, plus a bunch of ramekins and soup bowls with lids, too! 

I steamed some fresh asparagus with lemon butter and I thought they were just perfect for that Green Floral Daisy dish!

We had a feast!  Sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, bacon-wrapped green beans, zipper peas, homemade mac and cheese, roasted potatoes, sweet peas, those delicious Mennonite dinner rolls and Mama made about a dozen sweet potato and pumpkin pies.  I know I'm forgetting something!  Feast, I tell ya!

Juan, Rhiana and the girls stayed with us until this afternoon and we so enjoyed having them.  We had so much fun!  We planned a few activities to do with the girls and we had a great time making memories with them.  We may have even started a few traditions!

We made a gingerbread house!

And Emma and I drew pictures with sidewalk chalk...

While Paw Paw and Elizabeth made a birdhouse.

And Paw Paw showed both girls how to build a cotton ball snowman!

We watched Fried Green Tomatoes, Frosty The Snowman, Christmas Vacation and Forrest Gump and Juan and Larry even ventured out for a quick trip to Walmart last night. 

We had such a great time.  We talked and we laughed and we played and we ate and we laughed some more.  

Yep.  Lots to be thankful for this year.

Settling in

We are just about done!  Larry's working in the garage today, I'm roasting a chicken and unpacking THE LAST BOX!  I want to get the carpets shampooed today but may not get there.  I've done something to my left shoulder and I'm in a good bit of pain.  I might just take it easy today.  It is Sunday, after all.

We have worked pretty much nonstop unpacking boxes and arranging things.  If we hadn't had to stop and clean every single surface, we'd be done by now.  Everything was covered in 2-3 inches of dust and grime and we got the last of the ceiling fans cleaned last night.  I knew I was going to have to clean to get the house up to where I wanted it but I never expected to find it the way we did.  Oh well, now I know it's clean and as Larry calls it, "Ginger clean".  Ha!  This house is too beautiful not to keep it up and keep it clean and that's what I'm going to do.  Live and learn, I guess.  And don't expect anything, that way you won't be disappointed.  I've had to really pray about this because I've felt way more anger and animosity than I should have.  I just wouldn't do that to someone and would never expect it to be done to me.  But it was and as disappointing as it was, I'm dealing with it.  I finally got the floors mopped and the last of the blinds and light fixtures scrubbed yesterday.  This house is clean now and I guess that's what really matters.  Time to move forward!

I had my coffee out on the deck this morning and I used the opportunity to take a few pictures, in the peaceful quiet of a gorgeous fall Sunday morning.  Tabbie Hoffman joined us for about a minute and then he was ready to go back inside.  He's still not completely comfortable and spends most of his time under our bed. 

Larry hung my mushroom birdhouse from the magnolia.  Perfect spot! 

I've been a little intimidated by my fancy new Kenmore Elite oven so this morning, I made blueberry muffins.  Something easy, something fast and they turned out pretty dang good.

 

We're having Thanksgiving here this year.  We wanted to have our whole family together in our new home to celebrate and give thanks for this amazing year we have had.  I decided I'd better try out the oven before I try to cook that turkey!  So we're having roasted chicken and potatoes, veggies and pumpkin pie for an early supper today and from the smells coming from that kitchen, I'd say I figured it out just fine.  

We have moved!

Whew!!  What a crazy week.  We closed on our new house Tuesday, started moving in Wednesday and we have been nonstop ever since.  We have pretty much gotten the big stuff in place and now we're tweaking and fine tuning and putting pictures up and stuff like that.  We are wore slap OUT.  And sore in places we didn't even know we had, our backs are stiff and cranky but our hearts are full and content.

We had such a fun Halloween!  There are tons of kids in this neighborhood and we sat out on the porch and Larry gave out the candy. 

Here he is waving at the neighbors.  And eating Troy burgers.  Thanks, Mama and Daddy!

My favorite trick-or-treater, sweet little Lion.


 
And his sister, Dorothy.

I took this shot of Larry and Banjo that I absolutely love.  

We had a cold front blow in Friday night and I do mean blow in.  Like 30 mph winds!  It was so cold yesterday but has warmed up a lot today.  We suffered our first damage from the wind, too, a slat blew out of the fence and Larry's out there now repairing it.  And talking to neighbors.  :)

We're taking it a little easier today, resting up from four exhausting days, and decorating a bit.  I put the German cuckoo clock up.  And sure enough, it's set at 2:24.