Christmas Officially Begins

We figured we should make the best of being snowed in and since we'd planned to put up the Christmas decorations on Saturday, we just made a weekend of it. We decorated the tree, Brad stoke the fire with the help of some fire-starting pine cones (thanks George & Virginia!), made some party food and baked cookies.

The cookies turned out to be much more work than I'd expected. We'd never done frosted cookies, but they always look so pretty I wanted to give it a try. I'd "accidentally" opened a Christmas gift from Mom Gilbert which conveniently had a cake/cookie decorating kit in it. So, I broke it out and made some frosting. The hard part was tinting and keeping the royal icing from drying out. They turned out pretty cute. My favorite is the bell with leaf in the 2nd picture, bottom left corner.

Sebring Sam

A friend of ours, Virginia Freeman, sent us a link to this photo on the Asheville Citizen Times website. Seems we have a Sebring connection with someon in Fletcher, NC!

December Snow

Last Friday, we awoke to snow flurries and a few inches of snow. It kept snowing and didn't stop! By the end of the day Saturday, we had 13 or 14 inches!

View from the front porch
Snow up to my shins!

Our side yard and the driveway covered in snow

Brad was optimistic before shoveling the driveway. 3 hours later, he huffed and puffed inside. While he was doing all the work, I made two super cool snow people. Any resemblance?

We were also entertained by the neighborhood pets traversing the road and yards. one black cat was "fetched" by its owner and whisked off in a pink blanket. This morning, the same cat attempted to stalk some birds (remember, it's BLACK) and every other step sunk to its belly in snow. When it tried to jump out and catch one bird, it face-planted in the snow. After that, it just curled up where it was and waited for someone to walk by and dig it out. Later on we saw it walking in the wheel ruts left by cars ... guess that's as good a camouflage as a black cat in snow can ask for. The neighbor's dog also took off into our side yard and after sinking to its shoulders in the white stuff, he backed himself out and stuck to the driveways and road.

The snow plow finally came through around 2pm today (Sunday) so we're hopeful we can get out tomorrow mid-morning. Our road is still pretty icy, but we've seen a few people go out and come back already. I think everyone's stir-crazy. Supposedly, we may have a wintry-mix on Thursday and freezing rain on Friday. I sure hope they're wrong. I'd much prefer a white Christmas. Guess we'll wait and see. There's enough snow on the ground to last a LONG TIME.

Christmas Cactus Blooms early

Brad thinks that my Christmas cactus has bought into the Christmas retail hype. I think it just got sick of the long, dark days and is trying to bring some cheer to my dreary dining room! Both of the cacti that I got last year at our Christmas open house are blooming abundantly. They are about the healthiest house plants I have right now!

Bradenton Beach

For some R&R after the wedding preparation, my dad offered us the use of his apartment at Bradenton, only a few miles from the beach. So, we packed up the day after the wedding and after a short detour to Cape Coral to attend worship at an awesome church (see eGraceChurch.com), we pulled into our getaway. We had ambitious plans of seeing the sites at points north and south including Mote Aquarium, Bishop's Planetarium, and the Ringling Museum, but when it was all said and done, we were content to sleep in as long at the golfers would let us (the apartment is on a golf course), and laze around at the beach. We did manage a lunch trip to Star Fish Market and took our shrimp po'boys down to the waterfront to enjoy. It was well worth the wait. Here are a few highlights from our trip.

Hanging out on the beach, checking out the sand sculptures.


Brad refused to get in the picture, so here I am with the main attraction - the sand sculpture next to the Beachhouse restaurant done for Sandblast 2009. My skin tone nearly matches the sand behind me! I think I'm officially a Yankee now.

Beautiful Wedding

This past weekend, we celebrated with my sister and her now-husband as they joined two families together in marriage. It was a beautiful time full of bittersweet emotions and joyous moments. Vickie and Jordan received a truly spectacular reception on their wedding day from the family, friends, and loved ones that were there to welcome them into holy union. It was hard seeing "little sis" as a blushing bride. At times, tears would well up and I'd get so choked up I couldn't speak or smile without losing composure. But we all made it through and I have to say, my hubby cleans up well! The whole day, we reminisced about our wedding day and it brought back some funny, and touching memories.

Below are photos of a few highlights of the day.

The really good photos were taken by a family friend and her husband, Ellie Skipper Kurz and Drew Kurz. I've only seen a sampling so far, but what talent they have! Their website is kurzstudiophotography.com

More of Youth Family Night at Heintooga

This fungus was growing from a tree we passed by on the nature trail.

I think Shelly said it was named "Artist's fungus"

Some cool moss growing on the forest floor speckled with some of the fallen leaves.

A picture from the "Sunset Spot"at Heintooga.

Youth Family Night

On Sunday, our youth sponsored a family night at Heintooga Picnic Area off the Blue Ridge Parkway. As part of our time together, we ate, played, and goofed off of course. The temperature at the top was probably in the 50s. It was a bit chilly in the shade!


The whole group (except Melinda who took our picture)


At the trail head

Shelly (near the front in the darker blue shirt) led us on the Balsam Mtn Nature Trail. She was an awesome guide!

I loved this tree whos bark was turning green from all the moss growing on it. Everything on the trail was damp and mossy, but so pretty. More pictures comin'!

Youth-isms

I sometimes wonder at the things our youth say. Working as a volunteer youth leader I hear interesting, thought-provoking, and unintentionally insulting things come from the mouths of teenagers.

• If God created humans, where did the dinosaurs come from?
• If God is for peace, then why did he destroy the earth with a flood?
• Did Jesus cuss when he ransacked the temple?
• Who created God?
• Why do I need to read the Bible? My parents never do.
• I love my enemies - just not the ones I don't like.
  
• We need youth helpers that aren't old - at least not any older than you
• I don't want old people to help with youth. They can't move around like should.
• You should get a cool car - like an Escalade!
• You have a lot of grey hairs. My mom is almost 50 and she doesn't have any grey hairs
• I sent 4,000 texts last month
• Muslims caused 9/11 (we did have a good discussion on this one)
  
• ...But I heard it from Glenn Beck! (oy vey)
  

There are tons more that aren't coming to me right now! I'm going to have to start keeping a journal of all these youth-ism and send them to our teens once they graduate high school.

My Favorite Recipe Websites

I love to cook - although I don't have nearly enough time to do it! It's sort of like therapy for me. One of my favorite past times is looking through recipe books, magazines, and websites and planning out a menu for the month. Geeky, I know. But in a strange way, it's therapeutic. It gives me a chance to block out all of the other stressers in my life and get down to the basics. It's even more fun now that I've started going to our local tailgate farmers market in Waynesville.

I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipe websites with you. After all, when you've found a good thing, why keep it to yourself?

Hungry Girl (healthy recipe makeovers) - www.hungry-girl.com
Simply Recipes - www.simplyrecipes.com
Recipe Zaar - www.recipezaar.com/

And just for fun:

Cake Wrecks - http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com (view at your own risk!)