December happenings around here

I had planned on having someone come over today to learn about how I do my work because she is thinking about getting into doing what I do for a living. She had to cancel today, so Aunt Sue and I took off over to SanDestin to go to the new Sephora store. We had never been to one...let's just say it was FUN to be in there and see so much make up and other beauty items. Definitely somewhere we'll be going back to when it's not so crowded like it was today.

We ate lunch at Tommy Bahama Cafe. Always a good lunch there.

We ordered a crispy fish sandwich. This is what arrived. If we had known it was going to be so big, we would have shared it.

We had the crab bisque. It was so good.

I took my leftovers home, but Aunt Sue didn't want to take hers. She was able to eat more of her fish than I was.

I got a new tablecloth and placemats for Christmas day. I used my Christmas china. It was the first year I used the glasses. I bought them at a Gail Pittman outlet store a few years ago. For Christmas dinner, we had beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, cherry and coke congealed salad, sweet potato casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, cornbread dressing, macaroni and cheese and rolls. For dessert we had praline pecan cake. It was a lot of food and so good. I sent leftovers home with everyone.

This is my daddy opening his gift from mama. It's a keyboard. He knows how to play the piano and organ. He grew up with those. But he wanted to practice, so mama got him this. This is the only picture I took of any of us opening gifts.

We babysat the neighbor's dog on Christmas day. Aunt Sue went over with me and the husband to check on them in the afternoon. I took her picture in their back yard. It's so nice back there.

Our nephew's doggy stayed with us for a week at Christmastime. He is a good boy, but he got into a few things while he was here.

Merry Christmas

Lily and Emma wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve on Pensacola Beach

The husband and I walked out on the beach near sunset today. It was a beautiful day today.


My Christmas present this year was a camera that I bought back in October. I took it to North Carolina. I have not been impressed with the pictures I'm taking and I'm hoping it's just me and not the camera. I have not read the instructions yet. I have not even made a video with it yet either. So I'm not going to give it a thumbs down yet until I see if it's me and not the camera.

Here is a picture of a condo. I was standing down near the water.

Here is the balcony on one of the units. I zoomed in. I really like how well it zooms in.

Annual Trip to Celebrations

Aunt Sue and I took our annual trip to the gift shop/florist in Pensacola. I love seeing what they have every year. I did not buy anything this year. Here are lots of pictures of what we saw in the gift shop.

Aunt Sue in her kitchen!

Cookie Swap 2011

Aunt Sue and I attended a cookie swap over at a friend's house on December 17th. It was fun. I made double chocolate peppermint cookies. Here is the recipe.

2011 Christmas cookie first attempt

I've been seeing cookies on pinterest and thought I'd like to try making some. I jumped in and bought cookie cutters and some decorating tools. Aunt Sue and I made cookies and she decorated them mostly. My decorating skills need a lot of work. Her skills are much better. It will take many more practice runs before we're comfortable giving them to someone as a gift. I think we'll just send them to work with my husband until we get better at it. But I made some royal icing and it was a huge failure. I think I put too much egg white powder in it. It was BAD. And it was A LOT! Had to start over. So much to learn and the only way to learn is to jump in there and make all the mistakes and get it out of the way.

Here is our 2011 first attempt at cookie baking and decorating.

mama's big and little girls

Just dropping in to show these two beauties in their Christmas dresses by Punchy. I got a picture to make Christmas cards with and will be sending them out soon. I'm late with everything this year. MIL has been here visiting and I was sick for a while. Having Christmas dinner for husband's family this Thursday evening. Looking forward to seeing the little ones. There are three now from our nephew and his wife. And our niece and her husband are expecting twins next year. Looking forward to finding out if it's girls or boys. They already know they are identical.

These two are my little loves. Emma is mama's big girl and Lily is mama's little girl. They are getting along so much better now. It just took a little time for Emma to come around. They like to sit in the same bed when it's cold. They are are snuggling in the bed at night, too. I miss having a good boy in the house, but also nobody is lifting their leg on the furniture. That's a good thing.

Last day in Blowing Rock

Our last full day in Blowing Rock had us going over to Grandfather Mountain. I loved it. The elevation is high and the air was really cool. I never got hot, and I never felt real cold either. I would love to live up that high in the summertime.

There was an area for some animals to live that cannot be in the wild on their own. I liked the bears. I enjoyed seeing them close but not too close. The backdrop of the color of the trees was amazing. We later found out that it was peak leaf color that day at Grandfather Mountain.


This picture shows a lot of the pretty color.
Aunt Sue and I saw this little rabbit. Can you find it? It's on the edge of the walkway right in the middle of the picture.
We went to the top where the swinging bridge is located. I wasn't going to cross the bridge but decided I would. It wasn't so bad if you could keep walking and NOT LOOK DOWN. I did stop to take some pictures while I was on there. I didn't see the sign that said only 40 people on the bridge at a time. So I didn't know to count...but what can you do if you're on that bridge and more than 40 people are on it with you? On the way back across the bridge to get off, I was behind someone who was SO SLOW. I thought to myself that if this bridge snaps and we all fall, I could have been off of it if I not been behind this slow person.
Aunt Sue in the middle of the bridge. You can see the sign on the floor that says you're 1 mile up in the air.
We then left the top and drove just a little way and stopped for a picnic. Cheese, crackers, hummus, fruit, cookies and chocolate.

We went back to Kristie's house and did some more crafting. We then went to eat dinner at a BBQ restaurant. We drove back to Kristie's for a little bit and then left to go back to the Crippen. We didn't sleep too well and woke up real early. We were back up to Kristie's before the sun came up to pick up Julie. Then we drove to Atlanta to pick up Lily at the foster home. I always enjoy going to Atlanta. We stopped at Trader Joe's to get some things. Julie was so funny. She had her buggy filled in about 10 minutes. I was shocked at how fast she shopped. After we picked up Lily, we headed home. We got home right before dark. It is a long drive.

We had a wonderful time. I will always think of this trip and remember how much I enjoyed my friends and Blowing Rock. Thanks to Kristie and her husband for hosting this trip.