Bragging!

Bare with me please!

I am a PROUD, Great-Aunt!

Isn't he adorable?

He was the life of the party. Sociable, adorable, intelligent and absolutely handsome. He takes after me. :0)

We have had so much fun!

The weather is VERY warm! Almost too warm. Warm enough to allow a few games of corn toss, a new Christmas gift for my dad.

FUN!

I have taken the opportunity to use my "new" Christmas toy.

A farm is a wonderful place to practice photography.
I'm hoping tomorrow's weather will cooperate and I will be able to hone my skills.

Everyone left tonight with the agreement that we would take family photos tomorrow after church. No bad attitudes allowed!

I love taking photographs, especially when you have agreeable models.

He loves books!

I told you he takes after me. :0)

May God Bless you!

From the Bluegrass State.

XOXO

Theresa

Off We Go!

We are headed to Kentucky!  

I can't believe it has been a year!  I didn't intend for it to be this long, somehow the days, weeks and months flew by and a year has left me.  

Before we leave I thought I would share with  you a few pictures of our 

blessed Christmas Day!

I have to tell you the story behind this photo. 

 DD was talking with her grandpa one morning this week and reminded him of when she was a little girl and would go for a visit.  He would get up in the morning and make her fried potatoes and onions.  She loved it!  

The next thing I know, she grabs her brother and heads to the grocery to buy a bag of potatoes.  The next morning she and Grandpa made fried potatoes and onions for breakfast.  

Yum! Yum!

Sweet memories!

XOXO

Theresa

Merry Christmas

This and That

One day to go!  Are you ready? 

 I think I am. 

 Had you asked me this morning, I would have had to say....."may.....be".  

Ashley and I created the ornaments below for my student aids at school.  Our school colors are maroon and white.  I think they turned out beautifully!  

A few days ago, we had a visitor from California.  Southern California.

She was a little shell shocked from the rain and cold weather when she arrived.  Dad B. has a sister that flew in to visit for a few days.  We all had a wonderful time.

I wish I could take credit for this cake.  We were suppose to have a dessert party at our house last weekend.  It was canceled due to a death in our church family.  I had ordered this red velvet cake from a retired school teacher turned baker.  Honestly, this picture does not do this cake justice.  It was absolutely beautiful!  and tasty!  I can't remember if it had 5 or 6 layers.  We only were able to eat small pieces and I wisely froze the rest.  I plan on getting it out of the freezer tomorrow and having it with our Christmas Eve dinner.

What are your plans for Christmas Eve?  

We will be having a beautiful communion service at church and then returning home for dinner and the kids will open gifts to each other.

We will read the first Christmas Story and reflect on the Reason for the Season.

I am so blessed to live in a house of faith.  I pray you are enjoying a beautiful, faith filled Holy Day.

XOXO

Theresa

Busy Week

I hope you are having a great week. Things are flying around here. We had a meeting after school today and I wanted to share with you photos of the work we did. Students went up behind the school and brought back greenery and pine cones for decorations. They made cookies, Christmas Tree appetizers, meatballs, chocolate chip cheese ball, punch and Wassail.
I was so busy, I forgot to get a close up of the trees. They were adorable.
Below: Other classes had their formal meal on Friday. In this project students are required to set the atmosphere and prepare a meal for a guest. One group made these beautiful Santa sleds. I am so proud of them. They worked really hard.

Snow theme.

Tree theme.

Old fashioned Christmas theme.

Mexican theme.

I have two more huge projects this week. I will take pictures and update. I wish you could be at school with me and see how awesome my students are. Have a great week!

XOXO

Theresa

Warning! Not for the weak stomach!

Only to me! I am the most graceful, careful, 40 something you will ever meet.

*sigh*

OK, I may be exageratting some.

Honestly, I was walking and the next thing I knew I was falling..... in slow motion. My brain was saying, "NO!" but down I went.

Somehow this lamp jumped out in front of me, the now twisted stand was caught between my little toe and the toe next to it. Yes, it feels just like it looks, black and angry. I was blessed with another snow day today which probably was a good thing.

I do return to school tomorrow and we'll see how the day goes. There are bruises in other places,...... I'll keep them a secret. LOL

On a more enjoyable note, we went to the movies tonight and saw "Four Christmases". I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love Reece Witherspoon and was expecting this to be a romantic comedy, which it was. The comedy wasn't exactly to my liking in places in other places it was so funny I laughed out loud. I guess what I am saying, if you have a free night and want to see a new Christmas movie this one is ok.

If you read this and have the opportunity to send up a quick prayer on my black toe's behalf, I would appreciate your help. I would rather it hadn't happened, now I am praying it heals quickly.

XOXO

Theresa

Quiet Sunday

Tonight my house is very silent.

The young people have left, one to his house in KY and the other two to college dorms. This was truly one of the most enjoyable Thanksgivings in my adult life.

C. came back to our house after lunch today and

helped me with the program that my photos were on.

These are better photos of our Thanksgiving table.

Again, Thank You to the anonymous giver of the beautiful fall centerpiece. Pictures do not do it justice!

Yes, you are seeing a Christmas tree in the dining room, and yes, it was up before we had Thanksgiving dinner. We have several events at our house during the holidays and it is imperative that I begin decorating while I am off for Thanksgiving break.
One more photo of the dining room.


I pray you have a blessed and productive week.

XOXO

Theresa

One Year Blog Anniversary!

It was one year ago today, that I began my journey into "blogland". how quickly time flies! I have enjoyed this adventure! I just wanted to say,

Happy Anniversary!

Also, I have a friend who's birthday is today. Rita, I hope you had a fantastic day!

XOXO

Theresa

P.S. You can click on the clip art and find where I found it. Enjoy!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your weekend is full of blessings and thankfulness!

I have had a time trying to upload photos to show you. We are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. All of my children are home and it is the first Thanksgiving since Mom and Dad B. moved in with us. We are blessed!

I have a much better photo of the table, unfortunately, it is not on this computer.

I will try and show it to you soon. C., DD's BF, has a new camera and it is AWESOME! He took photos with it and downloaded them to the desktop computer.

Please notice the beautiful centerpiece. It was sitting on my table when I arrived home from school on Monday. The card wished us a wonderful Thanksgiving, but did not tell us the name of the sender. A special thank you for sending us a gorgeous centerpiece to add color and freshness to our table. I really do have better pictures. I promise I will get them up soon.

Thanksgiving morning began when the two young people below left the house before 7:00 a.m. to run in the "Turkey Trot". I think they were disappointed that no one from our family went to cheer them on. I told them, I was "cheering" in spirit.

They had fun. They stopped and picked up C. on the way. He joined their "trot". They all seemed to have thought it was worth the cold mountain air and lack of sleep. DD said that she and C. talked while they "trotted" and were thrilled to be making room for the food that was being prepared.

Slow Cooker Heaven.

Do you have a slow cooker? My sister has always been a fan of her slow cooker. While I've also been a fan, I don't think I've been as creative as I could have been.

Let me tell you, this particular appliance saved my thanksgiving feast.

I have two such devices. One 4 quart, the other is 6 quart. I placed a turkey breast in the 6 qt. pot with a stick of butter, kosher salt and cooked it on high about 7 hours. Honestly, the turkey was so tender, you didn't need teeth!

I began looking through a slow cooker cookbook I picked up a few years ago when the bookman came by school. My family loves corn pudding. Who would have thought you could make that in a slow cooker?

I thought, why not?

Actually, I had to change the recipe due to the fact that this was a last minute idea and I didn't have what the recipe called for. My recipe was delicious! I wrote it down in the cookbook, hopefully, I won't forget how to make it.

I was on a slow cooker "high" when I opened the newspaper and began perusing the colorful sales ads for the after "Thanksgiving" adventures.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear?

A chain pharmacy, located not two miles from my house had slow cookers on sale for $9.99! I couldn't believe it! They were open on Thanksgiving Day!

My sister has always made her dressing in the slow cooker and I thought, if I only had one more SC, I would have more room in the oven. When DH came down for breakfast I convinced him that I could NOT possibly make dinner unless I had another, yes, you got it, SC! Another argument I used was that $10.00 was a lot cheaper than buying me a new double oven. He ended bringing home two more. They are 5 quart size. I am now the proud owner of 4 slow cookers. I realize there are some out there that will think I've lost my mind, there may be some truth to that, but I will remember this Thanksgiving as the one where the turkey, corn pudding and dressing were all cooked in a slow cooker and my family thought it was the best food ever!

To all my friends and family in other places, I wish we had spent Thanksgiving together. Please know that you are on my list of blessings. I love you all and am looking forward to Christmas.

XOXO

Theresa

We've already had two snow days.