Excited....Elated....Energetic....Exhausted

Thankful thought of the day....Today I am thankful for energy.

Excited....Thursday was a day of great excitement and anticipation. I patiently waited for my family to come for dinner. We had a wonderful visit and I got to spend great time with them all.

Elated....I was thrilled when the nieces arrived and we planned our shopping expedition for Friday. It was so good to have them down and to get to do things with them.

Energetic.... I sat up Thursday night with the girls until 12:30. Then I watched Friends reruns in bed until around 1:30. I went to sleep and got back up at 3:45 with great anticipation for Black Friday. I was filled with an energy and excitement to "let the bargain hunting begin."

Exhausted.... Shopped Friday from 4:30 AM until 6:00 PM. Got up today at 6:15 and was out the door by 8:30. Shopped until around 3:00 today. Got home, soaked my bones, napped in the tub, ate a little supper. I am worn out. It's off to the couch to doze until bedtime.

Hope everybody has had a great weekend and will end it by attending church tomorrow. Have a great Saturday night.

'Nuf Said

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for..........

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for Thanksgiving Day.

The world looks around me as I struggle along

They say I have nothing, but they are so wrong.

In my heart I'm rejoicing, how I wish they could see

Thank You, Lord, for Your blessings on me.

There's a roof up above me, I've a good place to sleep.

There's food on my table, and shoes on my feet.

You gave me Your love, Lord, and a fine family.

Thank you, Lord, for Your blessings on me.

I know I'm not wealthy and these clothes are not new,

I don't have much money, but Lord, I have You,

And to me You're all that matters tho' the world may not see.

Thank you, Lord, for Your blessings on me.

                                                            

-------Lyrics by Jeff Easter



Dessert time!

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for dessert.

The tradition around my house is that I make the dessert for Thanksgiving and my husband cooks the dinner. He does make the graham cracker pie though, because I can't make it as good as he does. So today will be my day to bake. I'm starting off already with two batches of brownies in the oven.

Next, I'll whip up a batch of the no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. My grandmother always made them for us. My mom followed the tradition and now I get to make them for the my kids and grandkids. I may need to make a double batch of these as well since The Nieces are coming and it's their favorite.

I've been craving some peanut butter candy (not fudge). I'm going to make a batch of that as well. It is so easy, just milk and sugar to a soft ball stage, add peanut butter and vanilla and pour on a greased platter.

Next, I'll whip up Jamie's birthday cake. This year, she has requested Mamaw Eden's Hershey's Chocolate Syrup cake. It is so rich and good. It has a whole can of Hershey's syrup in the cake and Hershey's cocoa in the icing. It's to die for. You can make it in a cake pan or a jelly roll pan.

 Allen will make his graham cracker pie tomorrow. That's his day in the kitchen. It is one of those recipes passed down from my mom and no holiday is complete without the pie. It is simple to make, but I just get too impatient on the meringue so it never turns out good for me.

I hope you each and everyone have a wonderful, happy, filling Thanksgiving. Enjoy the day with loved ones. And remember the #1 rule to a happy home: Life is short, eat dessert first!!



(If you want the recipe for any of these items, just leave me a comment or send me an email.)

Excitement in the air

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for nieces and nephews.

There is an excitement in the air at our house. The holiday is approaching. We are cleaning house, making menus, making lists, and preparing for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. My children and their families will be over. I love when I get all my grandchildren together at one time. I'm going to shoot for a photo of all five of them. Colby is 7 1/2 weeks old and I have yet been able to get them all together in one photo. We'll see how it goes Thursday. I love Thanksgiving. The food is awesome and we get to spend time browsing through the ads to get gift ideas.

But this year, I have another reason to be excited. Three of my nieces are driving down to arrive late Thursday evening and will spend a couple of days with me. We are going to get up Friday around 4:00 to head out for Black Friday shopping. I am so excited to have them visit. Lori is in her early 30's and will be leaving her husband and two boys at home to fend for themselves. Amy is in her late 20's and will be leaving her goat and dog at home for her husband to take care of. Emili a senior in high school and will be leaving her high school woes behind. I've got to make some of the families favorite chocolate oatmeal cookies for the girls to have when they get here. I always make them for Thanksgiving. Every year, I leave the house around 4:30 AM on Black Friday, armed with shopping list, sale papers, a baggie of those cookies and a glass of milk.

I am so blessed to have nieces who look forward to spending time with their Aunt. We are going to have a fabulous weekend. This will be the first time just the three of them have visited by themselves. I'm so excited!

Christmas Decorations

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for Christmas decorations.

I love this time of year. There is nothing as festive as seeing lights on houses as you drive around at night. I've noticed in my town that more people are getting in the Christmas spirit earlier this year. Many already have their lights up and turned on at night. Some have been pulling their Christmas decorations out for the past few days, getting ready to decorate. I saw a fully decorated tree in one of my neighbors windows. I love Christmas decorations. I like to pick up little things to add to my decorations each year. I'm a Dollar Tree fanatic. Here are a few things I've picked up this year that I really like.

My new Christmas bells.

Each year the kitchen has a "theme". It has been blue & white with snowmen. It has been poinsettias. It has been gingerbread men. This year, I'm going with Santa. Here's my new spoon rest that inspired this years kitchen decor. I'll incorporate some of my "leftover" red and green in there as well. I just need to find a new tablecloth.

I love little pillboxes. I thought these were adorable. It isn't Christmas unless I have some nativity sets setting around. I'll put the child nativity one in the spare room where the kids hang out. We always decorate in there and let them put up a 4' tree.

With my love for sweets, I couldn't pass up this candy dish.

Those were all from the Dollar Tree. I want to decorate my guest bath, but it is done in pastels with birdhouse so I've not decorated it much before. Well, I found this towel and guest towel set at Kmart and it inspired me to do blue and snowmen in there. The blue is the exact shade of some of my other items in that bathroom. I'm going to look for a plain white lace shower curtain for the holiday.

And my last item didn't come from either of those places. It was a gift from my mother. It it exquisite. There is such fine detail and it has a shimmering shine of the finest glitter all over it. It has a switch on the bottom and lights up. The lights change color and it's gorgeous. My husband worked for a candle shop for years and made candles that looked like this. Mom knew it would be very special to me and I love it. It's going on my desk in my home office since I spend most of my day there.



Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for playtime.

One of my favorite quotes is by Oliver Wendell Holmes. He said "We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing."

I am thankful that God gave us a playful spirit and a fun loving nature. Many people mistake play and fun for something only the young can do. They think we must "grow up" "be mature" "act your age". Do I agree with this train of thought? Absolutely not. I think to play and have fun is to enjoy life. Continue to do the things you enjoy; even if they were a part of your childhood. I still like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. I can't go through the holidays without A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. Santa still fills my stocking every Christmas and the Easter Bunny still brings me a basket of goodies. (Of course, my hubby stays in close contact with both of them to make sure they know where to find me.)

I still love to play jacks and jump rope in the summer on the back patio. I still like having tea parties, rocking doll babies and dressing Barbie's. I can still shoot marbles and race matchbox cars with the best of them.

When my grandchildren visit, I don't stress over keeping the house straight or doing the numerous chores we each do every day. I like to veg out on the couch with them and watch Dora the Explorer. Or I like to try out their new toys and learn how to play with a Bey Blade (watch out if you get your hands on these, they are addictive.) Garret was laughing at me Friday night. I had never seen a Bey Blade. It's a new cartoon and has these neat gizmos like tops that you put in a launcher and pull the rip cord and they will spin. They "battle" each other. I was fascinated because they are simply a very high tech, high speed top. So I had to confiscate one and play in the kitchen floor half the evening. They are AWESOME.

As you can see, playtime is still fun time around our household. Mr. Holmes was so right. He knew the secret to the fountain of youth. Continue to play and enjoy life and you will remain young. What Mr. Holmes forgets to remind us is that being young is a state of mind, a spirit, an energy that comes from remaining youthful. What he should have added is this: "By playing, you will remain young at heart; but be warned. When you get up the next morning, your body will remind you exactly how old you are.