An early Christmas gathering...

Due to all the busy schedules with my Thirty-One sisters, we decided to have our annual Christmas party yesterday. We had lots of great food. 

The ham and cheese sliders with spicy mustard was delicious. I could have sat and eaten the all night. 

I also loved a cheese dip that had bacon in it. I am going to get the recipe and I will share it with you when I do. 

The desserts were so decorative and delicious that I couldn't stop sampling them.

The banana pudding was out of this world.

This cake batter dip with Scooby snacks was really delicious.

My favorite was the brownies decorated like little Christmas trees. 

And the cupcakes decorated with a turkey.

There were lots of dips to try and some mini pigs in a blanket with some awesome sausage balls. 

We had an awesome time. 

Sunday Morning Songs

COMING SOON....Thanksgiving!

Is it just me or has November flown by? I can't believe this week is Thanksgiving. It's time to start cleaning the house for the family to visit. 

Old Tom is starting to defrost in the fridge.

A nice Kentucky Legend Ham is waiting to be covered in pineapples and brown sugar. I don't eat turkey, but I do love my ham.

The traditional jellied cranberry sauce is ready to be opened. 

Lot of preparation to do for the dressing, pineapple upside down cake and the various side dishes to go with the feast.

Couple of pies setting in the freezer ready to be prepared along with our standard of corn for just about every meal we have.

We did most of the shopping earlier this week on hubby's day off. I will finish up the few stragglers sometime today or Monday.

The Pyrex collection is ready to be used for all the mixin' and fixin' that will be going on next week as I make cakes and hubby fixes his potato salad and macaroni salad.

Sunday afternoon is my first Christmas gathering for my Thirty-One sisters. With Christmas being so hectic over the holidays, we opted to do our potluck dinner/gift exchange this Sunday. I'm starting to collect items for my gift to take. I had my friend over at Stevie Marie's make me this as part of the gift. I'll accumulate the rest of it today. I hope whoever ends up with it likes it. 

I'm working a couple of hours this morning to get ahead on some projects for next week so I can enjoy my four day weekend next weekend. Then I'm heading to East Knoxville to start a little Christmas shopping. Have a great day!

Blue about Black Friday

I am so blue about Black Friday. I started 9 years ago getting up early and being at Walmart at 5:00 to catch the early bird deals. I wish they would invoke a Federal Blue Law for Thanksgiving.



Why put myself through such a mad house? There was just something special about roaming around in the crowd, finding the perfect bargain and then waiting in the long lines to check out. I met some pretty neat people from all over the country while standing in check out lines. There is just something fun about seeing people smiling that time of the morning.



It was always a great kick-off to the Christmas season for me. I just couldn't wait to see the ads on Thanksgiving Day. I would sit down in the afternoon and glance through them before the kids come over for Thanksgiving dinner.



Then that night after everyone returns home, I grab a big old slab of graham cracker pie, a glass of milk, my ads and a pen and paper. I go through the ads of the places I plan to shop and make a list of what to look for.



Do I buy everything I go after? No, I don't. These are just my "starting point" on Christmas ideas. I do manage to get some good bargains. There is just something fun about being out in the mix of things the day after Thanksgiving. Then they had to go and ruin it. First, they started several years ago by "leaking" the ads early online. By the time I would get my Thanksgiving paper, I had already seen most of the ads so many times on line that I was sick of looking at them.



Then they started having the Black Friday sales starting on Thanksgiving evening. Now many stores are opening at 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving day. What part of the word FRIDAY do they not understand? Isn't Black FRIDAY called that because it starts on FRIDAY! Last year Walmart had items that were available at 8:00 on Thursday night, different items went on sale at 5:00 Friday morning, and yet again even more different items went on sale Friday morning at 8:00 a.m.



They have turned Black Friday into just another shopping day. But I will still make my lists. I will still go. And I will still enjoy it because it is officially my first shopping day of the Christmas season. I am just looking at it as the day I start really looking for bargains and getting my shopping started.

Throwback Thursday -

I love anything vintage, but especially vintage Christmas. Here are some of the items I remember from my childhood either at our house or at family and friends houses. I would love to know if you remember any of these from "back in the day". 

I love the little plastic deer. I am actually trying to find some of these to use in a craft idea this year. 

Who remembers the aluminum trees. We had one in one of my elementary class rooms once and I just thought it was the neatest thing. 

I loved these little plastic nativity sets. I actually have a nativity set collection and wish I still had one of these. They have a lot of them on E-bay so I may try to buy one if the price is right.

I love the Shiny Bright brand of Christmas ornaments. I still have some of these for my tree that belonged to my husband's grandmother.



I had forgotten all about these but I think we actually had one or somebody we knew did because I remember them very well.

And I know we had these. We used to love to get to help put them together and Mom would hang them in the doorways.



I loved these old cardboard fireplaces. I wonder if they even still make them.



Another favorite from my childhood. Mom used to always have them in the window.



I don't know if we ever had one but part of me thinks Mom did when we were older and out on our own but I'm not sure. I may have seen one at somebody else's house, but I do remember these.



Don't laugh, but I still cover my tree with icicles. There are so many memories of my childhood tied up in icicles that I cannot imagine doing my tree without them.


I love the big old C9 Christmas tree lights. I keep threatening every year to buy some for my tree but I never have yet.



So, how many of these did you have when you were younger?

This, that and the other

Sunday was a rainy, dreary day. On my way home from dropping off the grandbabies, I decided to pop into my favorite antique store. 

Wandering the aisles while listening to rain pounding on the roof was a great way to spend an afternoon. There were lots of sections that were overflowing with just an assortment of "stuff".

I did see a couple of areas that featured some Christmas items. But nothing I was really looking for.

I did see a box of Shiny Brights. I just wish they had not been all one solid color. 

Naturally, I had to check out some of the Pyrex, but didn't see anything in this section that caught my fancy.

I did see some pretty neat old rotary dial phones. 

When I finished checking out the downstairs, I went up to the second floor of the barn. This is my favorite floor. 

You never know what they will have up there. 

But I knew I would see some Pyrex. This is one of the pieces I am trying to trade for in one of my Pyrex groups right now. It looks like the trade may happen. I hope so because I really want this to make a small chicken stew in for hubby one day soon. 

There were some pretty divided dishes. I already have the snowflake pattern on the top, but I don't know what the bottom pattern is called. 

Seeing all this Pyrex, made me want to go home and fix something in one of my bowls. I couldn't think of a thing that goes better in Pyrex than a nice ice cream Sundae, so that's what I fixed. 

While I ate my Sundae, I sat on the couch and watched my favorite song from the CMA awards. "We Were Us." by Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert.

Seeing all that Pyrex made me hope for my trades to arrive soon. On Tuesday, I got the trade I have been waiting for. My new barbed wire divided dish arrived. I don't know what it is about this, but I have been wanting it forever. I am so happy it arrived safely.

Another pattern I want to get is the Shenandoah. I want the entire mixing bowl set and the entire Cinderella bowl set. I got the first mixing bowl, but it will probably take awhile to accumulate both sets since I rarely see this pattern around here anywhere. But a girl can always dream.