HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here's a toast to the future,

A toast to the past,

And a toast to our friends, far and near.

May the future be pleasant;

The past a bright dream;

May our friends remain faithful and dear.

~ Anonymous

Cheers to you, Cheers to me, Have a Happy New Year’s Eve!

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George and I have never enjoyed going "all out" on New Year's eve. We're not big drinkers and it's crazy being out on the road. Luckily, we usually do something in our neighborhood, if we do anything at all. We still have a drink, we still have fun, and we're usually home in plenty of time to watch the ball drop in NY and to watch the fireworks in the village right from our front porch, usually in our pj's :-) The village is a couple of miles away, but we can see the fireworks easily over the treetops.

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Tonight our friend, Carol, is having her annual New Year's Eve party right here in the neighborhood, so that's where we'll be. She lives right across from the village and every year we all plan to walk over for the fireworks right before midnight, but everyone ends up heading home way before then. Who knows...maybe this is the year?

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I wish for you all a wonderful and SAFE New Year's Eve surrounded by those you love!

Kat

A NAP MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE

It seems I've lived in a perpetual state of exhaustion since before Thanksgiving. I haven't been getting my normal exercise, I've eaten terribly and I've been on the go constantly. I've stayed up too late and I've started my days before my mind and body was ready. And I feel discombobulated...sooooo much to do and I don't know where to start.

This morning after Mom and Sherry left, I tried to do a few things around the house, but honestly my heart wasn't in it. I finally gave in and just took a nap. A three hour nap. Awwww...much better. I think I'll do it again for the next few days. It can't hurt. Right?

Tonight we had dinner with our friends Jack & Linda and Jane and Ed.

Kat

FOOD, FOOD AND MORE FOOD

I don't know about you, but I can't believe how much I've eaten over the Holidays!! This is how I feel! I'm ready to get back on my regular "diet"....no more candy, cookies, ice cream, pie, etc. I actually feel a little queasy tonight!

This morning our friend Pauline met us for breakfast at Another Broken Egg. Afterwards, she came back to the house and played games with us. We had a ball.
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This afternoon Mom, Sherry, George and I took down and packed away all the Christmas decorations. Isn't it amazing how "naked" the house looks once everything is gone?
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Tomorrow morning Mom and Sherry will be leaving :-( The Christmas "hoopla" is over. No more shopping, decorating, baking, wrapping, etc. Kinda sad. Kinda nice. Know what I mean?



Hugs,
Kat

MAGIC CHRISTMAS IN LIGHTS

We had a wonderful time! Photos just can't do justice to the beauty we saw. I took over 200 photos. So much to see. I want to go back to see the gardens in the daylight. It was hard to see the flowers at night, especially with all the lights, but you sure could smell them. The smell of roses was incredible!

Click PLAY to begin and then click NEXT to view the photos. Enjoy.

Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat

THIS AND THAT

Like many of you, Mom, Sherry and I spent w-a-y too much time today doing some after Christmas shopping. They started a few hours before me since I had tennis this morning, but I joined them afterwards and we shopped, had lunch and then shopped some more. Between the tennis and the shopping, I'm pooped tonight! We shopped until we dropped!
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George and I buy a graduated string of pearls for each of our granddaughters when they are born. We give them the first inch on their first birthday and then another inch each year on their birthday. It's a tradition for us. My Mom did the same thing for our daughter, Bree. My daughter in-laws are both photographers so they took these wonderful photos of our three youngest granddaughters and gave them to us recently. Mom helped me hang them this afternoon and I'm thrilled. My photo of them doesn't do them justice. Thanks Angela and Jan! I love them! (photo is clickable)

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Tomorrow morning Mom, Sherry and I are driving to Mobile for the weekend to visit Bellingrath Gardens and Home for their Magic Christmas in Lights.

From their website:

"The holiday tradition continues as Bellingrath Gardens and Home celebrates Magic Christmas in Lights. Stroll through over 3 million sparkling lights and over 835 displays throughout the 65 acre Garden estate. The Bellingrath Home is decorated in its holiday finery and poinsettias encompass the Gardens. Nightly choral performances are held on the South Terrace of the Bellingrath Home."

I've got my camera packed.

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I miss you all. I haven't had much time lately to visit, but I will soon.


Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat

CHRISTMAS 2008

We always prepare a BIG Christmas morning breakfast...cheese grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits...and one of our traditions is to start the meal with grapefruit.

Here we are being silly while we wait for the biscuits to cook...nope that isn't wine this time...it's pomegranate and orange juice. It's so yummy.

After breakfast, we open our stockings and gifts. Look... we each got two this year! I fill George's and he fills mine. Plus, Mom and Sherry gave us one.

Mom and Sherry fill each others and I do one for them too.

Can you tell I get excited?

George was thrilled with the golf cart license plate I put in his stocking.

But, he was R-E-A-L-L-Y surprised by the "doodle" I gave him which was drawn by Rick of Organized Doodles. Rick did a great job!

Click on the photo to enlarge it...just look at all the fun details! Thanks Rick for helping me surprise George. As you can see, it's already hanging by George's desk in the office.

Back row: Linda, Jack, Jeanette, Garrett, George

Front row: Jeanette's mother, Tillie, Mom, Me, Sherry

Tonight it was wonderful to have friends join us for dinner. I cooked a turkey breast and we also had a Honey Baked ham, mashed potato casserole, squash casserole, corn, spinach, lima beans, congealed ambrosia salad, cranberry relish and hot rolls and butter. Dessert - Kentucky Derby pie, pumpkin pie and our spitz cookies.

Oops...looks like my head is blocking Mom! :-(

After dinner and dessert, it was wonderful to just sit and chat.

Thank you Lord for a wonderful Christmas with friends and family!

Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat

CHRISTMAS COOKIES 2008

It's time to bake our family's traditional Christmas spirtz cookies!!

We've got everything out and ready.

Something just doesn't seem right.....something is missing...

It's not something, it's SOMEBODY!

It's Bree! It's just not the same without her.

But... Bree would tell us "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it". See what happens when she's not here! Forgetting how to use the cookie press is another one of our traditions!
Success!
While Mom and Sherry struggle with the cookie press, I begin decorating.
The finished product....10 dozen delicious cookies!

Whine and wine!
CHEERS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat

HE IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON

I love this doodle Rick at Organized Doodles posted today. In our hustle and bustle to get ready for Christmas, it's important that we remember...HE is the reason for the season.

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Mom and Sherry arrived yesterday afternoon and we've been having a ball from the "get-go". We're doing our normal things....eating, drinking, playing games, laughing, cooking, etc. This afternoon we made hot Vidallia Onion Dip and enjoyed it with some hot crusty bread and red wine. Oh my!

Sher at Sher's Creative Expressions has posted a few times recently about making bread in her bread machine, so I asked for some of her recipes. I used to use my bread machine all.the.time, but I haven't used it for years. I dusted it off and we made some potato bread. Is there anything better than hot homemade bread??? Not to mention the wonderful smell. Thanks Sher for the recipes.

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I recently won a giveway by Natalie at Fl Home Blog. My package arrived yesterday. Look at the cute gift wrapping on my gifts. I think they look so cute next to one of my Santas. Thanks Natalie.

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It's so hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Wow...this month has really flown by. Tomorrow Mom, Sherry and I are making our Christmas cookies. Oh yes, for those of you who remember our tradition, our silly hats and aprons have been unpacked. There will be photos!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat

OUR WHIRLWIND CHRISTMAS WEEKEND

We're home....happy, but EXHAUSTED!

It was a true whirlwind of a trip. We got to see all of our children and grandchildren and almost everyone in my family. How blessed I feel!

Here's a bit of our weekend...in no particular order.
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Three of our grandchildren (Eric and Angela's) were in a Family Theatre production called "A Night of Children's Plays". There were 7 different short plays and 6 of them were written by children.

Here's a photo of the choir members. Our granddaughters were adorable. Kaley Grace is in the black dress and Sydney Anne is in the center with the white shirt and pigtails.

Here's a short video. I think they sounded pretty darn good!



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In "The Tale of the Lost Sheep" our grandson, Landon, plays the wolf.

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In "Christmas Animals", Landon played a dog...he's the one with the long ears in the black outfit.

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This was my favorite. In "The Further Adventures of Zip the Magic Dragon: Zip Meets Indiana Bones", Landon played another dog - Indiana Bones (instead of Indiana Jones)...how cute is that?! These photos didn't turn out that great because of the lighting. Darn...you can't see how cute he looks with his long doggy ears and his Indiana Jones hat.

I didn't get a photo of it, but it was really cute to see all the "actors" walk around and sign autographs after the play. Of course, I now have my autographed program in with my keepsakes.

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It was a great Saturday for our son's Finger Football game. Zelosport held a Finger Football tournament at Peachtree Mall in Columbus right outside Macy's entrance. There were 32 tables of players and lots of excitement.

Here's Eric showing the "check" to be presented to the winner.

Eric and George before the games begin.

As you can tell from the photos, everyone was having fun....girls, guys, every age.

The tournament was covered by CNN and the local news. If I find out when it will be shown on CNN, I'll let you know.

Check out all the fun games by clicking here.

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I stopped by to visit Bet aka "Other Mother". She was thrilled with her Christmas gift. She loves pink flamingos and she loved the t-shirt I found on our New England trip. You won't believe her Christmas decorations. I took lots of photos, but I don't have enough time to show them tonight. I'll do a separate post later.

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Mom's annual family Christmas party was so much fun, but CHAOTIC - BIG TIME!

There was over 40 of us. I had my camera, but it seemed my hands were always full of something...gifts, food, a drink, or a grandchild! LOL

Here's Mom passing out her stockings. Yes, she does one for every single one of us.

Here's just one photo of part of the crowd. See George there in the middle laughing at me even trying to take a photo in the middle of the chaos. There were people EVERYWHERE!!! Most of the little ones were on the floor between George and me. Plus there was more standing in the kitchen. Chaos...pure chaos. And loud too.

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I must admit it was a little disappointing for George and I that we couldn't have all our children and grandchildren together for breakfast or lunch like we did last year, but we just couldn't make it work out with everyone's schedule this year. So....we celebrated with each individual family at one time or another during our whirlwind trip.

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I didn't get photos of when we opened stockings and gifts with Kim and Mike and our 3 oldest grandchildren yesterday...too much going on.

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Last night after Mom's party we got together with George and Jan and the kids. Here's Dalton, Karrigan and Carson opening the stockings we filled for them. Karrigan was so excited this year.

This morning we celebrated with Eric and Angela and the kids at their house. Angela made a wonderful big breakfast for us.

It was fun watching Sydney Anne, Kaley Grace and Landon open their stockings and gifts from us.

We're tired, but oh so blessed! Thank you Lord for our family.

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Speaking of how tired I am...I'm off to bed. I've got tennis in the morning and then my Mom and Sherry arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. We're so happy that they will be here for the Holidays.

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas hugs and kisses,
Kat