Happy Thanksgiving Family and Friends!
I love, I mean I LOVE Thanksgiving. Honestly, what could be better than spending the whole day with your people talking, laughing and eating? Nothing I can think of.
Today already D and N have run the Annual Half-Marathon Turkey Trot; 13.1 miles of beautiful Atlanta scenery. Both finished in less than two hours. Seriously, 13.1 miles in two hours? It would take me two days. I'm so very proud of both of them really. I'll just say that the best part about running that far on Thanksgiving is that you can eat absolutely anything you want the rest of the day. And according to them, they plan to.
After getting home from the race, I made a bee-line for the kitchen. I have two assignments for supper. 1. Crunchy Cranberry Salad. I've made this salad every year for as long as I can remember. I'm not a fan of the jelly-ish substance than comes out of the can so I had to come up with a suitable substitute using cranberries. It's a congealed cranberry salad involving strawberries, pineapple and pecans. And oh, this is so very good. I actually made it yesterday and have it chilling in the frig. It's better the second day anyway. 2. Sweet Potato Casserole. I'm not sure I've had the sweet potato assignment before but I am all about it. Actually, I've probably been a little bit of an over-achiever with my assignment. I've made not one, not two but three sweet potato dishes. They would be as follows: a. The Traditional Casserole, baptized in butter, brown sugar and pecans; Praise Jesus. b. Sweet Potato Tart I: pecan/graham cracker crust with an interesting combination of sweet potatoes, whipping cream, butter and honey for the filling. For the topping, Tart I will have pecans, coconut and marshmallows. c. Sweet Potato Tart II - same as Tart I with just marshmallows. Oh at the goodness.
One down side of going to the Turkey Trot is that I don't get to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But my trusty DVR should have it on the queue so I'm not too upset. I'll settle in this weekend sometime with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy every minute of it. I've also recorded Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Classics, you just can't miss them.
Another Thanksgiving weekend tradition I'm so excited about is Black Friday shopping with my girl. After supper tonight we will get all of the ads together and make a game plan. One thing we do know is that you have to have a plan. We will not be starting at midnight tonight by the way. Although our start time is not confirmed yet, I will tell you that we will have breakfast at Chick-fil-A. Oh and get this. My girl got us some sort of deal on the internet where we have priority parking at the Mall. And every body said amen.
I've always considered it a blessing that I was born and married into a family that doesn't fuss when gathered together. Granted there have been some tense times because let's face it we are just as human as we can be. Some more than others.:) But overall, I love the people God has put in my life. And I am so thankful for each and every one of them. I have the best husband, children, parents, in-laws and friends a girl could possibly have. It's a marvel really. But the thing that I am most thankful for is that God loves me and wants a relationship with me. I feel so unworthy. So very unworthy. But so very thankful. This verse has been in my head all morning: "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34
So I'm giving thanks to the Lord for He is Good! His Love endures Forever!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
What I Love about November 2011
Last night about 9:00 my sweet girl sent me a subtle little text message that simply said "going through blog withdrawals." Well, as sweet as that was, I knew I had to get back in the blog saddle. Because truly if she were the only one who read it, it would be worth it. That's why I blog. Someday, maybe she and some other family members might look through all these ramblings and catch a glimpse of what I'm all about. Which is a scary thought in itself.
I know I'm a little behind but let's talk about November.
1. The month started off with a great trip to Atlanta to the Cash and Carry Mart. Honestly, it's a bunch of women (and I mean a bunch of women) surrounded by scarves, jewelry, pocketbooks, bags, house accessories, gifts and tons of other very good things as far as the eye can see. We shopped til we dropped.
2. The first weekend of November was Marketplace at the Civic Center benefiting our medical facilities here in Gainesville. I met some friends there for a little bit of walking, talking and shopping and then we added a few more girlfriends and headed for the hills. Yep, you guessed it - it was Girls Weekend!! yay and woohoo! We headed up to one of the girl's beautiful family home where we sat by the fire, talked, ate and enjoyed the most beautiful display of God's fall version of creation. It was magnificent! The whole weekend was awesome. A great time to relax and recharge.
3. Last Wednesday night, D and I headed down to Atlanta to have dinner with my adopted sister and her precious son and daughter-in-law. Just a reminder that this is the son who we saw marry this darlin' girl last April in the middle of the ocean. We just love them so much and it was great to lay eyes on them. We laughed, cried and laughed some more all in the course about three hours. Oh, and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and we had cheesecake and it was the Turtle cheesecake and we ate every bite of it and it was delicious. The end.
4. Last Thursday, I attended the Challenged Child Brunch and Fashion Show with some very special ladies: my momma, my girl, my girl's mother-in-law, and the ladies in the Operations Division at the store. What a great group of women to enjoy food and fashion with! I had two epiphanies at this event: 1. if I were about 5 inches taller I could wear anything and look good in it and 2. the chocolate dessert we had should be illegal.
5. On Saturday, one of my best buddies and I decorated the office for Christmas. It was great to spend the day with my friend and by the time it was all said and done, we had just about got ourselves in the Christmas spirit.
6. This decorating has to be done early because tomorrow night is the annual Jingle Mingle on the downtown Square. There's food and drinks and the stores are open late. I love strolling around the Square hand in hand with my sweet husband surrounded by the Christmas lights.
7. And guess who will darken our door this Friday afternoon? My big ole boy! I'll have a little over a whole week to spoil him. This momma can hardly wait.
8. Saturday the Party Girls (our unofficial name) and I will be loving on some very special women at New Beginnings. Perhaps I should explain the term Party Girls. A group of ladies from our church get together and provide birthday cake and ice cream; hair cuts and spa treatments for hands and feet to about 50 ladies who are in a transitional home. Therefore, we have a big ole party with these ladies and they love it! This ministry is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I'm so looking forward to getting up there and throwing some birthday fun around and pampering these ladies. Love them.
9. There will be more to come about this but on Thanksgiving Day, N and D will be running the Turkey Trot half-marathon in downtown Atlanta. E and I will take the opportunity to do something not related to running 13.1 miles.
10. Thanksgiving - there's so much to say about this day. I'll share more later.
11. Black Friday. Yes, E and I will once again brave the day with the crazies. We love it. The key to enjoying this day is to just not take it too seriously. If you do, then all the fun is lost. I just go to spend time with my girl and because that is the primary goal, we have a great time.
I'm going to end with 11 because I'm just liking 11 right now. So there you have it. November in a nut shell. Which reminds me I toasted a bag of pecans last night because I made a Pumpkin Pecan Pie (which was about an 11 on the delicious scale). These make such a great snack. I think I'll have some right now.
Have a great Wednesday.
I know I'm a little behind but let's talk about November.
1. The month started off with a great trip to Atlanta to the Cash and Carry Mart. Honestly, it's a bunch of women (and I mean a bunch of women) surrounded by scarves, jewelry, pocketbooks, bags, house accessories, gifts and tons of other very good things as far as the eye can see. We shopped til we dropped.
2. The first weekend of November was Marketplace at the Civic Center benefiting our medical facilities here in Gainesville. I met some friends there for a little bit of walking, talking and shopping and then we added a few more girlfriends and headed for the hills. Yep, you guessed it - it was Girls Weekend!! yay and woohoo! We headed up to one of the girl's beautiful family home where we sat by the fire, talked, ate and enjoyed the most beautiful display of God's fall version of creation. It was magnificent! The whole weekend was awesome. A great time to relax and recharge.
3. Last Wednesday night, D and I headed down to Atlanta to have dinner with my adopted sister and her precious son and daughter-in-law. Just a reminder that this is the son who we saw marry this darlin' girl last April in the middle of the ocean. We just love them so much and it was great to lay eyes on them. We laughed, cried and laughed some more all in the course about three hours. Oh, and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and we had cheesecake and it was the Turtle cheesecake and we ate every bite of it and it was delicious. The end.
4. Last Thursday, I attended the Challenged Child Brunch and Fashion Show with some very special ladies: my momma, my girl, my girl's mother-in-law, and the ladies in the Operations Division at the store. What a great group of women to enjoy food and fashion with! I had two epiphanies at this event: 1. if I were about 5 inches taller I could wear anything and look good in it and 2. the chocolate dessert we had should be illegal.
5. On Saturday, one of my best buddies and I decorated the office for Christmas. It was great to spend the day with my friend and by the time it was all said and done, we had just about got ourselves in the Christmas spirit.
6. This decorating has to be done early because tomorrow night is the annual Jingle Mingle on the downtown Square. There's food and drinks and the stores are open late. I love strolling around the Square hand in hand with my sweet husband surrounded by the Christmas lights.
7. And guess who will darken our door this Friday afternoon? My big ole boy! I'll have a little over a whole week to spoil him. This momma can hardly wait.
8. Saturday the Party Girls (our unofficial name) and I will be loving on some very special women at New Beginnings. Perhaps I should explain the term Party Girls. A group of ladies from our church get together and provide birthday cake and ice cream; hair cuts and spa treatments for hands and feet to about 50 ladies who are in a transitional home. Therefore, we have a big ole party with these ladies and they love it! This ministry is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I'm so looking forward to getting up there and throwing some birthday fun around and pampering these ladies. Love them.
9. There will be more to come about this but on Thanksgiving Day, N and D will be running the Turkey Trot half-marathon in downtown Atlanta. E and I will take the opportunity to do something not related to running 13.1 miles.
10. Thanksgiving - there's so much to say about this day. I'll share more later.
11. Black Friday. Yes, E and I will once again brave the day with the crazies. We love it. The key to enjoying this day is to just not take it too seriously. If you do, then all the fun is lost. I just go to spend time with my girl and because that is the primary goal, we have a great time.
I'm going to end with 11 because I'm just liking 11 right now. So there you have it. November in a nut shell. Which reminds me I toasted a bag of pecans last night because I made a Pumpkin Pecan Pie (which was about an 11 on the delicious scale). These make such a great snack. I think I'll have some right now.
Have a great Wednesday.
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