Am I the only one not getting their subscription emails? I don’t think I’ve gotten one in nearly a week. Wonder what’s up with that?

Isn’t everyone allowed to do a few random posts a year? Thanks. I think I will right now. I wouldn’t say that the first few weeks of 2009 have been disjointed, but they have been a little unusual. It’s not every day that you have friends visit for 2 weeks, or your sister/housemate is gone for 3 weeks, or you get new neighbors, or you are invited to 4 ladies events in 1 week, or you have dinner guests 2 out 3 Sundays or you sleep 11 hours trying to get rid of a cold/ward off the flu or have your eye exam done by a 60-year-old man with braces on his teeth or attend a hockey game in GA.

Yup. It’s life in the fast lane, if southern lanes can be fast. I have a photo shoot that I have to get done editing by Saturday to avoid having 2 hanging over my head. I’m looking forward to a new location, a one-time deal. There is a tea house/catering business that is closing down in 1.5 weeks. I have a 6-year-old girl to shoot there. It is the neatest place. Lots of antique furnishings as well as old dress-up type clothes.

Since it is frigid outside (lows in the lower 20s, no I’m not kidding and neither do I care if you have seen negative numbers. This is Georgia, afterall. At least show a little loving concern. ) I couldn’t resist adding a little warmth to my kitchen. Why, pray tell, were these tulips 50% off? They hadn’t even begun to open. Guess they overstocked or something. Anyway, I was delighted to bring them home, since I rarely splurge on flowers.

 

And I love drinking cappucino in the frigid southern winters. I’ve started making my own mix. I use flavored creamers, instant coffee and a little sugar.

My favorite flavors are the vanilla caramel or the Italian sweet cream. I don’t really know what amounts to use. I just kind of dump until it looks right. And then I find a really fancy jar to put it in.

 

And what do you think of these bottles? I found them at a garage sale for $1 each. I have bath beads in the one on the right. Wonder what I could do with the one on the left.

And such is the end of the random post. I’ll try to keep them limited this year. Not more than once a month.

 I think this was my quietest New Year’s in many years! With the business of the Christmas it was kind of nice to catch up on a few things at home. So believe it or not, I spent New Year’s Eve doing the final cleaning at the house. It felt so good to have things back in their rightful place. I had put the hardware up for the curtains in the living room which made a mess on the floor, hence the delay in the cleaning. Most of the house has curtains now which definitely gives it a more finished look.

Anyway, I had decided to spend New Year’s Day at Jekyll Island, snapping away to my heart’s content. I didn’t manage to find any island treasures that I would so love to find but I enjoyed the fairly mild but windy day on the island.

First I went to Darien to see what the shrimp boat setting looked like.

Nothing too exciting going on lighting-wise. Isn’t it amazing what the lighting does for a photo? Here is one I took summer of ’07.

I didn’t get what I wanted so I went back and tried again a few weeks later right after a rain. The clouds had parted enough for the evening sun to come through.

I also figure out that the shots are more appealing from the docks than from the bridge.

Anyway, I didn’t hang around there long and went on to Jekyll.

The island in the distance in the following picture is Cumberland Island. I think some of you maybe have been there before.

Remnants of a shipwreck.

Kayaker:

The sea oats are kind of raggedy looking right now. In fact, on the east side of the island there is not much left of them at all.

As I was walking along, I heard a snort and splash and saw a dolphin swim away. The people who go shrimping along this beach get very frustrated with them since they are pests.

Sometime I want to try this shot with adirondack chairs in the distance:

The island has 2 golf courses. Yes, it was really that green on New Years.

and if that wasn’t enough it was full moon a little over a week later. I’ve been trying to get full moon shots on the beach for months now but either it’s raining or there’s something else going on.

The night before:

Waiting for the moon to come up.

And all of a sudden, there it was. There was band of clouds which kept it from being visible at first.

Isn’t the moon amazing? I think God was so creative to give us that “extra light”.

Adios!

   I think I take the cake for a late Christmas posting!! Do I win anything?  

It seems as if December is one of those months that is halfway over as soon as it starts. Partly because it’s full of activities, partly because I have a few deadlines to meet, and partly beacuse the last week of December is spent out of the office. So, we got ladies’ movie night, company Christmas dinner, youth Christmas dinner, church calendar printed and bound (I’m always determined to get it done earlier in the fall but it never seems to happen!), and then nothing was left to do except have fun with my family!

This was the first time we were together in 2 1/2 years. The first Christmas together in 5 years. We had a lovely time together, lots of laughter and fun and good food.

Christmas Eve we had a wiener roast at Marv and Hannah’s house. That’s become a tradition when the family comes home. We had a delicious supper and sat around the fire for a while. It was warm enough that no one wanted to huddle by the fire. 

Marv cooking some good Nathan’s Famous hotdogs.

Roasting some marshmallows by the fire.
 

Doncha love the “licking” flames? (fast shutter speed)

Henry and Marv have had a “battle of the colorful fire” going on the last year or two. It started with Marv adding something to the fire to add color. He wouldn’t tell us what it was which drove Henry nuts. So this year he dumped something on the fire and this is what we got:

Mama kept things farily simple for our Christmas dinner. 

We played games over at the church for a while in the afternoon.

 

Spying on the neighbors playing football in their back yard:

We got kinda carried away with our snack/supper in the evening. We had several delicious trays of candies, one that Andrea brought along, as well as a tray my parents’ landlady gave them. Lois made baklava, a family favorite that was introduced to us by my aunt Mary years ago.

 

These pecan pralines have to be about the best waste of calories I can think of. It’s good we only have them around at Christmas.

I made Pioneer Woman’s stuffed jalapenos  and some stacker thingies (can’t think of the proper name) that my friend Beat makes:

On Friday everyone came to our place for brunch. Since all the nieces were staying out our house, we got some extra help in the kitchen. Vicki made biscuits for us:

And Beth must’ve stirred this gravy for 45 minutes or more. Good thing I discovered after the first 20 minutes that I had left it on low when she took over, or she would’ve been stirring for 2 hours.

The family helped clean up the brush growing up in the strip of trees we have on three sides of our property. They moved a lot of stuff in the 80* weather. It looks so much better!!!

Daddy and Robin tilled up our raised garden.

We ate a Creole chicken and rice and beans supper by Laura’s family. Afterwards, the kids stayed out our house while the rest of us went to the church to enjoy a dessert party with a bunch of others who had grown up here and were back home for Christmas! It’s about every 2 years when several of the families are here at the same time and it was fun to catch up with people again!!

Saturday we ate a delicious brunch that JoAnn made. While we were doing dishes, Mama took the grandkids down to the little red store, a part of a rather interesting campground. They have done this for years, and Mama had always given them $1 to spend. Well, this year they went for sentimental reasons.

Showing off the purchases (sheepishly, this time!) since this is a part of the tradition. They said that the uncles bugging them about their purchases is in order as well.

We headed out for Jekyll Island, stopping first to see the little (tiny) house that Chip will be moving into soon. This is from the kitchen looking into the living room. I think total it’s about 600 sq. ft.

A little backyard football.

A little backyard scuffle.

Some left to bike for a few hours, the rest of us went putt-putting.

Out of the three teams that played, each team had a winning tie. Wonder what was up with that? Beth and I tied on our team.

Just before we left the island for supper, we quickly pulled off a family picture.

We had reservations at Captain Joe’s for supper.

After that Robins headed south and Phil headed north. My niece Krista came in time for lunch on Sunday. She stayed for two days, overlapping with Garys family and Henry for Sunday afternoon.

If you want to see more pictures or get more details, JoAnn and Vicki have some posted.

Thanks to all who participated in this contest! I was blessed to hear of your blessings and anticipations of the future. Thank you for sharing. I’d love to be able to send you all a calendar but … it’ll just be one this time.

The random number chosen for the winner was ….. comment #5

Pamperedmotherof3!!!

Please message me your address and I’ll get it out in the mail.

I’m enjoying these give-aways.  Stay tuned, I have some more items to give out in the next month or so.