Weekend in Review

 Weekend in Review - here we go!

Even though I was at work on Thursday, I had lunch plans with three friends. Our goal is to meet every month. They actually brought their lunches and we ate in the conference room where I work . . .but we were together.

On Thursday after work, we met Laura (hubby Allen was out of town and flights weren't working), Phella and Guy at Urban Cookhouse for a bite of dinner. Then we headed down the street to the Homewood Theater to see Steel Magnolias. They did an amazing job. The woman who played Ouiser Boudreaux was EXCELLENT. They were all good.

It was opening night and they always have a reception with snacks mentioned in the play - or that somehow tie in. They served cake made into the shape of a armadillo. It wasn't a real cake!

Instead they served red velvet cookies, fruit, and other treats.

I snapped a quick photo of the empty set. A local advertiser - Ash Salon - loaned the chairs to them.

The guy in the front right is the owner of the theater - Kyle Bass. He is in our Sunday School class and sings in the choir.

Other things I did this weekend . . .homework, more homework . . .this is the last week of the semester. You may commence singing the Hallelujah chorus! Please!

I made bows for all of the wreaths that I bought on Black Friday and I hung those. Mark helped me hang the garland over the front door.

I watched Mariah Carey and listened to her sing beautiful Christmas music while I made bows.

On Saturday, from 2-4 p.m. our neighborhood had a Holiday Home Tour. I invited both sister-in-laws, but only one could come. I invited our daughter-in-law and local 9 1/2 year old granddaughter. The admission price went to a charity picked by the tour homeowners.

We saw some beautiful decorations.

This was the first home we visited -- at the end of your visit you were given a tiny decorated cookie made by a local baker in the neighborhood (who does an excellent job!).

We headed to the next home.

Nutcrackers - the huge ones - were especially popular this year. The first home was decorated by a professional. The second home was decorated by the couple, which I loved.

Here begins the tour of the second home.

The nutcrackers played music (music boxes).

I loved the husband's office. It gave us a hint for the rest of the home - pheasant feathers!

His tree had all sorts of hunting and fishing ornaments. Our granddaughter said, "Pops would like this tree."

Their powder room had another nutcracker PLUS GRASSCLOTH wallpaper. Our first home, purchased in 1985, was covered in grasscloth wallpaper which we ripped off. The walls had not been properly prepared and it was horrible. The sight of grasscloth gave me flashbacks. Our daughter-in-law had never seen this type of wallpaper before.

They had a tophat on top of the tree - loved it!! I also loved those ginormous red jingle bells by the fireplace.

Here is our girl by another nutcracker - catching a theme?

We moved on to Ann and Jane's house next. I love Ann and Jane. They are retired sisters and they have amazing life stories. They sold their two homes in our neighborhood and combined into one giant household where they have shared spaces and some spaces of their own plus spaces for their animals.

This is in the back yard and is so beautiful.

Our daughter-in-law is on the left and our granddaughter is in the middle and my sister-in-law is on the right -- she is the one married to Mark's identical twin brother. 

Ann and Jane's home is lived in and decorated with travel memorabilia from all over the world. It is eclectic and fun to look at.

This is a reproduction of a Scandanavian dining set - maybe from the 1950's??

Look at this amazing European antique
chandalier! It is a ship - yes, a ship!
It is hanging in their entry hall.

This is in Jane's space upstairs. It is the most fun sofa in a crazy fabric!

Our fourth home had even bigger nutcrackers at the door!

I think I heard someone say that the owner of this home is an eye doctor. I'm thinking possibly an eye surgeon or an owner of a lot of clinics? He was older. We did meet him.

The dining room had an Asian flair. The gold wallpaper was gorgeous and the kimono on the wall was lovely -- and what a great statement art piece!!

They had a picture of their family and it was big and they had the space for everyone to be seated at dinner -- between a large dining room table and a massive kitchen table.

I loved this simple decoration on the kitchen counter!

This was the powder room - reminiscent of the dining room paper!

Their main bedroom had pressed tin ceilings!

The pine cones on this garland were massive and I don't normally like blue at Christmas but this blue velvet ribbon was lovely.

This house had another outdoor space that was so lovely. This was a hot tub . . and maybe a soaking pool. They had a full outdoor kitchen with more dining space outside.

This was my favorite part of the house. Their massive basement was amazing. They had a full bar and they had hired a bartender for the tour. I had a tiny cup (my choice of size) of spiked egg nog. They also served charcuterie cups. In addition to the spiked egg nog, you could have non-spiked egg nog or coffee or water.

This was their TV room - this Santa looks real and he is huge!

There was also this giant train between Santa and the tree.

I was standing in the doorway to the TV room above and facing back into the larger room.

I love the decorations on the tree in the TV room.

Our last house was the most unusual. It is a grey house with yellow doors that all open onto the front porch and I've always wanted to go inside. It wasn't what I expected. The homeowner(s) love black and not only is the house decorated in black and white (evidently all of the time). . .but the Christmas decorations were all black and white.

Eat in kitchen above

One of the many game rooms below

Everything is black and white!

Oh wait -- a touch of gray . . .black and white make gray!

Even the bar tray had black and white elements.

My favorite part of this house was the outdoor space. It was one of the most beautiful spaces I've ever seen. It was like a resort - like a scene from a movie.

I want to have a party in this space.

When we came home, I told Mark that we do not need a bigger house (ours is right under 3000 square feet) and we don't need it to be perfectly decorated. I was able to snap a photo of our house as our daughter-in-law and granddaughter were leaving to go home. She looks pretty good!

I finally started putting a few decorations on our tree - I will finish it in a day or so. After I take my final this week, I will be able to complete our decorations - the nativity isn't out yet; I need to decorate the dining room table; I need to decorate the mantle; I need to soak my oasis and make my saddle of greenery for the mailbox. I've ordered a few presents for the granddaughters. I've started addressing the Christmas cards. If anyone would like a card, please email me your address. My email is lelliott@trinitybirmingham.com (best to copy and paste to make sure you get all of the "L's" and "T's" and the whole long domain name. I'll send you a card . . . and if you are sending out cards, please send me one back!

Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week, we're stealing from Tom, who called his blog The Morning Erection. Despite the rather suggestive title, none of his questions are sexual in nature.

Stolen from Tom

1) What was the scariest thing in the world to you when you were a kid? Does it still scare you now? I guess the thought of my parents dying was probably a big fear. They’ve been dead a long time now – my mom died when I was 15 and my dad died when I was 25. I can’t remember if I was afraid of other things or not . . .

 

2) Imagine your 12-year-old daughter (or granddaughter) is hosting a sleepover at your home. A sudden storm knocks out cellphone service, wifi and cable. How would you keep these suddenly unplugged pre-teens entertained? We have a 9 ½ year old granddaughter and I can’t imagine what we would do in the dark. Mark is a great story teller so he might be able to make up something. We have a gas fireplace . . .so if it were winter, we could light the gas logs. If it were a clear night, we could go outside and lay down in the park and look up at the stars. None of those sound that entertaining . . .but it is all I can think of at the moment.

 

3) What piece of movie or TV memorabilia would you love to own? Hmmm . . . I need to think about that question. This isn’t from a TV or movie, but yesterday I was in a neighbor’s house and he had a picture of the Rat Pack playing pool. He asked if we knew who “The Rat Pack” was and then he said, “Look at the pool table in the photo and look at my pool table.” I said, “Get out of here” or some such nonsense. He then said it wasn’t the actual pool table, but the same make, model, age, etc. It would be cool to own the real thing! 

I guess I would like to have something from The Big Bang Theory!

 

4) You are gifted with the services of a personal assistant for four hours. What would you ask your assistant to do? Four hours . . .hmmm . . .decorate my Christmas tree . . .or maybe finish writing this paper for one of my classes . . .

 

5) If literary characters were real, which one would you like to interview, and what would you ask? I have several! I would love to talk to Fortune Redding from the Miss Fortune Mystery series by Jana Deleon. I would love to talk to her two sidekicks, too. I would also like to talk to Grandma Mazur in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Holiday Hodgepodge

 

Thank you to Joyce for our questions. How would you answer the questions? Please join up with us at From This Side of the Pond or answer in the comments!

1. What does it mean to have the 'holiday spirit'? On a scale of 1-10 how is yours this year? (10=off the charts, 1=still looking for it) 

I am not "not in the spirit," but I am low on the scale right now. I have a wreath on our door and our naked tree is up in our family room. When you work for a church, Advent is packed. I will have some more Christmas spirit each day as we approach Christmas. When I walk out of the door at 5:15 on Christmas Eve, THEN I will hopefully be totally in the spirit. We set out date to celebrate as a family on the Saturday after Christmas so that should be fun! Both of our kids, their spouses, and our granddaughters will be here for a meal and time together.

2. What's your favorite character from a (December) holiday-themed movie, book, or TV special? Tell us why. 

We have two movies we watch every year -- Christmas Vacation and Four Christmases. There are some true "characters" in both of those movies and some of them I equally love and detest haha!

3. Do you like gingerbread? Are gingerbread houses part of your holiday tradition? 

I love gingerbread - cookies are just so/so - I love more of a gingerbread muffin or cake. The houses aren't a tradition, but we have made them with our oldest granddaughter. These Pounddropper Gingerbread doughnuts (mine look more like muffins) are my favorite go-to right now! 

4. Much of our vocabulary is determined by where we live or where we grew up. What say you-

sprinkles or jimmies? lightning bugs or fireflies? soda or pop? I guess I say soda, but neither really. We tend to use the word "coke" for lots of fizzy beverages. I don't even drink coke products - I'm a Diet Pepsi person!! sneakers, trainers, or tennis shoes? sub, hoagie, grinder, or hero? freeway, highway, or motorway? We say "interstate" a lot! I never use motorway, but do use freeway and highway, too. frosting or icing? sauce or gravy? I'm assuming you are talking red sauce, right? If so, I say sauce. We live in a neighborhood with a lot of Italian Catholic families and they say gravy!

5. Share a favorite holiday memory from your childhood. 

One year I received a doll for Christmas and a doll clothing trunk (still had the Western Auto tag on the trunk). My oldest sister, who died a year ago last week, made a trunk full of clothes to go along with the doll that Santa brought. I was probably in at least the third grade. One time Santa brought a new bicycle and he left a note on the tree to go look in the garage. I remember the whole family tramping through the backyard. I remember Christmas Eve dinners at my paternal grandparents; house, and it would too hot in the house! There would be lots of laughter and good food and since I was a kid, there was always this feeling of "anticipation/magic" in the air. I think you only wanted "one" memory, but all three of those popped into my head!

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  

I need to finish blogging about our trip. I have Day 9 and Day 10 . . .and just a few words on our travel home day(Day 11). I didn't mean for it to take soooo long to recap and I apologize for all of my lengthy posts lately.

Weekend in Review

 Happy Monday, dear friends!!

My weekend started Tuesday after work haha! I took a day of vacation on Wednesday so I had 4 whole glorious days of a weekend before returning to work on Sunday morning. I LOVE my job, but every once in a while it is so nice to have a few days at home. 

First things first! I had to find my sister-in-law's recipe for sweet potato casserole. Rebecca died in February - I can't believe it has been almost a year. We weren't that close, but she had been our sister-in-law for over 25 years and we saw her several times a month. Anyway, our family loves her sweet potato casserole and I know why. I triple it and by the time you finish adding sugar to the potatoes and brown sugar to the topping . . .you are practically eating a bowl of sweet potato candy! I actually don't add quite as much and you can't tell.

We knew that a rainy cold front was headed our way so we took the golf cart out for a spin to look at Christmas lights.

It is a long-standing tradition for everyone to put white lights in the tree in front. It is lovely. You aren't required . . .I sometimes wish we would highly encourage a few folks haha!

On Wednesday, I baked . . .

. . .a German Chocolate cake. This is our daughter-in-law's favorite and her birthday was back at the first of November. I made it for Thanksgiving and she took it home afterwards.

This is Mark's mother's recipe and it is probably the best German Chocolate Cake I've ever eaten (thought I don't eat it anymore). I also made a pumpkin pie, mini pecan pies, green bean bundles, and sweet potato casserole.

Mark's sister has a huge space for entertaining so she hosted. Our son, Glenn, was carving the turkeys. Susie smoked two turkeys on her Pit Barrel Cooker.

My green bean bundles are in the first two pans. My sweet potatoe casserole is next - it is in a four quart glass pyrex but the only way we could figure out how to carry it was nestled inside a massive disposable pan.

The Pit Barrel Cooker smokes the turkey to perfection.

A quick selfie with our daughter-in-law and oldest granddaughter . . .

Lots of activity around the kitchen . . .

Our son did a great job carving the birds!

A quick picture with Susie, my sister-in-law . . .

Here are those mini pecan pies . . .

Susie made a pumpkin roll . . .

I was at our son's house bright and early on Friday morning - not for a Black Friday sale . . . but to head to the Christmas Tree Farm. It was so cold!! Wynn is wearing the Christmas Vacation sweat suit and hat. Glenn is on the left and our granddaughter is on the right - she did NOT have on enough clothes.

She was trying to get warm nestled in the trees.

Cute family - I am biased!

We rode the little train. It was a gorgeous day . . .but cold!

After the tree farm, I hit one store for their Black Friday sale - Home Depot. They have their smaller wreaths for under $6. I bought 16 plus one rope of garland. I thought I had 17 and I paid for 17 . . .but I evidently miscounted.

What I didn't post is pictures of me doing homework . . .and more homework . . .and more homework! I'm closing in on the end of another semester . . .this week and next! I also cleaned out a bathroom drawer and organized a bathroom cabinet.

Sunday was a fifth Sunday and I'm in charge of Fifth Sunday Fellowship. Hero Doughnuts delivered my 13 dozen doughnuts - their doughnuts are so beautiful and evidently delicious. We normally host Fifth Sunday Fellowship in our Fellowship Hall, but this month we set up by the coffee bar with the intention of encouraging all adults to join an adult Sunday School Class - at least for the season of Lent.

It was a madhouse - but, a good madhouse! There were approximately 375 people in the early traditional service and 150 or so in the Family Service so between folks grabbing a doughnut and a cup of coffee, it was busy! I intentionally didn't order enough doughnuts for everyone because these doughnuts are so expensive, plus everyone doesn't eat doughnuts.

Our sermon series is "Christmas Interrupted" and we have a screensaver to be downloaded on our phones - to remind us that Jesus was born into this world to interrupt our lives. Yesterday was about interrupting the need for "more" with realizing that Jesus is "enough." There was a challenge issued during the sermon and then someone in our class issued a challenge to all of us. Our class party is December 11 and Claudia (host) will have a tree set up. She challenged everyone to give to a charity between now and then and to make a simple paper star ornament and write the charity's name on the star. We will decorate the tree with the starts - no amount and the stars will be anonymous. We will just see where all the money goes.

I baked Pound Dropper's Gingerbread doughnuts two different times over the weekend. They are so good and are made with Monk Fruit sweetener rather than sugar.

Why is it so much more fun to decorate for a holiday, rather than pack away after a holiday. The fall and Thanksgiving decorations had to be packed away. We will start getting out Christmas decorations later this week.

While I was packing away decorations and while I was riding my stationary bike, I listened to the morning worship service. The internet is good for many things. When you are a Sunday employee, you worship when you can . . . I worshipped in my fuzzy Christmas pajama pants!

I came back downstairs and did more homework. I am making progress on two massive projects. While I did homework I did some meal prep. We watched one episode of Ozark and one episode of Better Call Saul and called it a night at 10:00 p.m.

I gave you way more info about our weekend than you wanted to read, didn't I? I keep my blog as sort of a journal for me so I know that sometimes I overshare!

What did you do this weekend?