Adri has been baking bread for the neighbors…
Something about this reminds us of an elephant.
Don’t ask.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Y’all Wednesday, Dec 24 2008
Ariel’s Going All Martha Stewart On Us… Wednesday, Dec 24 2008
Ariel's Bedroom and Misc 10:22 pm
We went to Joann’s Craft Store at our “mall” (again, we use that term loosely) but unfortunately, they don’t sell the flower preserving spray stuff which Martha Stewart recommended.
Of course, Martha Stewart lives in “the big city” where she probably has plenty of flower preserver stuff.
So…here’s how you dry flowers Henry County style:
Just string ‘em up on the curtain rod.
If this fails and all the petals fall off…Ariel is making potpourri.
Hattie the Baby Squirrel Friday, Dec 19 2008
A few years ago, when we lived in Collierville, Dad found 4 baby squirrels that had crawled into his garage.
Apparently, they had fallen out of their nest and were very hungry and weak.
Mom bought a hamster cage and a dropper to feed them.
Sadly, all but one died.
We named her Hattie.
Hattie was hilarious and LOVED Mom!
This is Hattie’s best Angelina Jolie impersonation.
Squirrel or Ewok?
Do what?
She loved Cornbread Crackers (whyyyy did they have to quit making those things? They were SO good!)!
This story has a terrible ending.
Hattie was healthy and thriving after a few months of nursing.
She loved to crawl all over us and considered Mom her mom.
Dad said the time had come to release Hattie back into the wild (the wilds of suburbia?!).
We were all sad to see Hattie go, but she looked happy as she ran away.
A few weeks after her happy release, Mom was in the backyard playing with our dog Dixie.
Hattie recognized Mom’s voice and came dashing over the neighbor’s fence to be held by her.
But Dixie cut short the happy reunion.
Before Hattie reached Mom, Dixie grabbed Hattie and flung her into the air.
Dear Hattie let out a piercing scream (which we will never forget), hit the ground and was no more.
Mom locked herself in her room and cried.
None of us have ever gotten over this tragedy.
While Dixie was clearly not repentant, she has been forgiven.
She is a retriever, after all.
Ghost of Christmas Past Friday, Dec 19 2008
Dining Room and Misc Christmas 12:20 am
We moved to this house in 2006, two weeks before Christmas.
It was a really ugly Christmas.
You can’t say we didn’t try.
Christmas dinner.
Cheese, crackers, & cookies.
Dixie was all tuckered out.
Merry Christmas y’all!
We Can’t Find Our Christmas Decorations… Friday, Dec 19 2008
Dining Room and Misc 12:13 am
We don’t have an attic so we keep our Christmas decorations in the basement.
Yes, that basement.
The last few months, Dad & Owen have been doing all kinds renovating and insulating down in the basement.
Unfortunately, in all the moving around of boxes and furniture, our boxes of Christmas decorations have been misplaced. We know they’re down there somewhere under a mountain of boxes.
This year is our first without all of our traditional family ornaments.
So, instead we went “green” with our decorating (at least in a Gladu kind of way).
Here is our “Christmas Shrub”:
This year instead of buying a regular Christmas tree, we bought a small evergreen shrub.
We put it in a cute coppery planter that we had left over from our summertime gardening.
Ariel hung some really pretty sheer coppertone ribbon around it and some little golden colored “berries”.
We went to our local craft store at the mall (yes, we do have a “mall” here), and since they had a 60 % off Christmas item sale we stocked up on some cute stuff.
We figured that we can say we went “green” for Christmas since we can plant the “tree” after the holidays.
Last week, while out Christmas shopping in Greensboro, we popped into Linen’s n Things to take advantage of their going out of business sale.
We found this beautiful round golden tablecloth for the dining room.
We went retro and bought some glittery fake fruit for the centerpiece bowl.
We used Mom’s HUGE vintage crystal vase to make a dramatic arrangement.
We used both boxwood (we call them bowling ball shrubs…actually we don’t know why we call them that…) and some variety of holly berries to create the arrangement.
The thorns on the holly bush are like 2 inch long daggers, which made for dangerous decorating.
Some pretty poinsettias by the fireplace in the living room.
When we bought the “Christmas tree” at Lowe’s, they had cute little bundles of evergreen trimmings for sale.
So, we used them and some cute little silvery berries to make this arrangement in Grandma’s old green glass basket vase.
The other day while we were cleaning we found this old picture from Grandma & Grandpa’s house in Arkansas.
Mom and our cousin made this “snow farmer” on Grandpa’s vintage tractor.
