Baby It's Cold Outside

This is one my all time favorite Christmas songs and it happens to be the ongoing theme here in Alabama for the past few weeks. We had two "snow days" at school, only one of which contained actual snow, but either way I thoroughly enjoyed it because I have wrapped presents under my tree and a semi-clean house. 

Our first snow of the season.

 

 Looks kind of dreary here, but it was beautiful!

We had several nights where the temperature was in the single digits, and as always, this is Remy's favorite time of the year. Yes, my no-animals-in-the-house husband brings Remy in on these cold nights and yours truly has the honor of bathing her when this happens. Seeing how Remy loves the water hose (see here) one would think this would be a total nightmare, but I think bath time is the only time that Remy is actually calm. I have no idea why, but she actually stands still and lets me bathe her. It's really a Christmas miracle each and every year.

Then, this is what she looks like for the rest of the night. Rotten.

What sounds better on a cold, winter night than a bowl of hot soup? This is a tried and true recipe on Ben's side of the family and it is so delicious. I have eaten it many times, but this was my first time making it, and it did not disappoint. If you like hearty potato soup, this one is for you!

8 cups potatoes, diced

1/3 cup onion, diced

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 cans chicken broth

salt & pepper to taste

1 8oz cream cheese

Place your potatoes, onion, and soups in a dutch oven and cook until tender. We also added a can of corn with our potatoes and soup - I think some shrimp would be good too. When the potatoes are cooked to your desired consistency, stir in the cream cheese and you are done! How easy is that?!? Serve with bacon and cheese on the top and you are going to make someone very happy! Enjoy!

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Thankful

Ben and I have a lot to be thankful for this year during the holiday season. We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with his family. There was a ton of food and family and I think it was the perfect Thanksgiving. What would Thanksgiving be without too much food, too many people in the house, and mass chaos? It would not be Thanksgiving that's for sure!

The beautiful tables that my mother-in-law did

 Also, what would Thanksgiving in Alabama be without some sort of "contraption"? Have you seen the insurance commercials about unsuccessful turkey frying and turkey fryer hopefuls burning their house down? Exhibit A, Mr. Insurance Agent:

Why yes, that is the turkey fryer filled with boiling peanut oil and a 20 pound turkey shielded from the raging wind with a plywood board held in place by a gas can, propped with a yard tool, propped with an antique wash basin. I have no idea how the explosion happened!

Lucky for us, we won't be making the insurance commercial next year because the turkey frying was successful. This was my first experience with fried turkey, and I have to say it was pretty good!

This is for Ben's grandmother and her love for Splender!

The kids had their own personal table!

Who's the most excited about eating?!?

I tried to get a picture of all the grand kids - easier said than done. Most of the pictures turned out like this:

However, we did get a few cute ones. Everyone may not be beaming, but they are all looking at the camera!!

Next up, Christmas!

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Monkeyin' Around

 I recently made some precious monkey cookies for one of my sister's blog readers who found me through her. These cuties made their way across two states for a sweet two year old's birthday.

It was a pleasure to make these cookies and work with a wonderful new blog friend!

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Christmas Extravaganza

Every year, the shops close to where we live host an open house and is it is an all out Christmas Extravaganza. There is Christmas music, food, and decorations set up beautifully for you to drool over and take to your house. I think this is one of my favorite times of year around here. You see everyone you know when you are store hopping and everyone is so ready for Christmas to be here. 

One of my favorite places to go is the Tiger Lily owned and operated by the very fabulous Slade (who was a helped with my absolutely gorgeous wedding flowers!) He is a food/floral/Christmas tree genius and his store did not disappoint. He store was brimming with extravagant trees and if I could, I would have taken them all home. 

I may or may not have made more than one trip to this yummy food table while I was in the store!

Here is the genius behind it all! Give Slade a call if you see anything you can't live without!

On a far less serious note, there is another store in town that has some far out trees. I really don't know if people are buying these things, but I thought some of them were kind of funny.

Palm tree/Mermaid Christmas, anyone?

I definitely could have packed this flocked tree to take home with me!

For all you John Deere lovers.

And the peace d'resistance - a Redneck Tree!!! It has foil covered antennas and is centered around a wooden TV box.

Complete the Budweiser can lights. You know you want one!

Happy Christmas decorating! Unfortunately, my tree is not as extravagant as these beauties, but I think it is pretty. Pictures to come!

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A Camping Adventure

This summer, Ben the Eagle Scout mentioned that he wanted to go camping when it got a little cooler. So we scouted out our location and made the reservations. We chose Unicoi State Park in Helen, GA and it was beautiful. The park is about a three hour drive for us and by the time we got there, it was pitch black dark. No problem, right? Wrong. The sweet little check in girl told us that the campsites were first come, first serve and cheerily stated for us to park at the parking area and then walk around the area that housed all of the tent sites and find which one we liked the looks of the best! I, little miss positive, doesn't think anything about this until we arrive at the camp sites and we. can't. find. a. site.

The nearly full campground was bulging with people and apparently this was a popular night for tent camping. We finally found a site near the back of the campground and started setting up the campsite for the night. This included about 50 trips back to the car because camping, my friends, ought to be called moving. You have to bring everything with you. Who knew?!? (Can you tell I am really not the camping type?!?) I honestly had a wonderful time though. It was a beautiful and crisp weekend and hot dogs roasted on the campfire are wonderful. Who needs a five star meal when you have a perfectly grilled hot dog? Seriously, there is nothing better than a grilled hot dog :)

Our home for the weekend.

That pot on the right makes the best coffee you will ever have. Especially when its 32 degrees outside!

Due to planning/scheming on my part, this weekend also happened to be one of the many weekends that Helen holds its Oktoberfest celebration. If you ever have the opportunity to go, do it! It is such a cute little town and they go all out for Oktoberfest. We ate some great sausage and sauerkraut and Ben was super excited about the German dunkel!

Ben is super excited about this picture! However, I think it's hilarious!


We also visited the Nacoochee Village located just beyond Helen. They have a winery, antique shop, and the neatest stone mill. I was fascinated by the way they were making grits and cornmeal.


The corn is dropped into this rotating stone to be crushed.

It then goes through a hole in the floor...

and somehow makes it to this bin full of grits. I honestly don't know all of the details, but I thought it was pretty cool!

They then package them in these great fabric bags and sell them to you fresh from the mill! You can check them out online here and purchase grits, cornmeal, or flour for your own kitchen. Great stocking stuffers for rapidly approaching Christmas!

I would give Helen two thumbs up - camping and Oktoberfest. Give it a try if you are close to the area!

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