Have You Finished Your Christmas Shopping?

Well, if not, you aren't alone. Santa hasn't finished either :)



I don't know why but I love this Target commercial.

Enjoy...

Christmas Decorations and Monday Mosaics

Slowly but surely the Christmas decorations are appearing in our house.


 

Before the cold drizzle arrived yesterday, we made a quick trip to the Sertoma tree lot.

Once upon a time like back in the late 70's, we would search the woods at my aunt's house for a cedar tree. Much cheaper than Christmas trees purchased from tree lots. I loved the smell of cedar in the house. Although trying to decorate the tree was a pain .....literally....hands were easily scratched from cedar leaves.

Those days are long gone. Today it is a quick trip to a lot for a North Carolina fir. More costly but...


much easier on the hands.

Now to get the lights and decorations on the tree.

For Monday Mosaics at Little Red House I'm sharing decorations from past Christmases.

Enjoy....

Oh, To Be Santa

While Christmas shopping this weekend, I came across this t-shirt:


Never really thought about it, but Santa has a great job. Sweets and one work day a year. Oh, what a life that would be.
Besides shopping we spent part of the day enjoying the sun and crisp air walking in downtown Greenville, SC.














Speaking of sweets.....Have you tasted these at Starbucks?


Very tasty! Just this week I saw recipes for this posted on Your Homebased Mom and Good Things Catered. So guess what I tried today?


Oh, yes it was well worth the effort.

Visiting the Past

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for exploring and visiting the past.














After driving up and down the back roads, we were able to visit the burial site of my mother's parents - Bessie and Clardy. The Monday Mosaic below shows an old photo of Clardy and Bessie as young adults and their grave markers. Clardy (Papa) lived for 77 years. I have many, many fond memories of days spent with him. Bessie lived 53 years. She died before I was born.  

Enjoy....

Nuff Said - Finally

 

USC Gamecocks have won state bragging rights for the year! YES!!!

One Season Over, Another Begins

Well, high school football is over for us. Our local high school lost in the second round of playoffs Friday night. All that is left is college football. I'm not a big professional football fan but do love high school and SEC football. For Little Red House Mosaic Monday, I am posting some photos from high school  and college football games

 
Even though this season is ending, a new and favorite season begins. Yes, the season of mixing, stirring, measuring, blending, sampling.....It is the season of Thanksgiving/Christmas baking. I was very productive this weekend. I was able to bake and freeze these oatmeal cookies along with Red Velvet Whoopie Pies and Raspberry Swirl Cookies.


These are quite tasty. The secret ingredient that makes these unique is coconut.
If you would like this recipe, check out my simple little food blog in its early stage.

National Bundt Cake Day

Today's entry is in honor of National Bundt Cake Day which happens to be today. (Nordic Ware announced this day of celebration back in 2006.) Plus I recently bought some Vietnamese cinnamon from King Arthur's Flour and have wanted to see if there was a difference in Vietnamese cinnamon and off-the-shelf cinnamon.

Must say the aroma from this Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pound Cake as it baked was tantalizing and the taste was very appealing to my taste buds. Yum!

 
I also baked an Eggnog Spice bundt for hubby to take to work. It is a new recipe and I haven't tasted it yet. Hoping it is good and that they will enjoy it. It, too, smelled wonderful as it baked.

Oh, by the way....no bourbon was added to the eggnog.

Today's  Monday Mosaic at Little Red House are random pictures around town.

Enjoy....

We Are Family

I love old photos, especially old family photos. For today's Little Red House Monday Mosaic, I am sharing a few photos of my parents as young children, and young adults as well photos of my grandparents and great grandparents in their younger years.

Amazing how my great grandfather's older eyes are exactly the same eyes of my brother and the youth of my grandmother resembles me when I was a young adult. Scanning and organizing all the family photos which have been handed down to me from my parents has been a long and sometimes endless task, but a task that frequently reminds me of my connection to my family.

Guess I should post a few photos of the new recipes I have tried these last couple of weeks. 
Autumn Apple Coffee Cake
Sweet and Sour Meatballs




Have you noticed I haven't posted anything recently dealing with knitting and sewing? I need to get motivated...Christmas is right around the corner.

Mosaic Monday: Fall Foliage

I am loving the colors of the foliage this fall. With all the rain we have had in this part of the world, it hasn't been easy taking photographs. It seems the sun shines only when I am at work and rain every weekend in October.

I am also loving Photoshop Elements. I purchased this photo editing software a couple of years ago. Slowly but surely, I am getting to a point where I can do something with it without having to review the instructions or look up information on Google or various websites. The above mosaic is an example. :) (To see more Monday Mosaics, visit Mary at Little Red House.)

Took a trip down memory lane today. The church I grew up in celebrated its 50th anniversary. We joined that church when it was first formed. I was in elementary school. Lots of great memories came to mind as we worshiped, fellowshiped (is that a word?) and ate dinner together. Wish my parents could have been there.

This is my father. He wasn't the minister but one of the elders who participated in the worship service many times. He was quite the character. I can hear him now saying "Let's turn in the hymnals to page 150. If you can't find it, then sing page 75 twice." As a family we spent many, many hours in that church.

SC's Official State Snack Food

Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! Eating goober peas! Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas!
- from the song "Goober Peas" - written in 1866 with words by A. Pindar and music by P. Nutt

One of my favorite treats this time of the year is boiled peanuts. Like grits and sweet tea, they are a true southern snack. In fact in 2006, boiled peanuts became the official state snack. Wonder what took them so long to figure that out?
The best boiled peanut comes from green (raw) peanuts which are harvested around September, October and November. So many times the boiled peanuts sold at football games, flea markets, produce stands or roadside stores are made from dry peanuts. They do not come close to the ones made from green peanuts. And the bigger the peanut, the better.
So when Aunt Eloise called, said she had picked some peanuts, and do we want some, we made a short road trip to the lower part of SC.


The peanuts she had picked for us were HUGE. As big as my husband's fingers. Oh, the excitement. Instant drooling.

It didn't take long after we arrived back home that the pressure cooker was jiggling and we were sampling a pot of boiled goobers.

Please pass me a napkin. My fingers are dripping wet from the brine.