Christmas Recap 2011

Hello, friends. Can you believe another year will be coming to an end in just a few short hours? My dad joked this past Monday night, the 26th (the night my family gathered we each other) that another Christmas was less than a year away. By the displays now hanging in the stores we have skipped January entirely and are now celebrating Valentine's Day.

So, before the year comes to an official close (and swimsuits and beach towels begin lining the shelves) I thought I would go ahead and post some pictures from Christmas 2011.

Our Christmas seasons usually begin with a couple dinners shared with extended family. Alas, this year both my mom's side of the family and dad's side of the family ended up scheduling get-togethers on the same night. Which one did we go to? Neither. Why? Because Ren's football banquet fell on that very same night.

Here she is posing for a pic before heading to the school.

...and at the banquet with some of her coaches and buddies. Even though she only dishes out water and towels she absolutely loves being part of this group!

John-Heath celebrated at a class party with friends...

and his teacher Ms. Timberly.

On the 24th it was time for our traditional Christmas Eve gift exchange. The kids are allowed to open two gifts (of my choosing). John-Heath still gets excited about this, but Ren has long since figured out it is always the same gifts...a dated Hallmark ornament and a new pair of pajamas.

Pictures by the tree (which was almost solely decorated by John-Heath) in some NEW P.J.'s. Yaayyyy, Ren!

On Christmas morning, I awakened to John-Heath crawling up in bed beside me to exclaim, "Mommy, Santa didn't bring you anything." What a lonely looking little stocking! lol

FINALLY! After a two year letter writing campaign to the man in red, John-Heath gets his trombone. It's a good thing Santa knows a local band director who happened to be surplusing some old, seen-better-days equipment.

Ren with one of her presents - Law & Order: SVU... the show behind her desire to work in the criminal justice field. If only all crimes could be solved in one hour and all cops were as goodlooking as Stabler.

For a very long time there was a large box under the tree with John-Heath's name on it. When it was time to unwrap his presents from us he grabbed it up quick as a wink! It was taped pretty tight. He would need help from the sis. What could it be? Oh boy! A box full of clothes, guaranteed to kill a six-year-old's excitement in 0.5 seconds.

Luckily, there was a surprise under the tree. Now, Santa has always left his gifts to the kids unwrapped and setting in various locations in the living room. Well, this one was wrapped and tucked deep under the tree. It even came with a note, to which John-Heath grabbed a pen and quickly added a reply. As luck would have it though the contents of this little package were of the wearable varierty, too.

YES! A quick shake brought forth hope with this package...LEGOS!!!

Go Lady Vols!!!

My family on the 26th preparing to eat. I'm hoping I snapped this pic before the blessing actually began. Otherwise, there are a few who may have ended up on a new naughty list.

It's almost time to open presents.

Who wants to play Santa this year? Don't everyone jump at once!

Ren gets a fairy tale ring. Now, she just needs to find her Prince Charming to go with it (and I need to keep quiet when one shows up. You know how it is with teenage daughters and parents...if the parents make too big a splash about liking him, the defiant daughter will make it a point not to).

Last gifts of the night...the Christmas Crackers off the tree.

And everyone gets a crown!

Now, time to figure out how all the new stuff works.

I hope you each had a very merry Christmas! May God richly bless you all in the coming year.

Now, time to go get ready for game night at my parents. I hope my mom knew I was serious when I suggested it last week. I guess I should call and remind her.

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

Scenes from My Mower - 2011 Edition

Last year as I was mowing my yard and thinking how lovely everything was as it was greening up and flowering out, I decided I would take a few pics of some of the sights I enjoyed. So, I strapped my camera around my neck and continued to mow, snapping shots here and there. Well, here is this year's edition taken a couple weeks ago a few days prior to Easter.

These pictures were, again, taken from the seat of my mower along one of the trails John mows. I normally just mow the main part of our yard (which at 5 acres is big enough) but for some reason this time I decided to do the trails, too. I'm glad I did, for I was able to see some lovely things that, let's just face it, my little eyes may never have spied had I not been on a mower.

Won't you ride along with me?

Along the edge of the farm looking across the road at our neighbor's place. I love their little "valley". It's always so well kept.

Looking down a path that leads into some woods.

The low-hanging branch in the distance once nearly took out everyone on the right side of a wagon during a hayride.

A bee-U-tiful day!

A close-up of that deadly, low-hanging branch.

A dogwood a little past it's prime, but still my favorite flowering tree.

My favorite mowing buddy!

Blast from the Past

John-Heath circa 2006. Makeup courtesy of big sis Ren.

Let the Season Begin

Scenes from 2009

The kids decorating the tree.

Looking forward to this most special, blessed month.

My Royal Heritage

No, not this kind of royalty. But wouldn't that be cool?

As I mentioned in a relatively recent post, our town’s elementary school will sometimes sponsor a king and queen contest as part of the yearly fall festival festivities. It’s a great fundraiser for a school, as there is very little overhead and not a lot of work on the school’s part. Mostly, it’s just clear profit. Here’s how that works.

1. Parents who are really big gluttons for punishment agree to allow their son or daughter to participate. “Really big” doesn’t even do it justice. Words like gargantuan, colossal, and astronomical would better describe the level of gluttonous to be found within these parents.

2. Each class votes for a king and queen candidate to represent their room in the school-wide contest. And while it may not seem so at the time, the lucky ones are the parents of children not voted into this spot.

3. Then those glutton-loving parents spend two weeks nearly killing themselves trying to raise money for the school. They do this by having bake sales, selling breakfast items to teachers in their lounge (and after two weeks of fried pies, country ham and biscuits, and sausage pinwheels everyone on the payroll at the school is a solid pound heavier), running games the day of the carnival (Toss the ping pong ball into the bowl and win a goldfish!!!), selling raffle tickets for quilts and country hams, and placing jars bearing their child’s picture in stores all over town.

4. On the day of the festival all money raised must be turned in to the school by a certain time, or at least you hope those raising the money actually turn it in.

5. Behind closed doors, with security tighter than that at Fort Knox, the money is counted and recounted (and sometimes recounted again and again just to be on the safe side) with the help of volunteers from the local banks. These ladies are money counting professionals.

6. Everyone gathers in the gym. Contestants are dressed in their Sunday best and seated in chairs below the stage. Parents are seated everywhere else, sometimes lining the walls. It is fairly easy to spot the parents of those children in the chairs. They are the nervous-acting, ashen-looking ones who are thinking to themselves I can’t believe the time and energy and money I have spent over the last two weeks and, dog-gone-it, if my kid doesn’t walk away with that tinfoil crown I will be sick!

7. Finally, the Master of Ceremonies begins by introducing all the little contestants and thanking the teachers who worked on the king and queen committee and telling the total amount of money raised for the school by the kids in this contest. And then the announcement of the winners is made and trophies, sashes and crowns are awarded. Some parents and children leave happy. Some leave a little disappointed.

My sister Shelia, as a second-grader, was the Fall Festival Queen many moons ago. I won’t tell you how many moons exactly. Let’s just say man had not yet been to the moon.

Her son Shane was the Fall festival king the year he was in the fourth grade...

...and her daughter Megan was the 2nd runner-up during her fourth grade year.

And, finally, my own daughter was crowned queen during her kindergarten year in 2000.

Yes, my family is full of royal blood. And even more full of royal gluttons!

Image of Queen Victoria via

It's Like Looking In a Mirror

My baby.

John-Heath’s first "official" school pictures have arrived. He’s a cutie. He’s also a little stinker (as is evident by what he he did yesterday to my assistant principal - more to come on that Friday)! While he’s looking more like John as he grows, I can still see a lot of me in him at this point. And there are times, in certain shots of him, it’s almost as if I am looking at pictures of myself at that age, though I always had darker hair. Speaking of hair color, both my children have light brown hair, while John and I each have dark brown hair. Go figure. Of course, I have a friend who is a redhead and has two sisters, a blond and a brunette. Me thinks that’s neat.

Me. A long time ago.

Actually, in this shot John-Heath's hair looks a little darker than it really is.

Then there’s Ren. She looked more like John and his family as a baby. Actually, I have always thought that, in those very first pics of her taken by the hospital after her birth, she looked so much like John’s father that all she needed was a pipe in her mouth and a Stetson hat and she would be good to go. Of course, as she gets older she is beginning to resemble me a bit, too - only a prettier version of me.

I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder. I think my sister and I favor. My mom has never thought we looked alike. Though the other night as we were looking through old pictures at my sister’s house, I came across one of her (my sister) from about 20 years ago and showed it to my mom and she thought it was me. Then I said, “See? I told you we look alike." To this she replied, “No, you don’t.” lol

So, do your little stinkers look like you, your husband (I assume most of you reading this are women), a relative, or are they completely unique?

THIS JUST IN...Tonight, as Ren and I were sitting in my bed talking about our day, John-Heath crawls in between us and asks, "Is Santa Claus real?" Ugh! He said so with a sheepish little look on his face, like he thought he might already know the answer. My bet is that he heard such a vicious lie at school from some terribly mis-informed child. By the way, John-Heath has landed a plum role in the upcoming kindergarten Christmas music program. He is to be the man in red himself. So, this weekend I'll be looking at Santa costume patterns. I can't wait to see this, as I'm sure there will be some improv going on that night.