Not just another Tuesday!

Happy Anniversary to my husband!

You are the most amazing, generous and loving father and husband! I love you more and more as the days go by...

Tuckered out

Have a restful day!

Come on in!

Today, I'm linking up Nesting Place for the Christmas Tour of Homes. I don't do a lot of holiday decorating but what I do put out, I love. Come join us for the party!

Our newly remodeled fireplace and mantle. Finished just in time to be decorated for Christmas.

A homemade decoration inspired by Shanty2chic

Handmade stockings, everyone in my family has one with their name on it.

From the top of the tree down to the presents underneath, I may have went overboard with the burlap this year!

The Willow Tree Manger scene is one of my favorite decorations to get out every year! It was a wedding present from my sister.

Another manger scene, this is a miniature set that is made out of alabaster.

Signs of the season....cards to mailed out...

...the table set for guests...

...and goodies stacked up in the kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by for the tour!

Yumminess

Each year I make some goodies to share with friends and family during the holiday season. Some years it has been cookies and some years it has been small gifts. This year, my goal was to keep it simple and budget friendly.

What could be better than popcorn with chocolate and nuts? Oh my. This has got to be one of the easiest recipes:
5 cups popped kernels
8 oz. melted white chocolate chips
1 cup almonds
Melt chocolate, stir in almonds. Drizzle over popped popcorn, stir every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. Warning...if you nibble here and there on this yumminess you won't have any left to give as gifts.


Here's another:
12 ounces Baker's semi-sweet baking blocks (ends up being 1 1/2 packages)
1 cup of chopped pretzels
1 cup chopped nut, of your choice. I used pecans.
Melt chocolate, stir in a 1/4 cup nuts and 1/4 cup pretzels. Spread the mixture onto a wax paper covered baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining nuts and pretzels on top and gently, with a spatula, press them down in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until firm. Break into pieces. Grab one for yourself!


A few weeks ago I won a giveaway from Carrie at Buzzings of a Queen Bee. It the cutest hat from Marili Jean. The hats come with little flowers that are attached by Velcro so you can interchange them. They have different styles for different ages, for boys and girls. Check it out, any of them would make a great gift.

I'm teaching Anna Claire how to accessorize early!

I met P-Dub

When I moved to Nashville 10 years ago I thought for sure that at some point in time I would meet someone famous. You know like run into Faith Hill at the grocery store and strike up a conversation with her. Or maybe I would see Kenny Chesney at the gas station and ask him kindly if he would fill my gas tank up. Or, even better, stand behind Michael W. Smith at Starbucks so I could report back to family and friends what he likes in his coffee. Well, after all this time I have not had ANY close encounters. My husband will tell you that I get completely starstruck, even if we happen to see the local weather guy in the car beside us on the highway. To this day, all I can claim is seeing Reba McEntire at a restaurant, like across, the restaurant. Oh, and I did see George Jones picking out pillows with his wife at Steinmart. Not really anything to write home about.

So, when I found out that THE PIONEER WOMAN, (aka Ree Drummond, aka P-Dub, aka the author of that amazing blog that everyone follows) was coming to Nashville for a book signing, guess who was one of the first ones to pick up a line ticket so I could meet her? Me, of course.

Thank goodness I was "johnny-on-the-spot" with the line ticket (which ,by the way, means that I got the tickets 3 weeks ago) because by the time we got there, they were handing out tickets for group 18! My pretty purple ticket had a 3 on it. With 25 people in each group, can I just tell you how thankful I am that sometimes my pre-pre-pre-planning isn't so bad?

Mike indulged me and went with us. I think he was secretly hoping for some cattle and cowboy stories. When I asked him if he was having fun he said, and I quote, "of course, because a room full of woman bloggers is where I feel the most comfortable." I told him it was a HUGE deposit in my emotional bank account.

The place was packed out. These pictures don't really show how many people were there, but let me tell you there is nothing like trying to herd hundreds of woman around the basement of a bookstore.

Oh look! There she is. Her sister, Betsy, and her friend, Hyacinth were there as well. They all looked like they could be on the cover of a fashion magazine. At this point my heart started to beat faster and I got nervous. Then, I completely blanked.

By the time it was my turn, my mind turned to mush.

Do I tell her that her chicken scallopine is the best ever?

What about telling her that my sister has had a difficult time making the icing for her chocolate sheet cake?

And those horses...does she ever let anyone just borrow one?

Should I tell her that I had a dog once named Charlie?

Or better yet, can we come to the Lodge and will you make us your cinnamon rolls?

I could have only hoped it would have gone that well.

I think I told her that we were glad she came to Nashville and that it was so nice to meet her.

My mind then got further jumbled up when she opened up my cookbook and saw 2 post-it notes, one with my name and one with my sister's (while in line a bookseller came by and put your name on the post-it so that she would know who she was signing the book for). Since my sister lives in Ohio I had her just sign the post-it note for my sister so that she could stick it in her own copy. Anyway, I had to remember, am I Sarah or Christy? Sarah. Okay, next sentence.

Uh....uh....so um....yeah...I don't think it really went quite like that, but after it was all said and done, I ran the entire minute and a half through my mind and thought, really Sarah, you couldn't come up with anything better than that?

Anna Claire thought she was wonderful and turns out to be a much better conversationalist than I am.