Birmingham Visitors

Kimber, Miss Savannah and Lady Melanie

saying "good bye"

Lady Melanie called me yesterday and asked if her and Kimber could come up for a days visit, for today and of course I said "yes"! right away. We just love it when Melanie comes to Brambly Pines or we get to go down to Birmingham to visit with her. She is always so happy to see us and makes us feel like family. Today her car was loaded down with presents and food from special places or homemade. They brought the prettiest petits fours with lavender flowers on top, almond coffee cake and wonderful butter dinner rolls, all from Savages bakery ( mentioned in Fannie Flagg's new book). Then, there were these wonderful chips from the neat place ( I can never remember the name of the place where we ate lunch when Shell and I went down right after Thanksgiving), a jar of Carmichael Hall honey and two different kinds of homemade fruit cake. Then! there were two beautiful lavender and white plates to hang over the pretty lavender toile vase, in my bedroom. Along with a box with different bird and garden pictures on it that matches a picture frame that I already had. There was some crochet thread that I've been looking for to crochet " glass sweaters" for my drinking glasses. If you are ever looking for something, just tell Lady Melanie and it will be found! It's great! On top of the prettiest hyacinth and a blooming violet! (because they are both purple) , we are honored to have been given the " Johnson family cook book" AND the family book , "Memories of Carol Villa" which was published for the Johnson's family reunion in 2009. For 39 years we have been treated like family when we would come to visit with Gene and George . Not only by just Gene and George, but by the rest of the relatives that we have been lucky to know. After opening presents, we walked down to collect eggs from " the girls" and tour the barn. Then, we had lunch in the dining room, played in the studio and had a tea party in the sun room before it was time for Lady Melanie and Princess Kimber to leave to go back to Birmingham. The day went way too fast. It always does when you are having fun.

Christmas Afternoon

Christmas dinner at noon.

too many empty places at the table.

This guy was made on top of a hay bale.

love the smile on this one

BIG snowman!

I took this one for Shell (smiling)

lots of lacy trees....so pretty!

Someone's neat mail box that lives in the forest.

wish this was our gate....so pretty!

Had to take the truck since it's 4 x 4....plus it's red...for Christmas.!

Isn't it funny how the snow pictures look like black/white pictures.

After we ate our Christmas dinner in the dining room, on our pretty Christmas dishes, we decided to clean up and take a drive through the forest to see the pretty snow. What better place than to spend Christmas afternoon! All along the way, we saw several snowmen that were born on Christmas morning. We even saw a few "hunters" in the forest. (wonder if they got new guns from Santa?) We spent a good three hours, just driving and stopping to take pictures every once in awhile. It was a "Winter Wonderland" for sure. The perfect way to end a beautiful Christmas. We came home, dug out all the left overs and had another turkey dinner. Ahhhh....Christmas is over!

White Christmas

The deck off of the sun room.

funny how the snow collected all the way around each rope on the clothes line

The girls Christmas grass but they didn't like the snow.

It's almost 50 degrees inside the green house with the heater.

the walk to the garden area

Janice looks a little cold.

The garden

Samuel the " Amish snowman"

Bird girl holding the snow.

Christmas morning I woke up at 2:00 and looked out the window....no snow. Then I woke up at 4:00 and...no snow. ( you would have thought I was a little kid, watching for Santa) The next time I woke up it was 6:00 and it had been snowing for about an hour. As it got daylight, it snowed harder. ...until everything was covered. It's just beautiful! You can't explain how pretty it is and the pictures just don't capture it. We just kept watching it come down, out all of the windows. After I got our turkey and dressing in the oven, we got dressed and went out to play in it. First we took a piece of sod to the chickens for their Christmas treat. Funny thing, they didn't like going out in the snow. They ran out for a few minutes but then went back into their dry, warmer house. Next we walked down the drive way to the mail box and then up through the garden area. A couple of the trees had broken limbs from the weight of the snow. When we came up to the front yard, we decided to build a snowman. It was easy because there was a lot of snow and it stuck together really well. I even made a "snow angel". ...and it worked! It was a good thing it was time for me to come in and finish our Christmas dinner because I was pretty wet and cold. I may be an " old lady" but the " kid" in me comes out a lot since we moved up here. That can't be all bad.

Christmas Eve

Since we didn't have our fireplace screen for Christmas Eve, we bought a couple of the fake logs. We figured we could burn them without the screen. They don't really crack and pop. So, after dinner, Chuck lit the log and I lit the candles on our " Blomberg Christmas bowl". ...as we watched TV. There was nothing on but Santa Clause Two movie...which had been on last week already. Why in the heck they couldn't have a classic like " White Christmas" or " It's Wonderful Life" on beats me. I fell asleep on the couch and finally got up to go to bed at 10:00. I think Chuck stayed up a few more minutes to check on the weather. They had been telling us for two or three days that we were going to get a " White Christmas". First time in 20 years. I think it has to do with us moving up here....ha. Last year was the coldest winter they had in 40 years and we were in the TT. This year...it was meant for us to have snow on Christmas for our first Christmas in the new house. It is a " wonderful life".

" Good Thing"

I can't believe that this summer, George showed up on the land and was so afraid to come near us. Just call me " the kitty charmer". I have never had trouble getting kitties to love me. I guess that is because they know I love them. George is living on the front porch of the house for the winter. When he first came, he acted like it hurt him when we would pet him. Now, he would lay in my lap the whole day if I would let him. He is this little butterball of a soft kitty. I feel sorry for him that he has to stay outside in the cold and deal with the big bad animals of the woods but he has done a good job at it. When it gets down to freezing at night, I put a kitty warmer in his box and he is thankful for that. He just sings and sings. Chuck says he's pretty safe in his kitty box at night and I guess George knows that. Chuck was talking the other day about building him a real kitty house. Said he could make it match the house. We were laughing about running electricity and water to it...lol. ( j/k) I wouldn't put it past Chuck to build it though. You could have blown me over with a feather if you told me I would have three kitties all at once. My whole life has changed so I guess that is just part of it. It's a " good thing" as Martha would say.

All Decorated

yep....the porch swing still hasn't been hung.

It sure was a big porch to decorate. Thank goodness for the $ Store is all I can say. Funny thing is...no one sees it but us. I was talking to Gene the other day and said how I decorated the porch but no one sees it and she laughed and said " tell me about it"....lol. Their house is like ours....backwards ...where people come to the back door and not the front. At least you can see a little of their porch as you drive up their drive way. Well, you can see the end of ours from our drive way too. Notice how green, green our grass still is. Even with all the frost, sleet and snow we have had. I call it " magic grass". People in Florida say they don't want to live up north because they can't take all the brown and dead stuff all winter. We look out all of our windows and see green, green grass and pretty green trees scattered in among the brown, leafless trees. It is prettier in the Spring and summer but I really don't mind winter up here. It's fun wearing different fun sweaters, hats, gloves, boots and scarves. By the time Spring comes, I'm defiantly ready for it though. That's the fun of the four " real seasons".