Christmas Outside

Mr. Santa that I made about 10 years ago.

Our first Alabama Christmas tree

I didn't put  a lot of Christmas decorations outside this year.  Just enough to know that Christmas has come to Brambly Pines.  The first Christmas we were in the house, I went all out.  I put wreaths in every window of the front of the house and lined the railings with garland and bows. I hung huge snowflakes all along the front porch.  I had two little lit trees on each side of the door.  Oh, it was so pretty and a dream of mine to decorate like that.  Then, it came time to take it all down and lug it down the stairs to the basement.  Also, I decided it was pretty silly to do all that work when no one even saw it but the animals that live in the woods.
It was a perfect Christmas that year....our first year in our new house and we woke up to it snowing on Christmas day.  Now our perfect Christmas comes the day after Christmas when our whole family comes to celebrate with us.  It means leaving Christmas up just a little longer than I'm used to but it's so worth it.  Yes, my decorations will come down BEFORE New Years because as you know, it's bad luck to have them up for New Years.  There is less to take down and lug back to the basement and I just might have help with all the kids being here for it.  

Pear Color

The pear trees from the sun room windows.  

Now that we are well into December, all the color and leaves have vanished from the trees.  All but the Bradford Pear Trees.  They stayed green well after the other trees and then slowly turned a beautiful yellow.  We have four of them at the one end of the house and it's like someone has turned on four bright lights out there.  It's just so pretty to look out the sun room windows and see all this pretty yellow.  Yes, Fall is my favorite season.  How can it not be!!!!

Christmas Chalk

I love it when Michelle is here and it's time to change the kitchen chalk board.  It seems like I never get around to spending time on it.  The day after Thanksgiving, I gave Michelle the idea of what I would like on the board and she took it and ran with it.  " Christmas in Dixie" is my favorite Christmas song so that was my wish for the chalk board.  Before I knew it, the board was covered with pretty Christmas art.  Come the New Year, it's going to be hard for me to erase this pretty piece of framed art.  Maybe I can just erase the Christmas part and come up with a way to keep it for my winter art.  ....my mind is racing right now.  Stay tuned.......

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Table

Our little Miss Turkey

Half of our family

Miss Vivi in her Mama's Thanksgiving dress at her age.

Thanksgiving is always a special time of the year.  When the kids were little, it meant pack up the car, get picked up after school and hit the road for Alabama.  For most of their years, growing up, we spent Thanksgiving with Gene and George.  Oh what memories we have from all those years.  Eating wonderful southern food, walking in the woods, shopping and visiting with Mac and Mimmie.  Oh yeah....the 8 hour drive up and 8 hours back home.  Keeping the kids entertained was a challenge .  We had to come up with games to play, songs to sing and a bed time.  Remember, we didn't have TV's, phones, Ipads, etc, back in the day.  Even the time in the car had some funny memories.
  I am one for not decorating for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving.  Please don't play Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving!!!!  Enjoy the one holiday where we just get together and have a wonderful, traditional meal together.  Take a walk in the woods and reflect back on the Thanksgivings from the past.  We are so lucky that Michelle and her family are close enough by that they can come and share our Thanksgiving with us.  Oh, how I wish Ryan and his family could come.  It won't be long now, before the whole family is here to celebrate Christmas.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, the count down is on.......

Fall Garden

Broccoli 

Lettuce

Green Beans

We were lucky to find some Fall garden plants, after looking everywhere for them.  Now we know, come the end of next summer to just go down to the Feed Store at the end of the Beltline in Decatur and they will have them.  It was well worth the hunt .  It was nice to go down to the garden and pick everything just before our first frost for the season.  Everything was great but the best was the broccoli!  It was the best broccoli that we have ever eaten in our whole lives!!! Our next Fall garden is going to have twice as much broccoli as anything else.  What a nice treat the garden brought to us again.

Wild South Picnic

The picnic at Brushy Lake in the Bankhead Natl. Forest

A grand daddy showing off his grand baby's
picture to another grand daddy.  

Volunteers of the year....since 2009

Chuck's walking stick

Every Fall, Wild South throws a picnic for it's volunteers.  Chuck has been a volunteer for a number of years now.  It's a great group with a lot of caring people.  They spend hundreds and hundreds of hours in the forest keeping the trails passable, building kiosks, looking for lost people, putting out camp fires people leave and the list goes on.  Chuck received the honor of being " volunteer of the year" for 2014 last year.  The honored volunteer receives a hand carved, hand inscribed with their name on the handle, walking stick.  We keep Chuck's stick by the front door with our other special walking sticks....the one I got in Germany and hiked in the Alps with, the beautiful hand carved one that belonged to Charlotte's father, she gave to Chuck when we first moved up here, one with a hand carved squirrel on the handle that I painted and the tall giraffe stick that I bought  for the memories at Busch Garden's with  Michelle and Genavive, before we moved away.
    Chuck has another year of volunteering ahead of him.  What a beautiful place to spend your time and effort to keep it that way.

A Little Bit of Fall Left.

Yesterday was the " Wild South annual picnic" at Brushy Lake in the forest.  The weather was "Fallish" cold and there was still just a bit of fall left on the trees here and there.  Most of the leaves were on the ground, which is still pretty to me.   It has taken me six years but I have finally decided that Fall is my favorite season.  I know...wait until we get a 10 inch snow and I will be telling you the same thing.  ...but for right now it's Fall!