Fa La La La La

It is that time of year again, Christmas! We have our home decorated with our traditional non-traditional Krinkle tree. There is a story behind this wonderful creation of a tree. My mother and I started collecting Patience Bruster's Dept 56 Krinkles several years ago. They were sold at Macy's and other department stores, but were somewhat hard to find. One day my grandmother, in Nashville, ran into Macy's to look for some of the ornaments. Instead, she walked out with the Krinkles display tree. She wrapped it up and gave it to me that Christmas three years ago and thus, our non-traditional masterpiece, with a high heel base, graces our living room every year. It is so fun, I love it! While we do have pretty simple stockings hung now, we are currently collecting the very scare Krinkles stockings. They will be hung next year in their full glory; I can't wait!

Last year we spent the holiday with the Bovines in Dayton and thus, this year we are headed to the Stanleys in Colombus, GA. I can't wait to experience the traditons of my husband's family. It will also be Buckley's first Christmas! My little precious baby will get to chew open his own rawhide and cute t-shirt. So fun, I love Christmas!

Giving Thanks

Today is "cyber Monday". I actually didn't know that until the Today's show revealed this little known fact. It is characterized by online bargain shopping the Monday after Black Friday. That also means that Thanksgiving has come to a complete close. It was a terrific holiday. Brandon and I traveled to Dayton and Nashville to spend some well overdue time with the Bovines. I realized I hadn't seen anyone at all since our wedding, which has now been over a year. We kissed over pumpkins, but that's not all...

We cooked, ate, drank, played and ended the night with the new Indiana Jones movie.
Worst movie, ever. It was pretty terrible; we should have turned it off after the first 5 minutes. We did however, have fun. My grandmother has re-done her house and it is beautiful. My second cousins, Emi-Lee, Jack and Lilly, are precious and so grown up. My cousins are wonderful except they seemed to have left the Kentucky cold down here after the mild Thanksgiving day we had. Mom, Mamaw and I went shopping the day after Turkey day; they wore me flat out. It was great! After we came home from shopping on Friday, Brandon, Dad and Nate went for a quail hunt Saturday morning.

They loaded up in the dark in the truck and off they went..
This is what the many hours in the field produced: 23 dead quail

When Tucker got home we had to get another picture:

My mother and I experimented in the kitchen while they were gone with goat cheese and almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, sausage balls and Harry and David chip dip. Everything turned out wonderfully. Those boys were hungry when they got back. Everything was eaten even the birds.

We have a lot to be thankful for. Thanks Mom and Dad for having us all (even Nate's laundry) come to Dayton for all festivities, we had a great time. Thanks Mamaw for letting us stay the night with you and to Uncle Robert and Aunt Barbara for the great food.

Puppies

Today I was outside with my two precious puppies and I started reminiscing about the days we brought each of these bundles home. Reginald "Tucker" Stanley was brought home on the weekend before Mother's Day in 2007, he was
8 weeks old and we were absolutely thrilled. It was actually the night before a sorority party and Tucker needed to stay at my apartment for one night. It stormed that night and Brandon and I went home early to spend some fun storm-time with the puppy. He was so precious. Then I went home for the summer I truly thought Brandon loved that dog more than me. I now know that's absolutely not true. Tucker is Brandon's bestest puppy, I am Brandon's best friend and wife and that will always be that. So we got married and Tucker was full grown.

He is precious and so well trained. We love him. We love him so much we wanted to bring him some company for the backyard. SO on a beautiful Friday afternoon we decided to go to a river that was running up by Cullman, Alabama. This is a nice little town that happened to be where we had gotten Tucker. We called to see if we could let Tuck hang out with a bazillion other Boykins. No big deal and we were off. They had just had a new litter and they were sooo small; they also had 8 week olds:
They were just too cute to resist, therefore, we now have "Buckley" Parks Stanley. That weekend my parents came in town and they rock so much they helped us landscape. The visit was amazing. Buckley is now my little baby. He's now eight months old and I have loved every single puppy moment we have had together. He is going to have his first Christmas with us this year and I can't wait for his stocking to get here! Oh my little Buckley boo!

So grown up now:

So today as I as raking leaves I thought about when my dad used to make two piles of leaves, one for me and one for my brother. And the whole reason this post is here...

My little Buckley in his pile of leaves:

And my little Tucker in his pile:

My puppies are my babies!

#1

I have a new obsession. Bread. I love baking bread. I have had several different experiences and it is FABULOUS. I will admit the first loaf was the best. I do hope to repeat that soon, and at that time I will take pictures...