Christmas Kickoff

***BEWARE!!! This post is EXTREMELY picture heavy!

We kicked off our Christmas celebration at Steve and Emily's house last night (Thursday). Since they will be traveling to Macon to see E.M.'s family, they invited us over to have dinner at their house and celebrate the holiday a little early.

The entire gang was there and there was not any "down time" during our visit--Carter and Callen kept things pretty stirred up! My favorite thing was that Callen and Carter wanted to see every picture I took. Every time the flash went off, Callen said, "See!" and came running over to see the picture I had just taken with Carter following not far behind.

Uncle Ken sporting Callen's boa

Carter helping Aunt Em open her birthday present

Callen decided that she REALLY liked celery

Carter taking a quick break to regroup

Carter and Callen telling Bamma who is in the picture from Aunt Em & Uncle Steve's wedding

Callen decided that she REALLY liked Aunt Em's present

Callen modeling Aunt Em's new shawl and Carter admiring her fashion sense

Aren't they all just beautiful?

(Please notice what Callen is doing)

Bamma, in her festive finery, reacting to Callen almost hitting her head on the coffee table

Aunt B, would you PLEASE stop with the pictures???

Loving on Daddy

They play together so well

Callen and Bamma saying, "No, no, no!"

Carter singing "Rudolph"

Singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Aunt Em and Big Pat watching the little ones

Uncle Steve and Uncle Ken discussing the finer points of cooking pork and the songs from "A Year Without A Santa Claus"

(Uncle Steve has no memory of watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but can sing the "Heat-miser" song from "A Year Without A Santa Claus")

Callen and Aunt Em

Callen telling Daddy that she doesn't know where her beads are

Two little angels!

A dessert of cookies and whipped cream was a BIG hit!

Thanks, Aunt Em! This sure is tasty!

What a good looking group!

After dinner at the Lovoy's, Bamma and Big Pat got to keep the kiddos, so "Santa's elves" could get some work done at the North Pole. I haven't heard how the sleep over went, yet, but I can't wait to hear what events occurred!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Beach Weekends

For three of the past four weekends, I've taken off and headed to the beach for long weekends. Ken and I joined "The Hurricane Club" and their other halves at LBF the first weekend of November. We had a GREAT time, even though the Ti.de lost. The food was fabulous and the company was even better. There were many stories told, a great deal of shouting (and many choice words) during the football game, and an abundance of laughter. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we had a WONDERFUL weekend.

John, Daddy, and Frank about to head out

Everyone settling in to watch the game

Suzanne and Mom

Marion, Mott, Suzanne, and Mom

Ken and Tish

After the Hur.ricane Club left Sunday, we went to meet Jackie at the Flora-Bama and then out to dinner. It was great to see her and hang out for awhile.

Ken, me, and Jackie at the F.B.

Since the next Thursday was Vet.eran's Day, Mom and I both took Friday off school. She and Daddy headed south Wednesday about 5:00, with me following behind about an hour later. They encountered numerous police cars on the road and called periodically to remind me to take it slowly, find out where I was, and let me know where they were. (I love that!) I, on the other hand, saw only one police car, but I did see eight does along the side of the highway. When I finally arrived at the beach, it was about 10:30 and, boy, was I ready to be there!

Thursday was a GORGEOUS day. Mom and I spent part of the morning brushing and bathing the dog. After that, the rest of the day was spent sitting out on the dock reading. I got a little too much sun, but it was worth it! The fish were constantly jumping, there was a nice breeze, and the temperature was perfect--not too hot and not too cool. Dad cooked some delicious steaks on "The Egg," which we paired with sauteed mushrooms and baked potatoes for a yummy dinner.

I had told Mom that I wanted to go to Dil.lard's at some point during the weekend, so we decided to do our shopping Friday. We started at O.T.P.--to purchase a few new martini glasses and then moved on to the Chi.co's outlet in Foley, checking a few other shops while we were there. We then headed over to Pensacola where we had a nice lunch at Pan.era, checked out World Mar.ket, B3, and then went on to Dillard's. At Dillard's, I found a great short, blue dress to wear and a cute pair of gold shoes. (I LOVE Dillard's! I wish there was one in Bir.mingham!) After that, we went to Joe Pat.ti Seafood and got shrimp for Shrimp au Vin for dinner and then headed back to LBF. We started watching Forget Paris and then fixed dinner. It was a relaxing evening.

This morning, Dad, mom, and I went out on the boat. Dad trolled for while hoping to catch something. We saw lots of birds and bait, but got no bites. We came back, had a bite to eat and started watching football.

A beautiful day on the water

Heading out

Mom piloting while...

...Dad does a little of this

And, now, it's Thanksgiving and I'm back at the beach! (Who knew?!?!?) Ken should be arriving shortly. Jackie is coming over to have Thanksgiving dinner with Ken, Mom, Dad, and me this afternoon and I'm sure I will have more to share from this weekend later on!

Birthday Dinner

One of my friends from college, who now lives in Charles.ton, came into town to celebrate her birthday. She had let me know a few weeks in advance that she would be here and that she would like for me to join her and several others for dinner to celebrate her 40th birthday.

So, last night, in the middle of the Ala.bama/Ten.nessee football game, I went to meet her for dinner. Fortunately for me, she wanted to see the game too, so we ended up eating in the bar of a restaurant in Cahaba Heights called Satterfield's. It turned out to be only four of us for dinner, but that was fine. The food was VERY good and the wine was even better. Ashlea and I figured out that we haven't seen each other in probably 13 years and, to me, she still looks the same as she did in college.

It was great to see her and catch up. We laughed about people we remembered and things we did and saw while we were in college. We talked about what we've been up to since we last saw each other and rekindled our friendship. I hope that we are able to get together again before another 13 years have passed! Maybe I'll even head up to Charles.ton for a visit!

Happy Birthday, Ashlea!

Loyalty

This is our wonderful 4 1/2 year old chocolate lab, Lola.

She is the daughter of Ken's previous yellow lab, Sebastion, who was a phenomenal dog. When the litter was born, Ken and I discussed it and I told him a couple things about having a dog added to our household: (1) We would not have a yellow lab--following in Sebastion's footsteps would be difficult for any dog to live up to and (2) I was not going to be outnumbered in my own house, so we would have to have a girl puppy.

When we went to see the puppies, there were three chocolate girls, two yellow boys and two black boys, so, of course, we were going to have one of the chocolate girls. Lola was the darkest of the chocolates--so dark, she was almost black--and she was also the runt of the litter. I immediately honed in on her as the one for us. Now, please keep in mind that I picked this dog out.

Fast-forward to today. Lola goes to work with Ken EVERY day and pretty much thinks that if he leaves the house, she's supposed to go too. This morning, Ken was doing some patch work in the shopping center and, because he didn't want Lola getting into the materials he was going to be working with, he left her at home with me.

This is what she did while he was gone:

I was calling her name and trying to get her to look at me, but she was having nothing to do with me.

She has her nose poked through the blinds so she can see when Ken is pulling into the driveway.

She sat on her place at the window like that for over two hours, waiting on him to return. Now THAT'S a loyal dog!

The Phone Call

Yesterday, about 8:00 A.M., my home phone rang. It was my sister, who promptly said, "Somebody wants to tell you something." Shortly after handing the phone off, I heard, "Aunt B, I want you to come play with me." Come to find out that Carter had told Sue that he wanted me to come over and play and for her to leave. How in the world could I say no to that!

I had a few errands to run and Sue wanted to take Carter and Callen to be sized for shoes, so I told her that I'd call her to be sure they were home before I came by.

What a good looking bunch!

I ended up getting over to their house about 11:00 and, as I walked in the door, I heard, "Where is Aunt B?" When Carter saw me, he ran over and I scooped him up. He had been outside playing golf, so we headed out to the backyard.

Sunny wanted NOTHING to do with me! As soon as she saw me, she got a death grip on Sue and puckered up to cry. Sue reassured her that she was not leaving, but Callen was having NONE of it. She would hardly look in my direction, let alone allow me to hold her!

Callen isn't really sure she wants me anywhere near her.

We watched the C-man hit the golf ball for awhile. He was hitting it off a tee and, periodically, he would ask me to "make the tee bigger" for him. (Translation: Make it stick up higher so the ball is way up off the grass.) Of course, I obliged.

Carter was too cute while he was playing. He'd set the ball up on the tee and then squat down to look at it.

Assessing the situation

Connecting with the ball

His hand/eye coordination is fantastic! He was making that ball fly all over the backyard! I really think he has a good shot at being a great golfer.

Not to be outdone, Sunny had some new tricks of her own!

Drinking out of my water glass

Standing up and walking

I also got to help with lunch. Carter requested "chicken nuggets" with peaches and Callen got BBQ, peaches and peas.

Carter getting ready to gobble up his lunch

Callen and her peaches

(Doesn't that look just say "Woman, would you please let me eat in peace without all the flashes?")

I had such a great time visiting with the C-man, Sunny, and Sue! I am so glad they called! And I'm even "gladder" that they are back in Birmingham so I can see them much more often!

All Creatures Great And Small

Over the past few days, there have been lots of critters hanging around our harbor.

We've seen:

Green Lizards,

Brown Lizards,

A Great Blue Heron in the Marsh Grass,

A Great Blue Heron on Our Dock,

A Lesser Bittern,

A Momma Duck with Her Baby,

Sheep's Head Fish,

And this bird that we've not been able to identify yet.

We haven't seen the dolphins in our harbor lately, but we hope that they visit us again very soon!