Flowers for Me

The big party is over, and on Monday I had a little bit of surgery. Here are the flowers my sweet kids sent:

By my bedside

And here is the plant basket that my mom, brother, and sister and family sent:

So wonderful to have all the well wishes. I'm doing great!

Gobble Jogging

Happy Thanksgiving!

There is so much in my life to be thankful for, but I'm especially thankful that my guys and I were able to run in the Marietta, Georgia Gobble Jog. You can see the beautiful weather that we had today, and with a start time of 9:30, we didn't even have to wake up too early.

My guys before the race

O, Christmas Tree! O, Christmas Tree!

It seems late to be decorating this year, and I suppose we only have the calendar to blame. I bought the tree on Friday, and starting thinking about the decorating. Do you, or know someone who always has a different theme every year? Or changes up the decorating scheme? When I was growing up, my mom did that periodically, mostly due to the size and/or shape of the living tree that my dad had purchased.

So, this year, I gave a passing thought to having all silver ornaments, or all gold, but it was only a passing though. The trees I decorate just have to have some ornaments on them every year, theme or no theme. It occurs to me that the theme on our family tree is family history.

I want to share some of my favorites, that always grace our tree:

The angel on the left was made by me when I was in Girl Scouts back in 1971. The baby boy on the right is part of a Joan Walsh Anglund collection of ornaments. I have several (and the dolls to match).


Snoopy is from a collection issued by Hallmark in the mid-70's. I also have a Woodstock, Linus, and another Snoopy.


We have several ornaments that represent places we've lived. This one is the Jefferson Memorial surrounded by the blossoming cherry trees in Washington, D.C.


The little felt cat was made by my great aunt. I'm not sure how I acquired it. The Georgia football player represents my daughter's university, and my husband's law school alma mater, and the gourd with the chilis painted on it was purchased in Santa Fe, during a trip there to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

This is just a small selection of the types of ornaments that just can't spend a holiday season packed away in a box. Do you have favorites that just must be on YOUR tree?

Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween, I've gone pumpkin orange! I used to love making costumes for the kids and taking them to parties or out trick-or-treating. Those days are long gone, but take a trip down memory lane on your way to all the good candy, and check out my favorite costumes, that I made. The year was 1992. Kyle was 2, Laura just turned 5.

There's nothing scarier than a shark with a pacifier! But Belle has the situation well in hand.