Mom’s little Christmas tree. 

Corduroy Bear. Ready for the games to begin. 

Thought I would show Mom’s yearly Christmas gifts. Little angels made from big paper clips. They were harder than expected. 

Sailing off to make St C’s friends happy! 

Annual struggle with tree skirt being a cat glider. 

But my candidate did not win 😞

Check out clue number 14. Mom always told me this song was one of the reasons she named me Amy. 

Thanksgiving

It started like this. Sausage balls for Ed and I. 

Happy cat and happy dog video before the parade started. 

Lucy asked for my recipe.  Her only question....what is oleo? 

Then I made this. 

Pounds of ads.  I didn’t look at any of them. Don’t forget the Dog Show. 

Read this book cover to cover. Laughed out loud. 

Gathered on Friday at the Patrick’s new lake house. 

The guys enjoying the porch. Had to bring them in though...

... to carve the perfect bird. 

Beggars.  Phone about to die. More later

We may have overdone it 

What can I even say? 

Sophie captures it better. 

Sweet finish. 

We didn’t get a group photo. 

Posing 

Mom admiring the smart fridge. 

Yes. It’s a thing. They can see inside the fridge on their phone. 

So... Jan and I went to help Mom with her Christmas ornaments that she makes for 50 of her closest friends. We established base in the bubble (the glass atrium at the end of each lake facing hallway). 

And I kid you not ( Truman phrase just came out) 3 large white birds swam into view. 

They were SWANS. 

We were laughing at this old pic if Bryan which I entitled The Architect and his work. 

So we took a laughing selfie and sent it to him. 

And then Mary Grace and Ryan moved. It felt sad. I love that house. Now I’m helping them renovate bathrooms for rental. More on that later. 

Will miss this screen porch. 

Church altarscape. Thanksgiving pics coming up!

Another great Book Club

We met at Pam’s to discuss the book , Educated. 

Of course we were delighted at every turn with her fall decorations. 

She changes this succulent tree with each season. 

We had brunch this time. I was thrilled with the Bloody Mary bar. Also mimosas. Oh and notice the caramelized bacon peeking out behind the Zing Zang. 

Beautiful tablescape. 

Gruyere cheese frittata with a potato crust! Cheese grits, biscuits, bacon and yogurt topped fruit 

For dessert she served mystery cookies. 

A baker friend makes them and keeps the recipe secret. I think she called them Sweet Tea buttercream cookies. We could not figure the ingredients out. However we all agreed they were delicious. We all enjoyed the book. It was a tough, wonderful, heart wrenching read about a young woman who entered a classroom for the first time at 17   She went on to get her Phd from Harvard. 

Still turning 60 part 2

Woke up to find Jack in Anna’s bed ready to go  

As we were having coffee, Apple the turtle was out for a graze. 

He came right up to Candy. 

Crafting our walking sticks. 

Each fit our personalities. 

The stage is set for my Croning ceremony. 

Candy made beautiful gourds with our chosen names. Amy - Lake, Candy - Valentina, Anna - Flora and Margaret, the baby at 56 - Camellia 

Yes , that shirt I borrowed from Ryan , says Beer Drinkers Paradise. The theme was the 60’s since I’m 60. 

Our leader with our script. 

She even threw in a hymn for me. 

Valentina 

It was all so sweet. 

Margaret got us teary eyed with her song Little Lamb. 

Of course we ended with bubbles. 

Ceremony over...

...we headed to the bonfire for tamales! 

Bud built a good one. 

This pretty much sums it up. What a great time!!