Food everywhere

Been having leftover sausage balls for breakfast. Truffles giving it the side eye. 

Bumper sticker at the gym. Wasn’t aware he was running. 

Been feeding KT, Sophie and Paul’s cat while they are in Jamaica. They are celebrating their 5th anniversary. 

Anna’s famous fruit cake. And don’t compare this to the old Clayton fruitcakes of yore. It is wrapped in its cheesecloth shroud. Everyday she anoints it in Jim Beam bourbon. 

It is so good. Light and nutty. Not sticky and cloying. 

Fudge. 

Christmas fun

Here is the 2017 addition I told y’all about. Barrack we miss you. 

Mom’s St C’s Christmas music program. So good!

Her fan club. She gets teased by friends about her loyal attendees. 

How good does this look? 

The sweet chef. Home for the holidays. 

Book Club Christmas. The newish Westin downtown. Beautiful lobby. 

We met at Estelle, their restaurant. Started with a very different Bloody Mary. Yum. 

Presents punctuated the meal. Bev’s presentation. 

My choice. Lobster roll. 

Sort of terrible pictures but great food and fun. 

All the gifts were so special and thoughtful. 

Beautiful wrapping too. 

Creme brûlée 

All the gifts. Local pottery. Mustard seed towel. Magnolia kitchen towel and olive wood spoon. That little bag contained this...

A special gift from Belarus from Kathy. 

From this beautiful church in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. During WWII most churches were destroyed. This wooden one was saved by being taken apart and buried. After the war it was exhumed and reassembled. Amazing. I hesitated to post this next one but humor won out. 

Look what my new sweater did to me. Black fuzz stuck to my deo. I look so burly. 

Truffles is not sure what to do the day after the snow. 

There is a little left but not enough for her to play in. 

Pepper says we can sit and read. I’m giving Grisham a chance after several books. I heard his last 2 were good. I’ll let you know. 

The Little Man seems ok. Brought him in for the extremely cold night.  

Got a package today filled with packing peanuts. What must it feel like to be the lone pink peanut?

Remember the blooming sedum I had? Well, it is shedding its old leaves and growing new ones. The purple blooms are dried. I guess that is it’s life cycle. 

Spent a good bit of our snow day baking Morning Glory muffins. It’s a recipe I’ve doctored up and made healthier. Has about 50 ingredients and takes forever. Of course my whole kitchen was a mess. Grated carrots, coconut, cranberries, raisins, walnuts, pineapple, grated apple etc. They are worth it though. 

Sadly my client’s party for this weekend was cancelled due to a death in the family. I had already purchased some of the floral for it so it became my table decor for the holidays. 

I love the 2 kinds of eucalyptus. 

Moved this to my buffet. I still love that carving on this old piece. 

Winter is here

I completely blame my cousin Karen for starting this obsession last year. She uses hers for decoration, I eat them. 

What goes better with cold weather than hot chocolate? Got to use real cocoa. 

Skim milk (and a splash of half and half)

Ok and a squirt of whipped cream. 

Another sure sign of the holiday season...

Candy’s 23 year collection of nutcrackers. They are all appropriate to the year and dated. She had a hard time finding one this year. Finally found one. He is African American and will be dubbed “Barrack we miss you”!

Truff woke me up early. I was trying to let Ed sleep. Looked out and saw this! They did not predict this for us. 

It was beautiful in the street light. 

As The Sun came up it became apparent that the snow was still falling. 

Talk about frost on the pumpkin, how about 4 inches of snow!

It continued until about noon. 

Truffles loved it. 

She ran in it. Snuggled in it and ate it. 

I liked it too. 

My pig looks sad. 

I hope The Little Man, my jade plant, survives. 

Everything looks pretty in the snow.