Auld Lang Syne!

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. ~Bill Vaughan

Once Upon a Time..............

oh.....................30!! years ago, a sweet babyboy was born into this world. Little did his parents know how precious he would be or how he would enhance their lives. But he did. And he continues to. He has taught us the true meaning of parenthood.....oh boy.......but, of course, I mean that in a good way!! He was the most delightful baby, and only for a few yrs did he wreak havoc on my mind when he entered puberty!! He has always been a high achiever, making wonderful grades in school, having fun and neat friends, accomplishing many goals and even picking out a super crazy and fun daughter in law for me!(you know it always comes back to being about ME!!) He has lived across the country for 6 yrs now and it's been tough to be so far away, but in our hearts, we know he is just a beat away from us.

So, on this New Yrs. Eve, I sit and remember 1979 like it was yesterday. The joy and the feeling of completeness when his little dimples appeared and the hopes and dreams we had for him......only to realize they all came true!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, MY SON............AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE!!!

(and now I hope he doesn't kill me for putting a baby pic of him here.....just so darn cute!!)

It's time now to close out this year of blobbing and constant chattering and say goodbye to 2009! Going to send these pages to press in order to preserve, on paper, some of what our year has been like, so my children and grandchildren! can look, laugh and remember the fun times and even sometimes not so fun times of our family's lives.

THE CONSTANT CHATTER OF THE CRAZY CRUISIN' CHICK and her CREW!! 2009

Sisterly Love!

Sisters!! That's what they are!!!

Well..........actually, half sisters.........but they have the same mom and daddy, just a few litters apart is all. So yeah..........sisters!!

That's right. SophieJane and Emmylou. My dog and my oldest son's dog are sisters. They don't get to see each other often since they live on different sides of the country from each other, but they do like each other. Kinda.

This morning, tho, they DID like each other. Or maybe I should explain it this way....sophiejane 'tolerated' emmy! And she's so exhausted that when emmy crawled up on her daddy's lap, where sj was already lying, she didn't even mind that emmy just layed right on top of her!!

Look how sweet these little girls are.....they almost look like siamese twins!!!!

And we also had Bromley! Babyboy's girlfriend' s sweet puppy. He likes everyone!

Crossing off the Bucket List!!

Git yur gun, girl!!!

Bwahahahahahahahahah!!!!!

My daughter in law decided that learning to shoot a handgun was on her bucketlist and what better place to 'check it' off than at her in-laws house with all her brother-in-laws and father-in-law surrounding her?!! So Funny.

But she did make sure that everyone realized that all shooters should remain accessorized while being geared up for the shoot. Note the earring under the ear muff!!

funny thing? she almost hit the bulls-eye!!

(sidenote to anyone who might want to break into my house......BEWARE!! we're loaded!)

Independence Bowl 09

So...once a year, after Christmas, the Independence Bowl football game is held here. We've been going for quite some time and it's always fun. Although NEVER as fun as the yr that LSU played in it!! But yesterday, Texas A&M and Georgia played.....which I didn't even know until I'm sitting at the tailgating spot and asked who was playing! duh. It's really just all about the tailgating, ya know? I mean, what's a football game without several hours and several libations before kickoff....We rooted for Georgia, since they are our conference and we're all loyal like that...but really?? Us girls never even went into the game! HaHa.....we tailgated and then went to the restaurant to "hold a table" until the guys got tired of watching the game and joined us for dinner!! It was C-O-L-D............I mean really, really cold. But the sun was shining brightly and we saw lots of friends and the laughter was rampant. Good Times!
Just going to post some hodgepodge pics I got while everyone was in the same spot!

uh-oh!

Love it when the gang's all here!!! Only ones missing were middle boy and our babymama....who would NOT have been very comfortable out there yesterday. (3 more wks!!)

Same ol' Christmas morn treat!

Sausage Balls! It's tradition....a Christmas morning tradition! We've had them every single christmas morn that I can remember. Family loves them. Some of us like them soft and not cooked quite as long...others like them um......a leetle burned!!













So, this morning as I heated up some leftovers, I chuckled. Because two of my boys and myself like them with mustard and the others like them dunked in syrup! To each his own!!

Note: Because I am going to have my blob made into a hardcover book right after Dec 31, I'm trying to include many things that are special to my children. I do this writing as a type of diary of our lives for my children to have for their own. I so wished I had listened to my daddy's stories more or watched how they lived their lives more....SO. I feel like this is a way for my children to have gentle reminders of our lives together. And what better way to do that than thru a yearly journal that they can browse thru at their convenience!

So, if you think I'm 'chattering' more than usual in the next few days.......that's why!!

Boys will be Boys!!

No matter how old they are!!

Baby boy nailed oldest boy in the eye, because he didn't have his safety goggles on, and he only whined about it for a little bit.........only one casualty?? Score!!

(and pssssssssst........me thinks they loved their Night Before Christmas books! I was one happy mama!!)

From Our Houses To Yours...

May you all have a very Merry Christmas with love in your hearts and happiness in your soul!!

Allow me to Chatter......

...and tell a little story.

Since my boys were toddlers, we've always gathered on one of their beds after all the Christmas eve hoopla was over to read a book. They knew that as soon as The Night Before Christmas was read, it was time to close their eyes..get tucked in..and listen for Santa, as visions of sugarplums danced in their heads! The yrs. pass by and it's hard to get all the long legs onto the bed, with me in the middle to read, but it was always done. And many times, it was at THEIR urging, that we continued this tradition. They grew up and brought lovely wives into the family, so now we have 7 of us all piled up in that bed reading and laughing and loving. They continue to leave out cookies for the fat man (with matt, at times, leaving a note of explanation of anything shady that may have taken place during the yr!!!) and leaving out food for the reindeer. Keep in mind that these children are 29, 27 and 24!!

So, this yr when the Christmas commercials began on teevee, I saw the Hallmark ad for the books that you can read and record your voice as you are reading. I knew, instantly, that I had to get one for each son. I spent an afternoon, which I thought would take 30 min or so, reading and recording and crying my eyes out!! Tears of fondness, remembering the yrs of piling up together on that bed, remembering some of their responses, the laughter. And tears for realizing how much it may mean to them one day to read this book to THEIR children using my voice!

I'm very excited to give it to them tomorrow when we have our Christmas eve celebration...and to read The Night Before Christmas for the 29th yr in a row!!!!

Oh Santa!!

I have a crazy daughter-in-law. And she always sends the most hilarious cards. We so look forward to them being in the mail box. So, when I opened this one, I was not surprised and I laughed my as- off because it's so typical! This would have been such the perfect sentiment for all of my boys growing up....perfect, I tell ya! And I'm sure that the DIL was thinking how I'd think it was funny that my son, her husband, could have been this little boy. But what I really saw in this picture was HER eyes!!!!! Ya see? She's a little sneaky, always wanna have fun and prolly always a lil worried that she may have too much fun kinda girl............is this reminding you of anyone else we know??......so, I laughed extra hard when I saw this card!!!
And guess what? She and that son are on their way to my house at this very minute!!!! Haven't seen them in 6 months and boy, oh boy, do I ever have some hugs stored up!!!!!!

I truly love Christmas time!!!!

Camera Play.

Do you ever get tired of just taking pictures? See it. Shoot it. Process it. Scrutinize it. Use it or lose it. That is more or less the life of a person who takes pictures. Lots of pictures.

Yesterday, late in the day, I was taking some wilting flowers out to the pasture (my boyfriend surprises me often!) when I looked closer at them and decided they were still too pretty to go away. So, I pinched off the blooms and threw them onto the brown, wintery grass. Looked nice. A pick me up to the end of a chilly, close to Christmas day!

It was nice.

But..........then the camera girl in me could not stand it.

Had to scrutinize. Had to run to photoshop. Had to play. I absolutely could not help myself. Heh.

Alas!!! Love the texture. Love the contrast. Love the old-world feel. I love photography!!

It's always all about the birthday dessert!!

So.........one of the gang had a birthday last week and, of course, we did it up right......WITH SWEETS!! We took her to lunch at Copelands Cheesecake which always lends itself to wonderful, smooth, creamy yumminess!

Being the crazyass that she is(Giiiiiily???!!), modeling of one of her birthday goodies ensued.

And ask and ye shall receive! My friends often do glassware interventions on me because I love them everso. Love to shop for them, buy them, use them, look at them.....all of it! So when this birthday girl said she wanted an eclectric mix of wine glasses..........whoa....stop the boat!!! A perfect way for me to make room in my cabinets for more by unloading, um....I mean..."gifting".....her with some of my old ones.....and call them VINTAGE.....heheheheheh.........win, win!!

And does she get just ONE piece of heaven?? No ma'am.........she got two!! This to-die-for coconut pineapple cake came to us at a lil luncheon at my house from the other ho's husband!!

Happy Birthday, sweet friend!!

~~and speaking of Gilly.........here's our version of that character, as evidenced by one of our ho's!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Good Ol' Down Home Cookies

These cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry, is a recipe from Tyler Florence...you know the one....the cutie from the Food Channel.... http://www.foodnetwork.com/tyler-florence/index.html. I don't know about you but when I saw oats, cranberries and white chocolate -- well, that was enough to hook me.

And then, of course, the ol' standby, which is a fave of my chirren, chocolate chip. Dozens and dozens of chocolate chip!

Which makes one become very......

Friends make our world go round!

What would we do without our gal pals?? Don't even wanna think about it. Two buddies came over tonight to have some dinner and watch a movie. And talk. And laugh. And drink some vino. And tell stories. And learn all about how one can wear a table runner as a shawl.....and not even know the difference until she SEES her shawl in the linen dept. on a table as a runner!!!!!!!

bwahahahahahahahaha.................yes indeed. Laugh we did!!

We ate Polenta/Spinach lasagna and bean soup and parmesan muffins

and an appropriate image for the end of the night? The cleaned and drying wine glasses!!

I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life.....they make my life very full!

Christmas is a comin' and the lights are on the tree....

Christmas Magic!

It does exist, ya know. It really, really does. And I have proof!

As a little girl, we didn't have lots and lots of decorations so the ones that we did have were yearly fixtures. The nativity scene in the same spot every year. The glass vase filled with colored glass ornaments in the same place on the table beside the front door. It was nice. Secure. Safe! One of those yearly expectations was a plastic Santa that had a light in him. Round and red with rosy cheeks and eyes that twinkled when the light was plugged in! He was always placed in MY window, which made my room glow with red happiness. As time passed, I inherited him. And he sat in our house as my boys were growing up. I came to love the ritual of putting the same decorations out in the same spots as well, so my boys would learn to know that feeling of sameness...safety....HOME! ~sigh~ That's a great feeling as well as a beloved memory.

But as the yrs passed, Santa's plastic began to crack and crumble until he was not recognizable and it made me sad.

Then the magic happened.

On one of my junkin' trips with the girlfriends, I found him!! A Santa, very aged and a leetle bit ragged...but it was the same one. Had to have been made around the same time as our original one and even had a very old light in him!! We talked them down on the price and I walked out of there with him for 9 bucks!! How cool is that?? And I can't wait for my boys to see him when they all come home. I put him in their bathroom!!!

Wanna see him? Looky!!Yes, Virginia........there really is a Santa Clause!!

(just ask any of my sons!!)

Hope Santa isn't watching......

Because if he is.....lil ms. sophiejane might just find some coal in her stocking!

She was a bad, bad puppydog. Yes, she was. Why? Because while she was waiting for me to get in the car to take her home, she pulled my fur.....ok, it's fake but I love it everso and really try to take care of it.......sweater down from the top of the seat in my car and made herself a lil bed in it for the ride home. And when I got into the car, she KNEW I'd be upset so I get this look from her. Cracked me UP!!!!!

Geeze.................can I love that dog any more??!!!!!

We Must Take the Time....

to stop during this busy season.........and breathe.

For when you allow yourself to do so.......you might see something like this!

Walking down my hall today, racing to get some clothes in the dryer and get some of the decoration boxes outa the house, I just happened to look out the window. I gasped! This sight actually took my breath away. I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my camera and went straight to the porch where I watched in awe as the sun went to sleep. And chuckled to myself, knowing that Mrs. Clause was for sure, making cookies today!! My mother always told me when the sky was pink, it meant the fat man's wife was baking..........and my, oh my....she must have been making double batches this afternoon!!!

“Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven.” ~John Lubbock~

Beachy Christmas ornaments...for the chick!

That would be the crazy cruisin' chick!!

Since my blob really began when we were on the seas.....it only seems right that I include some pics of a few of my fave "beachy" Christmas ornaments that I put on a smaller 'sailin' tree that is filled with memories from some of our sailing trips. Talk has already begun of the next adventure that will take place after the first of the yr. The cap'n is starting to get stir-crazy, as he always does when he hasn't been on his baby, Blew Bayou, in a while!

ARRRRRRGHHHHH!!

Mermaid Margo, who with her husband, sailed for 1 1/2 yrs from Florida all the way down thru the caribbean chain of islands and back, will love this one. She sent me sea glass from everywhere they went! Those hot, sweaty, salty water days are thought about with smiles on these cold, rainy winter days now!!

Will be back in a bit to take you on a lil tour of our Christmas Cheer!! And one question for you all......what is your fave Christmas decoration that brings a special memory to your heart?? You know the one.....the one that makes you sit down when you get it out and just smile???