In This Crazy Life...

My mom decided she wanted to get away for Christmas this year. It's the first Christmas without my grandmother and it has been hard on everyone. My brother, his finance, and her son went with us to Branson. Mom wanted to go see the lights at Silver Dollar City and shop the outlet malls. We left out early Tuesday morning and arrived around 1:00. We changed into very warm clothes and headed to Silver Dollar City. We had just enough time to ride a few roller coasters before the Christmas Tree lighting and parade. I've not rider a roller coaster in years. I look terrified, but it was a blast! Our Silver Dollar City Selfie. Everything was lit up. It was beautiful! Drinking hot chocolate and watching the tree lighting. They told the Christmas story right before lighting the tree. These were my favorite trees. They had these really neat icicles that lit up hanging all over them. The Rudolf Parade was pretty short, but the floats we amazing! I lov

Hope your holiday is filled with joy!

My aunt gives me five pounds of pecans every year before Thanksgiving. I use them for Thanksgiving desserts and through out the year, but there are still some left over. this year I decided to make pecans to put in Christmas presents. I made candied pecans , spicy pecans , and cajun pecans. For the cajun pecans I used the spiced recipe and added cajun seasoning. They were delicious and so easy.  I will be making more! 

My old teacher friends and I went to Painting with a Twist. I went that one time with my mother's church group, but this was much better. The guy actually instructed us on how to paint the picture. I chose to use blues. The one he did was gold. The background. the white chalk line you see is the outline for the tree.   The finished product! It was the easiest painting ever. The tree is just dots that you create using the bottom of a paintbrush. We used a larger one for the big dots and a smaller one for the others. Katie and I Everyone's finished product. I'd love to paint a very large one for above the fireplace. I love the green background with red dots.

Such a beautiful sunrise on the way to work this morning.   The lake was foggy.

We went to see Garth last night! I saw him way back in the early 90s and couldn't wait to see him again.  He played for three nights in Little Rock. It was by far one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I sang at the top of my lungs and danced all night. We had really good seats and the tickets only $75. I hate when artists jack up ticket prices. He obviously knows all of his shows are going to sell out, so he keeps tickets affordable. If he announces a show in Dallas or some where close, I would go again.

Last night Kev and I had a date night. We ate Flying Fish and walked through the River Market to look at Christmas lights. We were so disappointed.   The tree. It was nothing spectacular and the lights weren't distributed evenly.   The bridges all always lit up. The red and Green for Christmas was pretty. I have a few videos of the dancing light display they had on the amphitheater stage, but I they are not on my computer and I can't get them to load on my phone. The display was just okay. I figured they would use more of the stage. I was just a few trees and light posts. There are houses that have larger displays. We will be going to them.   It was still a fun date night and was nice to walk downtown, even if they didn't have a lot of lights.

They love cuddling on weekend mornings! I love how Lilly has her arm on Kev's leg and Hatfield is resting his head. Lilly enjoying the fire. If we were not around to tell her to move, I swear she would catch on fire. We really need a fire resistant hearth rug. I've been putting this towel down to help with cleanup, it now has burn holes. Perla loves being in the bathroom with me in the mornings. I'm sure she is just waiting for me to feed her because that is all she thinks about. Couch Cuddles

I'm not sure how it happens, but the cat always finds a way to get freaking animals in the house! A snake, a lizard, a baby mouse, a frog, various insects. I know she has something because I find her in a corner playing or the animal is dead on the floor. UGH!! This time it was a baby flying squirrel. She was playing in the corner and all of a sudden I see something scurry across the floor. Of course I jump and scream for Kev. The dogs go over to check it out. I'm yelling for all the animals to come here. Kev doesn't know what he is looking for. The cat insists on trying to climb our fake tree. Kev looks in the top and grabs out a baby squirrel. Somehow it manages to get escape his grip and runs for the bedroom. Kev stops it right before he goes under the bed. We put it outside and notice that one of his legs is hurt. We decide to keep him overnight to make sure he is strong enough for outside life. I get the cat carrier out of the attic, place it in the guest bathroom