Friday Favorites ~ January 7, 2022

 Happy Friday! Today I am sharing a few favorites from the week.  Monday was back to a normal day.  The rest of the week was a little different, but all is well.

First, my great nephew was born, spent his first week of life in the NICU, but came home yesterday!

It was a cold week here.  My dear friend from NC came in town this week to see her daughter.  She spent a night with us.  We took her to one of our favorite local restaurants then had a fire at home that evening. It was so cozy.

Throwing it back to New Years Eve, we worked this puzzle of National Parks that my sister got for us at Christmas.  It was fun to do!

We have had two days with dustings of snow.  On our "snow day" yesterday, I pulled out this puzzle to work.  It is much harder and may take a while!  It was fun that my daughter had her first snow day her senior year of high school, even though there wasn't much snow :).

On our snow day, it seemed fitting, we went to Waffle House for breakfast.  I haven't been there in years!  It was pretty good and got me out of the house.

Have a great weekend!

Currently ~ January 5, 2022

  Happy Wednesday to you and hope this new year is off to a good start.  I am linking up today for the Currently series.  Today, we are discussing what we are anticipating, organizing, reading, resolving and scheduling.

anticipating

I am anticipating some fun travel this year!  I am looking forward to a visit to my college girl next month to celebrate her 21st birthday.  I hope to make a spring trip to visit an old friend I haven't seen in over 10 years.  It is crazy how time gets away from us, but I really hope this is the year I can go see her.  We have a family cruise in May....anticipating that all goes through without any Covid interruptions.  Hopefully, this fall, we will make a college trip to see my other daughter....location is to be determined! 

 organizing

Currently, I am organizing clothes & household items.  We have made a visit to the re-sale store, but most of the items will be donated.  In my mind, I would like to do a yard sale, but then I think about all that work for not a ton of money, so I probably will just donate.  

 reading

Currently, I am reading The Hard Good and Gentle and Lowly.  These are 2 books I have heard great things about that. I am just at the first chapter into each book.   As with every other year, I always hope to read more.  I think the key may be listening to books on Audible....or is there another source you would recommend for listening to books?

 resolving

Currently, I am resolving to have a calmer heart for 2022.  I am trying to relax and find balance more this year.  Not so much in a physical sense, but to attain these things in an emotional sense.  I am anticipating 2022 to be a better year than 2022!

scheduling 

Currently, I am scheduling the day to day to do lists of life.  I used a paper planner for the last year or two, but recently have just been using my phone calendar to schedule and keep up with all the things.  Most of the time, it is just small errands, but I need to write most things down in order to remember anything!

Linking up with Anne

Prime Purchases ~ January 2022

Good morning.  Yesterday I shared some Christmas highlights and today, I am joining in for Prime Purchases and linking a few gifts that were purchased for myself and family over the Christmas season.  

For my husband, he wanted a new system for his pour over coffee.  So far, he likes this product.  We have also seen it sold at Starbucks.

                                                        Pour Over Coffee Maker

For myself and my daughter, I bought this set of Soap Pocket Squares.  There is a local store that sells scented, locally poured bars of soap.  I received one for my birthday and gave my daughter one in her stocking.  These squares are the perfect size and loofah sponge to hold a bar of soap.  Typically, I like a liquid body soap, but I have enjoyed using this with my scented bar of soap.

Soap Pocket Squares

This gift was for myself and I ended up buying one for my other daughter once she saw mine and liked it.  I had seen this on other's blog and it really caught my eye.  I have 2 bags I have used for jewelry in the past, but the way this one has storage for necklaces and rings is so creative.  Can't wait to put this to use!

Jewelry Travel Case

This is a gift from one daughter to the next.  I haven't heard a report yet on how she likes it, but the colors are certainly so pretty!

Nail Dip Powder Set

Linked up with Tanya for Prime Purchases

Christmas 2021

 Happy 2022 Friends!  My goodness, there is nothing I like better than a fresh start.  I try to embrace that hope every day.  Wishing this year is full of fresh starts along the way and many blessings.  I am hoping you all enjoyed your Christmas and New Years holiday season.  Today, it is back to work and school for our family.  My husband and I both worked last week, but we did take some time off as well to enjoy family.  Here are lots of highlights from the past week.

The week of Christmas, our family joined my sister and her family to visit Zoo Lights. It had been a while since I had gone and I was so impressed with the lights.

My girls below walking into the tunnel of lights.

My greats....y'all know I love being with them!

The husband and me

My sister and I

Our Christmas Eve was a little different.  We did my side of the family celebration after Christmas, so it was just the 4 of us Christmas Eve. I made Christmas punch and Christmas lunch. I also had Christmas scents simmering on the stove.  Since it was warmer than usual, we sat outside.   After lunch, we exchanged our family gifts.  That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and looked at Christmas lights.

My gifts from my girls.  They did good!

Christmas morning, we had some gifts for our girls. The gifts seem to get less and less as they get more expensive :)

A few years ago, we started hanging wrapping paper they break through before they come downstairs.

These girls keep me going!

Christmas lunch was spent at my parents with cousins for an appetizer lunch.  That evening, I made my annual Christmas dinner of spaghetti and we watched The Nativity Story movie.

Monday after Christmas, my brother and his family came into town.  We had such a fun night of visiting over dinner and smores at my sister's house.

The next day, my girls and 2 of my nieces went to an Escape Room.  We barely escaped!

That evening, we went to my parents for dinner and opening gifts.  It was so fun to have my parents, siblings and their families there.

My girls and 2 of my nieces

My 2 youngest great nieces

My brother and sister with me

Me and my great nephew

My girls with my great niece

I am so thankful for these memories and know you treasure your memories as well from this season.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading!

Linking up w/GoodRandomFun 

Weekend Wrap-Up ~ Christmas Party Food Recipes

 Here is hoping this Monday brings you joy in the midst of the hard and good spaces this Christmas week.  

I am hoping the week feels a little lighter and your college kids are home and others are on a well deserved break.  Let's pray we can all continue as the new normal even after this holiday season.   

Our Friday was busy with my oldest getting out her widsome teeth.  She was quite sore and even so last night, but hopefully each day will be a little better.  She has had some sweet friends come hang out and visit her, so it has been nice to have company in the house.  

I spent the weekend cooking and preparing for 2 couples who work with us at my husband's business as we did our Christmas celebration Saturday night.  I have 2 big boxes of inventory in our dining room, so I got creative and just wrapped them like big packages!  Here are some pictures of our food and recipes with each.  Everything turned out so good and we will be eating on this goodness all week!

You can see here the two boxes in the corner of our dining room.

And here they are wrapped as Christmas gifts!

Ready for our guests!

Here is our food table.  I love the appetizer type menu!

Pictured above, I had a shrimp tray with cocktail sauce, which I purchased at my local grocery store.  Above that, are mini crab cakes, which I purchased at Costco.  I just had to bake these in the oven.  It was nice to have two prepared dishes!

I then grilled some chicken tenders, which I had marinated and then cooked in my air fryer.  I also then made a BBQ sausage/cheese tray and a bacon cheese dip.  For the sausage tray, I use turkey sausage and sugar free BBQ sauce.  I grill the sausage with BBQ seasoning and a BBQ sauce on top.  Then I sliced it, cut up cheese and sprinkled BBQ seasoning on top of it all.  I served it and the dip with Ritz crackers and also had a bowl of Pita chips & hummus. 

Next to the Pita chips, I had a veggie tray with peppers, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes.  On the cake stand, I had a platter of cranberry bruschetta.  This was a such a sweet, good flavor on a loaf of baguette bread I purchased at Trader Joe's.  I made the cranberry relish on Friday night and assembled the bread on Saturday afternoon.

Next to the veggies and bread, I made sausage balls with cream cheese.  The cream cheese adds such a good flavor!  I assembled the sausage balls Friday night and put them in the freezer to bake on Saturday.  For the sausage, I used a mixture of deer sausage and turkey sausage to make it a little healthier.  My favorite brand of turkey sausage is Jennie O. Next to the sausage balls, I had a container of pretzel sticks, covered in chocolate and drizzeld with caramel.  I purchased these from Aldi.

In addition to the pretzel sticks, I made mini key lime pies and scattered some Christmas Rolo's on the platter.  I also made Red Velvet crinkle cookies, which were featured in this month's edition of Southern Living.  I made the key lime pies and cookies also on Friday night.  

We made our Colombian hot chocolate for our guests & they brought other drinks to share.

We ate in our den, to keep things casual, but I did have some simple flowers and a table runner on our breakfast table. 

Sunday afternoon, it was fun as a family to eat leftovers and then we watched the movie Daddy's Home 2.  This is such a funny movie and is also a Christmas movie!  I also watched a few other random Christmas shows from the past.  One being the Christmas episode of Brady Bunch, Rudolph and then I found a Love Boat Christmas show so I recorded that.

I appreciate each of you reading and truly wish you a Merry Christmas with your loved ones this week. I will be back next week to blog again. 

Linking up with Heather.

Friday Favorites ~ December 17, 2021

 

Hope you all had a great week.  It went by very fast, as it has been super busy.

It started Monday morning dropping my youngest off at the airport to spend a few days with her grandparents.  She just arrived home last night and I was so glad to have her home safely after flying in some rainy weather we had.

My husband and I didn't go out, but it was fun to cook dinner at home and eat some things she woudn't eat with us.  We had turkey sausage with onions and rice, then pheasant gumbo, then salmon with sweet potatoes and broccoli.  We watched some tv at night after our busy days.

My workload is picking up at my non-profit job, then my bookeeping work at home has kept me busy every afternoon this week.  Thankfully, I enjoy them both and they are flexible to my schedule.

One evening this week, we made a fire and sat in the hammock.  We are building a new back deck, hence the deck boards without a floor!

As some of you may remember, my niece and her husband had a baby boy last December who died in utero after being diagnosed with Trisomy 13.  To carry on his memory, I hosted a coat drive with the help of my sister.  We collected 48 new boys coats from family and close friends. 

My youngest daughter created this logo and we called it Callaway's Coats in memory of Callaway.  I attached a tag to every coat.

On Wednesday, my sister and I delivered the coats to two charter schools in Memphis, one of those being where she works.  They were very thankful and it was a sweet day knowing Cal's memory will live on as we remember his short life in this way.

My oldest arrived home last night around midnight and she will have her wisdom teeth out today.  So, it looks like milkshakes are for dinner!  I will spend the afternoon preparing for a small Christmas party we are hosting this weekend.

Wishing you all the fun things this holiday weekend!  That being said, also praying for so many who are hurting during this time.  Unfortunately, hard situations don't go away this time of year.  But God is with us.