A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

We had a wonderful Christmas. I absolutely enjoy this festive season but I'm embracing my structured life with my daily routines once again. The past six weeks or so have been hectic and exhausting. We've had traveling, hosting a Christmas party, attending parties, dinners, events, baking, shopping, and final exams. I believe we need this week in order to catch our breath. My hubby is actually fast asleep at the moment in his big leather recliner. Poor Dear, he has earned a day off after this past semester and holiday season.

This Christmas we decided to visit family earlier this month and spend the actual holiday at home. We didn't want to spend it fighting the traffic getting home (nothing restful about that). I'm happy we did because the weather hasn't been all that great. It's been cold and raining. However, it does give that winter feeling that goes along with Christmas. The past few years we've been in Texas and it doesn't feel much like Christmas when it's sunny and in the high 70s. This year seemed a bit more festive.

We had Christmas morning at our house and then met a friend (who's an international law student) for a Chinese Christmas dinner. She was planning on spending Christmas alone this year (her 2nd Christmas in the United States). Well, we couldn't have that so we treated her to a Chinese feast. We had Peking duck, seafood noodle soup, Sweet & Sour Chicken, fried rice, etc. We had so much food that I'm still stuffed thinking about it, Ha!

Afterwards we shopped in the Chinese market and she bought us some Chinese bubble tea. It's my newest favorite drink. Love the little black rice balls. They look like black pearls. I had mine hot but hubby had his cold. It was fun to try Chinese candy and hear of her culture. I felt like I was back in school on a field trip. We treated her to a movie, The Adventures of TinTin. She loved it. It was such a fun Christmas. One for the books.

My husband also surprised me with a new iPad 2. I'm typing from it at the moment. Trying to learn how to use it. Very similar as my iPhone but there's still new things to learn. It's got a pink cover and all. Love him! Also, he gave me more Barbies. I collect retro Barbies. I'll share pictures with y'all. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Christmas Season

I've been an absolute horrible blogger these past few weeks. I haven't had much down time to even catch my breath, let alone blog about it. I've been busy hosting parties, attending parties, cooking/baking, decorating, cleaning, shopping, and standing in lines. This time around has been busier than ever before. I'm going to need a vacation just to recuperate after the holidays this year.

My husband just completed his first semester of law school. We couldn't be more thrilled about him having the next couple of weeks off. He needs it. Unfortunately, we still run a business so we'll be doing some travel over winter break. However, he feels very confident that he did well on his final exams. He took the last one yesterday. I truly feel for him. Each exam is about 4 hours long. He had 4 exams total. He told me some of the students broke down and began crying and walked out. That means they dropped out of law school. Ok, perhaps I won't be complaining about how stressful the holiday season has been on me to him, HA! I'm really proud of him for doing such a great job this semester.

For the past week I've had neighbors dropping off goodies on our front porch. I awoke to find five packages this morning by the front door. I love this neighborhood. It's like living in a small town inside another. Everyone is so thoughtful and sweet. However, considering this was my first year to this neighborhood I wasn't fully prepared to give all 30 households baked gifts this year. I ran into the kitchen and began baking cookies. I thought to myself, a few hours and I'll be finished. HA! 10.5 HOURS LATER!!! I was still in my pajamas, my hair looked like the 1980s band Flock of Seagulls, my kitchen looked like a flour bomb exploded, and I had frosting up to my elbows. I managed to bake and frost 144 cookies total that afternoon and then cheerfully deliver them to my neighbors. Martha Stewart has nothing on me, HA! I hate to be caught off guard like that but I managed to get through it. Next year I'll be more prepared.

Speaking of cookies, I hosted a Cookie Decorating Party for my husband's study group. They were really anxious about the final exams so I had them over last week to help them unwind. It was so much. I put out a few snacks and we all sat around our dining room table visiting while decorating cookies. Afterwards they took their cookies home with them. I found a new recipe for sugar cookies and they are fabulous. They aren't too sweet so with the frosting they are perfect. I'll share if you're interested. Just leave me a comment.

This past week I attended the Geneva Gardens Luncheon. We all met at the Farview Inn in Jackson. It was so much fun. The inn was decorated for Christmas and looked beautiful. I managed to get a few snapshots but there was a lot of guests so I didn't want to take too many pictures. I didn't want to disturb their lunches and relaxation time. However, the pictures I did manage to take turned out great. Hope you liked them. I also added some pictures of my own holiday decorations. I didn't go all out this year but just enough to make it festive. Again, hope you enjoy them.

My front door wreath

Our Christmas tree and fireplace mantel

My Southern Santa located on the buffet. Southern Santa is surrounded by Magnolias.

Southern Christmas is a fantastic book sharing all the Southern traditions

My little party table for the Cookie Decorating Party

This is the dining room that overlooks the gardens at Fairview Inn.

My first attempt of creating a gingerbread house

Second dining room overlooking the courtyard at Fairview Inn

Christmas tree at Fairview Inn

Fireplace at Fairview Inn located in the lobby

Porch rockers decorated for Christmas

Wishing y'all a very Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

Fall has finally reached Dixie. However, the temperatures have been back and forth. It really hasn't felt much like fall around here. Today was 70. And the other day 80!!! It's hard to get festive when it's so warm outside. However, we managed to have a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday anyway.

The past couple of weeks have flown by. I couldn't believe that we were celebrating Thanksgiving once again. We entertained some of the law students who didn't have a home to go to during this holiday. It was so much fun just getting to know everyone better. I learned a lot and we found out how much we had in common. I believe it made us closer friends and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.

I don't believe I've shared pictures of my dining room with y'all yet. The house didn't have a dining room but had this grand sun room. Since my table was very large I desperately needed the room so I converted the sun room into our dining area. And since I love plantations I tried to keep an old Southern feel when decorating.

I purchased these at a antique shop near the house. They reminded me of some of the portraits of the children in the plantation houses we visited in Natchez.

I started using my Johnson Brothers plates for our Thanksgiving setting. The pattern is called Heritage Hall. I just love the scenes on them. The salad plate is suppose to be of New Orleans.

This is our fountain. Instead of putting it outdoors I decided to place it inside the sun room/dining room. It is so relaxing to push open the french doors and be able to read a book lounging in the living room while listening to the fountain. It's especially nice to be dining with friends with light jazz music and the fountain in the background. It feels as if we are having dinner in the French Quarter but it's our house.

Wishing Everyone a Very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!



My Thanksgiving Decorations

I finally pulled out my Thanksgiving decorations. I only decorated my kitchen table so far. I'll wait a week or so to start decorating the dining room. I'm really excited about this year's tablescape because I came across the most adorable dolls. I purchased them without realizing that they match my placemats (I purchased those last season). I also purchased my Thanksgiving nutcrackers that top off the entire theme. It's amazing how I didn't even try to coordinate all the accents but everything just fell into place. Take a look.

Can you believe this wasn't a set? I had picked up a few things here and there over the past couple of years. They really match perfectly.

Hope y'all are having a beautiful weekend. Have a wonderful week.

The Versatile Blogger

Ruth over at This G.R.I.T.S Tale tagged me for this lovely blogging award. Ruth is my Ole Miss blogging friend. I love her school spirit and reading her posts. She always has great posts about fashion, decorating, health, books, etc. I'm so fortunate to have came across her blog. Thanks for thinking of me, Ruth.

For the award I have to tell 7 things about myself and tag 15 other bloggers. I'll be honest, I'm horrible at tagging others. So, I invite y'all to play along. All you have to do is post this blogging award to your wall, list 7 things about yourselves, and then leave a comment to let me know to check your wall. I'd really love it if everyone played along so that I got to know each and every one of you a little better.

Ok, so here I go....

1.) I'm not a morning person.

2.) I love drinking tea.

3.) I'm very sarcastic but never mean.

4.) I love shopping at office supply stores.

5.) I love economics. I have to get a deal. I don't have a problem with purchasing used products. I'm notorious for cutting "cash deals" with businesses and  I ALWAYS negotiate. You'd be surprised what you get by just asking.

6.) As I get older things just aren't as important as they use to be.

7.) I love living in Mississippi more than I had imagined.