Shopping with the Boys

Wednesday I picked up the boys after school and took them shopping for their mom and dad.  We had to have a Starbucks stop for fuel before shopping!

Then we were on a mission and we were quite successful!

Cameron "needed" a pair of pajamas for pajama day the next day at school.  He insisted on footie pajamas.  They aren't easy to find in his size but after visiting several stores, we finally found some at Sears, of all places!

He happily wore them to school yesterday.  The teachers made pancakes for them and they were watching movies all day.  How come we never did that when we were kids?

Today is my friend Marie's birthday.  A group of us went to lunch yesterday to celebrate.

We had a great time and I think Marie especially enjoyed it!

I'm leaving this afternoon going to Karen's, then on to Nashville where we are flying out EARLY tomorrow morning for New York City!  It's an impromptu trip and I'll have to tell you how it came about when I return.  Prayers for safe travels and safety appreciated!

Have a great weekend!

Beautiful Ugly Sweater Cookies

Yesterday I picked up Emma Taylor and her friend Ellie after school to decorate ugly sweater cookies.  After a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed home and they got to work on the cookies.  I had baked them earlier in the day so they were ready to go.  I bought this kit at Staples and it had most everything in it that we needed.

Both girls are in "gifted art."  Who knew there was such a thing?  They took their decorating job very seriously.

They took a break from decorating to help with the pretzel treats.



Back to decorating.  They each had four cookies, with one that they shared decorating.

They turned out so cute and tasted good too!

I sent them home with tins of cookies!

Fun times with these sweet girls!

Doug has been gone since Wednesday to the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show in Indianapolis with his friend D.W.  I've been busy myself since he's been gone.

I drove to Russellville, AL to spend the night with Karen and Morgan on Wednesday night.  We drove to Decatur to pick up our Christmas cards at Staples.  We both had bought a Groupon for 100 cards for $25...what a deal!  Unfortunately our Staples closed in Tupelo.  We decided to make a night of it and picked up our cards, had dinner at Big Bob Gibson's (which totally made the trip worthwhile!), and then did a little shopping.  Fun evening!  Karen and Morgan had to work the next day so I headed on home.  I always love spending time with them.

On Friday I made 11 batches of pecan brittle, three recipes of spicy pretzels, and six loaves of cranberry bread.  Most of that I will be giving away.

I haven't even started baking cookies yet.  I'm waiting until Emma Taylor gets out of school because she wants to bake with me.

This morning was Cameron's first basketball game.  He is playing on our church team this year instead of park and rec.  Ben is helping coach again.  Cameron is #45.

His team lost by one lousy point!  It was not for lack of trying though!

Doug just made it home.  That's always a relief!

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Christmas Party

After stopping at the Sandy Creek Bridge, we drove to Catawissa, MO to the Christmas party.  This was no ordinary Christmas party!  It was held at one of Doug's racing friends shop/salvage yard and there were over 2,000 Mopars for parts, engines, transmissions, etc.  Doug was in heaven!

There were approximately 500 people at the party.  We had to park this far away and walk to the house that you can't even see in this picture.  Most of the people were milling around outside looking at the cars.  Jane and I stayed close to the food!

Pictures inside his two shops.

This is one of the guy's race cars.  His wife also races.

Need a motor or transmission?  He's got plenty for sale!

Lots of Mopars outside.

Lots of good food!

Quite a party!

Sandy Creek Covered Bridge

We left early Saturday morning with our friends D.W. and Jane and headed up toward St. Louis.  Actually we stayed in Festus which is south of St. Louis.  We checked into the hotel, found a Steak-n-Shake for lunch, changed clothes, and headed to a Christmas party in Catawissa.

We made a stop along the way at the Sandy Creek Covered Bridge.  Doug and I had stopped at the bridge a few years ago but they were renovating it and we couldn't even walk across it.  It was in great shape this time.

It's in a park and quite a beautiful setting.

Someone was kind enough to take out picture.

Missouri only has four covered bridges and I'm so glad we at least got to see one!

Celebrating Bowen's 14th Birthday

We kicked off December with a celebration of Bowen's 14th birthday.  His birthday is December 1st.  We all  met at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, Bowen's choice.

Harrison and Cameron were ready to party!

Ben took this picture of Randy and Heather and I think he caught a bit of his finger too!

Cameron, Emma Taylor and the birthday boy!

Doug, Ben, Randy's sister Laura, and Sam.

Bill and Becky, Randy's step-father and mom.

Heather and me.

After dinner, we had Coca-Cola cake from Cracker Barrel.  It was yummy!

How could he be 14 already??