Go Tell It On The Mountain

Before I post about my Christmas, I thought I would brag a little bit on my little nephew, Barrett. He was Joseph in the Christmas play that the little kids put on at church Sunday night. His cousin, Rendi played Mary. We were worried that it would turn into a WWE (WWF?) cage match with the two of them brawling over baby Jesus.

Thankfully, all was calm and they both (and all of the kids) did beautifully.

Here's my little Joseph and Mary:

Adorable, right? Rendi wanted her little brother Rawlins (who just turned 1 yesterday) to be baby Jesus. Yeah, umm...no. You can use a baby doll.

Barrett's favorite song was Go Tell It on the Mountain and boy did he sing his little heart out. He had to get the word out that Jesus "Price" was born. We may need to work on his speech skills. Although the day he stops saying "I Lub You" might break my heart a little.

Seeing the birth of Christ through the eyes of children really is something special. I'm glad that I was able to be there to watch Barrett and Rendi and all of the other children sing and tell the story of the birth of Jesus.

And on a side note~ after the play was finished Rendi comes up to me and says "hey Sissy, where's Stacey? Why she not come with you?" Guess Rendi is so used to Stacey being with me when she sees me that she figures we come in a set, kinda like salt and pepper. You never see one without the other. I of course answered Rendi and told her that Stacey didn't like her and refused to watch her play. I kid.

See any children's programs over the holidays? Hope you did because they are something special to behold!

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. Mark 10:13-16

Hello and Merry Christmas!

Good morning, faithful blog readers! It's been awhile since I have taken the time to blog about anything. Life has been moving at a rapid pace here lately. Work has been keeping me super busy. And needless to say, when I get home, I want nothing more to do than crash on the couch and snuggle with Oscar.

However, I did want to post some pictures of my nephew that I took a couple of weeks ago. I never got around to posting them, and I know my mom wants to see them!

If you notice, Barrett wanted his picture taken in front of his Christmas tree in his "room" at my parent's house. If you notice something else, he is holding something. That is his new friend, his little turtle.

Boys and their critters!

Mom decorated Barrett's tree with a hunting/fishing theme. Turned out really cute!

The picture quality is horrible. It's hard to take a picture of a tree at night!

Guess I will show a few other pictures of some other decorations that Mom did. She always puts up two trees. One in the living room that she decorates with her fancy, schmancy ornaments, and then just a regular tree with all of our family ornaments. She switched up the family tree and stuck it in an old, antique cotton basket. I thought that was a good idea!

I love that tree. We even make her put colored lights on it. Right there in the breakfast room. She's more of a white light kind of girl. So we like to make her throw up some bright blue, red, green and yellow ones up!

She also has out some very special decorations. She put out the nativity scene that she hand painted years and years ago.

She also has out our reindeer "family" that she sewed years and years ago. Each reindeer is for each one of us. And dressed in either Brad's or my clothes from when we were little.

And one of my favorites: my grandmother's NOEL candles that she put out every year.

There is no telling how old those candles are!

So, there are a few festive Christmas pictures. I will have to get some photos of what I did to decorate at my house. I haven't even posted a photo of my Christmas tree!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

"And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,


“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

~Luke 2:8-14

December: The Month of Celebrations

December is always a busy month with all of the Christmas festivities that happen. However, my family has taken it upon themselves to make December the month of birthdays. Add David to the December birthday list, and you are partying all month long!

First to celebrate this month is David. He rang in the big 3-1 on the 4th. I had every intention of traveling to Savannah this past weekend to celebrate his birthday, but I got knocked to the ground by an ugly cold. Therefore, my sweetie decided to come to Thomasville to help make me feel better. Which I am glad that he did, because I would have hated for us to not celebrate his birthday at all.

Because I was sick, we never even left the house all weekend. But that didn't stop me from making the birthday boy a cake. He requested a lemon cake- which of course I have never made before. So I tried a recipe. I have to say it was a bit blah in my book. But then again, me whipping up a cake high on cold medication and sleep deprived might have contributed to it not turning out all that great!

Happy Birthday David!

With David claiming his birthday present, that now means I have zero presents under my Christmas tree. I really need to get cracking in that department!

Moving on along the party train....

Next up is my brother Brad. I went and stayed in Blountstown to help celebrate his birthday, as well as my father's and my cousin's birthdays. But I guess Brad was the main attraction for the evening.

Check out my mother's ghetto cake. Guess how old Brad was turning?

Let's see... left over candles from Barrett's 2nd and 3rd birthdays + 2 regular candles = 34.

Git 'er done, Cathy! Ha!!

 After the birthday cake, the real fun began. Barrett got to give his daddy his "birthday licks" and let me say he took his job serious. He was only allowed to do it, if he could count to 34...and he could! So his choice of weaponry was the wooden spoon. He had an intensity that I have never seen come out! Think he enjoyed getting daddy back for all the times he had been in trouble :-) I have a feeling Brad's feeling a bit sore today for those licks that didn't land on his wallet. Cause Barrett didn't hold back!

With my dad's birthday coming up on Thursday, Barrett has the opportunity to get the birthday licks in. He's already proved he can count to 59. So, be ready, Papa!

We finished up festivities with some fire fun down at the campsite down at the creek.

 My father and my two cousins, Brandon and Colton, sure have made it um, festive down there.

My father brought in a lovely Christmas tree to the location and promptly decorated it with colored lights and pine cones that he spray painted. I accused him of spending too much time on Pinterest!

And oh yeah- you see that lovely manager scene? The boys thought it would be a nice addition to the scenery. SMH... the camel even lights up! That's my father, ladies and gentlemen and I wouldn't trade him for anything in this world!

Thomasville's Shining Glory

For the first time in over 100 years, the crown jewel of Thomasville is for sale. The historic and grand Greenwood Plantation is being sold by the foundation that has held it after the death of Mrs. Betsey Roosevelt Whitney, the owner (and former wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt's son). Betsey inherited the property from her husband, John Hay Whitney. He can be thanked for bringing us the movie Gone with the Wind an epic Southern classic. He held the first viewing for the movie, right here in Thomasville over at the Showboat Theatre at an adjoining plantation. You may also be familiar with John since he founded the J.H. Whitney & Company which is the oldest venture capital firm in America.

This house was originally built by the Jones family in the antebellum period and was designed by the renowned John Wind that was synonymous with many grand plantation homes in Thomasville. This piece of property is absolutely stunning. It was also the most requested place when people came into the museum. Everyone wanted to go get a glimpse of this gorgeous, stately home. For the longest time, you couldn't see it from the road, but after a pine tree thinning, you can now catch a glimpse through the trees.

This house has been the delight of the elite class of America for generations. In fact, after the assassination of JFK, this is where Jackie came to get away from the spotlight. No one knew she was in town until she was spotted at a local church. In fact, when word spread that she was at that church, all of the Baptist members at the church across the street filed out of their church to catch a glimpse of her leaving the church across the street.

Below is a video that showcases how special this is. A local real estate agent has been assigned the task to sell this property. It has no listing price. None. It is too special to put a price tag on. I will be curious to see who will make the cut and the vetting process to be able to purchase this property. I know that the Foundation will be very picky as to who they will allow to buy this home and property.



If you have the time, I encourage you to watch this sales video about this special home. The historian, Tom is a staple at the museum where I worked and I know he loved every minute of telling the story about Greenwood. I also have had the honor to meet Leon Neel, the forester for the property when he came to the museum a few times. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to him and I could feel his passion for those longleaf trees that he has managed for so long for the Whitney family.

This home will require a special owner. It truly is a work of art. If only I had a 100 million sitting in the bank, I would buy this thing in a heartbeat!

Elisabeth and Heath- The Wedding

This past weekend, a very special event took place in our family. A very special woman entered into our family by marrying my cousin, Heath. Words cannot express how happy I am for Heath and Elisabeth. Heath finally found his other half- his forever. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. I hate I didn't take any photos of the setup. I hardly took any pictures at all at the actual wedding. I'm still kicking myself for that one. Guess I was too busy having a good time!

Friday evening, we kicked off the wedding celebrations at the Rehearsal Dinner. My Aunt Susan and mom really out did themselves on the decorations. The room was so beautiful!

Here I am with the man of the hour. I love this guy so much!

I think I enjoyed watching him during all of this the most. He was so excited and happy.

Here I am with my beautiful mother and Aunt Susan. They both looked stunning!


I was glad that David made the journey all the way from Savannah to Atmore, AL for all of the wedding festivities. He's a trooper for coming all that way! 

 Stacey and my Uncle Brett. Don't they clean up nice? I wish I had taken a better picture of Stacey all dressed up. She looked fabulous!




 The monogram on the buffet table was a labor of love for my mother. She went and collected cotton from my dad's field and hot glued the bracks onto styrofoam letters. She burned her fingertips more than once getting those cotton bracks on there! But it turned out so nice!

I made her pose with her creation. I will have to do a full tutorial to show how she made it at a later date!

I played photographer before we left for the Rehearsal Dinner. I wanted to capture Heath getting ready.

That last picture cracks me up. I made Brad do the "prom" photo of helping his date into the car :-)
Finally the big day arrived on Saturday. Heath was so super excited. The wedding and reception were gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. I'm still mad I didn't take any pictures. Most of these I have stolen off of Facebook. Ha!

So here's to wishing the happy couple a lifetime of love and happiness. Love you Heath and Elisabeth!