Christmas {Better late than never, right?}

Christmas is really a magical time of year. Not only is it a celebration of Christ's birth, it is a time to join with family and friends and celebrate. And I apologize in advance for the hodge-podge that this post is! I'm just too tired to do it justice!
First, some Christmas decorations from my house.

The main tree and fireplace

The pups enjoying the warmth of the fire

The platter I got Joseph. This blasphemy in my house proves how much I love him!

The cute little platter that greeted people at the back door!

My "ornament" tree with all my favorite ornaments on it.

Hand painted ornament that I picked up during our trip this year to Antigua. I try and get an ornament every time we take a vacation somewhere.

Gingerbread house. My mom started this tradition. She always gets us an ornament from this line every year.

The other ornament my mom got us. It is in celebration of our tropical trip this year to Antigua.



This house that I got this year symbolizes the sale of my and Joseph's first house together.



This ornament is the most special of all the ones that we added this year. Earlier this year, Joseph and I lost our first child. And since the baby was due at Christmas, I thought that our special baby deserved a special ornament. I finally found a snowflake to symbolize the baby that we lost. Each snowflake is different and comes from above and are only here for a short period of time. I thought it was a perfect reminder for the perfect child that God blessed us with for just a precious few short months.

Here is my "china cabinet" aka...old TV cabinet. But I decorated it up with some Christmas decorations. Mainly my Christmas china and my mother's nativity scene.

This is such a special nativity scene. My mother hand-painted each figurine! I do believe that I have the most special nativity in this world. I absolutely treasure this gift that she gave me.

My Christmas China!

My Christmas present from my husband...a new table and chairs!

Our sweet niece, Finley. It was her first Christmas.

Sydney, LC, and Cooper playing dress up.

LC loved the jewelry box that we gave her!!

All the Bryan grandchildren

The Bryan family

Barrett enjoying his Christmas at Mimi and Papa's!

Joseph and Brutus

Joseph and his Aunt Kay

Joseph and his beautiful sisters

And finally, Cameron rocking the pink guitar!

 Hope every one had a great holiday and a really happy new year!!

Hi. My name is...

Hi, my name is Brutus. I like to dig holes in my yard. This is me with my hole.

And this is my hole. I am so very proud. You have no idea what was in there..... I'm not sure myself, but at the time whatever was below the dirt seemed like a serious threat.

Take a look at my hole.

Yes. I am super proud of it. Ooops......gotta go! For some reason my daddy is yelling at me. I guess he doesn't understand exactly what danger I just saved him from.

Our New Home

Before I start posting some Christmas pictures, I figured that I should at least show everyone where we moved to. So here are a few pictures from the house that we are renting after leaving the ghetto.
But before I get to that, maybe I should show how the little ones are adjusting to semi-country living.....

This is Brutus. And maybe you recognize that poor thing grasped between his jaws. That is my poor little stand in dachshund. And boy has he proved to be a good friend!

He is the only thing that makes these poor babies feel safe! Ha ha!!
He pretty much makes every trip outside with Brutus. I think that poor little stuffed dachshund is Brutus' safety blanket. Just in case there is some critter out hiding in the woods to come and get the dogs. It is really funny! Because this is the view from our back porch:



It's awesome. Our house backs up to one of the many plantations here in Thomasville. So I give the dogs a free pass when they go outside and are afraid of what may jump out of the bushes! They are such city dogs! But here is a few pictures of our new {rental} house.

The front

  The back

The best part of the house...the outside fireplace!

And we were a big hit when we kept this little man because we also had the following!

Yep. Our house came complete with a swing set. When Barrett saw it the first time he ran up to me and said "thank you Sissy for getting me a swing!" Of course I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't me, but he's three he doesn't know the difference!

In the meantime, we are enjoying being out of the townhouse and actually having some room to spread out and enjoy a real home!

Merry {Belated} Christmas!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. We had a fabulous time with our family. Enjoyed good food and good company! I have lots to put on the blog, but I have to take the time to get Joseph's laptop (if he will get off it long enough) so I can post some pictures from my camera. I am so behind because I haven't shared any good pictures of the house, or Christmas decorations, or new furniture,or from Joseph's 30th birthday. So please forgive me!! Guess I need to get on that soon.

But I just wanted to get on here real quick and let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about my blog, it's just difficult to have a blog with no internet at home!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Yay! I got my tree up. And please excuse the poor photos because they are from my phone and I am doing this post at work, since I still have no internet! We got a monster of a tree this year in celebration of moving and the fact that the ceiling is so tall in the house that we needed a big tree. Here is a shot of my TV cabinet-turned-china cabinet.

The new house has a built in TV cabinet and it was easier to use that with all the wiring and stuff for the satellite, so that left me with our other cabinet to do something with. So I got Joseph to drop the top shelf down to the center and pulled out my Christmas china and did a little display. I thought it turned out ok.

And since I can't write a post without some mention of the doggies, here is Brutus and his new favorite place to stay:

He has decided that he likes it under the Christmas trees. I found his stash of toys in the skirt of the big tree when I went to water it yesterday. I guess he likes to chew up his toys in the beauty of the twinkling lights.

And last but not least, here is my little contribution to the museum this year.

I couldn't believe that the museum didn't have a nice, big tree and pretty decorations. And after going through the decorations, I knew that I couldn't let the Charlie Brown, mish-mashed tree be on display in the entryway. I'm talking old stuff that people donated after they didn't want it anymore. Ugly stuff. So for a few days this tree bothered me and bothered me just thinking about it. So, I ran down to Target and loaded up on some ornaments. Ha Ha. I'm crazy, I know! But I knew Target had some pretty blue/gold/silver ornaments that would look great in the museum, since the walls are painted a soft, light blue.

So that's about it for now with the Christmas trees. Hopefully, I can get Joseph to let me use his computer so I can upload some really pictures!!

Happy Holidays, Ya'll!

A Tasty Treat

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

I finally got around to making this recipe. I have seen Ina (my fav!) make this on her show a million times and it always looked good. I originally was gonna make it as a pre-dinner snack, but it was a little time consuming and so delicious and filling, that we just ate it for supper. I made four tarts. And let me say. These. Are. Fabulous! So here's how I did it: (to quote Ina)

Ingredients

• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
• Good olive oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
• 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler
• 4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet)
• 1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
• 3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

Directions
 Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide, cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with the second pastry sheet to make 4 circles in all. Place the pastry circles on 2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.

Using a sharp paring knife, score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each round, staying inside the scored border.

Place 1/4 of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Crumble 1 ounce of goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter 4 or 5 shards of Parmesan on each tart.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. The bottom sheet pan may need an extra few minutes in the oven. Serve hot or warm.

I'm still here!

I still have no internet at home, so I am just posting this really fast here at work to let everyone know that I will try and post some house/Christmas photos this weekend, if Joseph will let me use his laptop long enough to do it. But I do have my Christmas tree up and it's a big one! Stay tuned for pictures {hopefully!}