Happy day

Margaret says Happy Day. Time to jump.

Grampa's first Gaylord

This is our favorite place at Christmastime. Gaylord Opryland. You can stay here a week and never realize you haven't been outside. It is the Disneyland of Nashville. This year we shared it with Grampa.

Heritage

This is a photo of Grampa Coleman's grandfather, John Baptiste Brieden and two of his brothers. This of course, would be Grampa's mother''s father.

John is the one standing. Sort of looks like another relative we have, huh?

Happy autumn Christmas

Yesterday it was 69.

 Last night at midnight it was still 69. This morning it was 29 and Ice raining. Kids really enjoyed the warm weather for a day. Today back to winter.

Christmas cactus

Last year Michelle got me this Christmas cactus for my birthday. It had buds when I got and was much smaller and bloomed early. Then it was just green and I've enjoyed seeing new growth throughout the year.

At Thanksgiving this year buds began to appear. The buds were tiny but a few days ago they started tripling in size. Now they are blooming. It really IS a Christmas cactus!

And let's not forget the hot toddy!

Happy Holidays

Candles are a huge part of the holidays at our house. Every year I try to buy two or three nice smelling ones from Bath & Body - Cinnamon, Cranberry or Bayberry, or the Pumpkin Spice. 

This year we're trying to see how we can use what we've got to enjoy the holidays just as much. 

I always save my old candle stuff. A quarter inch of old wax in 4 or 5 jars adds up. Then there are the smaller candles that never quite get all the way used.

So the other day, when Michelle said I needed to get more of those nice candles, I went into my storeroom cabinet and pulled out all my leftover candle jars.  I keep a stock of wicks in my craft supply, and grabbed 3 of those, too. 

I heated a large panful of water.  I dropped all the leftover wax into a smaller non-stick pan and set that on the boiling water and watched it all turn to liquid. 

Then I washed out an old Bath & Body jar, dried it, then put in 3 wicks. I stuck them to the bottom with a few drops of melted wax, then I slowly poured the new concoction (all scents included) into my newly cleaned jar.  It looked lovely cooling on the counter.   Obi was fascinated how it worked.

When it was all dry a few hours later, I tested it out. Looks like new, huh!? and smells like Cranberry Cinnamon Pumpkin pie!!

This should last a couple of weeks, if I am careful! 

11.5 miles in winter

It's been COLD the last few days. Degrees as low as 16 made it painful to be outside very long. Treadmill running is nice but long runs are far better outdoors.

Today it was 48 and getting up to 50 - windy, cloudy, even a little rainy but it was still a perfect winter day to run, so I took advantage.

Went a new route, to East Blue Creek. Just had to share the pics.