It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is to take our matching p.j. pictures. We have been lucky for several years to be able to find matching p.j.s for all of us at Target. It takes quite a bit of effort to accomplish getting all of us ready and down there, but it is definantly worth it. We had a blast. This year my helper was my daughter in law Mamas. We had a great day today. What do you think?






Blessings Memaw Barbie

Then and Now...so fast

Can't believe how fast these boys are growing. I am enjoying every minute of their childhood...and now we've added a girl.

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The Best of Life

We had family from out of town this week. My aunt Marty and Uncle Earl were here from Minnesota. It was a beautiful week to be here, as the leaves were just beginning to show a little fall color. The temperatures were unbelievable.

We made the most of our time together. One of our favorite things to do this time of year is to travel to Bell Buckle Tennessee for the arts and craft festival. There are over 500 vendors there each year. It was REALLY crowded this year as the weather was GREAT to be outdoors. Thomas bunji jumped, there was a hay ride, and lots of fun. Of course there's lots of good food, funnel cakes....
and italian ice cream.

Sunday afternoon we travelled to Lynchburg to Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House for a wonderful lunch. We had fried chicken, meatloaf, fried okra, pinto beans, slaw, mac and cheese, baked apples and chess pie for dessert. We left there and went to Sewanee Tennessee to visit the University of the South. Along the way we stopped at a Natural Bridge formation. It was really pretty. You can't tell by this photo, but it is quite high. In fact I was the only one in our group that walked across it.

After that we went to the Templeton Library. It is built on the side of the mountain and the view is spectacular.

This is the cathedral at Sewanee, University of the South.

The walls are filled with stain glass and the sun was really beautiful thru them.

In the bottom right picture on the left side of the photo you can see the prisms that the sun was making on the arched walls.

It is worth the drive up there to see the trees, the campus and the cathedral.

My aunt Louise drove over from Memphis to visit with us. My mom has 4 siblings and they have all been here to visit with her. It is a blessing to be together...yes, the best of life is being with family.

Blessings Memaw Barbie

Borrowed from a friend...

Thought this was worth sharing. Enjoy

Never regret a day in your life,

Good days give you happiness,

Bad days give you experience,

Both are essential to life...

Keep going.

Happiness keeps you sweet,

Trials keep you strong,

Sorrows keep you human,

Failure keeps you humble,

Success keeps you glowing,

but only God keeps you going!

Make today a great day!

Blessings Memaw Barbie

Grand Ole Opry Date

David and I had a night away and decided to go to Nashville. It's just a nice little drive to get there and you feel like you've been away. We'd never been to the Opry, so that's where we decided to go. It was a treat.

The Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio broadcast ever. They have broadcast over 4,000 radio shows. It has 4 segments each hosted by someone different. The first segment was hosted by Bill Anderson. (These photos are of Jim Ed Brown and Dailey & Vincent) Dailey & Vincent were awesome. They were David's favorite.

The Grand Ole Opry house is located out by Opryland Hotel.

Since the flood in Nashville earlier this year, the Opry has been held at the old Ryman Theater. I had never been to the Ryman so that was a treat. The radio broadcast began on November 28,1925. It was called the WSM Barn Dance and in 1927 was renamed the Grand Ole Opry. The Opry went through a number of home in several parts of Nashville before settling, in 1943 at the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman Auditorium was a former religious meeting house built in 1892 by a riverboat shipping magnate Captain Thomas Ryman for traveling evangelist, Reverend Samuel Jones.
We were greeted outside by Minnie Pearl and Porter Wagner. (great imposters!)I couldn't convince David to have his photo made with Minnie! Imagine that.

Jimmy C. Newman and Amber Digby.

Mark Wills...

There were many awesome fiddlers. Mike Snider among some of them. He also played "Be Thou My Vision" on the harmonica. It was beautiful. I love the old country music that incorporates gospel within it. Great.

Crystal Gayle...her hair swept the floor! She sang "Don't it make my brown eyes blue".

The Opry Square Dancers were really good.

Vince Gill is one of the regular hosts...

He was very entertaining. I was showing Cooper these pictures and he thought they were Donny A. There is some resemblence! Donny can ya sing like Vince?

I think you can see her hair better in this photo.

We will definantly be visiting the Grand Ole Opry again in the near future. Our children and grandchildren would enjoy it I believe.

Blessings

Memaw Barbie

The Cake Boss

Another good day with the grandkids. We cooked today. Thomas and Cooper have been watching the Cake Boss. We made a strawberry cake.These boys live to lick the beaters. Thomas is so patient, he lets the little boys have the beaters...
and he waits for the spatula...he knows there's more batter on the spatula.

He talked about making Fondant. We will have to do that the next time. I didn't have the ingredients that I needed.

He must have seen the cake boss use real flowers...he insisted on decorating with them.

It was really good. He had a good time anyway...

Blessings

Memaw Barbie