Hello Winter

Waking up this morning I smiled. A deep freeze was hitting last night bringing the first snowfall and I couldn't wait to see it. Jumping out of bed, I ran to the window. Everything is white.

Hello winter.

A day off work, an arctic freeze, a pot of coffee, and pretty new gloves should I venture to go outside.

No Longer a Teen

Happy 20th birthday, Brooke! I cannot believe my baby is 20 years old. 

Two and through, we successfully made it through the teen years with no teenage pregnancies. I say that in jest, but raise a couple of teenagers in this day and age, I'm incredibly grateful the teen years are behind us. 

Brooke & I spent the morning together going to a beautiful Christmas open house with hot chocolate and Christmas cookies and went to lunch. She loves steak and a Ribeye at Longhorn, with a quick happy birthday song from the servers, the steak was pretty delicious and her birthday lunch enjoyable.

Brooke loves to buy presents for me that are sentimental and tear-jerkers. Happy tears to her equal success. For her birthday, along with other gifts, I had all her wedding photos printed and put them in a beautiful photo album to present to her and Alex. I wasn't going for happy tears, but I certainly got that reaction. 

Family together, we celebrated both Brooke & Alex's birthdays as they are 4 days apart. I saw pretty cakes at the store, but they are so commercial and there is something about homemade that I swear just tastes better. So, I made a homemade chocolate cake with cool whip frosting and crumbled Reese's Cups on top. It really was yummy. With my beautiful, little princess helper, we lit the cake (Well, I was lighting the cake, she was swooping her fingers in the Cool Whip and picking Reese's chunks and eating them) filled with candles for both their ages total and wished them a happy birthday.

Happy birthday, Brookie, you are no longer a teen!

Warm & Cozy

My day trip to Amish country became a serendipitous adventure of fabulous shops, Christmas decor galore, an incredible Amish lunch, a fabulous theater new find and tour, and two great mugs. 

In my mind, I was wanting large red mugs. Warm & cozy is a wonderful winter theme and I when got home to blog about my adventure, I saw that I had just written that morning I wanted warm & cozy and I jumped up and ran to my mugs, and that is exactly what is on them. They are perfect, like a special gift from God that is exactly where I was supposed to be. 

In a Keurig world, I prefer the comforts of a real pot of coffee and great mugs. 

The Magic of Christmas

I'm lost in the magic of Christmas. Thank you, Hallmark Channel, for the warm & cozy movies.

Last year as I was deciding what new color theme and decor I wanted after so many years, I decided on deep reds with bone colored and rustic accents.. With so many color themes available, traditional is timeless. 

I've seen so many other color themes that are simply beautiful and there really is something for everyone. 

It's the simpler moments I want and today I am in pursuit of the perfect Christmas coffee mugs. Destination, Amish country. 

I want to enjoy time and conversations with coffee, hot cocoa w/ peppermint sticks, and hot spiced cider w/cinnamon sticks with my girls and friends over these mugs. This whole Christmas season I want to have baked cookies and baked cakes readily available for family and friends because sharing a beverage and dessert warms the heart. Last night I baked a family favorite, banana cake with real bananas and cream cheese icing. 

Date days with my daughters, just the three of us together, is always special. Last weekend started off going to a Christmas Open House at a beautiful, local landscaping business, turned quite the Christmas shop in the last few years. They put on stunning Christmas displays with Christmas music in the back ground and a table with Christmas cookies & always some sort of Christmas punch. Beautifully done and my compliments. 

When I spotted the Grinch and Cindy Loo Hoo, I told my girls I wanted their pictures with them, and they replied, "No way!" Well, no way until the Grinch snuck up behind them and photo boomed them in a photo and after much laughter, they readily agreed to pose and the moment was captured ...

After a stop at another local arts & crafts show, we found ourselves in a cozy coffee shop sipping drinks with a bite to eat. These are the moments I love and between work schedules and babies, a few hours away together is enjoyable.

Preferring and seeing the beauty in simpler things, that's where the magic happens. It's in the moments and memories that warm the heart. 

Happy Halloween

The wind is blowing, leaves are falling, it has poured down rain all day and it's not supposed to stop.

POSITIVES: My grandbabies aren't upset not being able to trick or treating, because they are too young and don't understand it and my girls have aged out of trick or treating. Well, Brooke hasn't and we did have plans for her to dress up and perhaps stop by my brother's neighborhood, because it has more houses that participate than you can walk. She isn't pleased, but she does have a successful number of years participating in this.

MORE POSITIVES: The rain sounds wonderful and I got off work early. It is officially a perfect day to get into comfy clothes, put on a pot of coffee, enjoy some Hallmark Christmas movies, perhaps find a new favorite Netflix show and I have pasta leftovers and a yummy cake to enjoy.

For my Brooke:

A Hallmark Christmas

I am a day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) Christmas decorator. It's go time once my grateful heart at Thanksgiving is over, I welcome and embrace Christmas the very next day. Christmas music, decorations, hot chocolate, I love to lose myself in the wonder of Christmas.

This year is slightly different, the Hallmark Channel officially changed everything this year. October 25th began their two months till Christmas by starting Hallmark Christmas movies two months early. Thank goodness, because there is nothing on television that I am watching.

The DVR set to record and capture romantic and highly predictable Hallmark movies allows me to turn on television when I want to sit down and relax and watch something warm, wholesome and romantic. 

It's October 29th and I've already watched five movies. Fortunately, there are countless Hallmark Christmas movies that fills my soul when crap on television and the news does not. Scrolling through titles and descriptions I find I always choose mountain Christmas movies. 

I love the mountains. I remember the decades I used to hop in the car by myself and escape to the mountains at my grandmothers house. I would leave early enough in the morning so I would be in the mountains of West Virginia when the sun began to rise. Those mountains became a mighty wall that separated everything I wanted to leave behind. I'd stop at Tamarack for my last cup of coffee, before I crossed over the Virginia border to my grandmothers house. 

It was like stepping back in time in her country home with no internet, no television, where my grandmother would laugh with joy when she saw me. 

She was a mountain woman through and through. Her mind sharp, she had so much to say and share. We would ride in the mountains to Rich Patch, where she grew up in the country and she would tell stories of her life, a life so different so many decades ago. I would wake up in the morning to the smell of a country breakfast being made and we would drink Earl Grey tea together from water we collected from a fresh spring.  

I would make that trip 1-2 times per year for decades. She died several years ago and I really miss her. I also miss my trips to those magnificent mountains and the country. 

I'm a grandmother now and I know my joy when I see my grandbabies and pull them in my arms. I can only imagine my grandmothers anticipation of my arrival when I would come those couple of times a year. She was so proud of me and loved me so much. She would tell everyone about "my Dawn" and of our adventures together. We were grandmother and granddaughter, but we were also best of friends. 

Watching the mountain Christmas movies has an nostalgia of a simpler way of life. 

I know exactly where I want to go for my 1st vacation, I want to be in the mountains. A log cabin or lodge with a fireplace in majestic mountains with quaint towns decorated in anticipation of Christmas. 

Vacation

In all things in beautiful autumn, I was asked yesterday when am I using my vacation time?

Can I roll it over? No

Can I cash it in? No

I have over a couple of weeks of vacation to use before the end of the year. Nice problem to have, but I did have to scroll through my events schedule to see when on earth I am going to be able to slip away for days at a time or weeks at a time in the next two months. 

I will be in Florida in March, so I am entertaining a few different destinations before the end of the year. 

Hmmm... where do I want to go? What do I want to do? Who do I want to vacation with?