New Year's Eve at Smith Lake

When my parents agreed to come out for one week after Christmas I set about trying to find another vacation rental for our extended family to party in for the weekend of New Year's Eve. Our two families love college football, so there were a lot of fun times around the big TV in this house at Smith Lake. The house was almost big enough for all of us, and it had a great kitchen. Casey discover that she loved to climb stairs, and Jacob had his most bubbly bath ever! My mom and dad Larry made really delicious shrimp cakes, and Kathy G. made her tender biscuits. We had a blast!

THE CALENDAR

If you are a member of Jacob's and Casey's nuclear family, and even if you are not, you know that every year I force my kids to dress up in clothes that somehow represent each month of the year. I threatened to gift some of you with this calendar this year, and some of you suggested that I just post it on the blog. So here it is! You can see some of the "outtakes" below the calendar, because until now only a select few (Jessica, Kathy G., Elizabeth H., and Josh) know how unpleasant shooting the calendar pics can be for Mommy, Baby, and Big Boy. This year Jacob was surprisingly enthusiastic about dressing up in costumes, especially the pilmgrim costume and the basketball costume. Casey was pretty patient for some of her solo shoots, too, including her "June Bug" cutie supreme shoot, and her "May Day Che Gevarra" shoot. The truth is I love making the calendar, even when it's hard, and I love having the calendar up in our house. If you DO decide you want a calendar for yourself, I think I have a few extras stashed away. So just let me know!

January, February, March

April, May, June

July, August, September

October, November, December

Outtakes from the Calendar

Neither old nor young, I'm forty one

When she turned 31 my friend Jill Leovy sent me that poem. So, a decade has passed and yet still the almost-rhyme seems relevant. 41 is the new 31. Nancy Gregson and Kathy Gregson drove up to Nashville for my birthday and made it an awesome day. Kathy G. gave my lounge clothes (the best!) and a slow cooker. Nancy gave me a pedicure! You can see pretty Casey in yellow and Jacob enjoying the Frosty book I couldn't resist at Costco. Later we journeyed to an overcrowded Opryland at my insistence but still managed to enjoy the tacky splendiferous grandeur. See Kathy Gregson's great blog entry about it here: http://alabamakatgrandma.blogspot.com/2007/12/birthday-at-opryland.html#links

and more pics from my bday here:

http://alabamakatgrandma.blogspot.com/2007/12/happy-birthday.html#links

josh, jacob and casey make a chocolate cake with peppermint icecream filling

For my birthday I asked Josh to make a cake from Cooking Light magazine. It called for "light" peppermint icecream but I couldn't find any in Nashville, so I bought some light vanilla and added peppermint flavoring and candies. Josh executed the cake beautifully, using the advanced parent-chef technique of putting Casey in the baby bjorn. What a beautiful family! What a beautiful cake!

another one bites the dust

Last year Jacob, Nana and I made a gingerbread house at Nana's house in Port Hadlock. We didn't let the house with its frosting mortar sit long enough, and one of the roof pieces kept sliding off. I thought I had learned my lesson this year, so this year I let it sit for a whole 30 minutes! Uh...it still wasn't long enough. So the prefab gingerbread house ended up in the trash. Probably not a Christmas Craft to remember.

But I would not be outsmarted by gingerbread! I found a pattern online and Jacob and I made our own gingerbread. We baked it and then let it sit with its mortar for a whole day! Then we decorated it. Or I should say, Jacob decorated it! It smelled great for more than a month!