Not bad for my first time!

I fried some chicken today for the very first time.
I fried some chicken today just like my Memaw.
I fried some chicken today to honor my Papaw... and it sure reminded me of some good ole days!

My Memaw is famous for her fried chicken. So when she told me to soak it in some buttermilk ahead of time, that is exactly what I did. Looks yummy huh? Especially if you love buttermilk (yuck)!

Next, I salt and peppered up the flour and the slimy chicken took a nice bath in it.

Finally, I fried it up "nice and slow" just like Memaw said, and guess what?

It didn't turn out too bad for my first time! Still, nothing tops Memaw's chicken!

"Papaw" Jessee (1926-2010)

And this is all I've ever wanted...

What a sight? How surreal! Aren't I a lucky, lucky girl?

Lazy Weekend

I promise I'll get around to sharing more Christmas photos and stories...just as soon as I finish being lazy with these two!

Dear Santa, Eat Cookies Leave Gifts

Addie and I love our aprons and love to bake together. She gets really excited when she sees me pull out the "cake bowl", even though she can't have any of the batter or cake herself (poor little girl)! Christmas Eve we got busy making Santa his cookies (as if "Mrs. Claus" really needs to eat more cookies since "Santa" doesn't really like sweets-yeah right!) Addie was very excited to prepare these special treats!

Notice the fig cookie in her hands...no eggs in those things and she loves them. Little does she know that Santa's cookies have white chocolate chips in them. I bet she will love those things as much as her mommy does!

We carefully placed the cookies and some milk on the side table in the living room so that Santa could enjoy them after sneaking in our front door. He is much too big to fit in our chimney!

She seems to be really enjoying her fig cookie and doesn't mind leaving the others for "Ho Ho".

This is one of the little traditions that Addie and I have done now for two years straight. I'm not much of a baker, but I can handle some "cake-box" cookies every now and then. We also enjoyed homemade pizzas with all of our favorite toppings, some delicious spiced apple cider, and the classic "Its a Wonderful Life". I love making new traditions with my babies and hope that these will be memories of their childhood that they always cherish!

At our house...

Poker looks like this... Wanna play?

Here you go Ben...would you like to see my tree?

This one is my favorite...as she stands there with hands behind her back admiring the tree...

and slowly she starts to lose Ben's attention....but wait...she gets him interested again...

And that my friends, is how I entertained two 2-year olds for a whole twenty minutes! Can we get a woot woot! Oh, and I just might leave my tree up year-round. No kidding.

Love Mamaw and Grandpa Dave

The first place we celebrated Christmas was at my mom and Dave's house before they headed to West Virginia to see my Papaw. We had a delicious dinner, and Addie and Hayes were spoiled rotten! Hayes pretty much just sat back and watched all the fun take place, but he was happy nonetheless. Next year will be lots of fun with a little boy to spoil too! (Don't mind the grizzly beard on my otherwise handsome husband's face- for some reason, he doesn't seem to care that I HATE it!)

Mamaw and Grandpa Dave got Addie her first car- a Mustang! She better not expect the same from us in 14 years or so...

Dave and Tim did take her outside to try it out for a few, but it was so cold that day that she was just as happy sitting in it in the living room. This spring I see lots of fun times to be had in that car!

Thanks Mamaw and Grandpa Dave....I love it! And so does Addie....