Tis the Season

It has been a while since my last post because December has been busy! I've spent every afternoon at school grading papers, Christmas shopping, or cooking. There hasn't been a good time to sit down and blog, until now. Finally, the moment I've been waiting for, Christmas break! This past week went by fast, and Friday's school day wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The only craziness I had to put up with was breaking up a girl fight in the hallway. Anyways, 3:00 came, and every teacher darted out of the building.

Now let me highlight a few things that have been going on since my last post.

First, we put up our Christmas tree! We brought it all the way from Greenville (where we celebrated Thaksgiving).

These angels are my favorite ornaments on our tree. We gave these to the musicians in our wedding, and my mom got me a set as well. They are beautiful (they look better in person).

Second, we went to a wedding.

Our friends Zach and Kate got married last weekend on Pat Dye's farm. Saturday night they had a fun party, and the wedding ceremony was Sunday morning. Even though it was cold and rainy, the wedding was beautiful and the setting was perfect!

Some of Nick's fraternity friends with Zach (the groom in the middle) at the party Saturday night.

Above: Me, Rachel, and Stephanie

Below: Austin, Zach, and Nick The wedding ceremonyThe happy couple! Zach and Kate Kirby!

Third, we hosted our Sunday School Christmas party this past week. We provided drinks and the main dish, and everyone else brought other dishes. My mom was in town this past week, and she helped me out tremendously with many things involving the party. Thanks Lovie!

I only have the before pictures of our party becasue after everyone arrived we had such a good time that I just forgot about pictures.

This was our table set up. The gold reindeer ornaments were the party favors.

This was our drink set up. We had a big variety!

And our main dish, Chicken Florentine Joseph from Southern Sideboards Cookbook.

Ingredients:
10 ounces fresh spinach

7 Table spoons butter, divided

Lemon Juice

Salt and pepper to taste

20 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup dry sherry wine

4 half chiken breasts

Flour

1 egg, beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

2/3 cup fine bread crumbs

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Oil

Chopped pimiento

Cook spinach in salted water. I actually didn't include the spinach in my dish, but I'm sure it would be really good. Drain chop and season with 1 Tablespoon butter, lemon juice and salt to taste.

Saute mushrooms in sherry for about 10 minutes. Add remaining butter and salt to taste. Set aside. I bought 1 package of sliced mushrooms for every 4 to 5 pieces of chicken. Salt and pepper chicken; then dust with flour and dip in egg. Coat chicken with mixture of bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Fry in oil until tender. I put them in a dish, poured olive oil on top, and baked chicken in a 350 degree over for about 45 minutes.

My breading station: flour, egg, bread crumb and cheese mixture Breaded chicken before going into the oven.
To serve, place spinach on plate (again, I skipped this part). Top with chicken and pour mushroom saute on top. Garnish with parsley (I added this) and chopped pimiento. This garnish makes the dish very colorful.

Finally, I saw the movie New Moon! I've been waiting to see the Twilight sequel since Thanksgiving. My sweet husband agreed to go with me last night. I will say this movie was much better than Twilight, and it stayed true to the story. However, the book is still better than the movie.

I hope your December has been a good one. Christmas is almost here!

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving reminds me of this song:

Give thanks with a grateful heart,

Give thanks to the Holy One;

Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong,"

Let the poor say, "I am rich," because of what the Lord has done for us.

Give thanks with a grateful heart,

Give thanks to the Holy One;

Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son.

Give thanks, give thanks.

After our New Orleans trip we drove to my hometown to spend Thanksgiving Day. Like I've said before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Everybody can do what they wish in the morning, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, hunt, cook, etc. I prefer to watch the parade. This is actually one of my favorite things! I love to see what Broadway plays will be showing, the movie stars and musicians that will appear, and of course, the large balloons. I watch the entire parade without missing a single performance or balloon. However, this year while watching the parade, NBC just stopped playing in Greenville, MS. I was mad. My favorite part of Thanksgiving that I've been looking forward to for weeks was ruined. My mom even called the cable company to complain (this is not the first time NBC has shut down during an important showing), but the complaining didn't really help. Fortunately, I was able to watch it live on the Internet. The parade was as good as always! After thinking that the worst part of my day was not seeing 25 minutes of the parade, I realized just how much I have to be thankful for this year. I am thankful with a grateful heart!

While I enjoyed my morning of parade watching and coffee drinking, Nick was out hunting. He woke at 4:45 a.m. to sit in the woods. Nobody else wanted to hunt with him, but he was going no matter what. Well, he was successful! He killed a 9-point deer after sitting in the stand for less than an hour. He was so excited! My dad had dropped him off, and he was able to take these pictures when he went back to get Nick. This made his Thanksgiving! He is thankful with a grateful heart too!

After our successful morning, we headed to the lake (our cousin's cabin on Lake Chicot in Lake Village, AR). This is only a 15 minute drive from our house. It was a beautiful day, and we thouroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had a wonderful turkey along with green bean casserole, crab and rice casserole, dressing, sweet potatoes, rolls, and gravy to top everything off. We all ate too much, and I didn't even mention dessert. Then we enjoyed visiting by the fire. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I enjoy good food, family, and relaxation, and you don't have to worry about all the gift giving.

The setting of our Thanksgiving feast, the Archer's cabin

Our beautiful turkey

Nick getting a second round of food
It was a beautiful day!


The MozingosMollie's photo shoot! Isn't she cute?! And she is soon to be a big sister!

Nick and me. I love this picture becasue it captures the fall season so well!

Sitting by the fire after the big meal

The Brown siblings

Mollie fishing

While sitting outside, listening to the radio, mamma wanted to dance (she danced last year too). At the moment my dad was unavailable, so she convinced Lollie to dance with her.

Soon daddy came out and cut in on Lollie.
What a wonderful day!

I hope your Thanksgiving was as good as mine!

Now, on to Christmas!

Tator in the Big Easy

It is nice to be home after last week's fun travels. We spent our Thanksgiving week in MS and a few days in New Orleans. Sarah Barry did a good job of describing Tator and our trip to NOLA. Here is a little more on our trip (most of it is pictures).

Before heading down to The Big Easy, Nick and I hung out in Madison, MS (Nick's hometown). We celebrated our first Thanksgiving meal with his family. On Monday morning the rest of the family came down to board the train. Yes, we rode the Amtrak train from Jackson, MS to New Orleans! The train was great! The seats are bigger than airplane seats, there is plenty of leg room, and you can get up and walk around whenever you please. We even took our own ice chest filled with fun drinks and snacks. There were twelve of us on the train, and we managed to find seats all together. Unlike a plane, you do not have an assigned seat. It is first come, first serve.

Gillespies and Freemans waiting for the train in Jackson.

Archers and Mozingos waiting for the train.

Shots from the train.

Once we arrived in NOLA we enjoyed good food, good company, good weather, and good walks.

We also spent a lot of time at Cafe Du Monde. It was wonderful! Just take a look:

Mollie's favorite part was the powdered sugar.

Enjoying some drinks to go.

Enjoying drinks on Bourbon Street.

Here is some of the good company that I enjoyed on my trip:

Mollie and Pop

My aunt, Lynn, and my dad (Doc)

My cousin Ellen and Mollie

Stephen Grande, Nick, John George

My mom, Lovie, Bibba, Win (SB's friend from Greenville), and SB

Strolling around, enjoying the streets of New Orleans:

Photo shoot by the MS River

A few of us also went to see the new 4-D movie about WWII at the National WWII Museum. It was very cool! The movie makes you feel like you are in the war. It was very educational and entertaining.

Snuggies were the birthday gifts from my cousins for Lovie, Tator, and Doc. They came in handy on our balcony.

After spending two fun days in the Big Easy, we boarded the train to head back to MS.

Exhausted from having such a good time!