You Can't Catch the Gingerbread Man!

Even though I don't have grandchildren, at the holidays, my house becomes Grandma's house and everyone comes here.  This year due to knee pain, I had to scale back some, but still managed to create a table for everyone to enjoy.  

 

Placemats & napkins - Home Goods

Chargers - Michaels

Plaid plates - Pottery Barn

Gingerbread plates - Williams Sonoma

Flatware - Onieda Sheraton

Poinsettia glassware - Old Time Pottery

Star coasters - Ikea

 The runner is another purchase from Anna's in Round Top.  It is cut from a bolt of hand woven linen material for feed sacks.

 Daisy's first Christmas was uneventful.  She wasn't the least bit interested in the tree, but she loved the toys we hid for her. 

 Miss Daisy King's (not the dog :)), Five Flavored Pound Cake. I highly recommend it even if it did stick to the pan.

 A few hours before our dinner meal, we found out 2 additional friends were attending so we added a small table at the end to accommodate. When my children walked in the door, they had brought another unexpected friend, so we actually ended up with twelve for dinner!  I had to scurry to set another place at the table. 

 I had a busy, but wonderful Christmas.  I am looking forward to clearing the table and getting ready for our annual New Year's Eve/Anniversary party over the weekend. Stayed tuned for more pictures.   I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas.  
Joining:You Can't Catch the Gingerbread Man!Tablescape Thursday
Centerpiece Wednesday

Christmas With Friends

Every year a group of friends gathers for our annual Christmas dinner.  My dear friend Suzanne always sets the perfect table and this year was no exception. 

The food was delicious.  Thom and Suzanne do the entire meal and it is such a treat. 

Another of Thom's amazing desserts! 

 It's always nice to get together with good friends, but around the holidays it is especially wonderful.  I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas.  

And This Little Piggy

Well, it's that time again.  My out of town sisters are coming for a visit and they have requested their favorite menu Smoked Shoulder with Alabama White Sauce.  I've done this menu so many times, I am running out of table ideas to keep it fresh. 

Lucky for me, Home Goods & Dillard's had loads of great ideas!  

Placemats from Dillard's 50% off and an additional 40% off over the weekend! 

Table runner, Dillards 65% and additional 40% = free!

Rusted pigs from Home Goods.  Aluminum pots from Target. 

Everything else on the table is from my stash of stuff and had been used over and over.

I will try to remember to take some pictures of the smoking process and the meal on Saturday.  Happy Labor Day y'all!
Come see the fun at Kathleen's party Let's Dish Farewell to Summer and Tablescape Thursday.  

Did Jed Clampett Do It This Way?

Strange couple of days around here.  Last night we heard something stirring around in our bedroom, but after a Margarita, neither of us had the energy to get up and check it out.  
This morning I discovered some droppings in the bathroom.  They didn't look like what I would expect from the dog.
Around 11:00 Mr CT came home and opened the dishwasher and discovered this

We were both stunned.  How did a live baby possum get in the house, let alone in the dishwasher???  Apparently, that is what we heard stirring around in the bedroom last night.  Really creepy!

You might notice the unwashed frying pan.  Mr CT tried to get him to climb into the pan, but he wasn't having any part of it.  We aren't sure if it was a he or she and we sure weren't getting close enough to look!

Some tongs, the frying pan and very long arms finally got the baby outside where he or she belonged!  

Oh, and in case you are wondering why Daisy didn't alert us?  She was actually afraid of it! 

Where Have I Been???

I know I have been blog-absent lately, but I have really adorable excuse.  Meet the newest member of our family.

This is Daisy!  We think she is a Beagle/Jack Russell mix.  She is between 1 year and 18 months old. We adopted her in June from the Wetumpka, AL shelter.  You might be tempted to ask, "why AL, instead of adopting in TN"?  It's a story, but not a long one.  

Daisy's favorite toy, a squeaky ball

We attended a meeting about Diabetes Alert Dogs and decided we needed one.  Mr CT, has type 1 diabetes and has lots of low blood sugars when he is working hard for long hours.  Diabetes alert dogs that are trained cost $40,000, but you can train your pet to detect high and low blood sugars for about $600.  No brainer for us, except, we didn't have a dog.  

We asked the trainer to help us find a suitable dog for  this important job.  

About 2 weeks later, we received a call about this sweet little girl that had been in USDA scent training, but flunked out b/c  she was afraid of the sliding doors at the airport.  She ended up in the Wetumpka shelter and on the working dog rescue network.

Thanks to a wonderful volunteer, we were able to get Daisy to our forever home in TN.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work out b/c Mr CT, has never had a dog and said no every time I asked about getting one.  

Daisy has won Mr CT's heart

Daisy goes with him in the truck every day and sticks by his side at home.  She takes naps in my lap, but she is a Daddy's girl for sure.  

Very smart and easy to train.  So smart, she even took her own selfie! 

 We were concerned about how 16 year old Punkin would react to a dog after having the rule of the house.  

Punkin's favorite bed is a Dillard's bag.

 They aren't best friends, there is still a lot of swatting going on, but they tolerate each other.  
Daisy has completed the Basic Manners class and will start obedience training soon.  Once she completes obedience, we will be ready to enroll in the alert training program.  I also want to start Agility training with her at some point, but she already has a lot on her plate.  

It's enough to make a toddler need a nap!