A Christmas Party

Hello Everyone!  Wow! Only two day until Christmas.  I hope you are enjoying these magical days leading up to this most special event.  

For almost thirty-five years we have had the great pleasure to live on the outskirts of town, way out in the country.  As we look around in our quiet solitude one would never know any other human lived any where near us.  However, we are blessed to have the most wonderful neighbors through the woods in every direction.

Each year one of our neighbors hosts our "neighborhood Christmas party."  Of all the happenings, get-togethers, parties, receptions around town at this time of year, this is "the party" my husband and I look forward to the most.   

If you walk out our front door and walk through the woods to our right we see our closest neighbors Kathy and Mike who were our hostesses for this year's Christmas party in their charming traditional country Southern Living style home.  

This beautiful family room looks like a picture right out of Country Living Magazine.  I loved Kathy's Christmas decorating touches all around from the lighted Nativity Scene on the fireplace mantel to the lighted Christmas garland, the pretty poinsettias on the hearth, the Nutcracker sitting on the coffee table, and the Christmas tree pillow on the couch.

In the below photo we see the dining room table all set for the
Christmas dinner Kathy would soon be serving

I loved the country hall tree at the front entrance door and more of Mike's decorations.

There would be six couples having dinner which required Kathy to set two tables. I loved the Christmas Spode dishes complimented by the pretty green glasses and the green Candelabras.  The red placemats on the beautiful Christmas Spode tablecloth was a beautiful fininishing touch along with the lovely floral centerpiece.

And in the photo below we see the second table with a similar table place setting 

and a beautiful red Christmas tree centerpiece.

There were multiple appetizers for everyone to enjoy.

In the below photo we see some of the neighbor friends helping Kathy serve.
On the left we see Janice, then Barbie helping to serve the water and then thats me enjoying everything.

In the below photo we see our beautiful and delightful neighbor and hostess Kathy.  Each neighbor brought a food item to share and Kathy and Mike prepared the delicious meat.  The menu served was Roasted Pork, Brussel Sprouts, Potato Casserole, Salad and Baked Apples.

Kathy also served a delicious Cranberry Punch.

And, of course there was a dessert table.  We all enjoyed three different flavored cakes.

And our neighbor Barbie made these delicious Holiday chocolates.

It is always so much fun visiting with our special neighbors.

We all gathered together in front of the fireplace for a group photo.
Mike was taking this photo.

Since our hostess Mike was taking the above photo I took another photo of just the men of our group.
That is Mike on the right side.

Love the beautiful Christmas poinsettia.

My favorite Christmas decoration of all is the Nativity Scene.

Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright,
'Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for coming along with us and enjoying this wonderful neighborhood Christmas party.

Wishing you a most wonderful and Merry Christmas wherever you may be.

In The Good Ole USA - Driving Down Highway 129

Hello Everyone!  As we were leaving our mountain cabin in Robbinsville, North Carolina to return home from leaf looking, I put my camera in the front seat beside me just in case we saw some pretty photo opportunities.

We packed up the Fall wreath, took one last look across the mountain at the beautiful leaves changing and then we went on our way toward home.

As you see in the below map photo our route home takes us South along Highway 129 through Robbinsville, traveling on through Andrews and then Murphy.   Highwayy 129 is known for it's scenic mountain valley vistas and curvy mountain roads.  It is a beautiful scenic route traveling across the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.

In the below photo notice all the different color trees on the mountain.

We loved seeing all the beautiful trees all along the way.

Shortly before we left the Robbinsville downtown area I snapped a photo of this old
stone church with the pretty Fall wreath above the door.

As you can see in the below photo the colorful tree below was
beginning to loose leaves, but it was still pretty.

And again we see a stone wall of the porch of this old home similar to the 

stone in the photo of the church in the previous photo.

Had to stop and snap a photo of the red leaves of these two large trees seen below.

As we continued on our way down Highway 129  this old home completely surrounded by these huge old Oak trees caught my eye.  It did not look like anyone lived there.

Can't you envision how very charming this beautiful yard and lovely 

old farmhouse could look with a little tender loving care.

And, again, if you look closely, we see the same stone design for this porch 

as in the church and previous old house photos.

Amazing how greenery can still grow out of what appears to be a solid stone wall.

Don't you love the "bend in the road."  I always wonder what lies ahead.

We noticed these two little country farmhouse looking buildings nestled
among all these beautiful colorful trees.

Just outside Murphy, North Carolina we left Highway 129 and turned onto Highway 60, which will take us to the Georgia line and on into the big city of Atlanta, Georgia.

As we entered into the charming little town of Blue Ridge, Georgia we wanted to stop off at Mercier-Orchids to find apples to take home to different family members.

If you would like to take a look inside or select a gift item for someone,  you can click on the link below:

http://www.mercier-orchards.com/

And if you are interested specifically in ordering apples,  you can click on the link below:

http://www.mercier-orchards.com/categories/Apples-%26-Fruit/

After finding the most delicious looking apples for everyone at the Mercier Orchards we continued on our way on toward Atlanta and on back home to Tallahassee.

In the below photo we see the last mountain range we will see as we head on South.  What an extremely beautiful day it was with the magnificant blue skies and beautiful white clouds all along the way.

Thank you for joining us as we traveled down the beautiful scenic
Highway 129  and on into the great state of Georgia.

Christmas is rapidly approaching!  We all know what a busy time it is for everyone.  As we all go on our way preparing for this magical time of year, I wish you much happiness and the very best during this joyful season wherever you may be.

Lexington, Kentucky Back Country Roads

Hi Everyone!  I guess by now you are totally full of turkey and dressing and all of the Thanksgiving dinner left-overs.   And, did you by any chance fix yourself a turkey sandwich with sliced sweet pickles the day after Thanksgiving?  Oh! My! Sometimes I think that is the best part of Thanksgiving.

If you still have a lot of left-over turkey and would like to make some delicious soup you can click on the link below for a very yummy Turkey Soup recipe:

http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2012/11/turkey-soup-with-biscuits-recipes.html

If you visited the previous post for Sweet Southern Days you know we recently traveled to visit family in Lexington, Kentucky.  In the below photo we see a map of the many roads all leading out of the city.We discovered if you drive along any one of these roads you are in for a scenic treat.   

Lexington is known as Thoroughbred horse country and is considered "the horse capital of the world." On this day we were sightseeing on several of these roadways you see in the map below enjoying the rolling hills, natural beauty and the interesting entrances to some of the horse farms in the area.

City Map of Lexington, Kentucky

Of course, my camera is never too far away with the thought 

in mind of trying to capture some of the beauty all around us.  

We saw many quaint and narrow roads as seen in the photo below.

And many beautiful rolling hills and lush countryside.

And miles and miles of fencing on each side of the roadway.

We were told that this tree we see below is a Chestnut Tree.  We are all familiar with the classic Christmas Song lyrics of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
The song goes partly like this:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos, etc...

Chestnuts growing on the tree.
This is something we had never seen before.

It was delightful as we continued on our way driving along the fenced roadways in Lexington.

We saw many horse farm entrances as seen below.

If you are interested to see more information about some of these amazing Thoroughbred
horse farms in Lexington, you can click on the link below.

http://www.khorse.com/list_of_horse_race_farms_in_kentucky.htm

As we drove along this pretty old country farmhouse caught my eye.

Another horse farm entrance.

In the below photo you can see what I was referring to as the rolling hills around Lexington.

Another horse farm entrance.

If you are ever in the central Kentucky region I hope you get to see some of the beautiful
old stone fences in and around the back country narrow roads.

Central Kentucky is famous for their horses and the many miles of old rock fences.

Mr. Google tells us these old stone faces were originally built in this area
by Irish Immigrant stonemasons when they arrived in this country.

As in Ireland, when land was cleared for agriculture, there was a lot of stone that was
plentiful in the fields. Therefore, they used the stones for border walls for pastures.

It is quite a work-of-art building these stone fences.  The only thing holding the wall together is gravity and the correct placement of the stones.  All of the stones are laid by hand and no mortar is used in the process.

This barn looks like the traditional Kentucky horse barn.

Seen below is another picturesque old stone wall entrance into another farm.

Someone was driving along this old country road with a trailor full of hay for the horses.

We spotted this pretty and peaceful scene as we drove along.

And another horse farm entrance.

This old church caught my eye with the pretty stone construction.

And the unusual door.

An old Kentucky home.

It was a beautiful day as we drove along enjoying this lovely countryside.

 

Thanks for coming along with us today as we enjoyed looking at the picturesque
countryside in this charming old city located in central Kentucky.

Wishing you many blessings as we begin a new week after our Thanksgiving holiday.