First, we celebrated Thanksgiving at home, which would not have been complete without pumpkin bars-

Mi madre y su madre

My grandmother fussed about how old she looks when I wanted to take her picture, so I refused to show her the picture on my camera because I did not want to hear her say ugly things about herself. I think she looks great. She did turn 80 this summer!


We drove to Alabama and met up with Carolyn at our Aunt Carolyn's house. She lives in the country where there are barns and turkeys on the walls.

Where you can also find gems of houses like this one. It dates to pre-civil war, and has had many additions since then. The antiques and decorations are fabulous.



Not only is the house awesome, but look at the yard! These images are from Alabama Bride, which featured one of their daughter's weddings. Yes, those are chandeliers hanging from the trees, and yes, they worked.

They could not have painted a more perfect backdrop to this wedding...

Our trip also included lots of cousins; 1st, 2nd, and beyond

And some fun...

And then there is the Christmas tree with all of its breakable antique ornaments. The bucket was leaking, so some plastic needed to be slid underneath the tree. Some resourceful engineering called for a pole screwed to the trunk and manpower lifting while womanpower slide the plastic underneath.

Not pictured: about 15 onlookers