Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Greenville, MS with a tiny part of my Dad's family. Uncle Leon, Grandmother's oldest sibling, and his 5 children, 1 son in law and 4 granddaughters are all in Greenville. We started this tradition a few years ago when they moved the Egg Bowl from Thanksgiving day to the Saturday after Thanksgiving. All the Lenoirs, except for Tommy, are State fans so we are a house/family divided every year! We had so much fun this year as we do every year!

Here's the whole group (minus Elizabeth)

We got up Friday morning and headed to Tupelo to stay at Rebecca and Tom's. We were in no hurry to get there so we stopped in Oxford to do a little shopping on the Square since we would be in the Grove on Saturday and wouldn't have time for shopping! BEG has also been craving Ajax macaroni and cheese since last year and we both LOVE Abner's so we stopped and got some lunch.

The Leaches' came from Starkville to Tupelo Friday evening for happy hour and some visiting. They have been in Starkville with the Clark's and were not going to be able to make it to the game on Saturday so we are so glad they came over so we could catch up with them! (My camera was in the car so we weren't able to get a photo!)

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to Oxford for the game. The weather was beautiful!! There was a slight nip in the air and it got downright cold at the game (6pm kickoff) but we were dressed and ready for the cold, long johns and all!!

BEG in his cute red cord pants

Ran into my cousin Chris while wandering through the Grove

Although we didn't win the game we still had fun b/c we had given up the thought of actually winning a football game this year!! (And LSU lost!!!) =)

We hope that everyone had a blessed and relaxing Thanksgiving with loved ones.

CMG

O Christmas Tree

I know I should have given the Pilgrims a chance this year but I couldn't wait one more day to put my Christmas decorations up so I gave in middle of last week. There is some form of decoration in every single room of our house this year and I love it!! It's Christmas everywhere you turn at Gladstone.

My Picaso from Painting with a Twist

The infamous "wall tree" in the den

My "D.C. tree" in the kitchen

The Silver Bells hanging were gifts from my

paternal grandparents every year for 20 years.

This is the first year I have put them up

and I love them; very festive!

Willow Tree Nativity

and BEG Nativity in bottom right corner

(made in 1987....so darn cute)

The mantel, stockings and the pets trees

And last put certainly not least, I give you our tree with lights. The Christmas Tree is a 3 step process so I will post a final/complete picture with ornaments once we decorate it after Thanksgiving.

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Ta Da

And me with my masterpiece!!

I am very particular about decorating the tree and it is no small task. This years tree contains 15 strands of 100 lights so it is well lit and BEAUTIFUL if I must say so myself (but I am a bit biased!) I wrap almost every branch with lights instead of draping lights throughout because as you can see it makes a huge difference with the outcome. We have the tree placed in the front window so all who drive by can enjoy the tree as well =)

BEG and I have a lot to be thankful for this year and hope that you and yours do as well!! We hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed and safe Thanksgiving with loved ones.

CMG

Christmas Tree Selection

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. All of the decorations, smells and music make me so happy!! But the most fantastic part about Christmas to me is the TREE. My family has gone to a Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree since I was a child and I can not imagine not picking and cutting down my own tree (there are guys there who help!) We headed out to Weaver's Sunday morning to find the perfect tree and it didn't take us long to find "the one"!

We took RHETT with us and he was in heaven running around and of course helping!!

Family photo (minus george)

If you look closely you can see RHETT and BEG

Shaking out the debris

Making sure it's straight

Securing it in net for the ride home

Loading it up

Secure in it's "home" for the next 6 weeks

We selected a 9 foot Leland Fur beauty for this years tree. It is gorgeous and smells unbelievable. Unfortunately, george thinks it is a new toy for him so it is going to be a long month. Hopefully they will both come out unharmed!

Happy Holidays!!

CMG

Death Valley

Since are days are numbered in Louisiana, I want BEG to do everything a "real" Louisianaian does, we headed to Baton Rouge for the Ole Miss - LSU game Saturday. Thankfully the game was at 2:30 so we left Saturday morning at 8am and came back after the game getting in about 11pm. It made for a long day but it was worth it to sleep in our own bed!!

BEG and I outside of Tiger Stadium

We had a good time and the game was fantastic (well at least for the Rebels!) Although we didn't come out with a W, we won the game in my book. I could on and on and on but bottomline is, if LSU thinks they deserve a run at the National Championship this year, you must play better than they did Saturday against the worse team in the SEC and damn near the worse team in America this year. The Rebels are definitely having a "rebuilding year", for lake of a better word, and I was more than pleased with our performance Saturday.

I am glad that BEG was finally able to experience Death Valley and an LSU game since that is all you hear about around here. He has heard people talk about LSU football for the last 3 years and finally got to see what it was all about. He wasn't too impressed with much but I will say that the fans were far better than I ever remember but then again we have beat them for the last 3 years and we kept the game so close until the final seconds of the game that they didn't really have a chance to banter us.

We did run into to some friends on the trip which is always fun!

Ann, me, BEG, Trent and Molly

Ellie and I

Wilson, Mandy me and Lauren

We are headed to Oxford this weekend for the Thanksgiving and the Egg Bowl. Hopefully we can get a W but doubtful as State is playing some good football this year.

Happy Rivalry Week!!

CMG

Rocky Top

So one of the things on my bucket list is "to attend an Ole Miss game in every stadium in the SEC" and after this weekend I am one stadium closer to scratching it off of my list!!

After much persuasion, my sweet husband agreed to embark on this journey with me so we packed our bags and headed out Friday afternoon. We logged 1,475 miles and 22 hours in the car and we were only gone from Shreveport for 51 hours total!!! Lots of windshield time!!

Thankfully the weather was beautiful because that was about the only pretty thing we saw on Saturday! Tennessee orange is just downright awful to look at, 90K tennessee mountain people singing Rocky Top is just shear torture to the ears and whatever sport the Rebels were playing on Saturday afternoon was horrific to watch. So bad that after spending 11 hours in the car to watch the game, we left during the 3rd quarter!!!

Outside Neyland Stadium

We didn't realize the significance of the Torch Bearer until after this picture

but that is it in the upper right corner!!

In the stadium with the river behind us

The band on their way to the stadium

Empty Stadium

The band forms a hollow T which the players run through onto the field!

The reason this adventure is on my bucket list is b/c I think it is really cool to see the traditions with each school. I am glad we marked UT off of the list but I must say that neither of us were impressed with Knoxville or Neyland Stadium.

Only 3 (well 4) stadiums left: Alabama (which I went to in college but somehow can't remember so we will do it again), South Carolina, Arkansas and "The Swamp" (Flordia).

Next year our away game will be the UK game in Lexington. I went while in college but BEG has never been. Lexington is absolutely beautiful, especially during the fall, and on the years we play Kentucky it's always the first weekend of October which also happens to be Keeneland so......

Hope everyone has a good week!!

CMG

Furry Friends

Such a pitiful face

the cat is crazy!

Best friends

Armoire

BEG and I traded in a dining room piece for this lovely armoire for our room at Caboose. We absolutely love it! Before the armoire we just had a little white dresser that was my dad's when he was little so we've feel like we've made a BIG upgrade!

CMG

Farewell Friend

My curly headed brother from another mother, Sean, is moving from Shreveport back to Fort Worth today. I am so sad to see him go as Sean was my first friend I met when I moved back to Shreveport in May 2008 (he had just moved to Shreveport that March with the Haynesville Shale.) We have had many fun memories in the last 2.5 years and I will sure miss him being around but with BEG and I moving to Lubbock we will still see him often at Tech football games.

We ended his time here in Shreveport with a delicious supper last night at Bella Fresca.

We will miss you friend!

CMG

Happy Halloween

Neither BEG nor I really care for Halloween so we turned our porch light off and headed to our weekly Sunday Superior meal with my parents. RHETT was going bonkers when we got home b/c apparantley the younger generations parents didn't teach them Rule #1 for Halloween which is, only knock or ring the door bell on the doors with porch lights on.

Because of our dislike for Halloween no one in our house had costumes except for george. When we picked him up from being neutered on Friday the vet gave us this cute Halloween scarf for him, so I put it on him and he ran a hid!! I think he looks handsome.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

CMG