Friday in New York

Whoops! With all of the Christmas festivities, I forgot to post this earlier...

Charles and I were sad that it was our last day in the Big Apple, but we decided to make the best of it. We began the day at Balthazar Bakery...Everything looked and smelled delicious! It was hard to decide what to order...Charles ordered and I finally settled on a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate, and we sat outside and enjoyed our breakfast...We then walked to the Guggenheim...and after a little wait in line both outside and inside, we managed to buy our tickets and enjoyed the architecture from the rotunda...We then viewed the Kandinsky Exhibit as well as the other pieces of modern art and installations. Some of them were quite interesting! Several pieces really made us wonder if we were in fact looking at art!



We then strolled down Park Avenue...
and passed Dylan's Candy Shop...On our way to Serendipity...

The wait, right at opening, was so long, so we put our name on the list and headed around the corner to the Tramway Diner...
were we enjoyed lunch...
While watching the Roosevelt Island Tram...We wanted to take a ride, but did not think that we had enough time - oh well, guess we have to have a return trip!!We then walked back to Serendipity...

and were seated right away. We enjoyed all of the Christmas decorations...

and really enjoyed our frozzzen hot chocolate! (Before we left Mississippi, we decided this would be our New York tradition - enjoy a frozzzen hot chocolate at Serendipity each time we visit the Big Apple! We actually enjoyed several repeats from our past visit, so we'll see just what becomes our actual tradition!)
We then walked back to the hotel. Charles thought his kids at school would enjoy a picture of LeBron...
We also passed Bloomingdale's...
and briefly checked out their windows. We enjoyed beautifully decorated buildings...
and decorations of all kinds, including this suspended snowflake...
We passed the Russian Tea Room and Carnegie Hall for the last time during our trip...
and as we were almost back to our hotel, we spotted a Christmas tree stand - right in the middle of the city street which I thought was pretty neat!

I then spotted the red church - during our whole trip, I knew that we were almost at the hotel when I spotted this beautiful building!We glanced down to the other end of the street... and then picked up our luggage, took a car back to Newark and passed through airport security with relative ease! After a little wait, we boarded the plane and were Mississippi bound!

We had a fabulous trip!!

The Golden Egg...

comes back to Starkville!

What an exciting Egg Bowl! The Dawgs played a great game!

Mississippi State 41 - Ole Miss 27...

Go State!!

Thanksgiving

Charles and I are looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving week...

We hope you all have a good one!

Christmas Spirit

Charles and I got into the Christmas spirit early this year. Last night, we went to the Orpheum to watch Cirque Dreams Holidaze. It was spectacular! We both really enjoyed it. The performers were wonderful; it is just amazing what all they are able to do! The music, costumes, backdrops and backgrounds just added even more of a festive touch to the performance. If you get a chance to see it, definitely go!

'Tis Merry Halloween!

Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!!

Getting ready for Halloween!

Earlier this month, I started getting the house ready for Halloween!

Mama came up for lunch one day and bought a pretty white pumpkin for me, so I bought a couple of gourds to go with it and placed them outside our front door...

along with our carved initial pumpkin and fall leaves...

Since I had the outside looking fallish, I had to put a couple of little Halloween touches inside too!

I started with our entry piece...

and bookcase... (I just had to hang my little flying witch!)

Then on to our little chests...

I just love this little cornucopia I found while shopping with Molly, so I put a few gourds in it and placed it near the cute little bunnies Molly gave me - Thanks Molly! I then placed a grouping of some of my favorite pumpkins near our fireplace... Toula, of course, had to come out to check out my handy work and play for a bit!
I then moved into the kitchen where I put my little pumpkin basket Mama gave me for holding candy while I was at State on our island...
along with a few other Halloween touches...

And, of course, I had to set our table for Halloween - complete with little ghosts!
and put out my little pumpkins with ribbon on Ma's tea cart and for our little bunny to hold...
I found the cutest acorn gourd and just had to bring it home! I found the perfect place for it with our little bunny out back!

Tonight, Charles and I had a fun evening carving Jack-o-Lanterns!

We got our table all set up and our pumpkins cleaned off...
Then it was time to cut the tops off... and scoop out the goop...
my favorite part!!
Charles found a little less messy way to get rid of his goop...
Next, it was time to decide on our designs. Charles always thinks up a cool, cute design!Charles's design turned out great again this year...After drawing on the designs, it was time to carve the pumpkins!
Our finished jack-o-lanterns...

and, of course, I had to get a picture of us with our jack-o-lanterns!
After finishing with the carving, we brought our jack-o-lanterns inside for Toula to see. She was a little apprehensive at first, but she gradually made her way over toward them...She then got a little brave and decided to stare Charles's jack-o-lantern down...When Toula figured out that they weren't going to hurt her, she got very curious and began exploring and sniffing all around them!

After letting Toula take a look, we took our jack-o-lanterns outside and found the perfect spot for them... I can't wait to welcome the little trick-or-treaters this weekend!

Football Fun...

Friday, October 2nd, Charles and I headed to Batesville to watch the Y'all vs. Us game of the week - South Panola vs. Olive Branch. We met Mama and Jerry for dinner and then headed over to Matt and Mary Ann's.
We watched Nathan play for a bit...

while I held Peyton...

She is just so sweet!

Charles then chased Nathan around the house, and they played "Gotcha"! They had a great time! Nathan then decided to give Charles a run for his money...
Nathan is so cute! He is so funny and smart too! After all that fun, they decided to take a little break so that Charles could hold Peyton...
We then all walked to the game. We sat with Mary Ann, Peyton and Nathan and had a fun time watching the game and visiting...

It was a perfect night for football - sweater weather, so I was really excited!

The stands were packed with SP fans... Nathan was so funny! He told me he wanted the tiger mascot to come see him - in his words: "Right now!" Mary Ann took Nathan down to see the mascot, and I had a great time holding Peyton!

We had fun watching the game...

A jumbo tron was set up, so we could catch all the action and see replays!We watched the bands at half-time...After each SP touchdown, we saw beautiful fireworks... and even more fireworks after the game...

The Tigers played a great game and came away with the win!
We had a wonderful evening with the Dillons and South Panola football!

The following Monday night, we went to Cliff and Robin's for the Packers/Viking showdown. It was great to visit with everyone, and Cliff made some delicious home-made pizzas! Holden was so cute...especially when he started dancing to the music that was playing in the kitchen! It was fun to visit with the girls while the guys watched some football, and funny to watch Cliff - who likes Brett Favre - and Charles - who doesn't like Brett Favre - watch the game! We had such a great time!