Holidays and Traditions

When two people start a new relationship they have to meld and mix together their traditions for holidays. Some of the old traditions are traded in for new ones. We started by having a goose for Thanksgiving instead of a turkey. The Christmas tree went up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving due to circumstances like getting a new set of vent-free gas logs installed. But the tree did get put up,,,,just a few days later than normal.

Every year Mike makes goodie bags to give to his neighbors. He puts homemade jams in the bags. I made Christmas cookies to add to the bags this year.

I also made peppermint bark to go in the bags.

My sweetheart loves fresh yeast rolls to go with his holiday meals. This year I made rolls for the first time ever. I have made bread before but not rolls. It was not hard and I will work on perfecting this recipe.

One of my traditions is drinking Poinsettias on Christmas Eve followed by a rib roast, twice baked potatoes and a vegetable.

Christmas morning I found all the girls laying in the sun.

I built us a fire - that means I used the remote control to lite the fireplace and then turned the tree lights on.

After Mike made us a breakfast of fried salt-cured country ham with red eye gravy with some of my homemade rolls we did one of his traditions which is mimosas after breakfast. I can't handle OJ well so I made myself another poinsettia.

For Christmas supper we had a brined turkey, sausage & mushroom dressing, gravy, apple cider braised pearl onions, cranberry sauce, hot artichoke & bacon dip, rolls and deviled eggs. Those are a tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas for Mike.

I am loving every minute of melding our traditions into new ones for us as we embark on our life together and am looking forward to creating new one together.

Gingerbread House

Every year before Christmas I make a gingerbread house but no one has really seen them. So this year I am showing what I did and what was done. I start out by getting out one of my most favorite kitchen toys, the heavy-duty mix master. Next I get all the ingredients together.

The house pieces are all baked and ready to be assembled and the candy for the decorations is on hand.

Before I can put the house together I need to make a batch of royal icing. It is the glue that holds everything together.

As I started putting it together one of the end pieces cracked in half. Later on a chunk came off one of the sides. I told Mike this year's theme should be "crack house".

Once the main structure was together I worked on the front walkway.

The finished product. I had a 5th grade girl help with the decorating and Mike did the landscaping.

Another view.

And another.

I had a great idea for the bricks on the fireplace end of the house and will work on perfecting this next year.

After all the work was done Mike called some friends and neighbors and invited their children over to demolish the house. They were all given a bowl for the house pieces plus some vanilla ice cream to go with it.

It didn't take long for the crew to cause a roof collapse.

Shortly thereafter we had totally demolished the house. Mission accomplished.

Perdue Cemetary

One day after running errands and taking photos of old buildings and barns Mike told me to head down a road near our home. He had me pull over at this cemetery. As we very carefully walked around I took photos and was intrigued by the headstones. This is a very old cemetery. Here is Pvt. John Perdue, he died in the civil war on the Confederate side. He was only 34 years old.

Here is his brother who also died in the civil war.

From the back of the cemetery it almost looks like piles of rocks,,

But a closer look shows that rocks were used to mark the edges of the graves and most likely to keep wild animals from desecrating the graves.

At the back corner there is a grave for two infant sons. One boy lived 62 days the other about 2 weeks.

Recently someone re-did the grave with a new marker.

Standing off to one side it's hard to see the different graves, except for the tall headstone.

From the very back looking towards the street.

Off to one side of the cemetery there are small rocks, all that is left to remind the world of someone who is no longer here. You can't read any information off these old stones.

Work in Progress

A couple of weeks ago we had a hard frost,,shortly followed by another. Between the two frosts, I had to pull out some of the dying or dead flowers and plants in the front circle. This is what was left after the first frost.

After the second frost, I pulled out everything else except these two Pansies that came back from last winter.

Mike said he has always had Pansies in the front area in the winter and they survive the season. We headed off to the Farmers' Market where we got our goat cheese fix and then picked up these 4 flats of Pansies.

After I planted the first four flats or 144 Pansies.

Here is another shot. I really need a better camera,,,,

We planted some lovely peach colored Pansies,

Some yellow ones,

And some purple with white faces. But that was not enough. So we went to Lowes and bought 3 more flats of Pansies. Still not happy with the results we bought 5 more flats from a garden center and then picked up 2 more flats.

After 14 flats or a total of 504 Pansies this is what it looks like.

In person it looks really good.

Actually in person it looks awesome. As they grow larger I'll take more pictures. Next up, a rose garden.

The Barns of Guilford County

I am sure that most of you out there remember the movie "Bridges of "Madison County" which starred Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. I am not a great photographer and my camera is not the best but I do love to take photos of what we see, where we've been and what we've done. Since I moved out to this part of the state I had commented, frequently, to Mike about all the old log barns or other buildings. Over a couple of days I took my camera with us on trips here and there while running errands and here are some of the local sites. This barn is in Stokesdale, just off the main road.

This one is also in Stokesdale, just a little way down the road from the one above.

Also in Stokesdale, Mike says this used to be a hardware store.

We have to head over to Kernersville every once in awhile and we pass this building on the way to and from. Kernersville is in Forsyth County.

On the same road as the building above, there is this huge barn.

Back in Stokesdale. This old house is right at the junction of NC 158 and US 220. The DOT has put in an off ramp right next to this place and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before some idiot is going too fast and hits this neat house. What I really liked is that you can see how the people used the local red clay mud as chinking between the logs.

Another shot of the same house. The day after I took this photo the DOT had erected a barb wire fence and big metal gates at the end of the new off ramp. 24 hours after I took this I would not have been able to get this close.

Heading home from the place above we pass this building and off the the right its companion, sitting out in a field.

And there is this place. It is in front of a retirement home but is extremely well kept.

As time goes by I will take more photos, especially now that almost all the leaves are gone and you can see more buiildings along the road sides.