Baby, it's cold outside

We arrived home to about 6 inches of snow and temperatures in the teens.  In Memphis, a couple of days were near 60.  Hard adjustment.  As soon as C saw the snow, he wanted to go play.  I took him out for all of 5-10 min.  He didn't like his gloves on, so he took them off, against my direct instructions.  2 min later screaming and crying--his hands were burning from the cold.  He hasn't really asked to go back out with any fervor.  I only got one pic of him playing outside.  Today we're going to try to decorate the outside of the house.  I'm mostly finished inside.  I've got a couple of things to finish, but almost there.  We had to get creative for hanging our stockings.  We bought a big ledge shelf from Lowes that matches our furniture.  We will leave it up year round to display some of our favorite things.  Right now it's covered in lighted garland and our stockings/holders and a few other xmas decorations. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here.

shoveling out his wagon w/his hoe cause that's all we could find in the snow.

Memphis: Part 3--early Christmas

Saturday night we exchanged the majority of our Christmas gifts with my parents.  We got some awesome stuff.  Scott and I got a new Blue-Ray player that is WiFi ready and 3D ready if we ever decide to go that route.  He got his money for the soccer channel which he says is going into a tv fund.  C got money for Kindermusik, some favorite books--If you Give a Pig a Pancake, and Mad at Mama, and a movie.  I got a platter that has changeable holiday picks--genius, a mod holiday towel, and a large self-healing cutting mat for sewing.  We had an awesome meal--grilled lamb chops, mashed potatoes, and salad.  My mom (who's a really good cook) marinated the chops for over 24 hours in lemon juice and zest, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and olive oil.  They were amazing.  She also made an amaretto bread pudding for dessert--by request--I love bread pudding.  We had a lot of libations (well not a lot, but we tried several between the four us--hot toddies for the guys, scotch and eggnog for the girls; wine for dinner; and irish coffees for dessert). 

Before we left we got some great pics of us w/my dad's nice camera on a tripod. Sunday we made Trader Joe's pumpkin pancakes w/grandpa Troy's sausage. That afternoon we had enough leftovers from Neeley's for everyone to have a BBQ sandwich. Great visit with my family, great food made by my mom (she even made shrimp and grits and my favorite turnip green, white bean, bacon, and cornbread dish).

C wouldn't cooperate in this pic.  We finally had to bribe him with chocolates.

Memphis: part 2--Neeley's BBQ

So Scott got in late Friday night, and didn't see C until the next morning. We headed to the town parade of Lakeland (which isn't really a town, but an area so the parade was miniscule). C was sad when it was over. He kept saying, "I got to my parade again." He got a cute sherrif's badge from the parade.

Then we headed downtown to check out Neeley's BBQ.  Unfortunately for us it was the morning of the St. Jude's marathon and it took us an extra 30 minutes to get there b/c they had so many roads closed.  It was cool to see so many people running along the road.  I thought we were going to see some pukers, but they were just false alarms and stretching. 

Verdict on the Neeley's: AWESOME if you like BBQ.  I was a bit skeptical after being so disappointed in the Lady and Sons, but it didn't disappoint.  It's a bit of a dive--nothing fancy--some chairs are even taped together, but this just adds to the dive feel--which I admit I like in a BBQ place.  We started w/the Pork Nachos.  My mom literally liked the plate clean.  The pork there is so tender.  Then we each split a sampler platter.  It had pork ribs, smoked turkey, pulled pork, pulled beef, coleslaw, and beans.  Everything had a bit of a kick to it, especially the coleslaw (which was delicious).  I liked the pork and turkey the best.  The ribs and beef were good, but generally I like pulled pork best.  Our waitress was really cute, too.  I love the manners in the south.

C sat in a big boy chair, and he was soooo good.

 Licking the cheese and sauce from the nacho plate--she really only licked it for the picture, but she was scraping it clean before this. 



Memphis: part 1

We went straight from Thanksgiving in St. Louis to Memphis to visit with my family for an early Christmas visit.  Scott took a flight down Friday night to join us for a quick weekend.  He barely made it out on his flight for all the snow that was coming down.  He said he was the second to last person on his connecting flight in Atlanta. 

Here are some things we did:

Had a tea party after naptime--my mom is brave letting him drink from a real, open cup (she let him use her Norman Rockefeller Christmas mugs for hot cocoa, too).  I was a nervous reck.

Enjoying the brownies, pb crackers, and grapes (this was low tea, I guess--but kid friendly)



 Successfuly grabbing his tea cup "correctly," which was very important to him.

He liked to do "cheers" if a little too enthusiastically

Looked at a lot of Chrismtas lights--C loves the blowups--you can imagine what I think--but it's cute to hear him get excited about them--especially Santa in the airplane or in his rocket ship.

Helped my dad decorate the outside of their house for the holidays. C kept saying, "I'm helping Papa with teamwork." while he consistently got in the way.  No pic--sadness.

My mom and I shopped in this cute little town called Arlington with some fun gift shops and a cool feed store that has been converted to an antique mall.  I swear, if I lived in the south I would monogram everything.  Everywhere you go they sell the most random things monogrammed.  I guess people have a hard time remembering who they are?  Just kidding, I LOVE it, seriously.  I had to restrain myself.

Started the Elf on the Shelf arriving.  It's cute to hear C talk to Hermie.  He asked him for a green motorcycle.  He also lost a toy in the woods (but I found it during his nap).  He told Hermie thank you for telling the troll to return it to him (LONG story), but it was cute to hear.  We also began this year's advent calendar and treats. Trying to incorporate verses for this, but it's hard at this age.  I'm going to work harder on this next year, as what I found seems to be from the King James Bible and goes over his head. I just don't want him to think Advent is all about dinky gifts and candy. 

Went to the carousel in the mall--score for C.

My dad and I went to see Dream Girls at the Orpheum (Memphis' live theater venue--it's beautiful there).  The production was awesome--better than the movie--though the women in the movie were amazing, too, but you can't beat the live performance. Mom let C stay up late and watch movies, so he was in heaven-- and they decorated sugar cookies.  Score again for C.

The Memphis Zoo (so much fun).  C literally passed out on the way home--never seen him do that before.  He was pretending to sleep w/his eyes scrunched tight, and never reopened them.

See next post for the weekend festivities.

Too many Ho's to count

So, I've had this post rolling around my head FOREVER, but I just needed to get the pictures to prove it.  Finally on Monday night after we picked up Scott's car from the airport, C and I pulled over on a side street in 17 degree weather and walked to this house.  Poor C was a trooper.  I even ran across the street (fairly busy) w/him to get a wide view.  I don't think he thought much of the crazy lit up house, but WOW. This house invokes in me the antithesis of holiday cheer.  Though I have to admit, seeing it lit made me a lot happier than when I saw it every day in the daylight prior to Christmas.  This puts Clark Griswold to shame. 

You can see where he's spilled into his neighbor's yard to the left.  That's a total army of Santa's over in her yard.

This guy made the news last night (Tuesday).  They interviewed him, and he has 190 something santas, 125 snowman and a bunch of other lit figures (totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 figures).  He said he didn't buy a single thing "new."  He crams it all into his garage and 2 small sheds when it's not holiday time--I had thought that he might have to rent a storage shed for all of it, but not so.  I wonder when the reporter asked him where he stored it all, if the guy thought about saying, "Bend over and I'll show you" or if he even knows how close in spirit he is to Clark.

 He also said the lights increase his electric bill by about $100 for the month (he doesn't light them until after THNKS) even after he switched to LED. 

FASCINATING

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great this year.  It seemed like we had more stuff in control ahead of time, so we got to enjoy it a bit more. 

We had the usual standby items: a baked turkey (delicious), stuffing (Brenda's yummy sausage stuffing), buttermilk mashed potatoes (brought by Laura's mom) which were a new, but delicious change from standard mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce (not your usual canned yuckiness), spinach salad (by Sarah), and sweetened, baked sweet potatoes (Brenda's dad's recipe).  I wish I would have snapped a shot of the food.

The girls (me, Sarah, and Laura) took care of desserts.  I made a pecan pie (seriously yummy and worth the extra steps required by the Best Recipe book) and a pumpkin pie (not bad, but not a wow recipe for all the work it was).  Sarah made a chocolate bundt cake--so moist.  Laura made burnt sugar ice cream (really intense flavor that went so well with all the desserts) and her little surprise. 

This is a cake she made and sculpted into a turkey.  So amazing.  I didn't taste it (too full), but it was a feast for the eyes.  The breast/body was a white cake, the legs a spice cake, and the stuffing was a mix of the two cakes.  So clever.  It was a fun bit of whimsy for the day. 

Here are some photos of C from the rest of our time in the Lou.  He was really good the whole time there.

curled up on the fireplace for How to Train Your Dragon

Enjoying the pallet and tent grandpa made him

Sarah, Mitch, Scott, and C went with grandpa to pick out the Dankel Christmas tree at the Mertz tree farm (they've been going there for a long time)

riding the tree farm's "train"

So many post ideas so little time

Blog world, get ready for a flurry of posts when I finally get time to upload some pics.  It's a busy week in the Dankel household after being gone for 13 days (me and C).  We've had a flurry of Christmas decorating (and getting creative w/o a fireplace), laundry, book club tomorrow (making a coconut cake (the cake layers are done, but I have to make my frosting tomorrow), MOPS Thursday (I volunteered to help w/carol singing--I will get nervous if I ever have time to slow down to think about it), then Scott's work Christmas party at our house Friday night (where I'm cooking a huge appetizer buffet (it's open for an hour), 2 different kinds of lasagnas, and desserts (chocolate souflees and creme brulees--maybe--I might have to cave and buy these).