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The Year in Review: 2019

Since March 2017 I have been publishing a few blog posts each week in my WordPress blog.  “Pretty Is: My Life and Style”, is my blogging journal sharing What I see as Pretty.  Whether it is an experience, an event, a memory, a recipe, or an outfit, my hope is to keep a journal and hopefully share something that will be interesting or useful, and, of course, to make you smile.  Although I don’t always include my posts on social media, if you’d like to follow along I’ll send you an email alert.  Just enter your email address in the sidebar under “Follow by Email” and click subscribe.

On this first day of the new year, I’d like to share my ten most popular posts from 2019.

Here they are:

# 10

I Love It When We’re Crusin’ Together

# 9

Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites is a collection of my favorite happenings of the week.  If I don’t post anything else, I’ll typically post a weekly collection of my favorites like this and the next few most popular posts from 2019:

# 8

Friday Favorites

# 7

Friday Favorites

One of my most favorite photos is the header of this post:

# 6

Friday Favorites

# 5

A Bonus Mary Post

In my posts, I mention my Mama more than any other member of my family.  Before I began my blog, I used to tell her ALL THE TIME that she needed to start a blog.  She has so many funny and interesting stories.

Last year I asked her to give me an occasional story to publish on my blog.  I call her posts “Mary’s Musings“.  She isn’t cooperating much but I hope to convince her to do more this year.

I wrote “A Bonus Mary Post” in 2018, however it was still my #5 most read post in 2019:

# 4

Once Upon A Time There Was A Little Boy

# 3

Saturday Special

# 2

My Grandpa

# 1

Dear Daddy

This post may bring tears to your eyes.  It does mine!

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites: Christmas Edition

Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of year.
Speaking of Favorite…

Favorite # ONE

Making Memories

On Monday Lydia and Rory came to Glammy’s house with Aunt Amanda for baking and candy making.

Lydia had the opportunity to practice her egg cracking and decorating skills.Also

in contrast to our divinity ventures of the past, Amanda and I managed to pull this one off on our first attempt.  Batch # 1 was a success and no redo was necessary.

~

Favorite # TWO

Ugly Sweaters and Suits

Christmas Eve Merriment is typically held at Mama’s house.

This year there was an ugly Christmas sweater contest honoring the ugly, uglier, and ugliest outfits.Although he protested that his jacket didn’t qualify as an ugly Christmas sweater, it was unanimous that LB should win.

~

Favorite # THREE

A roomful of wrapping paper and some of my favorite people.

I

LOVE

Having My kids all to MYSELF

and watching them open presents.

Afterward we took a walk to Mema’s house for MY

Favorite # FOUR

The Christmas Morning

Gift Exchange

Instead of our usual massive gift exchange, my extended family decided to draw names.  Each person was randomly delegated as Secret Santa to one other, using this app drawnames.com – a Secret Santa generator!

On Christmas morning, the secret Santa revealed himself/herself to the person whose name had been drawn.  Beginning with the eldest recipient, we took turns opening our gifts and taking time to share what we received.It was a great idea and all the credit goes to Amanda for directing the event!

~

Favorite # FIVE

The

Holiday Treasure Hunt

it was an unexpected Christmas surprise and you can read about it here! 

I hope you will!

And if you were there, please feel free to comment and add any details that I may have neglected to include.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites

It is Friday and it is an Especially Exceptional Friday as today marks the beginning of

Christmas Vacation

Let me qualify that by saying today has nothing to do with Clark Griswold. 

 

For the last 2-3 weeks, I have been shopping, decorating, wrapping, baking goodies, and getting ready for Christmas with LB and family!  Now it is time to enjoy!

The celebration begins today with my Friday Favorites!

Favorite # ONE

My Snowman Collection

There is only one reason a native Floridian would have a Snowman collection:  Because SHE has seen it snow in Florida ONLY ONE time!  Nevertheless, I have an esteemed group of Snowmen in my kitchen.  This week LB helped me by lighting them up!

~

Favorite # TWO

Back in BLACK

And I’m not talking about the song.

Black is not a Christmas color, but I managed to incorporate it into my wardrobe EVERY day this week.

Every OOTD is Black

~

Favorite # THREE

Sweetheart Fantasy Fudge

I found the recipe on Pinterest posted by Grandmother’s Kitchen.

This candy is DELICIOUS and it has NO CALORIES!

Just kidding…it has calories

But it tastes excellent and it may be my new favorite Christmas candy!

 

~

 Today my five team members and I had a little Christmas celebration.  We each brought a dish to share for lunch and exchanged gifts.  Previously I had drawn Wendy’s name and Kathy had drawn mine.  This was ironic because the three of us typically exchange gifts anyway.  Kathy presented me with a visa gift card, a mandarin/cranberry scented candle, and [my favorite] a large bag of peanut M&Ms.  Wendy presented me with a pair of earrings she found on my Amazon wish list.  Today these are my

Favorite # FOUR

Favorite # FIVE

I’ve been putting together a Christmas Favorites playlist and I’ve included a Christmas song that is just beautiful.

Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song) by Amy Grant

~

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites

This has been a short work week for me.  Monday was the last day of my Thanksgiving holiday vacation.

On Thanksgiving Day, LB and I headed to Asheville, NC.

It was an easy trip, barely any traffic, and we enjoyed a relaxing evening at the Hampton Inn & Suites Asheville Biltmore Village.

Although the hotel and room falls into the category of favorite overnight stays, my Friday favorites today begin with last Friday

Favorite # ONE

Shopping

on Black Friday.

There’s a first time for everything and for me it was Black Friday shopping and a visit to the Asheville Outlets.

First stop

Le Creuset®

where I picked out a Christmas present.

And the

Lindt Chocolate Shop next door

where LB enjoyed some free samples.

Next Kirkland’s where we found many cute accessories…

and this cow(which appeals to me for some reason).

And Banana Republic where I found

Favorite # TWO

This Jacket

which I had to haveThank you LB!

And later that evening

Favorite # THREE

A Candlelight Tour

of the Biltmore House

which was the reason for our visit to Asheville.

It was beautiful inside and out

The Christmas lights and decorations were so pretty and I came home with thoughts of getting my house decorated for Christmas.

Favorite # FOUR

In addition to decorating in preparation for holiday festivities, I’ve started making goodies.

Beginning with these

Peanut Butter Pinwheel Candies

In 2017 when I attempted to make these, there was an epic fail.

If I had read those instructions at the time, there wouldn’t have been an epic fail

This year I used the recipe from Big Red Kitchen which included refrigerating BEFORE adding peanut butter and rolling.  I especially appreciated that tip “chill for 15 minutes to help it set a bit”.

The recipe calls for 3 ½-4 cups confectioners’ sugar, 6 T butter, 7 t milk, and Peanut butter (no specific amount).  Although I could’ve added more peanut butter, the candies turned out well Since we have begun to deck the halls, we’ve used a seasonal channel on the TV to help set the mood

Favorite # FIVE

the television

Fireplace

Together with Christmas hymns… or Michael Bublé (whatever you like).

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites

It has been a busy week!

Richard, Emily, and the baby girls came to Jacksonville Saturday to spend the weekend and share in our annual Sunday before Thanksgiving Dinner.

A Saturday night slumber party commenced.  Lydia and Rory slept in Glammy’s room.  And they managed to get [maybe] six hours of sleep.  They were being OH So quiet Sunday morning; I thought they were getting some much needed sleep.

But when I sat up in bed I saw two little sets of bright eyes, wide awake and ready to PLAY

Favorite # ONE

Lively Little Girls

I assumed I would wake up and tiptoe out of the bedroom leaving them to have sweet dreams, but they were quick to jump up.  As I made my stop into the kitchen to make coffee they headed to the “Barbie room”.  It wasn’t long before they quickly returned to ask “Glammy won’t you come play Barbies?”

Well YES!

And we played various things throughout the day.  There was one “game” I particularly enjoyed

Favorite # TWO

Playing Sous-Chef

This little one assisted several times in the kitchen, she aided in egg cracking for breakfast, she [nearly] single-handedly prepared a corn casserole, and arranged the appetizer platter.

And because pumpkin pie and pecan bars were not acceptable choices for dessert that evening, she made chocolate pudding.

When all was finished she asked “what can we do next?”

We can do dinner!

Table setting courtesy of Emily

Favorite # THREE

Sunday before Thanksgiving Dinner

I love the almost traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the sides.

And nobody can carve a turkey like LB!

Favorite # FOUR

Leftovers on Monday

it was back to work as usual – I took leftovers for lunch

and LB enjoyed leftovers for dinner.I didn’t take a picture of my lunch as it was much less impressive.

Tuesday

was typical with the exception of an impromptu taco dinner party with Stephanie and Amanda.

Wednesday

was an exceptional day which included very light traffic, very light work, and a visit to the theater later that evening to see

Favorite # FIVE

Wicked

seated right behind the orchestraIt was an exciting way to begin our Thanksgiving holiday vacation!

~

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites

We experienced a cold front in Florida this week which was perfect timing as I’ve begun to experience personal hot flash heat waves on a fairly regular basis.

Not kidding.

Keeping a positive attitude is a challenge to say the least, but I’m going to give it the old college try.

Favorite # ONE

This stuff

I read some of the reviews first, and the positive reviews were more impressive than the negative reviews.  According to the reviews it either works VERY WELL or not at all.

so what do I have to lose?

Fortunately it seems to be helping.  If anyone has a better suggestion I’ll be grateful to hear about it!

I was hesitant to add this to my favorites, but who am I kidding, it IS a favorite today.

And apparently nothing is off limits on this blog.

~

To celebrate the arrival of colder-than-usual weather, I pulled out some of my fall/winter favorites including these

Favorite # TWO

Corduroy Pants

Top // Pants // Shoes

and

Favorite # THREE

Velvet Pants

Top // Pants // Shoes

~

The weather is somewhat of an inspiration to begin thinking about the upcoming holidays, but with our recent painting endeavor, I’m behind schedule with the fall décor!

Favorite # FOUR

Fall Décor

Let’s see if I can do something with this stuff!

~

There are several weeks left before we say goodbye to this year, but I recently came across a post on social media that makes 2020 a year to look forward to

Favorite # FIVE

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Friday Favorites

The first full week of November began with a challenge from my November 1st  Birthday Girl

Stephanie

She sent me a pin on Pinterest which was a link to the current birthday cake of her dreams.

This qualifies as one of my Friday Favorites!

 🎂

Favorite # ONE

The Birthday Cake Challenge

I’m always up for a baking challenge and I’d likely be more successful if I’d follow the recipe.

The Frosted Animal Cookie Cake with four layers of cake, three layers of filling, and white chocolate buttercream frosting topped with pink ganache (pause to catch breath) took me three evenings to complete.

For the most part, I followed this recipe from lifeloveandsugar.com, however in order to finish quickly, I used a box white cake mix:I think she likes it!

Bonus information: 1,088 calories in 1 slice of a 14 serving cake

😱

Favorite # TWO

A

Birthday Dinner

with three of my favorite ladies

The family was scattered on Stephanie’s birthday and we weren’t able to gather together to celebrate.  In an attempt to make her day special, I had Mama, Stephanie, and Amanda come to my house for dinner.

We had something I never imagined I would include in my blog

🍟

Favorite # THREE

Poutine

It sounds weird and it is weird, but it was Stephanie’s request.

The meaning of the word poutine is from a Québécois slang word meaning “mess”.

It is fries with gravy and cheese curds and MUST be eaten with a fork.

THIS RECIPE is a good one!

~

Favorite # FOUR

Face-Time

While we were together, Emily and the baby girls face timed Stephanie to wish her a happy birthday.

We all enjoyed a teeny little visit together.

It is essential to stay in touch with family!

Moments after I left for work today, LB received the news that his Dad passed away early this morning.

For the past few years LB has made regular visits with his Dad, typically on Friday afternoons.  Although this is a heartbreaking time for him, LB is happy for making time to visit and maintain a close relationship with his Dad.

We have attended church with him on Father’s Day a few times and it was on one of those occasions that I snapped this photo

Favorite # FIVE

A picture is worth a  thousand words but the memories are priceless!

~

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

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