Christmas Images

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and for Christians, the Christmas season has officially begun.  Most of us have probably already bought a gift (or two) to get a head start on our Christmas shopping.  Laura, at Decor to Adore published a beautiful and heartfelt post today about the meaning of Advent, if you'd like to stop by and read it.

We'll be putting the two trees in their stands today and bringing them into the house, after which Mr. Forest Manor will put the lights on and then turn the decorating over to me.  :)  Since it will take me awhile to get everything decorated, I wanted to share some images from our home at Christmas last year.  You're probably all working on your Christmas today, too; I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures when it's time for you to take a break. 

Thankfulness

The month of November, the thankful month, is almost over.  I feel like I've been saying this for months now, but this has been the shortest, fastest year ever.

I don't have any Thanksgiving pictures to share from this year.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, and we were too busy enjoying our food and visiting with each other to worry about pictures.  For the delicious food and togetherness, I am truly thankful.

A New Haircut

Hello dear readers and Happy Monday to you!  I hope you've had a good weekend.  I just realized it's been over a week since I posted anything.  One thing I've been catching up on is my blog visits; I had fallen way behind on those.  From what I've seen, everyone has been cold, pretty much everywhere but Florida, it looks like.  You've also been busy cooking delicious-looking food, and getting ready for the holidays.

I'm excited about the upcoming holidays, too, but this is a non-holiday post.  It's also a totally different kind of metamorphosis for Met Monday.  :)  Guess who got their first haircut this week?

Mad For Plaid -- Decorating with Tartan Plaids

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope you're having a good week.  

I don't know about you, but I just love tartan plaids; I think they're so cheerful and cozy when it's cold outside.

Veterans Day

To all of our veterans who are serving, or have served, at home or abroad...

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WE HONOR YOU AND WE THANK YOU.


Denise

Working on Curb Appeal

We've been working on improving curb appeal here at the homestead.  Our house is 42 years old this year; it's a child of the 70's.  :)  Now that we've gotten our son through college, we're focusing on making some improvements to our home.  Fortunately, we were able to have our kitchen renovated two summers ago -- what a difference that made!  Duncan is just about fully house-broken, so we're going to replace the carpet in our den and hallway after Christmas.

Currently though, we've been focusing on sprucing things up outside.  I thought I'd show you a comparison of our front porch and surrounding landscape from last winter versus now.  It's not a huge change, but it does look much better.

Another Blast From the Past

Happy Friday friends!!  Are you enjoying spectacular fall colors and weather where you are?

I really enjoyed your comments from the previous two trips down memory lane.  :-D  By the way, hubby and I ended up watching "Ghostbusters" last Friday night.  It was great, and I honestly think the movie wouldn't be the same without the song.

Okay, for this week's Blast From the Past, I've posted three oldies but goodies.

A Bit About Barn Quilts

Hi folks.  I was glad to see that lots of you enjoyed our pictures from the mountains that I posted this week.  In particular, I received a lot of comments on the barn quilts.

Cozy Up To Fall

Hi everyone!  I finally got the fall touches added to our den a few weeks ago; I'm behind schedule for fall decor.  :)  We don't usually go out of town in October, and this year we went to the coast for three days.  So, now I'm working on fall and pre-holiday cleaning.  I want to get the house nice and clean before it's time to start dragging out the Christmas decs.

Glorious Autumn

Hi everyone!  Is it cold where you are?  It's brisk here.  :)  The wind is blowing something fierce, and it was raining earlier today.  I think it rained through the night last night as well.  Those of you who follow Anita at Far Above Rubies and Penny at The Comforts of Home may have already seen that we got snow in the North Carolina mountains today.  Wow!  Snow while the leaves are still on the trees is not something we see a lot of.  The town of Sparta, N.C., which is where we go every year to cut our Christmas tree, had already received two to four inches by 11:00 a.m. this morning.

I'm sharing with you some images from two weekends ago of the mountains of North Carolina and Virgina.