PICK YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TABLESCAPE

OKAY!

I am inviting 

YOU ALL

to my house for 

Christmas Dinner!

How should I set my table?

#1

NATURALLY LOVELY

#2
JEWELS GALORE

#3
SIMPLY RED

#4
PERFECT PEAR TREE

#5
A DEARLY LOVED TABLE

#6
GRAPEFRUIT, LEMONS & ORANGES-OH MY!

#7
STARLIGHT STARBRIGHT

#8

I'M SEEING RED (AND A BIT OF BLUE)

#9

SPRIGS AND BELLS

#10

ADD THE PLAID (for all the whiners)

So-there you have it!!!

Y'all know the drill

Pick ONE---

Yes-Read that AGAIN-

PICK ONE TABLE~!

I will apply my usual sass 

to the follow up post..

NO ONE is safe from being

targeted--so pick well!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Well,

the countdown is on,

isn't it?

I am sitting by the fireplace

with my morning

cup of 

"Thank You God Coffee".

In our rental (yep-still haven't found our 'new' home yet)

 I am looking

towards our dining area

and loving my 

opaline pumpkin.

I am headed to work in a bit

and starting to plan on how to deal

with the upcoming

Thanksgiving Day.

I think this will work.....

Here's hoping YOU have a

STRESS FREE

Thanksgiving!

We are celebrating 

THANKSGIVING

tonight----don't ask.....

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!! A PECAN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING---YUMMMMMMMM

Do you know that hardly

ANYONE

in my family

likes nuts?

Can you IMAGINE that?

I can't!

I have always loved nuts!

Peanuts,

Almonds,

Walnuts,

Cashews,

Brazil Nuts,

Pistachios,

You name it- I love it.

But my FAVORITE of all time

is probably

PECANS!

Gotta love those pecans!

At Thanksgiving I always

make at least one

PECAN PIE.

Now I have always used a

traditional recipe for

Pecan Pie

but when I spotted this recipe

I thought it would be fun

to try it for

Thanksgiving.

This came from

Southern Living.

If you can't read it 

I have typed it out here for you.

Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie

1- 10" pie crust (I use Pillsbury Dairy Case)

1 TBS powdered sugar

4 large eggs

1-1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup melted butter @ room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 TBS all purpose flour

2 TBS milk

1-1/2 tsp vanilla (I use a bit more)

1-1/2 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325º

Fit pie crust into 10" cast iron skillet

Sprinkle pie crust with powdered sugar

Whisk eggs in large bowl until foamy

Whisk in brown sugar and next 6 ingredients

Pour mixture into pie crust and top with1-1/2 cups pecan halves

Bake at 325º for 30 minutes

Reduce oven temp to 300º

Bake 30 more minutes

Turn oven off and let pie stand

in oven with door closed

for three (3) hours.

Serve with dollop of whipped cream

Just so you know-

there are many NUTS in this family

which lends itself to

much hilarity at family gatherings.

We don't all go out to eat at

restaurants very often because

the family gets LOUD...even though

most of us don't drink.

We laugh about everything

and some poor soul is usually the

BUTT of the jokes--

but the VICTIM changes

on a whim.

Anyone else have a family like that?

My Hero does his best to ignore

everyone and pretend he is just

a visitor at the table.

Yep- one in every family!

By the way,

I am home from vacation

and as soon as I figure out how to get

my pictures out of that darned
CLOUD

I will be posting some pictures.

I promise you will NOT see ANY

pictures of me in a bikini--

YEAH---Wouldn't want you to 

lose your appetite

before Thanksgiving.

Hmmmm...on the other hand-

maybe that's not such a bad

deterrent for overeating....

nah..........never mind..........

SEE YOU IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!

I am 

DEFINITELY READY!!!

SWEET CHEEKS PICKS/DROPS/SMASHES A PUMPKIN

If you have seen this before

I apologize.

I think it will be a recurring post

every Fall for me.

I couldn't resist

posting this again.

for all you

PUMPKIN PICKERS.

This is SweetCheeks

at two years old.

She is 12 now.

Here she is holding

THE PUMPKIN

she picked out.

..AND..

Here she is about 

15 seconds later.

Ummmmm.....

Poor SweetCheeks!

I love that we have a

moment like this forever

frozen in time.

Someday she will show this

to her own granddaughter

and smile a sweet

little smile of remembrance.

I hope you have a 

Smashingly good Wednesday..

and I mean that in the

NICEST WAY!;>)

MY BEAUTIFUL LULU AND HER SENIOR PICTURES

She was the

SWEETEST BABY-

Quiet, thoughtful

& loving.

So, it is no surprise

she stayed the same way.

This beautiful young woman

is a senior this year

and goes off to school next year.

I will miss her dearly.

There are lots more pictures

but this is all I have for now.

Isn't she a beauty?

INSIDE and OUT!

AND

to make it even better---

she is a barista at 

STARBUCKS!

A cup served with lots of love!!!!

If you want to see a progression 

over the years of her growing up

you can

CLICK HERE!

Have a great week!!!!

PRAYER REQUEST UPDATE-GOOD NEWS AND ASKING FOR CONTINUED PRAYERS FOR ABBY AND THE TWINS!

Such wonderful news!

I will post it in 

Katie's words.

Katie Ricker

 · 

All the glory goes to God as we got positive news today🙌 It has not spread and all margins are clear. This has been a time in our walk with the Lord that has forever changed us. I never completely trusted Him till now and this time we decided we would praise him even with bad news and uncertainty. I prayed for hours each day and God revealed himself in so many ways. I never felt closer to Him and I pray I never forget the peace and love He brought us both. This has made me appreciate the man I love more then ever. To see your husband more concerned for you then himself is noble. He woke up from surgery with tears coming down his face saying he surrendered as the nurse prayed with him. I know that not everyone’s story ends this way and many things make no sense especially when we lose those we love. I know that during this time heaven seemed like it could not come quick enough as this world carries pain but it’s not the way the story ends. To each person who sent us texts,prayed, made meals etc you made a huge difference and we thank you more then you’ll ever know. I raise a hallelujah🙌🙏

Thanks to all of you that prayed

OR

winged healing thoughts and wishes

their way.

This man has been saved for

a higher purpose-

raising his children

and loving his wife.

Don't forget to keep

Abby & her twin babies in your prayers

and thoughts.

You can read about that

HERE if you missed it.

Thank you so much!

It is always wonderful

to be able to post 

GOOD NEWS!

Will be back in a day or so

with the results of 

PICK YOUR FAVORITE

OCTOBER TABLE!

PICK YOUR FAVORITE OCTOBER TABLE

Well, guess I better do this now

or October will be in the past.

I was going to do 

Halloween tables

but there weren't enough that 

I thought suitable.

So-here you go-

October tables.

PICK ONE-

Now I KNOW all of you can count-

so ONE is GOOD!

Got it?

Here we go:

#1-A Passel of Pumpkins

#2 Copper Cups

#3 Some Fall Color

#4-Creamy Dream

#5 Pass The Pears Please

#6 Sunshine On My Table Makes Me Happy

#7 Lots of Lavender

So, there you have it!

Pick your seat (I won't watch).

and don't get your undies in a bundle

if you have a hard time deciding.

(see how I cleverly tied that into picking your seat)....oh, nevermind......

Have a great weekend and I will count

the votes next week and give you my

usual taunts and teases.

DAWN P-CAN YOU PLEASE SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?

This is the only way 

I know how to reach you.

My email is 

dianakos1@gmail.com

I will not give your email out to anyone.

Hope you see this- 

Thanks!

A DOUBLE--NO TRIPLE--PRAYER REQUEST--ONE FOR TWINS!

Hello my friends~

Life is so odd sometimes, isn't it?

I met a barista at Starbucks, Laura,

several years ago.

A wonderful woman a few years

younger than myself.

We became pretty good friends

and she worked with my 

youngest daughter, Mimi.

She recently retired and I 

attended her retirement party.

This morning I got an urgent message

from her about her daughter, Abby.

I am going to paste here just what

she texted me.

My daughter Abby is pregnant with identical twins. It is a very high risk pregnancy, twin to twin transfusion. She had surgery in Philadelphia two weeks ago. During the surgery her membranes were ruptured and her water broke. She did not go into labor, and her tear healed. She is home now on bed rest. So far her doctor doesn’t feel the surgery was a success. We are in the fight of our life to save these two boys. She is 19 weeks now. We are praying she can make it to 30 weeks and that the smaller twins bladder fills. Abby did finally share her story on social media. The boys need all the prayers they can get. So I am reaching out to you and asking if you could keep Hunter and Hayden in your prayers

Here is a picture of her beautiful daughter, Abby-

Here is an ultra sound of her sweet twins~

As always,

I would never post pictures without permission.

Please pray for these sweet babies,

AND for their mama and daddy,

and for my friend, Laura &

all the other family connected to them.

My 2nd prayer request is for a

dear blogging friend's hubby,

Katie Rickers sent me a message

after I saw this on Facebook,

asking for prayer for her wonderful, 

loving husband, Rob.

Last Monday we got the worst news. Rob had a skin biopsy on his leg come back as melanoma. It’s the kind of news you can’t even breathe when you hear. As I look back on some of our trials I have seen God’s hand and I know that He doesn’t waste pain but it’s hard not to ask why😢 Rob has been nothing but amazing through our 20+ years together. He is the best husband and dad you could imagine. We have gone through so much together but we have made it stronger together. I don’t know what God is going to do through all of this but we have faith in Him. We could really use your prayers as he is undergoing surgery this Friday morning at MD Anderson. Please pray that it has not spread into his lymph nodes. The thought of losing my best friend is unbearable. The kids are doing okay but as you can imagine it’s been devastating. We need all medical tests to come back with good results. I’ll give everyone a update as I learn more. Thank you for praying 🙏💜

p

Please uplift their family in prayer, also.

They are such kind, loving people,

the kind of people we need more of

in this world.

As always,

if you are NOT a praying person,

please send your well wishes

and wing good, healing thoughts

their way.

You will be heard!

Thank you all so much.

I have the best readers

in the world!!!!