Hello Winter 2011!

 According to the powers that be, the official first day of winter falls on December 22, 2011.
I'm not quite sure who or how or when this all first came about but I skimmed over the topic here and it has something to do with the distance of the earth from the sun and Julius Caesar and tropical year and the pope and the Council of Nicea...
basically a lot of information I just do not have the room for in my brain right now...

...Caleb is officially a toddler you see...and I still have a full time job...and a full time marriage...so astronomy really doesn't fit in the top of my priority list right now.

...so I've decided that in my universe the first day of winter shall be December 1st...because that fits with my 12 months / 4 seasons = 3 months per season:
So as I see it December, January and February are winter
March, April, May are spring
June, July and August are summer
and September, October and November are fall.
This is how things have always been in my mind...I don't know when this winter solstice = first day of winter business began but I'll tell you right now it is false. 
Says me.

That being said, we'll proceed with this post.
You may have noticed that there has not been much to notice here on this blog...that's because this little fishbowl of ours has been jumpin' this fall.

We've had holidays:

pumpkin carving

picking out the perfect pumpkin

family photo op at the pumpkin patch

With Grandma having our pre-Thanksgiving

hunting for pecans at Grandma's

We've had sporting events:

"Hey!  I need more cowbell!"

visiting Mamma and Dadda 's alma mater

checking out Bully

"So there really ARE other bulldog fans.!  I was beginning to wonder if everybody but me yelled Roll Tide or War Eagle."

"Woo Pig Sooie!!!"  

We've hunted wild game:

Delta boy at heart!

Walks among the fall foliage:

Plus, we've had birthdays:

Our best buddy Bryce turned 1 year old!

Great-Grandma Fisher's big birthday get together

Uncle Mark was pretty funny!

In fact, the biggest event in our little fall was Caleb's first birthday!!!
He had a blast with all of our wonderful friends and family!

And now that the BEST SEASON of the YEAR (autumn) has come to a close it is time to buckle down and get ready for some serious winter festivities!  We have quite a winter planned and can't wait to begin!

And since December 1st is officially the first day of winter in the fishbowl a certain special little fellow made his debut:

Meet Nerwin Twizzlebottom,
the Fisher family elf:

Poor fellow must have been pretty chilly waiting all morning out on the front porch to be let in!




See ya next year Autumn, and Hello Winter!

I'm goin' to Jackson and that's a fact...

I do sooo love Johnny Cash!  (And Joaquin Phoenix)

The hubby & I took off a day of work, slept in and then hit the road this past Friday to go visit some of my very best friends that I met in undergrad at Mississippi State.  The destination?  Jackson, Mississippi...well pretty darn close to it.

We took a quick break in Starkville (the home of Mississippi State University) to grab lunch at The Grill (yummy steak on a stick) with a friend then headed south.  We spent the weekend catching up, visiting and for three of the four of us girls, meeting each other's babies!  

That's right, four women, three babies and a two-year-old all in one house (at least one of the days)!  We ventured into Jackson for lunch at THE best place to get a gyro in town...Keifer's!!!  It took two trucks and a LOT of organization to get there and needless to say...we were a sight parading through the extremely crowded Saturday lunch crowd to our 8-top table!  

Caleb, Lily & Hadley waiting for the tables

After lunch, we took one more stop to a architectural salvage shop in downtown.  Although Caleb and I didn't find anything we couldn't live without we enjoyed practicing taking pictures with our new camera!

 Beautiful salvaged stained glass windows

Old doors from North Africa (left) and Cairo (right)

Sunday we slept in and met another friend for lunch at Beagle Bagel in Madison and then headed northbound on the Natchez Trace toward home.  It is an absolutely beautiful drive with many opportunities for sightseeing and tons of walking trails between Natchez, Mississippi & Nashville, Tennessee.  As we passed Kosciusko (yep thats where Oprah's from) I began looking for the little white house in which my grandfather was born and raised, in Ehtel.  You can actually see the old homestead from the Trace!  It has been vacant for about 30 years but up until the last year or so the property has remained in our family.  We stopped to look around and of course snap a few pictures!

My Daddy says that when he was a child, his parents would drive him and his sister all the way from Lepanto, Arkansas to Ehtel about once a year or so- most of the way on gravel roads!

I was told the story once about how during the depression my Granddaddy's parents were one of the few in the area that had a radio.  I'm told that people once came from all over the county to sit and listen to the world series on this very same front porch!

The chimney says 1901- the year this chimney was added onto the house.

One of the outbuildings- there were several, one for canned goods and a root cellar.  There also used to be an old barn on the property.

   

The old truck my Daddy's uncle drove.  This is where he parked it and after he died it was never driven again.  It is gone now but my Daddy took this picture a few years ago.

All in all it was a great weekend!  When we arrived at home Caleb opened an early Christmas present from his Grandmommy- as you can see he loves it!

And finally...another ornament: