It’s beginning to look a lot like ….

Christmas… it’s rapidly approaching...So, we’re doing our part to go with the season.. Full Picture Album here: Linky!

It’s been rather cold here for a while, so at least this year, the weather feels like Christmas should be coming… Unlike last year when it was still in the 70’s approaching Christmas Day.

So, we went out and got a Christmas tree! Last year’s tree was about 18” tall, and while it was wonderful, this year we decided to step it up a little bit. We went to a “Choose and Cut” Christmas Tree Farm, Circle C Tree Farm (Website Here). So.. on that note… For those who have never been to a Christmas Tree Farm, let me explain how these places, or at least this one, work. You drive up, all excited to get a tree. You hop out of the car, and someone magically appears out of nowhere with a pole with markings on it to designate certain heights. The person who magically appeared quickly explains how the process works. “Please stay to the left side of the road when selecting a tree, when you find one that you like, stand there with your 10ft pole and wave it around until someone shows up to cut the tree down. From this point, they’ll put a tag on your tree, and you can come back down to the barn and buy yourself something hot to drink, or some kettle corn. Pricing is as follows : $8 per foot up to 7ft($56); $9 per foot up to 8ft($72); $10 per foot up to 9ft($90); $11 per foot up to 10ft($110); and $12 per foot up to 11ft.($132)” So… ummm wow. We were looking for a tree about 5ft tall. So… in magical tree land dollars… that’s $40… “Oh, and there is a stack of smaller trees leaned up against the barn for $28 each.” … Awesome.. now we’re cooking.

So, after sorting through the trees by the barn… holding them up and rotating them… looking to see how much we could get them to “floof” out .. and looking for flat spots and bare spots, we finally found an awesome tree. It’s about 5-1/2' Feet tall, and very full. So, we paid for it, the workers bagged it for us, and we crammed it into the back seat to take back home. Not at all bad for $28.

We got the tree home, trimmed off some of the lower branches… with one of our least favorite kitchen knives… and got it set up in the stand. We’d gone to Wal-Mart before we got the tree to get the essentials for the rest of the day. We picked up two 19.7 foot strings of LED Christmas lights thinking that surely, 40ft of lights would be more than enough for a 5-1/2ft tree. Since I had to drag the tree up the stairs, mangle the lower branches and get it into the stand, Virginia took over with the decorating.

Here’s where we ran out of lights and garland… Oops! We still had a bit more to go… and we didn’t have nearly the amount of ornaments as we thought we had… The ornaments that we did have were glass… and since Gracie became rather interested in the tree as soon as we brought it into the house… we decided we needed to go back to Wal-Mart. On that note… next time you go to Wal-Mart… print out the following “Wal-Mart BINGO card” and let us know your results. But back to the point, we picked up some more lights, and then went to Big-Lots to get some cheapo plastic Christmas Balls and some Candy Canes to finish off the tree.

So, we got the tree all decorated, after having to get another string of lights, and another package of Garland… and Candy Canes!!

I grabbed the camera, set it up on the tripod, and set it on auto. Here we are with the tree, and I even crammed Gracie into a little red dress for the Christmas photo. 

*** Added Fun!***

So… if you start here and using the cursor keys, go forward through the 10 pictures that the camera shot… it’s like a nice little animation… you can see the cat trying to break free and possibly kill us… She wasn’t really happy with the dress… but it was really cute!

The Kitty was being helpful though… she decided that she would help us out by checking the old strings of lights…

But then, she turned into the devil. She decided that it would be a great idea to climb the curtains and walk across the top of the curtain rod.

She bent the rod of course… and I think she’s rather determined to rip down the Christmas tree… But.. she’s still a good time.

 

We hope you’re all doing well and wish you Happy Holidays!!

We got engaged!

So, here is the story according to me (Virginia):

We got back from Thanksgiving, which was a 5 hour drive that should only take 3.5, so I was tired and grumpy and I just wanted to get in my PJ's and lay around the house. But it was around dinner time so Aaron was all energetic and wanted to go out and get steaks to make bourbon steaks.

I said that I wasn't hungry, but I might  be later. So he went ahead to the store without me. I put on my comfiest must hole-filled PJ's and my socks that look like dead Muppets, and proceeded to vegetate.

When Aaron got back from the store he was all happy, even though he didn't get steaks he found some scallops and wrapped them in bacon. We both love pretty much anything wrapped in bacon, so I was excited. He also got my favorite wine, and baby asparagus, and some sushi for appetizer.

So, I was a little surprised and did ask him why all the fancy food, but Aaron loves making fancy food, so I wasn't too suspicious. Plus, he was acting really relaxed, and usually when he's trying to surprise me he gets more jumpy.

After dinner he reached into a kitchen cupboard and pulled out a bunch of red roses. So NOW, I was kind of suspicious. I mean, a nice meal is one thing, but roses.... for no reason...

So this is the part where I made a giant fool of myself. As, we are cleaning the plates I notice that there is a black velvet bag on the back of one of the chairs. So I'm thinking, "hum, jewelry comes in black velvet bags..."

So I ask, "What's this?!?" And Aaron of course is like, "Why don't  you open it and find out."

Well, I did and it was..... dice. Because we had played a dice game like two weeks ago, and I had forgotten that the dice were also in a black velvet bag.

So Aaron's laughing his butt off. He's like "Ha. ha, is someone expecting something?!?"

Then he paused, and was like, "But if I were going to propose, I'd do this...."

And he got down on one knee and pulled a box out of his pocket.

Of course now, I'm all suspicious. "Are you serious. Is that real??? Are you really serious?"

And he said, "I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" There may have been more, it's all kind of a blur. And, of course, I said yes.

And my ring is beautiful. It's a Jennifer Wells original with a princess cut center diamond surrounded by rubies which are both Aaron and my birthstone.

We haven't made any plans yet, but thanks to everyone who has already set their nice words and congratulations. We'll keep you posted.

Thanksgiving!!!

I’m trying out “Windows Live Writer” as blogger has recently decided to go all goofy when it comes to writing new posts… for some reason, it forgot how to automatically size pictures, and I’ve been having to go in and edit the HTML manually… and that’s no fun… so.. if things look goofy, let me know….

On with the posts!

Here’s the Thanksgiving Photo Album : Linky!

Well, we went home for Thanksgiving... it was a good time.. kind-of on the way home, except not really, we drove down to Charlotte to pick up my sister's Beau, Victor. .. It wasn't a bad ride... we hit a bit of traffic on the way back up.. but nothing too horrible. We got in Wednesday night... got some Pizza... relaxed around the house for a bit... and then it was off to the bars for the annual gathering at The Palms... however, that joint was PACKED... so.. we stayed for one pitcher, and got out of there... Next, we tried going to the Southern Inn.... also packed.... standing room only.. so we weren't there very long either... basically just long enough for us to say HI to Jennifer and for me to get a little package from her ... ... ... 

So, to finish off Wednesday night, we grabbed a few beverages... and spent the night back at the house (we being: Me, Virginia, Rachel [My Sis], Victor [Her Beau], Newhall and Lisa) playing some card games and some dice games.


Here's Mom getting some food ready on Thursday. From the looks of it, I think she was working on the multi-layered dip… with cheese… and beans… and awesome-ness.




Dad and Tyger … Tyger was dad’s birthday present a few years ago… and she’s his girl all the way… she just tolerates everyone else in the house. But, for some reason this time, she took to sleeping on my Eddie Bauer sweater… and wouldn’t get off of it.


Dad, Vince, Victor, Lisa, Gramps – from left to right… with only about 1/2 of Gramps showing…  We went over to Granny Trovato’s house at about 2PM or so.. and started eating appetizers : Queso Dip; Multi-Layered cheesy, beany, awesomey, dip; Veggie Tray (With Ranch dip as well as some dip with Dill in it…); a cheese and crackers tray; and a tray of sausage with 2 good mustards… This was the appetizer.


Here’s my sis, Rachel. Don’t let the innocent look fool you. She’s pure evil. She once killed a man with her bare hands for taking her parking space… It was crazy. Well… maybe that’s not quite how it happened… but she did yell a lot..


Of course, here’s Newhall. He’s smiling because he’s eating.

It was nice to be home for a few days… even though we basically just sat around and ate non-stop for several days… totally worth it though..

It's that Time in Boone

It's that time of year, and it's starting to get cold.
Photo Album

We got a good little amount of snow recently... this is actually the 3rd snow storm so far this year... the first was back in October... but this more recent one brought us probably close to 4 inches on the chilly white stuff.



Of course, the kids on campus had a good time with the weather.... we can't let it get us down.

Virginia and I actually made it out to the Farmer's Market this saturday.. it was a special holiday event, as the "real" farmers market finishes off in October. The focus of this one was more about crafts and gift items. Although our meat guys were still there selling the best beef and sausage in the High Country. Our normal bread lady was there also with some interesting looking holiday cakes... but they were $15 for half of a cake..... I don't think they could have possiby been that good.

After the trip to the farmer's market, we drove around town getting supplies to make a small Thanksgiving dinner here in Boone. We're heading home to have Thanksgiving with my folks, and my sister... and grandparents... and other family and friends next week... but we wanted to do a small Thanksgiving here in Boone for ourselves. The menu was turkey (made in the crockpot with chicken broth, rubbed sage, and various other spices), mashed 'taters, cranberry stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, and some buttermilk biscuits. It was awesome. Josh came over to join us and brought some Oreo pie to top things off...

And of course, here's Gracie. She's all tuckered out after dinner... After I was done eating, I made a very tiny plate with some shredded turkey, some mashed 'taters, and some gravy just for Gracie.. she LOVED it... and then she fell asleep everywhere around the house... behind the chair, leaned up against the heater, randomly in the middle of the floor, in the recliner... in the bathroom.... lazy lazy cat. But... as you can see from the pictures, she's getting bigger!!

Hello from FORT

I am working on starting a blog of my own.... we'll see how long I make it... :) http://newhallfrobies.blogspot.com/. LOVE FROM the FrObies! $:)

Trip to Damascus!

So... last week, we were planning on making this trip up to Damascus, to walk around, but the car wasn't cooperating. So... I fixed the car yesterday... and the trips happened today. Full Album here : Linky!

I'm debating on whether or not to tell the story of the car... it has a happy ending... but it got me rather upset during the process.... we'll see later on..

C'Mon ride that Train!! Virginia hops on a train sitting at an entrance to the Virginia Creeper trail in Damascus. She looks like she's having a good time!!

This little squirrel was hard to catch on the camera. We were walking across a bridge, and I heard this little guy eating... So, after looking around for a bit, I tracked him down... but he was right in the sun.. and I really couldn't get a very clear shot.. 

Crappy lawnmower + old barn style shed + good lighting and color = artistic shot.... I Like how it came out...

This was the scene at the Shady Valley Country Store... we stopped there, had a BBQ sandwich... Virginia almost bought some chaps... but they were fake leather... so... we passed on those.. but the BBQ was good...

Some of the leaves are still looking gorgeous.... I really like some of the shots I got today... make sure to look at the full album... and let me know what y'all think!!

Fall in Boone!!

Well... fall is settling in rather quickly here in Boone... temperature have dropped like crazy, and the leaves seem to skip that whole changing color thing, and just fall straight to the ground... But, last weekend, we went out and got ourselves a few pumpkins. Virginia named the big one "Pie-Face" and the smaller one "Gordy".

The one solo worker at the "Pumpkin Patch" was also making some pretty danged outstanding kettle corn on site... as soon as we walked up, he gave us a rather enticing free sample bag to enjoy while we were walking around looking at the pumpkins....
Gracie made friends pretty quick with "Pie-Face" ... she likes chewing on his stem...
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But tell me that she's not THE cutest cat in the world... how many cats would pose for a picture like this??

Hope everyone is healthy and doing well!! Feel free to come visit us in Boone!

Nat and Erin Wedding!!!!

Well... lot of stuff over several days to post... so I broke it down into 3 sections... rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception... Enjoy!!!

Picture Album is here : Linky!!

Rehearsal Dinner / Set-Up

Well, this weekend was yet another gorgeous wedding. This was the wedding of Nat Oliver and Erin Fay, and it was held at Skylark Farm off the the Blue Ridge Parkway in beautiful Virginia.
The farm sits on a mountain-top and offered great views of the changing leaves all around.

The flowers were still blooming... even though all of the leaves were changing... it was really neat... the bright colors of the flowers, and the subdued yellow, orange and red on the trees....
This lovely spiral staircase was the pathway from the ground level to the 3rd floor of the house we were staying in. The width of the staircase is about 3"-4" narrower than my shoulders. The only time it was slightly a problem was carrying the luggage up.. but, the awesome room and views from the top of the mountain totally made up for that.
This is Anne pulling pork. Before too long, we took over. This was a wonderful idea. The pork was for the rehearsal dinner, and they had smoked and cooked an entire pig. AWESOME. The somewhat down-side of this, is that this cooking and smoking was done with rather large chunks of pig. In order to make that pork edible by the general public, you've got to shred, or "pull" the pork into smaller pieces. The process is amazingly complex. First, you grab a chunk of cooked and smoked pig. Next, you rip it apart into tiny pieces and put it in a bowl. The complexity comes, when you factor in the additional tasks that must be preformed at the same time. The pork pulling team consisted of myself, Virginia, Will (Brother of the bride) and his girlfriend Meredith. So... additional task for us included: Drinking beer (They had a keg of Shiner for the rehearsal dinner); talking about anything and everything to come to mind, and casually slipping pieces of hot pork into our mouths while no-one else was paying attention. All in all..... it was awesome. Give me a call if you need some pork pulled.
Here, the morning of the wedding, Virginia hangs pictures of the bride and groom around the tent that will later on house the reception. The pictures were Clothes-pinned onto ribbons around the tent and a large collage was placed in a 3 foot clothes-pin at the entrance of the tent.

The Ceremony!

Here are Virginia and Mara .... Looking all pretty... You can tell that they're both really happy to be there... and you can see the awesome view behind them...


This is the Altar.. it was pretty awesome... flowers beside it, flowers on top...and a hummingbird stopped by to enjoy the flowers before and during the ceremony... That was pretty awesome. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the hummingbird... but those things are FAST.
Finally, here is the Happy Couple!! Nat and Erin had a gorgeous wedding on the mountain-top. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we were all glad to be a part of it.
As an added bonus, here are the beautiful Page sisters... We had a little photo-op time... since it was so beautiful on top of the mountain, it was hard to pass up taking as many pictures as possible.
Here's the view opposite from the altar. In the not too-far distance is the Blue Ridge Parkway. The one thing that I found really amazing was that ... well.... the location was within earshot of the Parkway... and it was a gorgeous day... in the middle of the ceremony I half expected a huge group of Harleys to go roaring by... I'm glad it didn't happen... but I was also suprised...

The Reception!!!

The reception was held in this lovely tent... the catered food was awesome, the main course was : Ravioli, Prime Rib, Crab Cakes, Asparagus, assorted bread and an awesome "Blue salad" with Blueberries and Blue Cheese. ... After that, we had some of the AWESOME wedding cake, and some peach cobbler. The peach cobbler was an awesome touch on a night that was slightly chilly..

Here is the bride and groom's first dance. They both look so happy, and they're all sweet looking into each other's eyes..


Here's the father - daughter dance. Erin's dad actually had some good moves! They both look like they're having a good time.

Here's Will (Nat's Brother) and his lovely girlfriend Meredith. They were both a good time. They both have a great sense of humor and were awesome to hang out with during the reception. Really, everyone at the reception was fun to hang out with... All in all, a great time...
After things began to calm down at the reception, we went to hang out at the fire-pit. It provided an amazing amount of warmth as the night got cooler, and of course, being a few drinks in.... It was a lovely time to take some pictures... This picture is about a 2 second exposure... and captures the trails of the sparks nicely...

And Gracie... Gracie spent most of the weekend hanging out with my mom and dad while we were doing wedding things.. I think she had a good time... dad's cat, Tyger, doesn't really care much for Gracie... but I think she's just jealous of Gracie's awesomeness and cuteness. So... Tyger keeps Gracie running around, and dad spoils her... He feeds her a can of tuna on Sunday morning... but, it works out well, because after some tuna, and getting chased around the house... she hops in the car and falls right asleep. she does amazingly well in the car... She really doesn't like her little travel box, and she cries and cries until you let her out. But, once you let her out, she walks around the car once or twice, and then settles down and falls asleep. She'll get up and use her litter box if she needs it, and she stays quiet. She actually slept all of the way home this time, and for the better part, this is just how she slept. Ain't she a cutie??

Banner Elk - Lees McRae

Picture Album for this post : Linky!

All Albums : Linky!

Since today was such a lovely day, we hopped in the car and drove down to Banner Elk. While there, we decided to walk through Lees-McRae College.

Here we are, relaxing in the school's rocking chairs... nice chairs... but they were chained to the wall. I got this shot by setting the self timer, and putting the camera on the sidewalk. If you look in the album, you'll see what happens when the timer goes off faster than I expected.

It's a good looking campus, with a bunch of good looking stone buildings.. it has a pretty awesome look to things.


Directly behind the above building was this one though... really kind of surprising... Banner Elk is a really nice town.. All of the buildings have a certain look, everything is really clean... nice cars driving around... rich people... but that's the main drag going through Banner Elk... apparently.. the back streets are a little different.

Below is the Water Tower on Campus.. Kind of a cool building... from the looks of it, it no longer holds water... it looks more like it hold scrap lumber. But, I thought it was neat looking.