Give Thanks with Grateful Heart

David and I were so incredibly blessed to have our children around us for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Marianna, Lydia and Jared, and Kaite were home for Thanksgiving. Kaite baked a wonderful apple-crisp-pie to compliment the shrimp, smoked turkey, dressing, gravy, Sista Shuberts, and of course, our only TRUE tradition, Italian Spinach a la Papa, Carl Gargano.




Marianna brought a new Mississippi State Tablecloth in a maroon/burgundy to jazz up the festivities; Jared and Lydia's second Thanksgiving as a married couple...wow...




Words cannot express how truly thankful we are to be so blessed with this family...as crazy as they sometimes are!

Chili Cookout for Lockhearts and Family

Every year the Lockhearts have a Chili Cookout at Dr. Mims' house out in the country. The get-together is in honor of the new pledge class and their families. I was asked to be the chef, as Lydia is Vice-president this year and volunteered to help out; we cooked chili for 100. WOW! It was a trip! I cooked starting on Thursday with 20 pounds of meat....












This is the Lockhearts lovely Sponsor, Dr. Mims.









David, Kaite, and Jared in the kitchen.











Lydia's reaction to Marianna's surprise visit; we thought Marianna was covered up with two rehearsals for productions she was doing this week.

Marianna and Mama.

Daddy Turns 58

Dave with his caramel birthday cake. When we were first married and living far far away from Mississippi in Lawton, OK at Ft. Sill I attempted to make him a "burn't sugar" caramel cake. His Mom always made him a special caramel cake for his birthday. Well, my attempt was truly pitiful; the icing was more around the sides of the plate than on top of the cake; He laughed at it, and I vowed NEVER EVER to try to make another. Well, here it is, 36 years later and I have NEVER EVER tried it again. David's Mom died last year, so I figured that if he was going to get one, I would have to try again. So, I did. Went on the Internet and found a recipe. It was kind of lumpy; the confectioner's sugar wasn't totally blended into the hot caramelized sugar, but it'll do. He seemed to really enjoy it.



David got a 243 piece tool box from Marrianna-a "Home and Garage tool Box"-mainly because she had pretty much decimated the last set of tools he had on hand...borrowing this and that and the other.



Jared and Lydia gave Dave a Books a Million Card....There is absolutely no better present for somebody, anybody, in this family!



I gave Dave a book by Alan Alda (Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself). Kaite's present included reading material and food! She bought him Mental Floss and some Mac Mags that he hasn't had in a long time as well as WHITE BREAD, REAL BACON (not that turkey stuff) and IBC Root beer in bottles. Wow!