First off, here are a couple of random things that I want to mention–check out the great light that my sister got for us in Turkey! We have it hanging over the dining room table

that my sister got for us in Turkey--now hanging over the dining room table

Now to brag on myhusband–Robbie was awarded this medal from the Navy for his work on a project that they had. So proud of him!

And now to the festivities!

We had the pleasure of hosting our first Thanksgiving this year! My parents came to visit and we had our friends, Matt and MB over to join us for dinner. Later in the visit, we celebrated Robbie’s 33rd birthday (!) with my parents and then the Festival of Lights on the St. John’s River with Matt and MB…

Preparing Thanksgiving Dinner!

Beautiful bird

And it tasted great too!

Birthday Boy!

Festival of Lights on the St. John's

Festival of Lights

Festival of Lights

We also celebrated black friday by getting some new covers for the couches in the den! Our cat had done a number on the old covers and pillows in his younger days. Fortunately he’s calmed down a bit and we’ve been able to update the furniture nicely

New covers and pillows in the den!

posers!

Some more celebrating with Matt and MB. First it was Uba Xma–the great brass band Christmas concert at the Landing downtown…

ubaxma09

Santa at the Landing...maybe he's lost and consulting his map...

Uba Xma players

Christmas Tree at the Landing

And  then there was our Lebanese Christmas banquet! Robbie and I contributed the drinks. There was, of course, eggnog. Then there were the lebanese finds. The Lebanese “White Coffee” which was delightful. And the Jallab. That one was…interesting. It was described as being good on a hot day. Maybe we’ll try it again this summer….

Lebanese White ‘Coffee’: (per serving) 2 oz. water; about 1 tsp. orange blossom water; sugar to taste.  Pour 1 tsp. orange blossom water per demitasse cup. Bring water to boil. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Pour water in demitasse cup and serve.

Jallab: (per serving) 2 T. jallab syrup; 6 oz. water; 1 C. crushed ice; 2 T. each pinenuts & golden raisins. Pour syrup in a tall glass. Add water and stir. Add crushed ice, sprinkle pinenuts and raisins on top and serve.

preparing the banquet--so yummy!

Jallab!

And we’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit ever since! Our first Christmas tree in Jacksonville, Christmas party at the Cooke’s house, cookie decorating, you name it!

Christmas party with friends

Christmas party

Reading the Jungle Book to my pal, Owen. This was the first night I'd dyed my hair with henna so it was RED. It's toned down a bit now...love it.

Our first Jacksonville Christmas tree!

We left our real stockings at my parent's house in Charleston last year so these little guys will have to do for now!

Luminaria!

Got to keep our tradition of making Christmas cookies with our friend, Amy

When the cookies came out, one of the gingerbread girls had a baby bump!! Gotta keep an eye on those cookies- Things really did get hot in that oven!

Looks like this is it for this particular post. I’ll update you on the rest of our Christmas festivities later. Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Check out the massive talents of myself, my husband, AND our animals!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/AKAuENPwntMZJZ6XdzBq

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/H9p20yUD00OccOC8EbWl

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/SxV7LA8z3v1Wfo7ly0p7

Send me a link to yours, if you decide to do it—so easy! And hilarious!

Yeah!! It’s blog-snowing again!! I love that It makes this 80-degree Florida weather a bit more tolerable!

By the way, I do have a bunch of little updates to add to this blog. Now that classes are over for the semester, I’ll have a chance to get it done!

Stay tuned…

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Khalima

Well, if you insist…

August: O.A.R. with Brett Dennon. This was a “thank you” concert for our friend, Travis, who stayed at our house and took care of the animals while we were out of town for 10 days. I was already a big fan of Brett Dennon, but I have to admit, O.A.R. puts on a really fun show!!

Brett Dennon opening for O.A.R.

Travis and Robbie at O.A.R. concert

O.A.R.

O.A.R. II

September: The Decemberists with Laura Veirs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pics of this concert! Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think I’d recommend waiting for the next album before seeing them in concert. I just didn’t really get the need for them to play through the pseudo-musical “Hazards of Love”. They seemed to enjoy themselves so much more, and were so much more enjoyable, when they came back out to play a mixture of songs from other albums. Laura Veirs and her crew were great–see them if you can! If you’re dying to see a bunch of pics (all in focus!), you can find them at the jacksonville.com website. We’re in some!

October: Blitzen Trapper with Wye Oak. Looks like we didn’t get any pics of Wye Oak though. You’ll have to check them out for yourselves…

Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper II

November: One of my favorite bands, Blind Pilot, with The Low Anthem…

The Low Anthem opening for Blind Pilot

Blind Pilot

Blind Pilot II

The Low Anthem joining Blind Pilot onstage for an encore jam

Why aren’t the pictures better, you ask. The iphone. You’d think with all that this phone can do, it could take some better pictures!!!! Boo.

Nothing lined up for December yet…any suggestions?

That was the extent of our conversation last night when we finally heard the first knock on our door around 7:30-ish. Was it the cute little trick-or-treaters I’d been anticipating?

No. It was our neighbor stopping by to say hello and warn us that we probably wouldn’t be getting many visitors. They didn’t even bother getting any candy this year because things have slowed down so much! Apparently we live on one of the deader streets in Jacksonville for Halloween. How unfortunate! Especially since I’d gotten like three pounds of candy. Needless to say, the neighbors left with a couple handfuls themselves.

Aside from one visit from  little ladybug and bumble-bee, the only other trick-or-treaters were some of our friends and their little ones. But they were all cute enough to count as a group of cute kids each, so we were okay with that. Here’s a look:

Our Jack-o-Lanterns in action out front

Owen the Pirate--arrrgh!

Kate--cheering for the winning team!

laughing at our surprise spider that drops down with flashing eyes when someone makes a loud sound

"go gators!"

Princess Leia and her cousins. I'm pretty sure the real Princess Leia made this face a couple times too. Or maybe Lucy just wasn't impressed with our candy selection. Her brother, Luke Skywalker, had already had enough excitement for the evening so we didn't get to include him in the pic! Maybe next year, Jack!

I’ve been getting ready for tomorrow by painting pumpkins, carving pumpkins and buying candy. In fact, I just bought another round of candy last night…hopefully this time it’ll last long enough to hand it out to the kids tomorrow night!

My first round of pumpkin decorating was with my pal, Shirley. She came over, dressed up like a fairy princess, and helped me paint faces on a couple of pumpkins. Not surprisingly, her pumpkin had a huge smile on it’s face. I’ve never met anyone who’s happiness is as contagious as Shirley’s. I love getting to hang out with her. Here are some pictures from that adventure:

my pal, Shirley

dressed like a fairy princess

our pumpkins. mine was not happy that his nose was poking him in the eye. shirley's was, of course, very happy!

Unfortunately, a day or two after I put the pumpkins out front, it rained. I came home to find the pumpkins looking like they were starting to melt, paint running down their chins.

So, on Wed. night, our friends Jason, Ann, and their super-cute, goofy yellow lab, Dexter, came over. Although Dex headed home early after getting a little energy out playing in the back yard with JuneBug (one of the good things about living around the corner!), Jason and Ann stuck around to do some fancy pumpkin carving…

Jason and Ann getting creative

JuneBug taking it all in and trying to figure out what happened to her pal, Dexter!

finished products!

Ann's spooky pumpkin tree

Jason's scary pumpkin face

my spooky pumpkin house

Robbie's scary pumpkin tree

The tree and house were templates from a site that I found online. These were free but there were a bunch of great patterns available for a small fee as well. You can find them at: http://www.pumpkinlady.com/pattern.htm