Merry Christmas 2019

Lanier Under The Lights 5K

I ran in my favorite 5k again this year! I don't really enjoy running races, but this one is a favorite of mine. It starts at dark and the race is lit up by Christmas lights around Lake Lanier. The runners are treated to a Christmas ambiance with holiday music and a view in the dark that is one of a kind. They had more vendors this year, so Casey treated himself to a few of the foodie freebies before the race began.

People dress up and there are prizes for the best Christmas costumes with different categories.

Contest Categories:

*Best Santa Claus

*Best Christmas Tree

*Best Snowman

*Best Grinch or Grinch Movie Cast Member

*Best Single Theme Group

*Best Single Theme Family

*Best Christmas Bulb

*Best Christmas Elf

*Best Reindeer

*Best Christmas Gift/Wrapped Present

*Best Cool Christmas Costume (For costumes that don't fall under the previous 10 categories) Santa also makes an appearance for pictures and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! It's so much fun!!

You can see pictures of the costumes here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=ms.c.eJxNU9dtQEEI2yiil~%3B0Xix4EX34tXDB3EhTEGSWZRMo~%3BsgB5m0YG~%3BQFh~_U2wy02kD0XsD6iwjxJ0GuEjygZR0RG10yhXyei2uAnnEbU6jeKhFFy0gkmlD0ijoXgj6dr62ZbxUpCjYiisB6gNEH5AbFLCtkWfhmL9Ctptj1IUAyBHtg9FEzk2OnZJWtuG7TZG~%3BxrbibyJiJpgfaLRvYdChZxb8qvQtkLcJRd4fdie0u1d7ktqCSB0gLjlKuXT8EaFPYeKR6kYyrutbjBBsKQVRae6nSo6ZZsKuQDUPJi3i45t6dl6TnTHLt4jWqjQS3aCAPACEKXptDzQx7owlqNpjPEKQ9aWHjAfqAwfiOdpcxWCTaeuDcA2Kf8Cpc64dA~-~-.bps.a.2606015679436898&type=1

And everyone gets a participation medal and a t-shirt!

Proceeds benefit The Marine Corps Toys for Tots, and Hamilton Mill Christian Church of Buford 'Secret Santa Mission. It's a wonderful start to the Christmas season.

Cookies

Cookies are probably my favorite dessert to make for family and friends. There are so many different varieties and they are all their own bites of deliciousness. You can double a recipe and it makes a lot with minimal effort and time. Over the years I've made quite of few, but these are the favorites that we always seem to come back to, basically because you can interchange with different M&M flavors and waalaaa, it's a whole different cookie. Chocolate and Peanut butter are by far my favorite flavors of any dessert, so when I found this recipe I was very excited. They taste as good as they look!

You can find the recipe here - https://lilluna.com/reeses-pieces-chocolate-chip-cookies/

I like to put my dough in the refrigerator. The purpose is to solidify the fat in the dough so the cookies will not spread excessively in the oven and the cookies become soft and tender when baked. It really does work!

I made more cookies but switched out with the regular peanut butter M&M's(I also included chocolate chips). They were very good!! In fact they were in high demand at Ryan's lunch table. One friend told Ryan he'd pay him to make 80 cookies - Ha!

A new recipe we tried this year was for No Bake Pumpkin Spice Cookies. They were so good!! We love regular No Bakes, and these were equally as delicious!! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but they were gone in a flash!

You can find the recipe for those here - https://numstheword.com/no-bake-pumpkin-spice-cookies/

Flash of Fall

It took forever to get here and then it was gone in a flash. It's the best time of year, and I wish it would last longer. If fall was 2-4 months and winter 1-2, I'd be very happy about that arrangement. The most beautiful colors are found in the fall, and when the weather behaves it's a cool 70 and sunny - the very best! However, this fall season we only had 2-4 days with wonderful fall weather in all of it's beauty. I really need more than that, but I did manage to snap a few photos along the way.

Come back Fall....we miss you already!!

Happy Halloween!

It's that time of year again, so Ryan and I did our annual pumpkin carving! We each picked a design to follow. Five minutes into it Ryan was a little sorry that he didn't just do a free handed design - his was a little intense, but it turned out SO GOOD! He won the prize this year for best pumpkin!!

Casey also made delicious pumpkin seeds to enjoy - Always a favorite!

Family Day in the Mountains

The North Georgia Mountains are always so beautiful, but the fall season is the prime time to go for a visit. The weather is cool and there are always festivals, pumpkin patches, and all things fall to enjoy! We met up with Andy, Janelle and the boys at a sunflower patch Janelle had told us about. It is 30 acres of sunflowers that is used primarily for people to visit and take pictures. It was only a $5 entry fee/per person. We (at-least janelle and I think) definitely got our $$ worth!

After we finished with pictures at the sunflower farm, we headed over to Burt's Pumpkin Farm - So much fun! They had a TON of pumpkins - all shapes and sizes. The really big ones were selling for $60 - so crazy! I wanted to buy one just for the seeds(to cook and eat). They also had snacks and treats to enjoy. Our favorite was a fried pumpkin-cheesecake pie - Yummo! There was no entrance fee, so you just paid for things you wanted to do or purchase. We walked around and enjoyed some treats and took some pictures.

There was also a local Marble festival, so we stopped by and walked around the different booths. Josh did a few fun activities they had set up for the kids. There was a big pile of marble pieces that anyone could browse through and take home. Josh thought it was fun to dig dig through and said his piece looked like a piece of pizza. After we finished walking through the festival we made one last stop on our way home. It's one of our favorite places to visit - Jaemor Farms. They have a huge fresh produce area, as well as homemade treats for sale. It was busier than we'd ever seen it, so we didn't stay too long, but we did buy our favorite kettle corn and boiled peanuts for the ride home!

It was a perfect day in the mountains♥♥