For this shower, we planned a cowboy theme.  Because nothing says cute, cuddly, and baby like this…

Why, hello there Mr. Cowboy!  Unfortunately, he was not in attendance, as I am quite sure he was performing at an entirely different kind of party.  The kind of party that only exists in Lulu’s incredibly shrinking brain.  But I digress.  Our party involved this type of cute and cuddly cowboy…

Which I incorporated into the shower invitations…

I also painstakingly rubber-banded 96 tiny, newborn-size diapers in order to create this cowboy-themed diaper cake.  I’m pretty sure that I’ve lost all feeling in my right index finger and came dangerously close to snapping out an eyeball.  Don’t try this at home, people.

I made Cowboy Cookies for take-aways, which were AMAZINGLY delicious if I say so myself!  The Girl Scout cookies that are camped out in my spare bedroom ain’t got nothin’ on these babies.  Or is that the other way around?  Regardless, the recipe is apparently Laura Bush’s recipe, as posted by Helen over at Cowgirl Cuisine.  For an extra touch, I stuck them on 7″ cookie sticks (while they were still hot), decorated them with chocolate icing, wrapped them in cellophane, tied them up with matching ribbons, and yee-haw!  Cowboy cookies in a basket.

I’m thinking that I could use this idea in the future for a cookie bouquet, no?  Cute, snappy, fun.  Much like Lulu in her twenties.

And we displayed it all on a table covered with a white table cloth topped with a vase of white daisies and cowboy confetti…

Because Lulu is such a control freak and abnormally OCD about party details, I convinced Tiff (my hairdresser, dear friend, cousin’s wife, and cohort in this shower) to color-coordinate the food.  Which she did.

There was actually more food, but I’m quite sure I was spazzed out about a napkin being misaligned and forgot to take a picture.

The cake was made by a young friend of Tiff’s who is just learning pastry techniques and methods.  It was magically delicious, and I think that she did a wonderful job!

It turned out to be a beautiful shower with a fun theme.  And much to my chagrin, not a cookie was spared.  Like Lulu needs another freaking cookie…

I’ve taken a year, a full freaking year, off from blogging only to come back and find that my web hosting had expired and that my blog was completely obliterated from the internets. Gone. Sayonara.  Over two years of my life wasted.  And then, I cried.  I cried buckets. 

And then, I found a blog database backup file buried deep within a folder on my hard drive labeled “Recipes.”  So, I cried more. 

And then, I called on Leanne at Intricate Art (the original designer of my blog) who said that she could get me up and running again if I sent her my first born child.  So, I did.  And I cried more.

And lo and behold, I am here again.  Back on the internets, minus a whole bunch of pictures that I have to re-upload and reinsert into the correct posts, which will take me the equivalent of eighteen million years and more buckets of tears.  But Lulu is determined.

I have missed you.

Anyhow, I should have posted this for my Thursday Thirteen last week, but I didn’t really think about it until I read Blondie’s post about her ornaments.  Blondie is a flight attendant, so she’s got some pretty cool destination bobbles hanging from her tree.  And I’ve got a similar type of theme going for mine…I try to bring back an ornament from the places where I travel.

So, in no particular order, Lulu presents her tree…

King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (with her head intact), and their daughter, Elizabeth I.  I brought these back from my first trip to London in 2005…

 Aruba is a Dutch country, hence the Dutch-blue color…

Unfortunately, my globe from Paris broke enroute on the plane home, but I tried to salvage as much as I could…

A pineapple from Maui…mmm…

A paper Hawaiian girl from Kauai…

A souvenir from The Sound of Music Tour in Austria…

A decorated palm tree from Charleston, South Carolina…

A wooden ornament from the beautiful Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona…

A Navajo-inspired ornament from Albuquerque, New Mexico (this one belonged to GR’s sister who passed away in 2001)…

A beer hall waiter from Germany…Prost!

A wooden ornament with a scene from Lake Konigssee, Germany…

A painted sand dollar from Clearwater Beach, Florida.  I bought this in 1994—the year my mother moved to the area.

And finally, I tried to hang Gus from the tree, but this is as close as I got.  The hook was a little too thin to hold him up…

And speaking of the holidays, I have to admit that this year my heart has grown three sizes, and I’m actually enjoying the holiday season!  However, I find it nearly impossible to get through Christmas without being just a tiny bit Grinchy, so I must convey my yearly gift-exchange rant.  Lulu likes to put a damper on all the fun.  I promise to do it quickly and move on.  Scroll down if you can’t bear to read it.

<Begin rant> 

GR and I made the decision this year that the gift-exchanging between our families at Christmas had to stop.  To me, I see exchanging gifts as merely an exchange of money.  I spend $50 on you, you spend $50 on me.  I have a very difficult time in seeing the point of it all.  I am by no means a stingy person, but it makes me wonder if going into debt to buy gifts for people really has anything to do with what Christmas is all about.  I think not.

However, Lulu has rules.  And exceptions.  For instance, I do make exceptions for token gifts, such as chocolates or small lotions, soaps, hand-towels, and other whatnots.  Handmade items and homemade goodies are also especially nice and treasured.  I also make exceptions for buying gifts for my son and 10-year old niece.  I also have a rule to not exchange presents with GR; except for that rule was obviously thrown out the window by GR, because I see several gifts under the tree with my name on them.  I guess I won’t complain. 

<End rant>

Anyhow, because I do not have to suffer through the stress of spending my life-savings this year on Christmas gifts, Lulu is feeling so much more Christmas-sy!  In fact, I actually put up and decorated my tree this year, and I made Christmas cookies…all while listening to Christmas music!  Someone fan me, quick!  I might have to lie down.

Earlier this week, my friend, T-Nut, and her little Bella-girl came over, and we had a grand time sprinkling my kitchen floor with red- and green-colored sugar.

We made a mountain of sugar cookies:

We made thumbprint cookies filled with the one, single jar of German currant jelly that actually made it through customs:

And we made delicious pretzel/Rolo/pecan thingies:

Next week, I’m embarking on baking these gingerbread loaves topped with a lemon-flavored icing, pecans, and crystallized ginger to give away as gifts to my special peeps (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens):

Mmm…gingerbread.  Reminds me of Germany.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas!  I’ll be back next Friday with Pink Pig tales (or tails, as it may be) and other delightful holiday stories!  Happy Holidays!  Try not to miss me too much.  As if…

And unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures while on my trip because I was bathing in a bottle of Corona Light most of the time, but I do have grandmother stories to tell.  And once I work through them all in my mind and try to make sense of them, then I will post them for all to read.  But for now, I cannot think about it.  I must think cocktails.  One of my many favorite subjects.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, I attended a lovely Cocktails and Smores party at the home of friends, Lala and Jaçon (that’s a ç as in garçon, by the way…yeah, he’s gonna love that).

They have a beautifully remodeled 1920’s bungalow in Atlanta that makes me just a freaking boatload tinge envious.  I felt a little funny asking Lala if I could photograph her entire house, so unfortunately, I have no pictures to show you.  But take my word for it people…gorgeous!  What I didn’t feel funny about was taking pictures of all of us party-goers hopped up on smores and Cosmopolitans.  Some of us more so than others:

In the backyard of the house, there is a deck built around a brick fire pit where we toasted our marshmallows and gobbled our smores.  It was a bit chilly that night, so the fire felt awesome.

All in all, it was a lovely evening (what I can remember of it), and at the stroke of midnight…Lulu turned 38.  Officially old, y’all.

Thanks to random.org’s integer generator, the lucky integer generated is:

This random integer belongs to my 5th commenter, Kelly at Cheaper Than a Happy Meal!  Congratulations!  And I hope that winning this cheers her up just a teensy bit.  Sadly enough, I just read Kelly’s most recent post, and her dog, Emily, is very ill.  If you get chance, click over and send some good wishes her way.

I’ll be back later this week with an update on the weekend with my mother!

As you can tell, I’m not the least bit excited.  I’m so not excited that this weekend, I visited the tiny town of Helen, Georgia (very north of Atlanta), which is a re-creation of a Bavarian-style German village.  The town was kicking off their Oktoberfest activities, so I, along with my friend, T-Nut (who is traveling to Germany with me), her two beautiful daughters (M&M and L&L), and her mother, packed up their minivan and headed north to the fairytale land of schmaltz, funnel cakes, and more fudge than you can shake an alpine walking stick at.

Because Saturday was the official first day of Helen’s Oktoberfest festivities, there was a parade.  Now, as some of you may know, I am not a big fan of parades.  In fact, I loathe them.  However, because I was traveling with children, I decided that I should relent, suffer through the entire thing, and do my best to not poke out my eyeballs with flaming batons.  Here are some examples of my torture:

Actually, it all turned out pretty well because the parade lasted only for about 30 minutes, which, in my opinion, is the perfect amount of time for a parade.  In fact, I think that all parades should be limited to only 30 minutes.  It should be a law.  And I think it’s a cause that Sarah Palin can really get behind…parade limitation.  But I digress.  Thirty minutes or not, how could I resist faces like these:

L&L

M&M

In addition to the perfectly timed parade, there was also dancing:

And tempting treats:

And wading in a cool mountain stream:

It was a beautiful day, and a wonderful prelude to our trip!  We can’t wait to go!

When I think back over our 15 years of mind-numbing togetherness, my first thought is that we are getting very, very old.  And wrinkly.  We are not the same young, skinny couple that we once were…

Nor are we the same couple raising a small child…

Nor do I ever sit in GR’s lap as I used to (I would totally squash
him now)…

Nor are we the same couple who take corny self-portraits…

BUT, we are the same couple who still dance together…

 And the same couple who laugh together…

 And the same couple who share a great love for our 19 year old son…

And the same couple who love one another, until death do us part…

A box o’ Cosmo.  Cosmos in a box.  Cardboard cocktails.  Any way you put it, the Sex in the City gals would die of utter shame.

But on Saturday evening, we cared not.  We created our own version of Sex in the City at Big H’s house.  We meaning the lovely Cici, DiDi, Big H, LaLa, and Lulu (from L to R):

No, we didn’t exactly dress the part, nor did our evening take place in a big city, and as for the sex part…well, not so much.  That is, unless you count gawking over the sexy Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy bathing in a tub (don’t forget to scrub the sideburns, oh sexy one!)…

…or Mr. Darcy staring brusquely at Elizabeth Bennett…

…or Mr. Darcy staring dubiously at Bridget Jones…

…or Mr. Darcy staring…oh, wait a minute…

Anyhow, in addition to our Colin Firth Fest, we also painted our nails…

Drank Corona from a wine glass (oh, yes I did)…

And read celebrity gossip magazines…

And as the evening progressed toward the midnight hour (eh-hum, 9:30pm), we were all sacked out from Colin Firth, Cosmos, guacamole dip, and petit-fours overload.  If that’s even a remote possibility.  Fun times, ladies, fun times!  Thanks, Big H, for having us over! 

I can’t wait to do it again!  Only next time?  I’m thinking that Will Ferrell and a box of Boone’s Farm is in order…

<IMAGE SADLY DELETED>

That’s Lulu listed under the Travel section!  Of course, I like the post title listed there (Weinerschnitzel ahead!) much better than my own unoriginal post title, Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs, but Lulu is just not that creative.  In the least.

Anyhoo, I’ll fill you in on my Sea Island trip later this week!  Ciao for now!