Christmas Time - Lots of Pictures!

Christmas 2012

-We were surrounded by fluffy white Utah snow

-It was coooolllllddd

-Our very first Christmas away from our families

-We were excitedly expecting the birth of our first 'niece' in January

Christmas 2013

-We are not surrounded by snow

-It isn't very cold

-We have our first LIVE Christmas - which I love!

-We have a nephew!

-We are excitedly expecting the arrival of our second nephew - which I believe will actually be a nephew :).

It is hard to believe it is Christmas time - Time has flown so fast - 

We always play catch up with these posts now a days.  So here is another catch up for us Cook's.

Seth and I were able to plan a weekend with his buddies.  We visited Tanner and Catherine in their cute little Greenville home, and went to our first Clemson game in over 3 years!  We got to hang with his buddies - see one of my best buddies Laurie - and sit with the lovely lady that introduced Seth and I.  We had such a fun time and the weather couldn't have been any better.

The Greenwood Fellas

The Ladies of the Evening.

Steph, Catherine, and I.

Love some Catherine - PS love Jay in the background :).

Laurie looking sharp.

What awesome seats we were given!  The mountain scenery was so pretty.  We loved watching the Tigers play and definitely enjoyed watching our boys run down the hill.

The future Mr. and Mrs. :) - Enjoyed seeing these two and sitting with them.

My favorite Clemson alumni.

Hanging out after the game 

Us with a PE Joseph Dyches :) and a lovely Laurie Dyches!

Tanna, Jay, and Seth

The fellas with their ladies.

Jules and I.

The weekend after the game was Thanksgiving - which we spent with Seth's family.

What a feast we had - Mrs. Cynthia went ALL out.  There was SOO much food and it was all so good.

Thanksgiving with My Cook Family.

Cook Clan.

A silly Picture - 

It appears this is the only silly action that I have - I did this same pose in our last silly picture :) 

The guys don't know what to do when it is picture time - acting as if they don't like each other.

Us girls on the other hand know what to do - Cook ladies - plus our nephew :).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving - where we mainly tried to guess Baby Cutsinger's name.  I surely found out some awful names that Seth thought were awesome for baby names - either we will be waiting a good while until he can come up with some better names, or I'm naming our children!

We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving with my family.  We got to get my fav little guy and took him to see the lights at Hollywild.

Pops and I with a sleeping Mackay - Pops is an awesome smiler!

During the lovely light show little man fell asleep - but by george we paid to see all the animals so we got Mackay out and mosied around looking at the animals.  

Such a sweet baby - I just adore him.

And then he woke up!  Such a sweet little smile.  And Pops is smiling too.

We wanted to get a picture of Mackay with Santa Claus, but his parentals were not with us and we didn't want to take his first Santa photo from them - so we improvised and took a picture of Mackay with a picture of Santa :).

Auntie Love - He looks totally into Auntie love doesn't he?

Auntie E and Uncle Seth.

The next week Mackay had tubes put into his ears, so we had to stop by and check on him.  We walked into Eason and Brittany's house and that little boy got so excited to see his Auntie and Uncle - he grinned so big and crawled to us.  I got down on my knees to try and pick him up and the sweet boy just rested his head on my legs.  I LOOOVVEDD IT!

They are cute.

After seeing Mackay we headed on to Greenwood to celebrate Jay and Stephanie.

Catherine and Julia - Eating Oysters!

Boy do I love oysters - I'd forgotten how much!

Growing up my dad would get oysters for him and I - nobody but us ate them in our household.  Dad would always fix them up for me and we would eat them together - Fun to remember!

Fun with the Photo Booth.

All the fellas at the photo booth.

Jay and Stephanie.

Will and Michelle.

Mr. Ronnie and Mrs. Debbie.

Mr. Tom, Mrs. Tena, and Tango.

Catherine and Jay.

We loved the photo booth all night!

He really did enjoy himself :).

Vest Photo.

All the ladies.

Man I'm overloading you guys with some pictures!

We finally have cleaned up our place - decorated for Christmas - a few gifts wrapped and under the tree - cinnamon rolls a baking - fudge a hardening - and life is busy but complete.

This past Friday we went to a Christmas Sweater Party -

Hanging around while Jay DJ's and played Catch Phrase

The guys.

The gals.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

The Cook's :)

Bountiful Brunch.

Seth works for Pee Dee Land Trust, as many of you may already be aware of.  PDLT's mission in layman's terms is to conserve land in the Pee Dee region for future generations to enjoy.  Mainly this organization houses folks that can afford to put their land in easements, and many of the events that PDLT hosts are unique and sophisticated.  Even though Seth and I try to live and act this way - we are FAR from being sophisticated!

I'm lucky if I can hang with the conversation going on.  We are both lucky if we set the table properly.  Seth's lucky if he can walk out of the house matching on the first try.  At times we may use sugar spoons for our breakfast cereal and dessert forks with dinner.  More often than not we drink out of our nalgene bottles instead of dinner glasses.  I hate the proper table setting layout.  I really think the fork should be placed on the right side of the plate since majority of folks are right handed.  I think the spoon should be immediately to the left of the plate and THEN the knife.
Sometimes when we have dinner guests I use a diverse set of napkins and plates just because.

We do recycle.
We do use cloth napkins.
I make the bed EVERYday.
Other than four place settings - we have not had our china.  I can't wait for the day when we have a home and I can finally open and use ALLL of my china pieces.
 Just a few random facts for you.

A few weekends ago PDLT hosted a sophisticated, plantation casual, fancy smancy Bountiful Brunch with all local food.  There were table runners, chargers, place settings, and all the to do.  It was set up in a field surrounded by trees and had an absolutely gorgeous view.  The day was perfect.  Seth and I helped set everything up that morning and were not expecting to eat.  After setting up we changed into our 'plantation casual' attire and greeted and mingled with the guests.  After all had left the secret garden, which served champagne and cheese, and had been seated there were a few missing guests.  PDLT's executive director was able to sit at a table, Seth and I were able to sit together at a table, and another PDLT employee sat.  Oh, happy day it was for Seth and I.

Seth so wanted to take this selfy of us. He is a sefly fanatic :).  Us right before the guests began to arrive.

The home and land of the Brunch's destination was so lovely.  Loved these cotton wreath's on the front door.

A local honey comb for decoration.

After the guest had been shuffled from the secret garden to the brunch area - Seth, Ashley, and I headed to the garden to see what we could do to help tidy up.  We saw this honey comb with honey dripping down and bees loving it.  It was pretty neat.

Shortly after we were told the good news!

One of the first pairings - the 'sitting' wine.

Each course had its own wine pairing.  Each food/wine pairing was executed very well - it is amazing how pairings can bring out such a different taste with the wine and the food.

Our table w/ my favorite PDLT employee :).

A liver mousse pate 

I was a bit weirded out by this mousse pate - but hey I had to try it.  It was actually very good and paired with it's specific wine was pretty yummy.

Local raised chicken, grits cake, and potatoes.

PDLT's Executive Director and friends table.

The flower committee for PDLT did an amazing job at decorating for the Brunch.  Beautiful flowers in the center of the Brunch.

Of course - pictures never do justice - but it was a beautiful view on a perfect day.

Honey-Thyme Custard. My word.

I'll say it again...My word...

This was beyond delightful.  Custards are probably my favorite type of dessert.  I don't make/eat custards very often since Seth is a pie/cobbler/cookie man, so on the rare occasion I do eat custard - I'm in heaven.

The custard was good - the wine correlated with the custard by itself was good.  But when you paired the wine and the custard simultaneously it was out of this world amazing.  

All I can say is - I asked for seconds.

I ate seconds.

I even wanted to whisper to Seth to stop eating his custard so I could have it, but I thought that would be a little much since he was still eating his first and only custard by the time I had completed my second.

I've looked up recipes.

This is one of the lovely PDLT employees and the mastermind of the Amazing Brunch!

We had a great time being sophisticated - even though we did have to check out which silverware the folks at our table was using for each course!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Go all out - Set the table properly - Use cloth napkins - Be fancy smancy and love every minute of it!

The Cook's :)