Biggin Road Church Ruins

 For the past three years we have passed this ruin and never stopped. This year, we stopped. It was worth it

Information on what we are going to see! I am so happy they have these signs !

  the continuation of the sign

 What is left of the church

Almost two walls are left standing

our boy

 A civil war solider's gravestone.  We had never seen a palmetto on a gravestone

The old entrance gates

It was good to see, and worth the stop.  I am glad we did

Mepkin Abbey Creche Festival 2016

This is our third year going to the Creche Festival. Every year they have different nativity sets out for us to see.  Some they have every year, like the ones of the monks, and some stay a year or so and move into storage.

The Abbey rounds are so beautiful

This year I got a peak at Abbey, the Mepkin Abbey's dog. We were asked very politely not to give her any cookies this year.

The landscaping is gorgeous. The colors this time of year!

 This is a gorgeous creche

This one reminds me of the creche we see at our church

 I love the expression on this camel!

The volunteer said that this was a 400 pound natural wreath. The volunteer said he does not stand underneath it.

Love this Joseph.  Carved from a peice of juniper wood.

He is from Peru.

A wise man from Africa

These wise men are wonderful.

This one was charming, from Portugal

From France

The volunteer told Lon there were 5 cats in this creche. He found them all.

So pretty

My favorite wise men! They made another apperance this year!

Our favorite permenant creche. Made out of recycled metals.

This sheep, we love this sheep

Can you spot the eagle?

A closer look at this mosiac. There is a tiny out of place owl.  How fun is that?

more of the grounds.  It is peacefully beautiful

This is a wonderful way to start the Christmas season. I am so glad we do this the day after Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving 2016

We had a wonderful day!   LOTS of good food and some great company.

Mark and Lon having a pre dinner scrabble match!
 They were having fun

Our bird, 21 pounds of glorious turkey!

We do not have enough table space for all the food, so we put all the food onto the folding table, then we loaded up our plated and went to the dining room. The kids ate at their own table.

 Lon is serious about his turkey!
 and rolls.

The Sanfords joined us for dessert.

The dessert table.  There is still cheesecake, and  pumpkin pie. Not so much pecan pie left,   The cannoli are gone.  The rice krispie carmel treats are also gone. We have four mincemeat bites left.

There is a lot of turkey left too, and some of the sides.

Happy Thanksgiving  We hope that everyone had a wonderful day filled with good food and good friends and family!

Peanuts

Lon got a peanut plant starter kit this past summer at the Tuskeegee Insititute.   He grew his tiny peanuts in the red yarn they provided in the kit until the plant was 4 inches tall. There were three plants to begin with but only one plant survived till it was 4 inches tall. Lon planted it in the backyard, near the raspberry bush.  We planted it late in the year, but we hoped for the best.  Yesterday, the plants leaves were starting to turn yellow. This is what he read, when the leaves start to yellow, time to harvest.

He was so thrlled ! There were peanuts!  Real peanuts!

Seperating the peanuts from the dirt

There was a little itty bitty peanut.

Lon has saved 6 peanuts to start in the early spring to see if he can keep growing peanuts.   He wants to get enough to roast and maybe make something yummy.

Camping at Oscars

Ocars is a farm on John's Island that the boys went camping at last weeked.

around the campfire

The boys made a smoker, but they left the venison in too long and it turned it to dog treats.

Enjoying his dinner

looking over Lon's fishing gear

making breakfast

a little music

The boys had a great time camping.

Drone

Today Lon went to the party to get the prizes for his fundraiser. Thank you to all who helped him acheive his goals.  They put all the kids who sold more than 26 items in a hat and pulled them out to pick out a prize on the table.  Lon luckily was second to be picked.  The first person picked a set of speakers,  Lon wanted the quad copter drone, and he got it! He was SO excited about it .  He got his math done and checked than it was time to try out the drone!

Letting the quad copter warm up as he reads the directions.  Well, scan them a little anyway

Lift off! The thing actually works!

Going up!

Lon is having a ton of fun with this !

Getting a little trouble shooting help from Dad before dinner.

Tomorrow afternoon,  he will play with it again. He is so happy he was able to pick out the prize he really really wanted!

Thank you again to all those who supported him