MORE WITH THE MEEKS

Meeks/Parker/Haden Christmas Dinner

This past Sunday evening Nic and I had our families over for a Christmas dinner. We started doing this after we got married, as a way to let his family and my family see each other and catch up (since they live in separate towns and only see each other occasionally) Everyone looks forward to it- especially the grandparents. My grandparents asked me twice in the past 2 weeks if the Parkers (Nic's grandparents) would be there... They just love getting to see them and share old people stories=) and by no means do I mean that ugly...my grandad (like I've previously blogged) is the most interesting/funny person I know. He ALWAYS has stories to tell and 99% of the time, they have hilarious endings-so...who wouldn't want to hang out with him?! He is AWESOME!

Of course they all look forward to Nic's cooking and my company too =)

Wonderful Chef Nic prepared for 16 of us. Poor me...had to wash all those dishes!

Appetizers:

Celery stuffed with homemade pimiento & cheese (no carbs=my moms favorite thing!)
Deviled eggs (Nic's mom gave me a serving piece of my Spode Christmas China that holds eggs so of course I had to use it for the dinner party!)

Meat:

Spicy Fruit Stuffed Pork Tenderloin w/ Pears & Onions
Bone-in baked ham

Sides:

Bacon wrapped green bean bundles
sausage and roasted garlic stuffing
sweet potato casserole w/ praline topping
wild rice and mushroom casserole
homemade cranberry sauce

Dessert:

Hummingbird Cake

Remi is ready for our company!

Me taking pictures while Nic does the "work"

The famous Hummingbird Cake! (Nic's family recipe)

My new egg tray from my mother in law!

My parents flew in from Austin 30 mins before our party and still came=)

I promised my mom wine-that helped!

These two always end up sitting in this exact spot, talking FOREVER!

Heidi and Rob w/ their nephew Aideyn

Precious Tyler

“Dining should be a feast for the eye as well as the stomach.”

The Hadens

I cherish every minute with them...only grandparents I have left now =(

Tyler and Mr. Parker making smores

Loved having our families over and now just ready for to Christmas!!!!!!!!

Not my baby

My mom and I have both been asked recently on SEVERAL different occasions about how I was doing and how I enjoyed parenthood. WTH? I don't have a human baby...just a furry one, Remi! One of my moms bunco friends wrote on my moms facebook page (yes, she has one and has NO clue how to use it sometimes) "You're going to be a grandma!!!" Hello....that's how stuff gets started!

Anyways.... at first I thought it was funny but after like the 3rd person I started to wonder WHERE this was coming from. One lady told me at a wedding she had seen pictures on my facebook page. Ohhhhh....now I get it!

If you have seen any of these precious faces on my facebook, let me clear it up... THEY ARE DEAR TO ME BUT THEY ARE NOT MINE! =)

Olivia Wade

Prissy Presley Carr

Bailess Stewart

Jackson Ratliff

Seth Cannon

Beckum Starnes

Caleb Jones

Mason Downey

Ellie Yerger

Kate Vollor

John Grady Klein

These are all pictures of my friends babies that I have on my phone. Guess I should start adding captions when I do a mobile upload!

Loveee each of you and wish I could see all of you more=(

Birthday Girl Brooke

Last week was my wonderful friend/neighbor Brooke Cheslek's birthday. A group of our girl friends bought tickets to take a petit four class so we decided to take the class during her bday week so we could celebrate=)

We had dinner on the square in Canton, did a little shopping and spent 4 hours talking/baking/learning with Ms Lou! We learned how to make petit fours and heard lots of wonderful "life stories" from Lou.

Lou was absolutely wonderful. She is 83 years old and makes over 250 petit fours/day during her "peak season" (like Christmas). She was up until 3 am the night before we came but was FULL of energy when we arrived. Can't wait to make my first batch!