Christmas in May

I work at a very small and cozy herb shop that I just love. It has such a personal feel to it and I feel valuable there. What a great work environment! At Christmas, my boss and I will exchange gifts. That's what friends tend to do, right? And we have a massage therapist at the shop also, and she is a dear friend also. She and I also exchange gifts at Christmas. Well, one year she decided to give me a trip to the Atlanta High Museum of Art. I'd never done anything like that before and I felt so out of my league, but in a good way. It was like being a teenager at the mall with your girlfriends and trying on prom dresses or wedding dresses just to see how you look in them, and pretending like you can afford as many of these dresses as you want. That's how I felt! I saw interesting things and got all sorts of ideas about the things I personally do,... yep, great Christmas gift!

Well that gift worked so well that Patty (the MT) decided let's do this again! This time, she wanted to go to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Again, I was feeling like a little girl in a grown-ups world doing cool things that I'm not cool enough to do. Yes... I like that feeling! One thing after another makes it hard to schedule things sometimes, and when you want to see PLANTS, well ya gotta wait for the right season too, right? We waited about 18 months and then we managed to go.

I saw some of the most gorgeous plants. Some plants I recognized (didn't realize how many smarts stuck in my brain after all these years of marriage to Tommy!) and others were brand new to me. They were arranged in awesome sculptures and positions and,... it was just wowing! I took tons of pictures. One of the pictures I took was of Patty sitting on a bench next to a big statue of a frog reading from a book. I love this picture.....and couldn't resist trying my hand at drawing it cartoon-style. I think it came out pretty neat! What do YOU think?

Thanks for such a fantastic day, Patty! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The First COH

COH = Court of Honor in the boy scout world.

This is Morgan's first. He's not been a boy scout very long, and he has earned his first merit badge : Fire Safety.

With the entire troop, he recited the Scout Law

This was the face that got in the car with me to go home.

And this is the face everybody in traffic saw as we drove home...He pressed his face against the window and held his merit badge up for everybody to see.
I guess he's feeling pretty good about his accomplishment!