JUST TO CATCH YOU ALL UP!

Relax dear readers, you have not missed all that much.

• Fell in love with my parents satellite dish, I think it was direct tv. Too bad they do not like snow
• Christmas Eve:
  

That Christmas Eve Tradition of the Kyle and Chip Picture ( I should not have been on my stupid foot)
St. Barts was lovely
It was all white and green
Chip , Rick and the Priest that gave the homily
The one year old tradition of Kyle and Neil hitting the Waffle House on Christmas Eve.
Large bowl of grits.

• Christmas Day

The Lovell -Spencers on Christmas Morning ( guitar hero)

Pete's Meat, 2009
The table was all green and white, It is not finished here, I did not get a really good shot

Four Generations

• Recuperation
  

My little life savers!. Beth and Jeff made it all the way to Big Winder to help cheer up their pal Kyle in his moment of need. Good for the soul and the sole. I do hope that they both know how very much their efforts meant to me!
I have looked better, true, but you know, I packed for a day and stayed for a week and had a life threatening illness. Many many thanks to Jeff and B.Day and Mr. Bushmill for coming out.
THEN! One of my oldest and best pals in the world came over to watch part of the UGA game with us. My parents and I were all three so darn happy at the chance to catch up. Thanks , Mitch.
Dinner the next night, Freta had gone from Christmas to New Years on the table. Roast chicken, sweet potatoes, Yellow Squash, butter peas with rice and stewed apples. Could have been in Mendon, but even better when your mother makes it for you.
and it would make Al Gore happy to know that the stewed apples had spent the last few weeks as the apple tree!

Alive and almost kicking.

I'm back kiddies!

Many, many thanks to the countless thousands of k+b readers who put good thoughts out into the universe , it worked!

SO! What the heck happened Kyle?
Let's make a long story longer, and hop into the way back machine.

The First Ankle Break

Picture it, Sicaly, 1912.....errrr.. no, Winder , Ga. 1977 ish.. for once not lying about my age, I really don't remember. But, it was the mid to late 70's and I was the proud owner of a pair of hot fashion shoes: Famolare " Wave Soled"

This is not the exact pair, but the same heel height. Did not take long to fall right off of them. Freta made me go to square dancing lessons that night.... before a car load of kids went to the Emergency room. The trend had begun.

Ankle Break #2

UGA 1981. The McDonalds right next to the Delt House. Kyle, Jodi, Jackie Cowart and sweet Joe Neeley, Sober as a judge, I fell right off the curb, hence the trend. Jodi made me go out drinking... ended up at the UGA infirmary. YOU try getting on a Russell bus on crutches!

Ankle Break #3

Jodi's birthday party..1990, one too many Rock Lobsters and right over I went, again. Yet another night in the Emergency Room, at least this time it was the hospital I was born in, Piedmont. The fun aspect of this cast was that Steve and I were looking for a new apartment, stairs and alley ways all over Midtown on crutches. Big fun.

SO, and I never really gave this any thought, but over the years I did a lot of damage to my leg, and UNKNOWN to me, I have developed arthritis in my ankle. What would have been just a slight sprain, inflamed the arthritis, and I developed , or started to developed Cellulitis. Never heard of this either, but had it. I should not have done all the things I did on Christmas Eve, but we had promised Logan and Reid that we would take them to see Avatar , and we had to go to St. Bart's for midnight service. And the new , well, one year old tradition of Christmas Eve Waffle House

Christmas Day, I just took it easy, and off the the little Med-First thing in Winder.

Off my feet leg in the air and on some pretty strong antibiotics for FIVE DAYS. Thanks to some hard core TLC from my parents and Neil I am all better now.

LOTS of blogging to come.. just because I was not on here, does not mean that you guys get to NOT know what we were having for dinner or what Koda has been up too!

Kyle Tuesday Update

Kyle is still in Winder. had guests yesterday for which he was grateful. Now it's a down day and we will see how things are tomorrow.

Neil is Dunwoody with Koda. The plan is to get Kyle tomorrow and bring him to Dunwoody if all progresses well.

Kyle is out of Commission

Dear Faithful Kyle+Blog readers,

Kyle has twisted an ankle... sounds innocent enough, huh?

Well.... for a number of reasons it brought him dangerously near a major infection, so he is laid up and we are at at his parents.

I will update his condition on my blog at http://nhoughton.blogspot.com.

Neil

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Off to the land of no internet.......Lots to catch you all up on, and will do so asap.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So, this is Christmas....

BLOGLESS!

I think this has been the longest period of time, since I started the k+b , that I have gone with out an update. Very Sorry.. just been over the top busy, going, going, going and fun, fun, fun. Just recharges my batteries seeing my old friends.

Last night was a very impromptu too dinner party here at Susan and Paul's. MOST FUN, I made some Winder Church Casseroles and some vegan veggies and rice for Brenda. We had a very good time.

BUT! while taking Koda out late last night, I tripped over the springs that hold the pool cover on and twisted my ankle! I'm a hobbler today.


We had family dinner #1 in Winder on Tuesday. My brother and family will be spending Christmas in South Georgia with their new grand baby!

Neil has a shadow when he is on the computer...
Susan was getting into the spirit with her holiday hostess apron!

Home for the Holidays.....

Mendon, Sunday Morning, Nine-ish. We got a little bit of snow a few days ago, and it got COLD but we did not get a flake from the giant East Coast Snow.

Koda is ready
Downtown Columbus ,Ohio, NO TROUBLE at all getting by Lake Erie this year, clear as a bell, zipped right along. Best trip ever, weather wise.
Downtown Cincinnati
Gold Star Chili... " It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"
FOUR CONEYS!
Close to midnight, a Super 8 motel in London, Kentucky. White Castles and the health care vote on C-Span... we live on the edge.
This was the most snow we have ever seen on our yearly trip. Snow on the ground from Mendon to just outside of Chattanooga.
Neil gets to blow stuff up.
Koda and a dragon sort of dinosaur thing.
ATLANTA! My home town! Down 75 from Tennessee , turn left on 285 headed towards hip hop happening D'Woody. JUST to make me feel welcome ,285 West was a parking lot... for miles and miles ! Such a sweet touch, making me feel right at home..( we were going East..)
55 degrees, bright and sunny.. yes, I brought all upstate NY cloths again...
WE ARE HERE!

But baby, its cold outside.....

"Come, my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!"

Yes, I stole it from the Levi Commercial.. and dear G_d yes, " tan faced children" was well.. never, but I liked it, and it is better than " Over the river and through the woods" And I did know the poem before , and Walt played on my team....

Christmas Time, yall..

Means we are out of here...Mendon to Dunwoody, in one day or two, then off to Winder. Posts will be sketchy for a while, but ooodles to come from the joy of the Yule Tide. Wish us luck.

Christmas = Gold Star Coneys, Thank you Cincinnati !!

Come on January......

But what about Reno ?

Fear not Mad-Heads. The iciest blond since Miss Hedren got away from those crows will be back in our lives come summer. Sure, she is blowing off Christmas 1963 and flying into the sunset with a suave Rockefeller lackey, but that is why we love her!

E! online of all places tracked down MAD MEN " mastermind" Matt Weiner and got the low down. We will have our Betty AND our Joan to wile away those sultry Summer Sunday nights!

READ HERE.

Everyone cross their fingers...

MENDON

ATLANTA

What is between me and Christmas... anyone got a shiny red nose?

Completely Gratuitous

Do they know its Christmas time at all...

Dahn and David's Annual Christmas Party with a Cause. Folks bring a big appetite and a a shekel of two for charity, this year was Africa. I should have paid more attention, but Africa was talked about...

I am not even sure how many folks were there , a bunch. Thirty-ish?

A few little pre dinner noshes.. Dahn made Cheese Straws this afternoon.. I am still, to this day, surprised by Yankee reaction to the most simple of things. Not my table scape, but festive.
Front of Dahn, back of John
Advent of Dinner....

Menu

• Pomegranate and rosemary glazed pork loin. OK, if I do have to say so myself: "This was good! " Own horn tooted. Whole pork loin thing.. it was a big one, too. Salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. Roast in foil covered pan for 45 ish min. Remove foil and start glazing with a Pomegranate Molasses/Honey/Lemon Zest/Lemon Juice sort of "bbq sauce". Glaze every 6-7 min for another 45 ish. I really wish I would have taken a pic of the entire hunk o meat, it looked great, all sticky and tart-sweet. A real deep rich pomegranate red. Everyone just loved it
• Some zesty savory sweet potatoes, with red skinned potatoes, peppers, onions and lots of hole cloves of garlic. Yummy!

• Collard Greens that were just out of this world!
• Black eyed peas that were a tad bland. I used a ham hock, instead of bacon that I use as a rule when not doing vegan ones. Full of veggies, onions, peppers,chili,garlic , carrot.. They had a good flavor, and lots were eaten, they just did not seem right to me. I am sure they will taste better tomorrow.
• Some healthy vegetables. Purple and white cauliflower, broccoli and carrots, just flash boiled and cooled then tossed in some olive oil and garlic. I thought this was a throw away dish, something for the healthy set , if any came. They were close to the first thing to go... go figure
• Plain white rice for the black eyed peas

• Dahn's tdf homemade mac and cheese, I watched her make this. It's more like cheese and mac. Two of these big pan, almost every bit eaten!
• Home made cornbread.

• Banana pudding and a big trifle that I made last night. Both were good, I should have put a little rum or Grand Mariner in the trifle. And do yall know about this looming blueberry crisis, Storms or something in Chili. You can get organic ones, but yall know Kyle the Cheap won't do that, so its black berries, golden raspberries, star fruit, strawberries and dried cranberries, this whole thing was gone. Most of the Banana pudding as well

Me or not me?
CHOMP!

and too all a good night....