Our Back Porch

I'm Back and The Stockings Are Hung By The Chimney With Care
Well, I am back from my Reading Conference in Gatlinburg. It was a great trip! Some of the sessions were great, but there are always those few that really ROCK! Two of the rockin' sessions were
1. Children's author, Lester Laminack: He is so wonderful. Actually, he had two different sessions on Thursday, so we chose to go to both of his.
2. Elizabeth Rose, storytelling: This was our first time seeing her, and she was fantastic!! Sessions were over by 4:00 each day, so we had the evenings free to do whatever. We shopped and ate, and shopped some more! LOL It was great to get to spend time with fellow teachers in a new type of setting. Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg is one of my favorite spots. My husband and I always took our boys there every summer while on vacation. We love Dollywood and Dixie Stampede. Then sometimes just Kenny and I would go back in the winter around our anniversary. There is always something to do there! (Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are only about a 10 min. drive from each other).
Check out these places!
Dixie Stampede
Dollywood
Well, I decided that I better start looking for some new stockings. As I said in an earlier post, with our move at the holidays last year, our stockings are missing. I am so sad about that because the boys' stockings were so unique that I wouldn't be able to find them again to replace them. We still have some boxes in the attic and in our storage barn so I am hopeful that they will turn up some day. However, that didn't help now. So, I replaced our stockings. I found some cute ones at The Christmas Place on my recent trip to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg so I went ahead and purchased them. I thought if I didn't, I would wish I had OR if I did purchase them, I would end up finding our others. So I went ahead and bought them and still hope the others turn up!

Here's another picture of the fireplace since I added my "Merry Christmas" banner. It was needing something, and I think this was the perfect touch. It was another goody I found on my trip. I also found a wonderful Santa for my collecion. It is the tallest one here in the picture. He has a list that says "Ho Ho Ho!" He's tooooo cute!


I also found some really cute glitter music notes at The Christmas Place, so I got those too. How perfect for our family of musicians, myself excluded, ofcourse! LOL I also found this wonderful music ribbon for the tree.





(Click on any picture to enlarge.)

A Christmas Invitation for YOU!
I have a Christmas invitation for you. Just click the link below.
Christmas Invitation