Our wonderful friends from Myrtle Beach were traveling in Tennessee recently and we had the pleasure of spending some quality time with them having card marathons! Great friends who we miss terribly and it was so good to see and spend several days with them.

Unfortunately our other card marathon friends are in Texas and we miss them greatly too. We had hoped to visit them during the Christmas holiday but due to knee replacement surgery and other setbacks we had to cancel our upcoming trip to visit them. We are planning and looking forward to connecting with them over this coming summer while they're in Pennsylvania. Then try to connect with both for another big card marathon in August or September.

Some times life just gets in the way of doing the things that bring an abundance of joy. Our friends mean a lot to us and we try to keep in touch with those that are long distance! Friends are the important treasures in our lives that we never want to lose touch with. Every day that we'll be in Pennsylvania will be filled with visiting and spending our time close friends. Can't wait!

We love living in Tennessee, the weather especially is what drew us here. We were tired of winter and snow and wanted to move where the weather was a little warmer but not too hot. Tennessee's landscape is very much like Pennsylvania's so we're not missing anything in that way. However, our other choice was South Carolina along the coast. We had looked at some areas near Myrtle Beach and  Murral's Inlet. So at some point we may reconsider those areas. We'll see!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
Sam

I love the morning, its a clean slate for my imagination to run on. I am definitely a morning girl. I love the peace and silence of it. I climb out of bed everso quitetly so as to not wake my husband and slip out of the bedroom and head to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, Irish breakfast my favoite. Its 5:30 and still fairly dark outside. I grab my favorite cup from the cupboard, a soft blue and smooth to the touch. There's just something special about this cup that makes me feel good inside, like a hug.

As the water brews I prepare my tea and measure out the honey. I pull the cream from the frig. I like my tea with cream, it was the way my grandmother would prepare it for me as a child. She and her father enjoyed their tea, "like the English" she said. She told me her father was from Yorkshire England. I remember smiling and loving my grammy for that time together. She has long since past away but the memories are vivid like it was yesterday.

I gathered my tea and cuddled in the corner of the sofa to enjoy it and the peace of the morning. I close my eyes as I sip the tea and think about things I would like to do and things I would like to paint. I love to paint, and my favorite medium is watercolor. Its soft too and I love how it flows and works into the paper, kind of like me working into my day.