Hi Y’all!    So much has happened since our last post and we have made several attempts at making a journal entry but it just didn't happen.  It's hard to believe that its almost Christmas as I sit here looking out the window almost everything is dormant and grey, it's hard to believe that just a few months ago we were mowing the lawn and planting our fall garden, which was one of those post entries that never happened.  As Christmas quickly approaches we reflect on all of our blessings and all that we have to be thankful for. 

We still have our fall/winter garden, its covered in plastic, we were able to harvest a lot of greens and some radishes and were hoping that they are still thriving as the temperature here is at record lows for Mississippi, 16F last night.  We also purchased a big hoop house to house some of our outdoor potted plants and fruit trees we are trying to grow.  There have been lots of fun events in Laurel like the loblolly festival and Made in Mississippi which we participated in one at the end of summer and the other at the beginning of December.

    Back in the summer, we attended the play “Something Rotten”    at the Laurel Little Theatre. It was a hilarious production in which one of our good friends Dallan had the main part.   For thanksgiving we celebrated with a couple who have become our fast friends, they were actually guests at one point at our Airbnb. They recently purchased a home here in Laurel and are working on renovating it.

One of the highlights of the year was a fun project Jon worked on with our dear friend Claire, she is an opera singer who moved here from Arizona. She is an amazing talent. We put together an evening of “Art Song” with art and opera from the romantic period, It was a great turnout and a special evening.

Last week we went to a  fun Christmas bash at our friend Stephanie's house, the theme was ugly sweaters and pajamas.  There was breakfast food made by one of our local delicious eateries “Grits and Some”, pancakes breakfast casserole, and bacon. There were gifts, music, karaoke, and plenty to drink.  It was a fun way to ring in the holiday season with friends.  Both of us also celebrated birthdays, neither one of us like drawing much attention to our birthdays so we kept it low-key and made food at home.

   We also made a trip to New Orleans, Ramon had never been, we had a great time, and we stayed in the French Quarter in very nice accommodations.  The food was the highlight, I still can't stop thinking about the Coconut cream-stuffed French toast with candied macadamia nuts.   The trip was also a bit of business as we went to visit the new gallery I am now being represented by, Arthur Roger Gallery. I feel very grateful and excited to show with them as they are an amazing gallery and they are all so great to work with. They recently took my work to an art fair in Miami, “Art Miami”.

  If you can't tell I am trying to fit in as many of the last 6 months of events into one post, I'm sure there is plenty that I will have missed but these are just some of the highlights.  

We finally got a fence put up around the back of our property, it's something we really needed. It's nice to have privacy and we can also let Lady out without worrying. It also allows our guests to let their dogs loose to play in the yard.  In addition to the fence, we had a new deck added with access from the kitchen. This required having the window where our kitchen nook is converted into French doors. We are thankful to Magnolia Roofing the the amazing construction and for being so patient with us though all of our changes. It's great to be able to go out onto the deck to have a cup of coffee and eat breakfast or dinner. We spend so much time outside as it is, now we have a designated place to hang out. We now just need to find the perfect barbecue grill.

It has been the best decision of our lives to move to this fantastic small town, where we’ve been embraced by such a warm, loving, and caring community. 

From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to wish you a merry Christmas to y’all, our friends, families, and every single one of you that makes us feel so welcome since we arrived in town, all our guests for supporting us,  Agape church for strengthening our faith, to all these wonderful people that we met. It had been a wonderful year so far, thanks to all your love and outpouring of support.