Just in the Nick of Time

Whew! Christmas festivities are in full swing at the end of my dirt road. My mom flew in on Tuesday and poor thing hasn't left the kitchen sink since she stepped foot in the door. We made all of our favorites which include Oreo truffles, dipped pretzels, Rolo Pretzels, Sugar Cookies, and my favorite - Gingerbread Cowboys.

                                

And since the kids were babies, we've always made my Sour Cream Cranberry Pound Cake for a Birthday Cake for Jesus:

                               

We were unable to make our annual trek to the mountains to cut a tree this year and 2 weeks before Christmas, there was not a tree to be had in town. DH said we had a bumper crop of tumbleweeds so we went in search of the perfect tumbleweeds.

                                

Have y'all heard of The Tumbleweed Christmas Tree written by Andy Wilkinson and performed by Red Steagall? All I can say is that we failed miserably. I had to sit in the bed of the truck and hold on to the tumbleweeds while DD drove and then we couldn't get them in the door. And can you say stickery?! We did get one in the door and it wouldn't fit in the corner of the living room and we had to drag it back out. Needless to say, we'll be finding tumbleweed stickers in the house until the 4th of July, but we gave it the old college try.

DH smoked 52 quail for dinner today

                                    

and I am telling you that it was the best thing we've ever eaten and yes, we do say that every time he smokes quail. :) While my mom and I were baking, our college girl spent an entire hour prepping the quail:

                                                 

They each get a slice of jalapeno, wrapped in bacon, and dusted with a smoking rub. Best. Dinner. Ever.

                                    


And as good as those quail were, it's going to get even better. I make a smoked quail soup with the rest of the quail and I've been informed that its everyone's favorite meal of the year. I wholeheartedly agree! The weather has been unseasonably warm this December, but according to the weather experts, we're in for a big change:

See those lows?! And that's in town. We'll be up to 10 or 12° colder here. I'm looking forward to the first snow of the winter on Sunday though! You can bet we'll be snuggling a little deeper into those quilts when we get back from making feed runs!

Our boy will be here in a few hours and we'll head to church for Christmas Eve services before going out to eat. We're all on the fence about eating out. We know its going to be hard to top those smoked quail!

I know y'all are all busy as cats in a room full of rocking chairs too, but I think I'm just in the nick of time to pop on here and wish all of y'all a very Merry Christmas from  here at the end of the dirt road.