Merry Christmas from Anne Craig

This is Anne Craig's personal Christmas card by design. Title (slanting downward of course) "We Wish You A Maree Crismas"
If you look carefully below you will see a Christmas tree, "Roobof", "Santchols", the Anghisle, Maree, Joeif, and Baby Jesus underneath...I thought it was pretty creative! Don't you?? I ran to get my camera and made her pose for a picture.

Have no fear it's only a deer.... NOT a reindeer silly!

Floyd shot a 150 pound doe last weekend when he went hunting with is Father, Grandfather and Uncle Moss. He was pretty fired up as you can see from the pictures. Floyd said he was very patient in waiting on the right shot. I think he dropped him right where he stood. So apparantly not too bad a shot there little man! Congratulations to my little hunter boy!

Sweet Salter

Moss and Shannon had their beautiful healthy baby boy on Tuesday! Salter Bradley Melton, born Dec 15, 2009 at 11:37am. 6 pounds, 14 ounces, 19.5 inches long. He is so precious and we are sooo happy for them! Here are a few pictures we took when we went down to Jackson to welcome him to the family!

Salter Bradley Melton

Baby and Mom

Big Sister Ainsley and Daddy

Ainsley and Anne Craig

Ainsley, Moss, Anne Craig and Floyd

I-I-I-I-I-I...LOVE a parade........

Ahhh yes, the 74th Annual Roy Martin Christmas Parade took place a week ago today and it was a success as usual. The weather was cold and crisp with the sun peaking out from behind the clouds every now and then. Just a perfect COLD Delta winter day. Cold being the operative word because man it was COLD. Thank goodness for dear friends like Suresh Chawla who loaded up the entire hot drink dispenser assembly line at the Hampton Inn and brought it to our house! Boy did that save the day! Thanks Suresh! Wish I would have gotten a picture of the hot drink table at our house under the carport. It was a popular spot! (I gotta do better with my picture taking....geesh Lisa)

Marion Howard was the parade Marshall this year. Her sister, Gay, is good friends with my Aunt Craig and so all of Marion's family was stationed at our house. It was great to see all of them! I hope they come back next year! As usual a good game of "yard ball" was of constant occurance during the parade. Kids would come and go...back and forth to the street for a glimpse of Santa only to realize that he's not even close yet because Santa brings up the tail end of the parade. So back to the gridiron they went!

Thanks also to so many dear family and friends that brought the food spread like I have never seen before! (nope, no pic here either...good job Lisa) (Not sure why I'm enjoying speaking in the 3rd person here so please ignore if it bothers you). If you left our house hungry after the parade it was your own fault that is for sure! Again...it was a large time and I think everyone had a lot of fun.

We will need to start gearing up for next year because it's the 75th anniversary! Not many "anythings" have a 75th anniversay much less a parade and ours happens to be the oldest in the State and runs a close second in size to the St. Paddy's in Jackson. Word on the street here in Greenwood is that the "powers that be" of the parade planning committee are planning to pull out allll the stops and pull whatever strings possible to get every band from each University in the State to perform at the 75th. WOW is all I have to say if they can pull that off!!! You see...years past all of those bands DID come to the Roy Martin parade. Ole Miss, State, and Southern all came to Greenwood to perform. Along with Jackson State, Alcorn, Valley, etc....I can even remember as a child my parents bringing us up to Greenwood from Belzoni to join other family members and friends at the old Irvin Hotel (now the Alluvian) and we would watch the parade from one of the rooms upstairs overlooking Howard Street. I can only hope that the parade memories my kids are absorbing will stick in their minds the way they stuck in mind growing up.

Here are the pictures from the parade that I was able to snap or have snapped! Enjoy!
Craig and Cary with Gay and her husband

Yardball in full swing

Anne Craig and Madison Barlow

Annie and Rick enjoying the parade

T and Hayes Dale and their beautiful family! We had a great surprise visit from them! They just happen to be town parade day and stopped by.

Me and Floyd "the hosts"

David Camp, Mark Vemer, and Jim Quinn taking it all in

parade Grand Marshall, Marion Howard

Moms and Ainsley

Anne Craig and Madison Quinn

Walker and Cyndi Saia

Craig joining in for some yardball

Cary, Craig and Elizabeth Melton

Kelley Bush, Jacob Clark, Lisa and Steven Cookston



Well, who's ready for Christmas?? Anyone?? Anyone?? I am fairly ready physically I suppose but mentally...not so much. I did get my Christmas cards in the mail this week and that's an accomplishment in itself. Floyd's cooking marathon is 75% complete and he seems to think we are a week ahead of schedule with everything....Not so sure I'm on board with that optimism. Maybe when I get out of school on Dec. 18th the Christmas spirit may miraculously overtake my existence but until then I'm having a hard time grasping...My house is all decorated and ready thanks to my dear friend, Margie Barger, who came and worked her magic on everything. Don't know what I would do without Margie. I hope to never find out! Shopping wise...I've accomplished a lot at this point but nothing is wrapped. My goal this weekend is to get that job done! It looks like it's gonna be a rainy Saturday tomorrow so there will be no excuse but to stay inside and wrap til my heart's content. Here's an idea...pop in some Christmas movies and wrap away. Sounds like a plan! I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season thus far. Enjoy this magical time with your children and families. I will say that it's wonderful to watch the kids run all over the house each morning looking for Elfie (our Elf on the Shelf) to see where he has landed each day back from his nightly journey to the North Pole to report into Santa on how Floyd and Anne Craig have been behaving each day.

Merry Merry Everyone!

"Performers" and then some....

Once again the Holidays are among us and if you ask me I'll tell you that I was blindsided by the actual arrival so quickly. Will this be how I receive each and every holiday season??? So far that seems to be the trend. Speaking of blindside....and performances...RUN don't walk to see The Blindside at a theater near you. In case you have been hibernating this winter under a rock it's the story of Michael Oher who rose to football stardom in both college and the pros from a hardship beginning in Memphis, TN. Anyway, it's a tear jerker but great entertainment none the less.

We survived Thanksgiving this year and had a great couple of days of no homework and a few extra hours of sleep. However, husband Floyd not so much..he was up at 4:30 every chance he got to go hunt "the big one". I'll save my thoughts there for another post...and out of great respect for my precious husband's love of deer hunting I'll keep most of my comments to a minimum.

A few weeks ago the children performed with their Choristers singing group in church. I think I might have musical children! Both really enjoy to sing and Floyd is currently playing piano and Anne Craig is anxious to start next year. They both can carry a nice tune and both have pretty good rhythm in general. Maybe those skills can take them somewhere!! We'll see. Here are a few pics from their performance in church.

Floyd is in the brown blazer in front and Anne Craig is 2 down from him in the pink dress! The are focused.....

"up close" shot

Floyd's 3rd grade play was right before Thanksgiving Break. It was called "The Granny Awards". It was precious and Floyd played one of the 3 bears. It was a spoof of the Grammy Awards but using Characters such as Goldilocks, Jack (and the beanstalk) and Little Red Riding Hood, etc...as nominees and recipients. It was thoroughly entertaining and the talent on display was really impressive. I have always said that Floyd's class is special but they do have some very talented kids and lots of musical capability. Of course we are so blessed to have Connie Black as their music teacher at Pillow. She's amazing in herself. But I can assure you it'll be interesting to see where all the talent disperses among these precious boys and girls. Here are a few pics!



Also right before Thanksgiving we headed to Oxford to watch the yearly rival headbash between Ole Miss and LSU! It was a great game indeed. The kids had a ball and here are a few pics from the weekend.
Off to the grove!! Anne Craig and Elizabeth Pedigo

Lulu and Scott

Me and Lulu

Me and Floyd

"groving" with Melinda and Beverly

catching up with Amy Felder and Avery Lee

getting ready to cheer on the Rebs with Floyd, Papa, and Anne Craig

Elizabeth and Anne Craig cheering the Rebs to VICTORY

AC and Elizabeth

Mary Frances Hall, Blewett and AC after the game at Oak Grove

(It's hard to comment so much at this late date on the LSU game after the Rebels had a good ole fashion "booty stompin" when they played State last weekend but we were still proud the Rebels beat LSU when they did.)

Thanksgiving was a fun. We had 20 for lunch including the children.
"the kiddie table" (please notice Anne Craig's dish...yes that's ravioli for Thanksgiving....gross! with Sunjay, Dia and Floyd)

"the oldie table" (Harper Johnson, Gooddaddy, and Grandaddy)

It was great to all be together and for those that were able to be with us it was a blessing indeed. We carried on the annual tradition of some croquet. However, the next generation proceeded to take over. (That would be the ages 11 and under....but the older generation didn't intervene too much. I think we were glad to not have to gruel it out) Needless to say with the young guns calling the shots and the rules the game proceeded much quicker than last year.

Just as soon as the turkey was digested it was "OUT" with the pumpkins and ghords and "IN" or should I say down with the trees and lights! Let the Christmas Season begin. The 74th annual Roy Martin Christmas Parade which is a pretty big deal in Greenwood I must say is coming up fast. All of the schools let out for the big production and with our homestead location it's an event to say the least for the Melton Family. My dear friend, Margie Barger, rushed over to help me tackle the everloving decorating feat that I soooooo love but sooooo dread each and every year. Well, it's done thank goodness so let the "WILD RUMPUS START"! I am sure I will have several "Wild Things" to contend with this season so wish me luck! Merry Merry!!