It's the little things!

Christmas was always a big deal at my house while I was growing up.  It still is!  My parents always made sure that we had great Christmas mornings with plenty of presents and things from Santa.  Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories include new baseball bats, new guns and a 4 wheeler.  All of those were very big ticket items and cost my parents a lot of money, but my favorite gifts on Christmas morning have always been and always will be found in my stocking.

It's the little things I like.  Baseball cards, golf tees, small hunting gadgets, chap stick, a new pocket knife, etc, etc.  My Mom always had a way of customizing your stocking so that you knew it was meant for you.  A nice little personal touch to remind you that even though you now have a pile full of new gifts, the little things still matter too.

My favorite day of Christmas shopping each year is the one I spend by myself shopping for stocking stuffers for my wife and kids.  I try to put a lot of thought into the small items that will fit into the limited space of a stocking.  Bath oils or a new necklace for my wife.  New art supplies for my daughter.  A cool new gadget for my son.  It does my heart good to see them enjoy the smallest gift as much as the biggest.  Cool things really do come in small packages!

This Christmas, my wish for you and your family is that you will embrace the gift of the little things that this life has to offer.  If you can find happiness in the little things, then everything else should fall right into place.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trey

I got busy!

I sat and watched the final seconds of the Georgia Southern Football season tick away on Friday night with a since of disappointment in the fact that our season was ending but also proud that my boys were once again one of the last four teams standing.  It has been a good year for the boys in blue and I am a very proud alumnus!  Now that football is over, it's time for me to get off my lazy tail and get back to work in the shop!

The table that you see above has been sitting unfinished in a pile under my counter for about four months. I picked it up in an antique shop around Macon, GA and never got around to completing it.  Saturday, it got all of my attention.  It is a very nice tiger oak table, but what I really like about it is the fact that it still has a label under the bottom shelf.  This table came from The Knoxville Table and Chair Co in Knoxville, TN.  Why is that important?  It's really not, but this is the second table that I have bought from this small company that went out of business sometime in the early 20's.  The first table sits in my living room and can be seen below!

They really made nice solid pieces of oak furniture and liked to use tiger oak.  I'll take all that I can find!

I was also able to polish up a very nice round top table that looks a lot like the one above.  I have it for sale at a friends shop.  I forgot to take a picture.  Let me know if you need a last minute Christmas gift!!

So I took a vacation....

To my loyal few followers, please allow me this time to say that I am sorry for my lack of posting in the month of November.  I needed a vacation to re-charge the batteries, so I took one.  I took a two week vacation from work in which I tried my best to stay away from a computer, and I took a month long vacation from Blogging.  So here is what is going on in my world...

November means Kansas and our annual pheasant hunt.  I look forward to this trip with my Dad because we get to spend time together and I love the Kansas countryside.  Chasing birds across fields of Milo is a rush like no other.  The only problem is that you need birds to feel that rush.  Two years of drought conditions have taken their toll on my feathered friends.  20 hunters hunting hard for two solid days only managed 16 birds.  Not a very successful trip.  We can only hope that conditions improve and the state of Kansas can get it's bird population back.

I've spent a great deal of time in my deer stand the past few weeks.  So far, no luck!  I have seen does and small bucks, but I am still holding out for one of the big boys that I am still capturing pictures of on my trail camera.  If I could only hunt at night!






Josey is ready for a good bird shoot!  Thanksgiving came and went without me firing a shot in the dove field.  My farming friends have been busy with a bumper crop this year and our dove hunts have been put on the back burner.  I am hoping all of that will change this weekend!

I found a little time to get out in the shop and refinish this gun stock.  This gun belonged to my Grandfather and is now owned by my Uncle.  It was worn with age and needed some attention.  It now looks like new!

I went to a wedding!  One of my fraternity brothers got married on the weekend of the 10th.  It just happened to also be my 10 year wedding anniversary.  My wife and I celebrated in style with some brothers I have not seen in almost 20 years.  I was great!!

Other than that, there is not much going on!  I hope to get back on the blogging trail with updates from a good dove shoot!

 

See you soon!