Christmas 2008, Round 4

Last, but not least, in the Christmas festivities was at my mom's house. She did a skinny tree this year & put up all her beautiful crystal ornaments. Surrounded by her Dickens Village & all our gifts, it was quite Merry.

Gram has been staying at the house with her for a few days since she's been out of the hospital. We even managed to snap a pretty darn good family photo.

Then we did a silly one! I'm pointing my camera remote trying to get the picture to snap. Zoe doesn't look too impressed.

John got his regular UT gear.

Zoe still wanted attention & was acting very strange. I love mom's expression and how Gram is shocked in the background.

I promise I was fully dressed (unlike some other Christmas mornings), but I received a super soft robe that was perfect to wear when I got a little chilly.

No Christmas is complete without a few pool toys- including this floating beer cooler.

What a mess!

Mom got me these neat SCUBA goggles that take photos. I can't wait to see how they come out.

And Zoe perched like the Queen of Sheba on the couch.

Of course the favorite part is the stockings, with all their little goodies.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Finished with Christmas just in time for New Year's Eve! We're off to a big party downtown with lots of friends.

Christmas 2008, Round 3

The Christmas festivities continued on Christmas morning. I made our traditional blueberry muffins & we slept in late!

Zoe was cracking me up this year- she was all up in our gift opening ordeal.

We got her this new toy from Orvis & she loves it! I was dying laughing because the way she was carrying it around covered her eyes.

She kept trying to shove it in H's face when he was opening up his gifts. Guess she wanted to play.

She also got some new tennis balls, which she was very excited about. Unfortunately no treats or chewies this year because f her food allergy.

I also got her a new burrow bed, but it was too small. Luckily she's pretty happy with her new ring toy.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Two day work weeks are awesome!

Christmas 2008, Round 2

After Round 1 of Christmas, we headed to church for a nice service with H's mom & then to her friend's house for a super-festive meal. I love when people are really into decorating & make their house look like it's out of a magazine.

It was fun to hang out with young kids for a little while that evening- they are still full of the wonder and awe of such a magical time of year.

And, despite it being 75 degrees in Houston, they still have a roaring fire that I enjoyed while getting all toasty with hubby.

The meal was made from scratch with lots of love, but it was the desserts that really won me over.

Here's H's mom and her best friend- the wonderful chef & pastry maker.

Isn't she adorable!? If I can guarantee that my kids will be this cute & this well behaved, I might be convinced to have some a few years sooner! ;)

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My step-dad is home from the hospital & Gram is feeling much better.

Christmas 2008, Round 1

These photos are a bit out of order, but I'm still trying to figure out how Blogger works in Safari. Blogger had been importing all the photos in reverse order, but I can't re-arrange them in Safari like I could in Internet Explorer. I took several photos with my dad, but I liked this silly one the best.

We started our Christmas festivities at my dad's house where we exchanged presents with the kids before the rest of the family arrived to feast and fest.

My brother received some things for his Xbox 360, but also received a very nice ring from James Avery. It's neat because it's the same ring my dad gave to me when I was about Hunter's age. I wore it until I got an engagement ring from H. :)

There were clearly 2 photographers in this photo. Dad looks at me and the kids look at Brenda! Haley got a sweet little camera for Christmas. It's very similar to my other camera, so hopefully she'll have some great photos too.

H got just what he wanted- a nice power tool set to start his collection. I'm hoping he'll have no (or at least fewer) excuses when I'm ready to work on some projects around the house.
I didn't get too many good photos because the rest of the family started arriving in the middle of our gift opening bonanza. From this photo you can clearly tell it was about 80 outside, but boots were the appropriate footwear.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A nice cold front has made it feel like winter again.

Belated Merry Christmas

It's been a VERY busy few days around here!  This is what our tree looked like before all the mayhem and madness of Christmas with my dad's family & Christmas with H's mom's friends on Christmas eve and then our own little Christmas at our house Christmas morning before heading to my mom's house and then back to H's mom's house!  

I've also been very tied up because H gave me my Christmas present early when he bought me a new iMac last Saturday!  I really just wanted a new monitor for my 3.5 year old computer, and I was totally not expecting to get a whole new computer, much less a freaking awesome 24" iMac! I've been busy transferring all my files over and trying to learn Mac-world.  I'm loving how fast it is with my photos and how awesome it will be to have our whole music library running from iTunes.

I've got several hundred photos to go through from all these events & lots of fun toys to share, but I wanted to post a few of these that I took of Zoe last week when I was sitting on the floor doing all of my wrapping.

There is much photography fun to be had with a Christmas decorations and a dog in a sweater.

 

And in other news, my mom had to take my step-dad to the emergency room Christmas night.  Both he & Gram were feeling ill yesterday morning, so she took them both to the doctor.  They discovered that John has some extremely clogged arteries in his legs, which were causing tremendous pain and swelling.  They have done surgery to remove some of the clots & are continuing some chemical injections today to try to remove the rest of the clots today.  I'm trying to keep an eye on Gram, who is staying at mom's house while recovering from her recent hospital stays.    

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: H is off to Shreveport to visit his friend, so I've got a whole day to play around with my iMac. 

Clashing Concerts

This month we've attended two very different concerts- AC/DC and The Eagles. Let me start by saying that the Eagles were rescheduled from a concert that was originally to take place as Hurricane Ike hit town.

AC/DC was loud and rowdy right from the start- including this giant train engine that was smoking on stage most of the night.

I know a few of the very popular songs, but wouldn't really consider myself a huge fan. I was highly amused by the very talented guitarist who proceeded to strip from his *unusual* outfit and then play the rest of the concert in only his shoes & shorts.

Lots of fire & lots of very loud! Despite their age, these guys were still rocking and rolling like there was no tomorrow.

Near the end the had a very special klassy blow-up doll with ripped garters, an array of tattoos and money sticking out of her bra.

The place was packed & there were some very excited concert goers that night. The show ended with a row of giant cannons repeatedly firing off shots.

And then we had the Eagles concert. It couldn't have been any more opposite in style and substance. Nice happy scenes like this backdrop for Hotel California and a bunch of very mellow old men.

They put on a great show & sang more songs than I remembered them singing. It was enjoyable, but a bit low-key.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Merry Christmas Eve everybody! We're visiting lots of family & eating lots of food this evening.

Christmas Giveaways

Among the many blogs I read, I read several on personal finance. One of my favorites, Christian Personal Finance, is having an awesome giveaway with some super prizes. So check out the blog here to see how you can win one of these great prizes!

Prizes include: 8GB iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, a few other goodies several books including one of my favorite christian authors of all time, C.S. Lewis "The Great Divorce" audio CD.

I'm making the big switch to Mac, so I'd love to win a iPod Nano!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Last day of work & then a 5 day weekend!

Miscellaneous Monday

That's snow on our grill! In Houston! I couldn't believe it was snowing here about 2 weeks ago. Some parts around here received a few inches, but we mostly just had a few flurries.

The weather has been so erratic! It was 70 here on Saturday morning when I went to do my 20 mile training run. It go turned cold and windy again last night & was about 32 with a wind chill index of 22 this morning!

We had our company party last week & we spared no expense on our white elephant gifts by recycling gifts from around the office- including a 5 pack of phone books.

This is a shot of H & Zoe a few weeks back all snuggled up on the couch.

She's a burrow-er and loves to get in between & under the blankets.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I got my Christmas present from H this weekend & it's awesome!