I am ready for Christmas! I wrapped the last of our gifts last night - it is an 'IOU' gift since what we ordered for my father-in-law in NOVEMBER hasn't come in yet (grumble, grumble), but it should be here before the end of the week, and he'll have something to open when we do Christmas with Kevin's family tonight. His grandmother and her hubby (and dogs) drove in yesterday, so we'll get to see the whole family tonight. I love this time of year - the decorations (we drove around the neighborhood looking at lights over the weekend), the music, seeing family - and am looking forward to some relaxation (and no alarm clocks!) the rest of this week and next. We'll celebrate with Kevin's family tonight, with my family on Christmas day, and Kevin and I will have a short vacation to Galveston next week.
Today is my last day to work for the year! WOOHOO! I've moved all of my outstanding to-dos to after the holiday - it says due next month but it is really due next year (next decade if you really want to scare yourself about how time flies). It is a ghost town here at work, which has made it possible for me to get a lot done, but also problematic to get hold of anyone who I need to get answers from. Luckily all the 'gotta get done' is already done.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Santa tracking has come a long way since I was a kid. I remember watching the weather as a kid to see the red blip that was Rudolph's nose. Now NORAD will track him, complete with Facebook and twitter updates...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Christmas decorations
We took some photos of our Christmas decorations. I love how festive it makes the house look. I'm sure we'll add more decorations each year. There are also some photos of the petting zoo that our neighborhood had as part of the Winter festival - with BABY DEER!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Christmas Gathering
We had a great day yesterday! Kevin's entire family gets together each year for Christmas and this year they all came to our house.
The food for the event is a collective effort - making it easier on those hosting since everyone brings a little bit. It also making it taste better since everyone brings their specialties. I wish I'd taken a photo of the food, it was quite a spread - Kevin smoked a turkey (turned out great!), his uncle brought a ham, and there were all the fixings for sandwiches, cheese dip, guacamole, veggie tray, bean dip, pickle/olive tray, and desserts galore! My mother-in-law made hosting easy -- she handled the assignments of who brings what and also provided disposable plates and utensils. They even let us leave Smokey at their house for the day, since it would just be too much activity for him. We counted it up and there were 22 people in the house - 17 adults and 5 kids. I didn't think we could fit that many people in our house, but we did :)
From the time everyone got there it was chaos, but great fun. The 4 kids spent most of the time upstairs with the Wii. I didn't even know our nephew had arrived since he went straight upstairs to play with the other kids. It sounded like a herd of elephants running around upstairs, but they had a great time! We thought ahead and had Kevin's brother bring their Wii controllers so each of the 4 kids had their own - avoiding a lot of tears.....they barely ate they were so excited to see each other and play the games. He is good at the bowling game and they love rockband.
We all had a great time eating and visiting, and watching the kids open their gifts. We have gifts too - a white elephant gift exchange. Its funny to see what everyone brings...this year was the year of 'as seen on tv' - there was not one but 2 different Snuggies, a Perfect Brownie, and a laptop stand. Lottery tickets always show up. We were happy with what we got - Terminator Salvation blu-ray for Kevin and cute serving bowls (one that looks like an avocado and another that looks like a jalapeno pepper) for me.
The only one who didn't enjoy the day was our little niece Kendall, they brought her home for much of the party since she just couldn't get to sleep. We think she may be getting a tooth for Christmas, causing her to be UNHAPPY.. poor little gal.
We'd used having this event as an excuse to deck out the decorations for the house - this will be an ongoing effort since we'll add a little each year - this year we've added stockings, a wreath for the front door, garland on the stairs, and a set of light up candles in the yard.
We hope the kids were as exhausted as we were by the end of the night!!
The food for the event is a collective effort - making it easier on those hosting since everyone brings a little bit. It also making it taste better since everyone brings their specialties. I wish I'd taken a photo of the food, it was quite a spread - Kevin smoked a turkey (turned out great!), his uncle brought a ham, and there were all the fixings for sandwiches, cheese dip, guacamole, veggie tray, bean dip, pickle/olive tray, and desserts galore! My mother-in-law made hosting easy -- she handled the assignments of who brings what and also provided disposable plates and utensils. They even let us leave Smokey at their house for the day, since it would just be too much activity for him. We counted it up and there were 22 people in the house - 17 adults and 5 kids. I didn't think we could fit that many people in our house, but we did :)
From the time everyone got there it was chaos, but great fun. The 4 kids spent most of the time upstairs with the Wii. I didn't even know our nephew had arrived since he went straight upstairs to play with the other kids. It sounded like a herd of elephants running around upstairs, but they had a great time! We thought ahead and had Kevin's brother bring their Wii controllers so each of the 4 kids had their own - avoiding a lot of tears.....they barely ate they were so excited to see each other and play the games. He is good at the bowling game and they love rockband.
We all had a great time eating and visiting, and watching the kids open their gifts. We have gifts too - a white elephant gift exchange. Its funny to see what everyone brings...this year was the year of 'as seen on tv' - there was not one but 2 different Snuggies, a Perfect Brownie, and a laptop stand. Lottery tickets always show up. We were happy with what we got - Terminator Salvation blu-ray for Kevin and cute serving bowls (one that looks like an avocado and another that looks like a jalapeno pepper) for me.
The only one who didn't enjoy the day was our little niece Kendall, they brought her home for much of the party since she just couldn't get to sleep. We think she may be getting a tooth for Christmas, causing her to be UNHAPPY.. poor little gal.
We'd used having this event as an excuse to deck out the decorations for the house - this will be an ongoing effort since we'll add a little each year - this year we've added stockings, a wreath for the front door, garland on the stairs, and a set of light up candles in the yard.
We hope the kids were as exhausted as we were by the end of the night!!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Snow
Its snowing in downtown Houston! I was not really excited about it since I have to be at work and it makes me worry for the driving conditions going home, but it is beautiful. I looked up from my work to see it steadily coming down outside my window.
This is the first time we've ever had snow 2 years in row (blog from last year's snow), 34th time Houston has EVER had snow (since record keeping started in the late 1800s).
I've already seens posts of people laughing at how excited/freaked we are, but its rare for us and knowing how badly people drive in the rain its cause for concern...and celebration.....
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Dangers of Social networking
Earlier this week I had to attend a meeting at Houston Community College (HCC), so I put headed to HCC for a meeting as my status on Twitter and Facebook.
A person I went to high school with commented on my status saying, "I've spent the day reading about hepatocellular carcinoma and found your status confusing." I saw the comment and thought it was odd to make that connection, but could find an h and two cs in the phrase, so it is probably also abbreviated HCC in medical literature. I also realize that your frame of reference will lead you to read abbreviations in certain ways...my job is its own alphabet soup of abbreviations. I went on about my business and didn't think anything more of it.
My poor mother-in-law read it and some part of her thought I might have it! She even researched it and called my hubby, who was unaware of my FB status , at home. I can only imagine how confused he was.
I hope I never have a disease such as that, but if I do or for any serious news I won't break it to people via facebook/twitter/whatever social networking site I'm using by then...
I know there are much more serious dangers with social websites, but that is the most recent one I've encountered, and now that my mother-in-law knows I'm fine, it is funny in a strange way.
A person I went to high school with commented on my status saying, "I've spent the day reading about hepatocellular carcinoma and found your status confusing." I saw the comment and thought it was odd to make that connection, but could find an h and two cs in the phrase, so it is probably also abbreviated HCC in medical literature. I also realize that your frame of reference will lead you to read abbreviations in certain ways...my job is its own alphabet soup of abbreviations. I went on about my business and didn't think anything more of it.
My poor mother-in-law read it and some part of her thought I might have it! She even researched it and called my hubby, who was unaware of my FB status , at home. I can only imagine how confused he was.
I hope I never have a disease such as that, but if I do or for any serious news I won't break it to people via facebook/twitter/whatever social networking site I'm using by then...
I know there are much more serious dangers with social websites, but that is the most recent one I've encountered, and now that my mother-in-law knows I'm fine, it is funny in a strange way.
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