Christmastime

Our Christmas celebrations continue!    We celebrated with my side of the family this weekend.  It was quite a treat to have someone else hosting :).   We all went to my parents' house, the house where I grew up.

For dinner we have a meal very similar to what we have at Thanksgiving - smoked turkey, rice dressing, cranberries, rolls, 5 cup salad, and sweet potatoes.

This was the most people we've ever had at the table - its really intended for 6 people, we really filled up the table with 8 of us!    During dinner I realized this was the first time all 8 of us have ever been in the same place!  I hope its the first of MANY gatherings of the group - I'd meant to get a photo of all of us, and of course I forgot.....

After dinner and cleaning up we had dessert (pies and a delicious cheesecake) and exchanged gifts.  We have such a variety of interests and gifts, its fun to see what everyone gets and how many gifts have to be explained.   We also have a fair amount of rehashing of prior years gifts and holidays  - my parents are still haunted by having to assemble a Barbie McDonald's (for me) and a He-Man castle (for my brother) in the middle of the night.  So many pieces and stickers, we did each love those toys....I know that is my favorite time of the day, the gifts are open and we can just visit.


Too soon, K had to head back home, he had the Texans game on Sunday and we had a hungry dog at home.    I was able to spend the night and enjoy more time with my family since my sister had offered to drive me home Sunday - Thanks Laura and Chris!  From the way the game went today, I definitely had the better end of the deal and attended the better game.
  
Unfortunately, Chris wasn't feeling well so he spent part of the evening napping.  I really hope this isn't a trend that someone is sick each time we get together - last time it was my hubby, this time it was sis' boyfriend.     

Since he wasn't feeling well, I went with my sister to her friend's party, her stand-in 'date'.    I knew a few people at the party, though I hadn't seen them in many years.  It was a fun, fairly small gathering and they did a white elephant, I played using Chris' gift.    I've found how to get a great white elephant gift, when I am playing with someone else's gift and I know I won't keep what I get - enjoy your pottery barn gift card Laura!   I am so glad we'd eaten before we got there, I nibbled a little bit but did a fairly good job of staying out of the food and I had some punch but quickly switched to water -- trying to keep my holiday calories in check.   I did get to taste the funfetti dip that I've read about on my sis's blog, and tasted (just 1 bite) a jalapeno poppers dip (think of the cheesy inside of a popper).



The extra time with my family was just what I needed. No one knows me like my family and we don't get to spend enough time together.  A favorite image of this year's holidays will be Mache walking around singing Christmas carols, she has a wonderful singing voice...

Chris fits right in and shows us some new ways to spend time together.  I've always thought a 'gamer' meant a videogamer, which he is, but he is also a big boardgamer and has already introduced me to several new games -- and I foresee some of them being purchased so we have them to play all the time.  This weekend we played King of Tokyo and Wits and Wagers.

I keep forgetting its Sunday night since I don't have work tomorrow.   gotta love working at a university that closes this time of year :)   We have some plans for the week - including Christmas with the Tuckers! - and will enjoy the time off together.

wow, busy weekend.....I am nowhere near ready to head back to work tomorrow and yet I wouldn't trade this weekend for anything.

On Saturday, we hosted all of Kevin's side of the family (15 adults + 6 kids) for our Christmas gathering and had such a great time!!!   I loved getting to visit with everyone, and since everyone brought different dishes to share it wasn't too much work for anyone.  We ended up with more desserts than anything else!  Only 2 members of the family weren't able to make it -one cousin was in Washington state with Sam Houston State for their playoff game (we had it on tv and they won!).   I was really happy to meet the newest member of the family, baby Caroline... she is so cute, and our niece was in awe of her -- a living version of her baby dolls!

The kids (ages 3 to 13) even had their own space and spent most of it playing Rockband -- next time we need to teach them how to change songs.  they probably know how to...and yet we kept hearing the same song (The Killers when we were young) over and over and over.  We love that our house is large enough to host everyone, and hope to have many more gatherings - its actually our second time to host Christmas.

We cleaned up a bit last night, including fixing a chair that the rung had come out -- picnic table makes a great work bench!   After that we watched part of "Office Space"  - K can quote nearly all of it, and yet we still love to watch it, and then crashed -- its a busy day being host/hostess!


Today (Sunday) I went to the Texans game with Kevin. Thanks to my mother-in-law for letting me use her ticket!  It was a rainy day when we headed down there (perfect weather to wake up early and read my book, yes I'm a nerd).  We played the Colts, great to win and with that win we are once again AFC SOUTH Champs!

We wrapped up our day with takeout deep dish pizza from a great local place.   We were planning to eat there but they let us know they were only doing take out, actually worked out better - we could spend a little time at home with Smokey (he spent Saturday at my in-laws).

12/12/12

Its the last repeating number date of our lifetimes, 12/12/12. Odd to realize it since we've had one every year since 2001....which means, the whole time K and I have known each other we've had one...its the end of an era...not really.


On the news, the date has been made a big deal by many people - weddings, casino openings, even lottery numbers (a lady at work bought her tickets!).

I've never been one to make a big deal about the date, though I do love my birthday :)  The one repeating date we did like was 7/7/07 and we thought about getting married that day, though we thought of it about a YEAR later than anyone who did get married that day.

We didn't do anything really memorable for the day, but did have a great dinner out, which always makes for a fun Wednesday.

It will be memorable for Kevin that he finished grading his finals today, a great accomplishment!

Happy happy birthday to my big brother!

I'm so glad I'm finished Christmas shopping and can really enjoy the season.  One day I will learn to start earlier,  who are we kidding -no I won't!  I think we did pretty good on selecting gifts and even had some new people to buy for this year.   Online shopping is a godsend, and I even got Kevin to help me in picking out a few gifts.

We have get-togethers planned with both sides of the family that I am very excited for, and are even planning to meet up with a childhood friend of K's over the holiday.

Tonight I'm off to a gathering of my bookclub, so glad we don't do a book in December!  I'm STILL trying to finish my Game of Thrones book - lost where I was and turns out I was even further than I thought I was...i WILL finish it by the end of the year.

I found a new discovery on youtube today -- there are videos on how to pronounce certain words, very helpful so I can learn to pronounce a name I've seen in print but never known how to say!  Always good to do your homework :)

Christmas randomness and a few tips

Its no fun being sick....I definitely got the cold that Kevin had over Thanksgiving.   So this weekend consisted of a lot of time sitting in my chair, sneezing and dosing up with meds.   I am so happy we live in an area where we can get food delivered and that I have a sweet hubby who will pick up food.  We had to delay seeing "Lincoln" another week, hopefully we can get there next weekend and it'll still be in the theaters.  

I have a lot of Christmas shopping I need to do, but it'll just have to wait until I feel better.....more time to get ideas, right?!?!?  I'm so glad I already decided not to do Christmas cards this year, that is already making this busy season less stressful.

We did get out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree, and for the first time have some outdoor lights (we actually did the lights over Thanksgiving).   I'm slowly learning how to pack the decorations up to make the following year easier, things I did last year that helped us out:

• packed the tree skirt with the tree
• labeled the boxes containing the lights - meant we didn't have to open the rest of the boxes to find them
• have the lights rolled up with both ends sticking out to easily be able to plug them in and make sure they work before putting them on the tree

Improvements to make for next year:

• pack the wreath hanger with the wreath
• make sure all rolls of lights have the correct end on the outside
• label the rest of the boxes 
• pack like things together - I'm getting better at that but still have instances of ' put it wherever it fits'

I always mean to buy an ornament when we travel and nearly always forget...I really wish we'd bought one in Tahoe, but I never seem to think of it when we're ON the trip...oh well, something to strive for on our next trip.   I do find some random ones at the store, I love my new Homer ornament.

Its hard to believe that is the LAST week of classes for the fall semester!