The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

It's Christmastime in Texas. We actually bought our tree when it was cold out this year. Last year, we went to buy one in shorts. That was on Sunday. We shopped around and ended up back at Lowe's where we got ours last year. So Sunday we brought it into the house and set it up in its stand. No energy to put the lights on it. Last night (which was Monday), I started stringing the lights. Either our tree is bigger this year or I did the lights differently because I did not have enough lights. Now it's Tuesday and I picked up a couple more strings along with a few other things after school today. I'm proud of myself in that my trip to Hobby Lobby only cost me $21.69. That's amazing given all the Christmas goodies in that place. So three days later, our tree is up and decorated. I still need to find a tree skirt. It was fun pulling out all the old ornaments. I love that I'm a child of the 80s with my Cabbage Patch, Miss Piggy, and Strawberry Shortcake ornaments. Last year we debated on whether or not to set our Christmas tree up in our front room with the big picture window where you could see the tree from the street. Since we never go in that room, I decided I'd rather put the tree in our living room where we can see it everyday. I'd rather us enjoy it than our neighbors.



Turns out Christmas decorating is hard work for a puppy!

Louisiana Black Friday

I am NOT a Black Friday shopper. Nothing about that seems fun to me. Instead, Grandma and Ite took us to Louisiana on Black Friday to test our luck. We started out in Lake Charles at L'auberge de Lac. Me and casinos don't really get along. I never win, but luckily Neal always wins something. I'm perfectly content spending (or I should probably say losing) $20 and then being done. I do enjoy the video roulette, but the minimums were high so my money didn't last long.




Neal got a free cupcake since his birthday is this month. Too bad is was the worst cupcake I've ever tasted.



We then went to Delta Downs. I threw another $20 away. Neal turned $15 into about $150. We got to see the horses. I mentioned to Ite that I thought one of the horses had a cool name. He gave me money to go bet on it. Of course, it lost. However, the other 3 bet on the #8 horse right before we left. It won and they all collected their winnings.

Thanksgiving Tidbits

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year. We're getting better at it. We stuck to our plan this time and had a very nice day.

My sister inspired me to make a banner for the mantel. I did cheat and didn't string it like she did, but I was still happy with my little project.



Mom arrived on Wednesday with our Mack dog. She had been puppy sitting for us the previous weekend when we were in Port Aransas. She was so diligent in getting him back in the house safe and sound that she locked her keys in her car. Luckily, she has roadside assistance and the service was there within 30 minutes.



Here's us modeling a wedding gift we received. Mr and Mrs aprons. Neal did the "heavy lifting" of the cooking and I did the easy stuff. Every went smooth and drama free.



I made a couple of Pecan pies. Here's my Betty Crocker pose.



We did our table a little fancier this year. Still no real dining room table. You can tell we've gotten married in the past year. Real tablecloths, crystal candlesticks, matching dishses, crystal vase. Our Thanksgivings are growing up as we are.



Ite, Neal and Mack watching football. I can't really remember if this was the Cowboys game or the UT game. I think it was the UT game because most everyone was napping in the afternoon during the Cowboys game.

Our Thankfulness

Neal was a good sport and played along with an idea I saw on a blog. Every day (well most days), we wrote down one thing we were thankful for on a post it and put it in a jar. We read them on Thanksgiving night.
WHAT THE WOMAN IS THANKFUL FOR:
*For a good day with family
*For a husband that helps me clean
*For good dinner conversations
*For the rain today
*For my iPhone to entertain me during boring meetings
*For my sister who has turned into a beautiful woman
*For my friend Jackie, the baby expert
*For a loving and forgiving God
*For an easy going family that goes with the flow
*For a man who cooks dinner
*For our Mack dog
*For a job where I can help kids
*For Jenny Sultenfuss who is the nicest person I've ever met
*For my kids at school that make me laugh
*For Mack dog loving us unconditionally
*For Coleson who makes me laugh
*That my mom and I have become best friends


WHAT THE MAN IS THANKFUL FOR:
*For rain and cool weather
*For his wife
*For energy efficient equipment
*For technology
*For rain from the sky
*For Nueces A/C
*For not needing charity
*For vacation
*For his family's support
*For a house and home
*For a puppy sitter
*For Mack Brown (not sure if this is the dog or the coach)
*For his job
*For his health

These are just a few things we're thankful for. There are many, many more. We're blessed to have the life we have.

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving morning, we did a Turkey Trot near the Galleria before we stuffed ourselves to an oblivion. Mom and I leisurely walked the 5K. Neal ran the 10K like a mad man. The Sultenfusses came out too. Mark ran the 5K, while Jen and Zach cheered us on. Zach participated in the kids 1K run. He got a little gun shy when it was go time so the family walked with him together. I wish I would have gotten a picture because it was too cute to see him with his race number on. Our kids will definetely be doing kids races like this.

Port A

We spent the weekend in Port Aransas for Chris and Sara's wedding at The Tarpon Inn. It was nice to get out of Houston and live the simple life for a weekend. I mean, how can you not relax on this amazing porch?
Here's a picture of our quaint little room. I was standing at the door of our room when I took this picture. I think the whole room was like 8 X 15. This is funny because our room ended up being a hub of sorts. Friday, Neal, myself, Chris, Laura, Wade, and Tommy hung out on the porch in the rocking chairs after the rehearsal dinner. On Saturday, the boys congregated in our room before the wedding. It was fun to play "how many people can we fit in our room?" According the innkeeper, our room was haunted. Legend is that a woman appears at the end of the bed at night. I didn't see the lady, but I did hear footsteps in the middle of the night that I'm hoping were the people upstairs. I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm not gonna lie, it freaked me out a little.
Lucky for us, Coleson's babysitter backed out and we got to watch him run around acting like a dinosaur. How cute is he in his mini-guayabera?
The groom and best man. Funny how 2011 has ended up being the year of the weddings of the 30-somethings. There's always a big round of weddings right after you get out of college. Ten years later, we're in another round of weddings.
Always a good time with these guys.
We ended the evening with a little dancing at Bernie's. You know, like Weekend at Bernie's.

TT + JA

A few weekends ago, Stacy and I traveled to San Antonio to Terry and Jeff's commitment ceremony. Oh my, did we have fun! Beautiful cermemony at The Witte Museum, carne guisada for dinner, and dancing to ABBA with my buddy Dwight. I'm so glad my friend has found happiness. I believe that everybody deserves to be happy no matter who they choose to spend their life with. Can't wait to see what the future holds for these guys. We were honored to be invited to their post-wedding brunch on Sunday morning. The food was delicious and our hosts' house was gorgeous.

Girls on the Run

Our girls did their 5K last weekend. All their hard work paid off. They woke up super early, showed up in the freezing weather, and ran their little hearts out. It was great seeing their parents come out to support them too. This has been a good experience for both the girls and me. We're doing it again in the spring and I hope we get all these girls back plus more.

WooHoo

Since we got the new AC unit, we've seen our energy bill go from $273 to $154 to $75 this time. Yes, I realize it's no longer 110 degrees and our unit is not having to work as hard, but I know that some of that decrease is due to our energy efficient unit since we're still running it everyday. Now that we have new windows too, maybe it will go down even more. The true test will be next summer when it's hotter than Hades again. The end of a random post.

I Actually Won Something

I've mentioned before that I have this habit of reading blogs of people I have never met. I start with a friend's blog and then click on another and another until I find one that entices me. Somehow I came across a blog that has recently been renamed the Haute Mommy Blog. www.hautemommyblog.com (one day I'll learn how to make these links clicky). Anyway, there was a giveaway on her blog for a $50 gift card to Erin Condren. A lot of EC's stuff is too much for me, but there are a few things that I really like. Guess what? I actually won and my gift card came in the mail today. Yea!

So this combined with another $25 credit I had from EC, I ordered some cute address labels and an address book. Yes, a paper address book. Right now, I'm using our wedding guest list as our master address list, but I'm a nerd for office supplies so I'm looking forward to actually writing in the new address book. No judgment!

Happy Halloween!

Yea, I'm pretty sure he hates me for attempting to dress him up. I refuse to spend money on dog clothes so I was forced to dig through our collection of Halloween costumes. I tried to get the Willie Nelson braids on him, but no luck. This is the best I got. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

We hung out at the house for Halloween. Our neighborhood is pretty quiet for trick or treaters but we did get a few. The kiddies that came to our house got the hook up on the candy since we had a lot to give out and wanted to get rid of it. I did good and only ate an Almond Joy and Reese's peanut butter cup.