White Christmas (and the days thereafter)

(Guest post by Doc) As southerners (me a convert, while Lucy & the kids are born and bred), we don't often get to see a White Christmas.

Fortunately, we still have the option of seeing snow outside over the holidays if we are willing to travel to the frozen tundra north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Christmas night we hopped on a plane and headed to Indiana.  While it did not receive the massive amounts of snow that crippled the East Coast, we were blessed to have a smooth flight, clear roads and 4-5 inches of rather pristine white snow.

It was late when we arrived, so we first attended to the business at hand - a birthday celebration for this young lady.

Not quite 13 going on 30, but definitely 10 going on 15.  After cake and a good night's sleep, we woke up in time for a Christmas celebration with the whole family.  Lots of gifts and lots of smiles.

After gifts, it was time for some serious stuff - football, snow angels and running around in the snow.  Which activity to do first?  Lets decide...

How about football for some...

...and snow angels for others...

and even some gymnastics...

I think everyone had a great time in the snow.

I have very fond memories of my childhood Christmases and it is nice to be able to share them with my family.

Christmas Eve

In my family, we've always had a big meal on Christmas Eve followed by all the present opening.  Christmas morning is reserved for presents from Santa.  This year was no different.  We all gathered at my parents' house for a delicious meal, went to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then came back home to open presents.  The house was full of people and dogs and it got loud and chaotic, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Doc was our main chef.  He cooked the tastiest beef medallions I have ever eaten! Seriously, he really outdid himself.  These will be hard to beat.

My mom was his sous chef.  She helped with a bunch of the side dishes.

Doc and I also had a mini potato competition.  I found a recipe for au gratin potatoes in a rosemary crust online that sounded delicious, but he wanted traditional au gratin potatoes.  We decided to do them both and see which was better.

I may be biased, but I think mine won in the presentation category.

But that doesn't mean his didn't look delicious, too.

The verdict? They were both delicious.  They had such different tastes that it was too hard to choose a winner.  We will definitely be making them both again.

While the cooks were busy in the kitchen, Bren and I bonded over fingernail polish.  She loves to have her nails done.

After the paint job was done, Poppy was in charge of blowing them dry.

Then she was able to show everyone how "pwetty" they were!

Jett and I spent some time in the living room finding all the presents that had our names on them.  There were a bunch - we were both excited!

After dinner (and before church), Doc became popular with the kiddos.  First he had these two little ones that wanted to see everything on his phone.

Then Parker ran off to play and was replaced by this bigger dude.

Finally, after church, it was almost time to open presents.  Of course, Christmas tree pictures had to happen first.

Go figure that during the middle of family pictures is when my camera battery died.  Why didn't I think to check that earlier?? Luckily, my sister-in-law had hers there to capture the good moments but I haven't seen them yet so I don't have anymore to share.  I'm sure you can use your imagination to envision the "after" pictures once all the presents were opened.  That room was a mess, but there were lots of happy faces!

Doc and I stayed with my parents that night but everyone else went home.  That morning Santa made it to everyone's house.  We must've all been good this year!  The afternoon of Christmas Day is always spent with my dad's side of the family.  We had a big meal and played a fun game of dirty santa.  There was lots of stealing but I think everyone ended up going home with a good gift.

As for me and Doc, we left that Christmas party, picked up the kids, and headed straight to the airport.  We were just a couple of hours away from getting to see his parents and celebrating with them.  Stay tuned for pictures from their house!

Christmas Eve Breakfast

Is anyone still out there reading this?  Did everyone survive the holidays?  I bet most of you are still sleeping in, lounging around, and enjoying your Christmas break.  Unfortunately, Doc and I had to return to the real world today. So much has happened since the last time I wrote!  It's hard to know where to start.  But, I guess it's best to start at the beginning, right?

For the first time in my career life, I didn't have to work on Christmas Eve this year.  Doc didn't have to, either.  To celebrate, we decided to have some of our friends over for breakfast before all going our separate ways for the holiday.

First to arrive?  The newlywed Earls!

Right behind them were the Cooks.

Earlier in the week, Jenny, Allison, and I visited the Nail Bar to have our nails shellacked.  We were all festive for the holidays!

The Washburns brought their sweet little elf, Wesley.

Like a good elf, she got right to work.

She concentrated hard on getting those corks arranged just the right way.

This good little elf only stopped working for bites of muffins...

...and the occasional chit-chat with Minnie.

While Wesley the elf worked, the rest of us enjoyed a nice breakfast.  Here are the Weatherfords in between bites.

I think Kendra and Antonio win the award for being the most festive.  Antonio even had a green hat to go with his red shirt.

Allison and I ate our breakfast in the living room.

It wasn't long before the little elf joined us for some peekaboo.

Everyone else got jealous and started fighting for her attention.  Jenny tried to wrap her up in her scarf.

Chris got on the ground and lured her in with toy cars.

Minnie tried to win her over with wet, sloppy kisses.

But in the end, it's her momma and daddy that she loves the most.

Probably because she feels right at home with them.

Doc and I are so lucky to have such great friends.  We loved having them over; it was a great morning and the best start to the Christmas holiday!

Even if hosting did wear us all out.

T'Neck Challenge: Complete!

I'm happy to say I am NOT wearing a turtleneck today! And I didn't wear one yesterday either.  That's right, folks; this past Monday was the day I ran out of my beloved turtlenecks. I have officially updated my turtleneck pictures for the last time.  As I scrolled through the pictures for a good look at my collection, few things jumped out to me that you may have noticed too.  Like, for example, the fact that on days four, five, and six, I'm wearing the exact same turtleneck, just in different colors.  Same story goes for days eleven, twelve, and thirteen.  I guess when I find a turtleneck I like, I go ahead and stock up (and then wear them back to back to back).  You may have also noticed that there are at least two solid black, two solid brown, and two solid cream turtlenecks.  A girl can't have too many of the basics.  Oh, and the pageant hair?  Yea, that's a result of these pictures being taken RIGHT after I took the rollers out of my hair each day.  Don't worry, it doesn't stay that way for long.

I piled my turtlenecks up as I wore them because I didn't want to accidentally wear one twice.  I'm so glad all of these can be put away now and will no longer be hanging out on the floor of my closet!

So how many days did I make it?  The answer is....29.  Twenty-nine days of wearing turtlenecks.   Phew!  I happen to know that I have two more under the tree (because I wrapped them myselft) so with that in mind, it's safe to say I can go a whole month wearing just turtlenecks.  Surely not many people can say that. 

I wonder who won the contest...let's take a look at the comments:

Patricia:  My pick is 42. MEW: 54 Poppa: 34 Emily:  I say you can go....hmmmm...42 days. Emily:  Ah! Someone else said 42.  Okay, I say 44 then. Mom:  I'm going to say 38. Kim:  I'm going with 29. Allison:  I think  you've got 31. Jenny:  25 - it's Christmas-y. Jillybean:  37 Beth:  29

Go figure it's the number that two people chose!!   (By the way, you guys had some serious faith in my collection.)

So, about that totally awesome prize I promised....  I intended to make something fun and awesome to give away, but time just got away from me.  So last week I decided the prize would be a cute new turtleneck for the winner to call their own.  That's fitting, right?  So, Beth, expect a turtleneck to be coming your way soon!  And Kim, since you're a turtleneck-aphobe, I guess I'll get you a cute turtleneck-less shirt.  Just let me know what size.

Congrats, winners!  And thanks everyone for playing along.  Don't freak out the next time you see me and my neck is exposed.  

I Have Awesome Friends

One morning last week - I can't remember exactly which day - I arrived to work to find a fun little surprise on my desk.  I looked around in my neighbors' cubes but they didn't have a surprise sitting on their desks.  Weird, I thought, wonder who this is from? Which colleague of ours is giving gifts to just me?  It was like a little fairy had visited during the night.  I finally looked under the surprise and found a card.  Inside the card read "Enjoy this little winter wonderland for your office! - Allison"  Aha! A surprise from my bestest neighbor friend!  (I'm pretty sure I know who was sneakin' around in my cubicle...)  And it's a super cute surprise, too; one that she made herself.  Just check out my little winter wonderland:

A gumdrop scene in some sugary snow! Clever and cute, right? And look at all the details!  It looks like she used sprinkles for the faces and other details.  I'm pretty sure she cut the star on top of the Christmas tree out of a yellow gumdrop.  Now that's talent!  She even used an orange sprinkle for the snowman's nose and made him a hat out of a purple gumdrop.  She's a crafty one, that Allison. 

Now let me tell you about another awesome friend.  Last night was our bunco group's Christmas party.  We drew names last month and all brought a gift for whomever we drew.  I got to be the first person to open a gift and HOLY COW I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU HOW EXCITED I WAS WHEN I SAW MY GIFT!  Seriously, all caps doesn't even come close to showing my true excitement.  I have been saying for two years now how I think it would be SO FUN to have Christmas bedding.  Who wouldn't love getting to change their bedroom up for one month during the year? Plus, it would provide a great time to take your real bedding (comforter) to the dry cleaners to get cleaned. (Ours desperately needs a cleaning.)  So I've been talking about it for a while, but I've never pulled the trigger.  My awesome friend Mary Elizabeth drew my name for the gift exchange and she actually remembered me talking about Christmas bedding and so she bought me the cutest holiday sheets I've ever seen!!! Can you feel my excitement?!?!

Don't you love them?? I do.  I was so excited when I got home that I didn't even bother washing them, I just put them straight on the bed.  They look fine with the comforter we have but I think this might just be the jumpstart I needed to get the ball rolling on complete holiday bedding.  Should I get a red or green comforter?? (You're right, whatever's on sale will be great.)  I rushed to get the bed made up with the new linens before Doc got home.  I had the Miss Winfrey tree lit up, the balcony lights were shining through the window, and the iPod was playing my Christmas playlist.  I just stood and basked in my bedroom's magical Christmas glory until he got home. 

I love it! Isn't this just the most wonderful time of year??

Disclaimer: All of my friends are awesome for reasons that don't involve them giving me gifts.  They're sweet and funny and thoughtful and good listeners and blah, blah, blah, but today I really wanted to talk about these awesome gifts and it's my blog, so there.