Christmas Blessings!

You know… I sat down to write this blog, and was like… how in the heck do I write down everything from the past 10 days?  I think going forward, I should have taken the time out of the day to write down all the funny moments.  Looking back, it’s hard to remember what made you laugh (or cry) and why it was so funny at the time.  So, down below I have listed out all the things we did on each day (which mostly included baking!!!) and try to throw in a few humorous anecdotes.

Saturday the 18th - pack up car, leave at 8:30 AM, randomly find my friend Diana (who lives not far from my parents in Arkansas… Fort Smith to be exact) on the road in Huntsville, TX where she follows us for a bit.  Lose her for awhile, but we meet up in McAlister for some ice cream so she can walk her dog.  Total fluke of luck that we found her and were able to have a quick chit chat.  Get to the house around 6:30 and just chill and unpack.  Mom made enchilada’s for us for dinner, yum yum!!!

Sunday the 19th- we all went to 11:00 church which boasted a fabulous choir and Christmas story.  We ate lunch at Mad Pizza, saw the Burlesque movie, Katie went back to Springfield, and we shopped for a new Christmas village at Melody’s Choices at the Pinnacle Promenade.  For dinner we just had regular ol’ sausage and crackers for dinner.  We ended the night playing the Wii. Robert spends an hour doing the Wii Fit Ski Jump (you squat down the hill then release to fly through the air… the goal is to go the farthest in the air).  Never fear… Rob did set the record.  As a matter of fact, he set all 10 places.  Funny thing is though… he did it as “Debbie.”  Poor kid, he’ll never be given the credit!

Me and my sisters before we see Burlesque

Monday the 20th- we slept in, Kirstie went to track practice, my parents worked and mom took off work early.  She graciously decided to eats lunch w/ Robert and I at Taco Bueno.  I freaking love Taco Bueno.  It took like 12 years for Arkansas to get them… and then I moved to Houston where they don’t have them!  It’s grossly unfair!!!  Two party burritos every time baby!  Rob rand errands for the afternoon (his parent’s weren’t back yet from their business trip… and as it turned out, the Maguires were busy, our niece and nephew were sick, and grandma Joan was sick..so basically Rob just ran around haha).  While Rob ran around,  mom and I baked ranger cookies.  These cookies consist of your typical cookie dough, oatmeal, and rice krispies.   The tough part was rolling them into balls… it was the funniest thing though, the cookies stuck to mom’s hands like glue, while they rolled off mine like water runs off a wall.  Kirk came home and then we quickly baked plain sugar cookies.  When dad got back from work, we all ate dinner at Guido’s.  I also freaking love Guido’s.  BEST PIZZA EVER.  I’m not joking here.  You can’t go wrong w/ it. Later, we iced the sugar cookies using new recipe we found on Google.  We wanted an icing that would dry hard and make the cookies stackable.  Kind of what you see at professional cookie icing places (haha).  Our recipe included: confectioners sugar, corn syrup, milk, and almost extract plus any food coloring you wanted.  For a future note:  X-nay almond extract.  It was nasty!!!!  It did harden up like we wanted it to!  Very shiny too.  You’ll see later that we re-do these using Vanilla extract.  It was much better!  While we were icing, dad found his favorite Christmas movie on TV:  Christmas vacation.  Dad laughed so much, it was hilarious.  It wasn’t just like a “Ha. Ha.”, laugh… it was more like a “HEHEHEHEHEHEHE” laugh.  The.whole.time.

Me, mom and Kirk working on our icing skills.  So, they
are a little pastel... we tried!



Dad getting his giggle on during the Christmas Vacation movie



Tuesday the 21st- We sleep in…again!, Kirstie goes to track practice, parents work (no take off early).  Me, Rob and Kirk make homemade rice krispie treats once Kirstie came back home.  They were delish by the way.  Of course, we played the Wii some more.  Kirstie and Robert took Scout on a walk by themselves so she’ll go “poo.”  I had dinner with two of my bestest friends in the entire world: Michelle Hurst & Lindsey Bain at Olive Garden.  We chatted about work and other amusing topics.  Dad and Robert went eat at Schlotzcky’s together because Mom and Kirk took off to run errands and then later made snickerdoodles (w/o me, tear).



Rob and Kirstie about to take Scout for her 'poo' walk!



Wednesday the 22nd- We packed up all our stuff and moved it over to the Meier’s house.  The Meier’s came home from their business trip late that day.  Mom came home early again from work.  She loves to see her daughter!!!!  This time we make peanut butter balls.  This includes: 2 POUNDS OF PEANUT BUTTER, 3 POUNDS OF POWDERED SUGAR, and 1 POUND OF BUTTER.  It was kind of disgusting.. but amazing all at the same time.  When mom put it into the Kitchen Aid mixer.. I was just waiting for it to all go ‘poof’ when she started it.  But it didn’t (I did have my camera ready though).  Turns out… the ol’ mixer could barely handle all that peanut butter.  It was awesome.   And you know… someone had to make all that peanut butter (can you even call it dough?? I don’t think so) turn into peanut butter balls.  Well, that would be me.  Then they had to be frozen.   Later that day, Nana & Pop arrived from Sinton w/ their extremely old dog, Susie.  How Susie is still ticking, I’ll never know.  Mom cooked up a hearty stew for dinner.  She even found the spare time to make Take 5 candies (pretzel, peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel).  Robert and I have dinner w/ Joe (Rob’s old college roommate and good friend) and his fiancé Laura and his family at Guido’s.  As stated above, I NEVER turn down a chance for Guido’s when I am home.  We head back to my house where Rob also eats stew.  Rob can never turn down a good stew (I usually can).  Then, we visit with the grandparents.  Mom, then dips the butter balls into chocolate.  The chocolate recipe called for Paraffin wax.. we all had a serious debate on whether or not that was safe to eat.  The ruling was:  Per Google, it is safe to eat!!!   After that, we headed back to Meier’s to visit w/ them and go to bed.



This would be the making of the peanut butter balls.
That is with only a pound of sugar.  We had to add it slowly.





Mom and I working on the Take 5 candies.



Thursday the 23rd- Not too much goes on… mom does not have to work, but dad does as well as the Meier’s.  We have brunch with grandparent’s Maguire’s at Cracker Barrell.  I love Cracker Barrell pancakes… though I do usually have to head to the loo afterwards.  But enough about that….    We played the Wii a lot and even get Nana and Pop on the Wii.  Funnies t thing ever.  Seriously.  Just look at the picture below.  They bowled and played the ski jump game.  Both were quite good bowlers.  We all took turns doing the ski jump… and rob had set the record so high, that none of us were ever able to make it into the top 10.  Neither could Rob.  Whatever he did the few days before was gone?  Hmm… did he cheat?!?  Never!, he says!!  Dad plays the bird game where he has to flap his wings.  Also funniest thing ever.  He just stands there w/ his arms a flappin’!  And afterwards, he’s breathing all hard.   Mom made chicken parmesan for dinner…which is also another favorite of mine (and Rob’s)!     Kate arrives before parmesan from Springfield.  With her, she brought really cute Christmas cupcakes.  We are talking almost professional iced cupcakes.  They were awesome… she even had a special cupcake carrier.  I was a little jealous of that.  However, I should probably not own a cupcake carrier b/c that would require me to make cupcakes and then I would just eat them all.  After dinner, we headed to the Fayetteville square where we walked the lighted square.  Sarah Johnson (family friend) gets proposed to on the square the very same night… only a few hours earlier.  We were sure sorry we missed it!  After that, Robert and I headed back to the Meier’s were we  baked even more sugar cookies… except this time we proceeded to eat almost the whole box as soon as they come out of the oven.  Ooops!  They were sure yummy.  They were the kind of sugar cookie that comes in the box w/ either the tree, snowman, or reindeer inside of the cookie.

Pop getting his bowl on!

Nana working on her ski jump skills!



The whole gang at the Fayetteville square!



Friday the 24th (Christmas Eve)- Rob and I helped wrap presents for Chris Meier, we visited the Meier’s at the store while they worked the Christmas Eve crowd, and later headed to my parent’s house where we iced a new batch of sugar cookies using Vanilla Extract instead of almond extract.  Two words:  WAY BETTER.  Dinner was Tortilla Soup, tamales, and chili.  A good Texas style Christmas Eve dinner!!  Around 7 o’clock we head to Christmas eve service.. first we stop in on Denny Bell (mom’s boss) and drop off cookies.  Then, we head to Johnson’s (family friend) where we watch Sarah’s daughter, Avery, open her Christmas present and check out their new puppy, Bella, a shih tzu.  Then, we finally head to the actual Christmas Eve service at nine o’clock. We all really enjoyed the church service, Robert Cupp was the preacher and Mickey Rapier the head worship leader.  Very low key and wonderful.  Ran into some old friends, too.  We then ended back at the Meier’s house to prepare for a three Christmas, Christmas day.

The Ladies on Christmas Eve

Saturday the 25^th (Christmas Day!)- There’s really way too much to document here so I’m going to do it in the Jessica’s shortest version:  Wake up early, head to my house for Christmas.  Open presents, eat a fantastic lunch consisting of ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit salad.   Have chocolate pie, pecan pie, apple pie, peanut butter balls, and sugar cookies for dessert.  Head to Maguire’s household around 12:15.  Eat lunch around 1:00.. eat the amazing noodles that grandma Maguire makes, watch a little kid run wild, visit with Ryan & Stacy, admire Grandma Lori’s Christmas Village.  Play dirty Santa w/ gift cards, open up presents from Kathleen.  Lori, Sam, Tristan, and Maddison show up.  Visit w/ everyone a little longer.  Head to Meier’s around 5:30.  Eat a dinner consisting of salad, steak, and twice baked baked potatoes.  Meet Scott’s new girl... Amy and her son Julius.  Open up a lot of presents.  Say goodbye to all the little kids as they go off to bed w/ their parents…  Play a game of dice w/ Chris, Randy, Jordan, Ryan, Stacy, and Robert… I win the first game and Robert wins the second.  I might have set a record w/ the longest dice roll of 6,300.  It was kind of amazing.  Should have headed to the Casino.  Take a bubble bath to unwind from the long day, and sleep blissfully.

On a side note:  Robert and I did get wonderful things for Christmas, I got a purple pea coat and a new James Avery ring (thank you Mama Hesseltine!), our first piece of our Christmas village, scarves, razorback shirts, Christmas decorations for the apartment, movies, gift cards, handy items for the kitchen, and assortment of other items and bags.  And probably most important…  cash!  J  We were truly blessed by the gift giving this year.  Thank you everyone!!!



All of us in our new pea coats!!



Lucy & Ricky on Christmas Day



Sunday the 26th-  eat a brunch w/ all of the immediate Meier family minus Scott (Rob’s older brother).  Chill around the Meier house, play some Wii games including, shuffleball, darts, and bowling.  I also won darts.  Maybe I should quit my day job??  Robert even played a Dora the Explorer game w/ Maddison and Christine.  Christine worked on our recipe book from our wedding shower and finished that up and then Stacy & I admired our new found recipes.  Later, we headed to dinner w/ Kathleen (one of Rob’s moms), grandparents Maguire, and Anne & Mike Newell, friends of grandparents Maguire, and Ryan and Stacy.  Robert and I split a NY Strip (11 oz) and a baked potato and salad.  Sour cream on the side, of course.  Filled up on wonderful butter rolls, too!  We had some excellent conversations and enjoyed catching up w/ everyone.  Head to my house where mom, nana, kirk, and I head to the NW Quad, Kirstie’s dorm so that Kirk can do her track practice in a long hallway.  Too cold to do outside.  She is probably the only person in the world who actually hard core practiced the day after Christmas.  But she did!  I saw her!  Mom also vacuums and cleans her dorm room… now I know why Kirk was so adamant about practicing at her dorm!! Hahaha!  We head back to the house where Kirstie packs for her trip to the Rodeo w/ Josh in Memphis.  I never could find evidence of this rodeo on the internet, so he might have been pulling her leg.  She tried on multiple outfits.  We finally decided on one for her to wear.. blue jeans, cowboy boots, white polo long-sleeve.. with a blue sweater.  You can even check out her facebook... she did wear it! And then we visited w/ the grandparents for one last time.  Later, we headed back to the Meier’s around 9:45 at night where we packed it all up and went to bed.

Monday the 27th- pack up the car, eat a breakfast burrito, and drive home!  Left at 8:45 AM.  Get home around 6:45 PM. 

The End.  Phew!!!!  I know, I know.  It was a lot.  But, it WAS A LOT!  Now that you read it, imagine typing that whole thing and trying remembering back!  But, as I read over it… I know I’ve left out some of the funniest things… for example, Robert and I have become so used to Houston’s humidity that we had to put lotion on ourselves every 2 hours b/c we were so dry.  I was telling Stacy (sister-in-law) this, and she looked at me weird… because we are going up there to Colorado to visit them on the 31^st and if we were dry now.. just wait until we go to CO!  I told her to have a jug of lotion ready!!! 

Or.. how my cute little niece, Maddy, went around saying “puppy.” For two days straight.  Maybe more than that.  She knows other words, but puppy was her choice of words.  Or how she tried to tell Uncle Bob and Uncle Ryan apart.  She couldn’t. But she did like to say Uncle Bob… to both of them! Or, if she just got too confused, she would say… you guessed it, “puppy.”

Overall, it was one heck of Christmas though!  I love my family.



I had to show Kate's cupcakes... AWESOMEness!



And of course, we had to get our pic by the hog on the square!

SILENCE! I KEEL YOU!!!

Robert and I are currently working less than 1 mile apart.  This won’t last for long… only through Thursday.  So, I got the brave idea that we should carpool to work together!  We got up this morning… I made sure that he got up early enough to leave with me.  If I just let him be, well then.. he probably wouldn’t stroll into work until 9.  Ok, he corrects me… 8:30.  I’ll compromise… 8:45.  So, we head on out… I even had to grab my gloves… awfully cold here in Houston!!

Good thing we took Rob’s car.. he has seat heaters!!  Being the kind gentleman that he is, the first thing he does when he plops down in the car is turn mine one for me.  He’s my sweetie.  We continue on our merry way… and I soon discover, man I could fall asleep like this.  Heater blowing, butt warm, feet toasty, and just all bundled up w/o a care in the world on the passenger side.  I feel quite certain Robert does not feel this way, but I personally am having a hard time not falling asleep.  He drops me at 8:03 and heads to work himself.

He texts me and says be ready at 5.  Little does he know I usually work until 5:45 or 6.  But, I told him if he would come at 5:15 I would be ready.  He showed up at 5:08.  I made him wait until 5:15.  Then, we head home.  Traffic is bad.. we sit at these lights for hours… we ask each other how our day was… talk about the weather… talk about our upcoming vacation… talk about the traffic… talk about which way we should cut around the traffic… sit in the traffic some more… and then we get on the highway.  We are finally moving at the decent pace of 55 mph and I realize I have this sudden urge to fall asleep again.  I could TOTALLY GET USED TO THIS!  This carpool thing rocks my socks off.  I even have to yell at Rob to exit b/c he’s so relaxed himself. Hehe.  We don’t usually see other until about 6-6:30 when we each get home, so it was nice to have someone to talk to.  Of course, we had dispensed w/ what we had to say each other and it was silence by the time we got to I-10.

We get off the highway and head towards the apartment.  We each talk about what lanes we like to drive in and we each have our particular way of winding down the street.  We get close to the light we turn at, and I ask Rob:  what are we having for dinner?  Rob says he’ll probably just have a Lean Cuisine.  I say I’ll just have bowl of cereal.  (See Dinner for Two post for further clarification).  I see Escalante’s up on the corner and ask Rob, want to go to Escalante’s?  Rob says, “I don’t know.”  I say, “well then.. it’s up to you.  I’m down for it.”  He pulls in, they seat us right away.  We dive into the chips & salsa. 

NOTE:  I’m justifying all this because A) I stayed under budget while Christmas shopping, and B) we just carpooled and saved whole day’s worth of driving on one car.

We continue scarfing down the chips & salsa.  We don’t really speak.. b/c well we’ve already talked about our day.  We sit in silence.  Chomp, chomp, chomp.  Food comes.  Munch, munch, munch.  Pay bill.  Leave.  Come home. Finally.. we have something to say… because our apartment STINKS.  It was quite horrible actually.  I immediately lit my Home for the Holidays Yankee candle.  We change our clothes, Rob re-washes the pot that was sitting in the sink.  I put on the pajama pants and the house-shoes.  I turn on the TV.  Look at the time:  it’s 6:45!!!!!!!!  You’re kidding me! 

I know, this whole time you thought we had sat in traffic for hours… but no, only about 30 minutes.  Dinner only took about 45.  People have to love serving us, we can get in and out in 30 mins flat if we wanted to.  We stretch it to 45 mins or an hour.  We even leave a nice tip.  Easiest money anyone ever made. 

Anyways, I ask Robert if he can buy stamps at work.  I have all the Christmas cards that need to be mailed and didn’t have enough stamps.  Sorry guys.. some of you are getting a Adopt a Pet stamp and the others Christmas stamps.  Rob says no.  I think secretly he can.. but he doesn’t want to be embarrassed.  Then, Rob gets this great idea to go to Target and he can buy my Christmas present (the Eclipse DVD) and I can buy stamps.  I immediately said BUTTT ROB, I already have my pajamas anyways.  He said in a quick voice “Nope, can’t go to bed at 7 pm, so we’re going.”   I put my real pants and shoes on as I can see that I cannot win.

We head out.. I get this awesome idea to kick up the volume to Usher’s OMG song.  We used to be huge fan’s of Usher back when were in high school, so I purchased the song not that long ago.  Picture us.. two very young looking, white people busting out w/ Usher… Oh My Gosh.  This gets us to Target.  I’ve only repeated the song twice.  I also speak in plural’s here, but I guess I should probably speak in terms of one person b/c kid yourself not:  Rob does not sing or ‘bust out any moves.’  We pull into Target where Robert bypasses the closest parking spots, almost hits two people and their cart, and drives past a very scary person.

Side note:  Both Wal-Mart and Target are on Westheimer where I would not really recommend going after dark.  Especially if you are woman, alone.  By this point, Robert has turned down my Usher as “he can’t even hear himself think” and I make him drive back around the parking a lot b/c it feels a bit safer on that side of Target.  We go in, they do not sell stamps.. I TRIED TO TELL HIM THIS BEFORE WE LEFT, but sometimes when Robert is on a mission… he is on a mission.  Or probably like any man… there was no stopping him.  I look at the check-out lines, they are so long and I immediately want to turn out of the store and head back home.  He, of course, heads to the back of the store where he finds my DVD.  But, he can’t pay for it because he left his wallet at work.  So, not only am I attending the purchase of my present… but I am also paying for it.  Yes, I know we have a joint checking account so its ‘our money’, but really… that’s just not the point of it.

By now, I’m starting to lose my cool.  I don’t really know why, other than I JUST PURCHASED MY OWN CHRISTMAS PRESENT.  But, Rob is on a mission and now it’s on to Wal-Mart.  This is where I start to get my groove back.  Rob almost misses the turn into Wal-Mart and I’m like TURN!!!  He’s like “Well, why is the sign way up there for?”  I immediately burst out w/ “SILENCE!!! I KEEL YOU.”  If you haven’t heard this phrase, you need to You Tube Jeff Dunham and Achmed.  It’s “Ach (phlegm) med.”  You really got to get your throat into it.  Imagine, deep & throaty “SILENCE, I KEEL YOU.”  Well, that was me.  The first time.  Rob bursts out laughing, b/c let’s face it… I don’t have a deep & throaty voice.  But, Rob does an excellent imitation.  It’s hilarious.  So, he responds “Silence.  I keel you.”  That’s us going into Wal-Mart.  We pick up the stamps and head back home. I almost want to tell the Cashier "SILENCE.  I KEEL YOU."  But I contain myself.

No more Usher and OMG.  On to SILENCE!!  I KEEL YOU!!  Each trying to best the other.  For those of you who know me… I can do a pretty hilarious British accent… So, now it’s a deep & throaty, British “I KEEL YOU!!!”  Rob can’t compete w/ that one.  Nope.  I rule.

So, now… we are back.  Replaced the jeans w/ pajama pants and my house-shoes.  Watching the recorded Sing-Off.  It’s kind of amazing.  These people harmonize all together (I don’t even know what that means), but there are no instruments and they make up all the background noise and sing these old songs.  For instance, a group of black men are currently singing Backstreet Boy’s “I Want It That Away.”  It’s quite impressive.  Seriously.  Check it out. Anyways...  Rob is Googling (why doesn’t spell check recognize Googling??-- they should know it’s a verb by now) the meteor shower and we’ll go to bed soon.  9:30 EVERY NIGHT!  J

SILENCE!  I KEEL YOU!!!

The Perils of Christmas Tree Decorating!

Two years ago I bought my first tree.  It was 6’5 feet tall and cost me $35, pre-lit.  I got it from Wal-Mart.  I then picked up some ornaments that cost me $5 for 12 ornaments.  I picked up four of those.  Then, I decided I needed some garland to go around the tree… so I picked up a paper chain.  All from Wal-Mart.

Yes, I bought a paper chain.  If you can’t remember what a paper chain is… think back to elementary school.  You would cut strips of paper out and glue them in circles to make a paper chain.  The typical colors were red & green.  You enjoyed as school kid, so why not enjoy it now.  I however, decided to create my own… well… I’m this working girl now so I can pay some poor kid to make it for me.  Or in this case, it was probably an adult in China that I paid .12 cents to make paper chain.  But, in either case, I hung it on my tree.

Then, I bought a tree skirt.  However, I was really surprised at how expense most tree skirts are.  In retrospect, I bought a really expensive one that I wish I hadn’t bought… but, in my defense, I thought it was part of the $20 tree skirts.  I found out later that it was in the $40 tree skirt section. 

So, that was year one.  $ Ornaments > $ of Tree.  Hhmmm…..

$35 tree

$20 ornaments

$40 tree skirt

$15 paper chain

$110 total costs to decorate tree    

Well year two rolled around.  I got married.  But we kept the tree!!  But, I decided to go with something a bit different.  Those $20 ornaments were no longer good enough and I threw away the paper chain (my thoughts the year before, well, were it was cheap enough to buy again if I wanted it again). 

This time around, Rob and I went shopping together… and we went to Garden Ridge.  Hmmph Wal-Mart--- hello Garden Ridge!!!!  Umm, that place is slightly ridiculous.  And my husband went crazy.  God, I love him.  He just kind of took over and started dropping things in the basket.  We bought new garland for the tree, this type these silver bead things.  (Side note:  we neglected to buy enough & had to wrap the tree twice before we were clever enough to get it all the way to the top).  We bought pink, green, blue, gold, and silver ornaments of various sizes and variety.  Our rule was, just buy two of you know… everything.  HA! Oh, and we didn’t replace the tree skirt.  That was $40 bucks you know.

So, that was year two.  $ Ornaments > $ of Tree

$35 tree spent in year 1

$75 on ornaments spent in year 1

$150 on ornaments spent in year 2

Yes… let’s not forget the important thing here people…. $35 tree!!!

So, now we are onto year three: the current year.  Last weekend we put up our tree.  However, I knew we had enough ornaments.  And Dave (our Budget Nazi-- also known as Dave Ramsey--keeping us financially sound, so I can’t really talk bad about him, hehe).  But, this year…  I decided I need to up it up a notch.  I decided to try the whole mesh thing.  I found some at the Houston Nutcracker Market--- which is kind of like this huge craft fair type place--- I bought the color purple to go with my multi-color tree. 

And then, I bought this red & green color mesh on a separate roll….for a separate tree garland that I decided I would buy.  Note… I bought the decorations prior to the garland.  WHOOPS!

Our only problem…. We had no idea how to get it on the tree. Or the garland.  Yes, we did go and buy the garland from Garden Ridge.  We also picked up more silver bead garland for the tree (I had not forgotten our problem from last year!)  We looked at several trees online, called my mother-in-law… but I was too afraid.

My brave Robert took that mesh and just started going with it.  It was AMAZING!!!  He got it going and then it just took off.  I had to ask, “can I do some?”  He did the first mesh section on the tree.  Got me started on the second and I finished it up.  We even did all this while watching the

Mississippi St.

game that went into over time.

Once we put up all the ornaments on the tree (w/ NO new ones), I decided to start on the garland.  We bought cheap garland.. had to string lights on it first.  I couldn’t find twinkling lights like I wanted, but Rob said he could fix that.  He traded some “regular” light bulbs for “twinkling” light bulbs.  The only problem.  It didn’t really make them twinkle.  Instead, they blinked.  On, Off.  On, Off.

I decided to do the mesh myself on the garland this time.  I did the red & green mesh on my garland.  I started off real well, but the middle and the end didn’t look so great.  By this time it’s double overtime in the Arkansas game and getting late at night and I’m so over this Christmas decorating.  I just leave it alone and give it my immediate approval and then… GUESS…. I use the Wal-Mart ornaments I bought two years ago! YES!!!  They finally get used again!!!

THEN… The game ends (HOGS WIN!!!) and we try to hang up the garland on the lower section of our entertainment center.  Only problem… it won’t stay up there w/o some assistance. So, I decide that we MUST make a quick run to Kroger (never going to Wal-Mart at ten at night in Houston) to get the command hooks to hang up the garland.  At like 10:00 at night.  My ever supporting husband accompanies me and we get the hooks.

We hang up the garland and then head on off to bed.  As you can see here… we don’t do too much at night.  This Christmas tree decorating was the highlight of our weekend!!

The final result
P.S.  I did buy an Angel for the top, but she was
to big for my tiny tree and wouldn't stand up. So
she sits on a bookcase instead.

Then a few days later, I just can’t stand looking at the “On. Off.  On.  Off” lights.  Neither can I stand how my mesh looks on my garland.  I make some “quick fixes.”  Wrapped a couple of limbs (one of those “sticky out things”) around various areas of my mesh to make it look better.  I wish I had the patience to just start things over instead of “quick fixes.”  But I just don’t.  It does look better now.  Rob turned off my “blinking” lights and now they just stay on.  Phew.  I think every time they blinked, I blinked and they just mostly seemed off.  HAHA… Ok, small joke.  Probably not funny.

[I would insert the garland here, but it's not that great, so you aren't missing out]

To break down this down in dollars:

$35 tree spent in year 1

$75 on ornaments spent in year 1

$150 on ornaments spent in year 2

$24 on mesh spent in year 3

How is that I just keep adding to my $35 tree??  I can only think of the day that I buy a really nice, tall Christmas tree.  If I can outspend my tree by three to one w/ a $35 tree… imagine what it will be w/ a more expensive tree?  Hhmm.. I’ll save that for maybe next year.  J

Anyways, that was the perils of my Christmas tree decorating.

Us in front of the tree!  We had to kneel.. or else it loked like crazy stuff
was coming out of our heads!

On a random side note:  I took this picture after my Company's Christmas party.  This in a really nice neighborhood really close to our apartment.  It's the kind of house I can only dream of living in.  But the outside all decorated is beautiful. 

This is the only part that I could fit in my camera frame.  The whole
house is dressed like this.

Hmm.. if I can triple the price of my tree... I wonder what I will do when I have the outside of a house to decorate... we'll save that one for another day!

I Got Your Back, You Got Mine

This year for Thanksgiving, my grandparents, further known as Nana & Pop, rented some condos for the holiday at Canyon Lake, TX.  It’s located right in between San Marcos & New Braunfels, TX.   They showed up on Tuesday, the same day as my parents and Kirstie, Robert and I showed up Wednesday.  My Aunt Mary Beth and Uncle Steve and there kids showed up Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday evening.  Even Jake’s girlfriend Jennifer showed up for a day & night.  Only my sister Kate was missing.  But, I reckon she had a pretty good reason… her very intelligent, good-looking boyfriend is at Harvard and she went to visit him too.  Considering she see’s him probably only twice a semester, I figure she has every right to go and see him.  But we sure did miss her over the week.

So… let’s just give a run down of all the people on this “little” family vacation.

Laura & Wayne = Nana & Pop

Steve & Mary Beth = Aunt & Uncle (Steve is son of Nana & Pop, brother to Mom)

Terry & Debbie = Mom & Dad (Debbie is the daughter of Nana & Pop, sister to Steve)

Jessica & Robert = Jess is daughter of Debbie & Terry, married to Robert

Katie, Kirstie = daughters of Debbie & Terry  (Kate couldn’t come)

Dena, Jake, Ann, Julia, Jane = kids of Steve & Mary Beth

Jennifer = Jake’s girlfriend

Scout = Mom & Dad’s Shih Tzue

Aggie = Steve & Mary Beth’s dog (some kind of Scottish Terrier I think)

Weldon & Rayma Jean = Mema & Pepa (Dad’s parents)

Vicki & Mark = Aunt & Uncle (Vicki is daughter of Pepa, brother to Dad)

On Wednesday, we unloaded all of our gear.  As you can imagine, three families can bring quite the amount of food.  My uncle & aunt had the Turkey and all the fixins’ with them, Rob and I brought some chips, and Nana and Pop brought the Ham and several other fixins’.  And everyone brought some, if not multiple, amounts of dessert.  Not too mention all our stuff.  I, myself, brought all the coupons and several magazines.  Had to prepare for all the big sales on Black Friday after all.  My fellow cousins also brought the Wii, and Rob and I brought our remotes too.

We all got settled in and let into the Wii.  I’d have to say my cousins were a bit more well versed at the Wii then the rest of us.  However, Rob definitely enjoyed the Wii.  I’m not a huge player, so he loved having Jane to play with.  Even though, Julia was pretty intense at Wii Tennis and really got into character.  I myself was not too good at anything.  I tended to come in last at Mario Kart and when trying to dodge in the shoes & other random flying objects on the Wii Fit, I was quite the disaster.  Unfortunately, the Wii board didn’t recognize when I was ducking.  Oh well.  I’m sure it was entertaining for everyone else to watch. 

Wii Gamers

We cooked tamales, chili, and had chips for lunch & dinner on Wednesday.  Rob had never had tamales before.  Not to worry, I let him know you have to take the husk part off.  But maybe we shouldn’t have told him because that would have been very funny.  But they were sure good.  It’s not often that we eat tamales and chili. 

On Thursday, everyone was decked out in their Aggie gear in preparation of the Texas A&M game and got busy cooking our big Thanksgiving meal.  Uncle Steve prepared an awesome turkey and everyone else pitched in to get all the sides together.  We had so much food it was kind of amazing.

Steve working on the turkey

This was also the day that it went from like 85 to about 35.  It was SOO freaking cold.  I only brought one long-sleeved item.  Thank goodness for family, or else I’d have probably frozen to death.  I did not pack according to the weather.

Pop and I set the table and he was sure to let me know that A) I missed three plates all together, B) Some didn’t have forks and then C) Some didn’t have knives.  So, I’m not the best table setter.  But, Pop kept me in-line.  Nana said Grace before we all ate and it was quite moving.  Nana can also say a good prayer.  The right things always to come to mind and she sounds so peaceful and blessed. 

Waiting in line for food.  Kids got first dibs this year.

Family enjoying their Thanksgiving meal.

This kind of sums up Thanksgiving Day. hehe.

After we finished eating we, depending on who you were, A) played the Wii some more B) rummaged through the Black Friday ads, C) watched the Dallas Cowboys game, or D) took a nap.  I personally rummaged through the Black Friday ads and then took a nap.  On a very small chair.  But, I managed to fall asleep.  I even woke up during half time and caught the best part of the game.  Of course, until the end.  The Cowboys couldn’t hold on.  I had such high hopes for them, but they just couldn’t pull it out.

The Cowboy game ended just in time for the Texas vs. Texas A&M game.  Seeing how as my ENTIRE family is A&M except for me and my two sisters this is a really big game.  Pop ran the concessions-- pop corn and Oreo’s for a dollar.  J We ate chips, guacamole, bean dip and leftovers.  The game was intense, lots of whooping, booing, and screaming.  But never fear, the Ags whooped up on the Longhorns and became a solid 9 and 3 team. 

Watching the A&M game.

Those that couldn't fit in the first picture.

That pretty much wrapped up our Thanksgiving Day.  It was a great day.  We were all together and had fun catching up with everyone.

Mom, Dad, and Kirstie got up at 3 AM to head out to Target and Wal-Mart.  I was supposed to be with them, but I just couldn’t do it.  I woke up and said,  Uhh…. Nope.  Not to mention, Rob says “Oh Love Bug, do we have to???”  How can you say no to that??  But anyways, I got a text from Mom at 5:45 AM with the word “FAIL.”  Meaning, they did not get what they set out to get.  Not too surprising, as what they wanted was  TV that was advertised on the front page of the ad which only EVERY AMERICAN also saw and wanted.  So, it just wasn’t meant to be.  They came back and slept and Rob and I, as well as everyone else, continued sleeping. 

Rob and I got up and found Mema & Pepa, Dad’s parents, were here for a visit.  We finished getting ready loaded up in the Suburban to continue a little shopping.  We stopped off at Dick’s Sporting Goods.  They had some deals on North Face.  I bought a new jacket for myself.  P.S.  Never go shopping for a coat when you are cold.  Stores must love it when tourists come in and its unseasonably cold because you will just buy anything.  So, that’s what I did.  I was cold and I bought a jacket.  It does look quite snazzy however.

We made our way over the famous San Marcos outlets and pretty much turned ourselves right around.  I had never really seen anything so amazing.  It was a sea of cars.  Little did we know they had been open since MIDNIGHT.  So, any chance we wanted was pretty much over from step one.  We stopped in at James Avery where mom bought Kirstie and I a Christmas present.  Then we left.

On our way back to the condo, we got a call from Steve to meet them somewhere and take some family photos.  But first, we stopped off at Whataburgher.  My dad has this intense fascination with Whataburger.  It’s crazy.  There were 7 of us in the Suburban and we decided to do the drive-thru.  But before I blame this crazy idea on my dad, it really was Kirstie’s idea.  “Yeah, Dad, drive through!”  That was a HUGE mistake.  And let me tell you HUGE.  THIRTY MINUTES later we got our food.  However, once we got them to repeat it back to us correctly, the food did come out right.  It was just getting it all down that was hard.  I can still see the lady behind us, “WTF, who is this guy?  Who in the heck orders food like this?  Why is this taking so long?”  As she calls her husband and says, “Sorry, dear, I’m behind this idiot moron in the drive-thru lane.”  It was kind of funny.  But we got everything down.

We headed to this location Steve & Mary Beth found to take family photo’s.  I look relatively terrible, I wasn’t really prepared to take photos.  But it’s cool.  It all worked out.  Steve & Mary Beth found this really cool place right down on the Guadalupe River and we took a ton of photos.  Even got in a big group shot.  I was in charge of setting the timer on the camera.  I think the group shot turned out pretty well considering I had only 10 seconds to run over and hop in and “look natural.”

The Atzenhoffers were quite photogenic.

Not quite as good looking as the first bunch, but I'll take it.  ;-)

We headed back to the condo where, depending on who you were, A) watched the Alabama, Auburn game, B) watched Shrek, or C) took a nap.  I personally watched the Alabama/Auburn game.  What a great game!!  I still can’t believe Auburn pulled it out.

Both Jake and Dena had to leave that day, so we all said our good-byes to them.

After that, all the ladies + Rob decided to play putt putt.  Keep in mind it was approximately 40 degrees outside.  Dad took Scout and Steve came later and kept us company around the course.  I think the only person to get a whole in one was Jane.  Of course, that was her mulligan shot, but a hole-in-one is still a hole-in-one in my book.  Scout absolutely loved the putt putt.  She wanted to chase after each ball.  She even picked up Julia’s ball and was able to drop it in the hole!!!  It was so hilarious.  We wrapped up our 18 holes and it was dark out.

Scout was MVP!

After we finished Putt Putt

Steve, Mary Beth and their kids headed somewhere for hamburgers and the rest of us heated up the ham.  I love ham.  Then, we watched Toy Story 3 and later called in a night.

The next day, the Hesseltine’s all got up early to be at the outlet mall by 9.  Steve cooked us breakfast and we said good-bye to everyone.  Rob and I loaded up in our car and mom, dad, Kirk, and Scout loaded up in the other.  We headed out to the outlet mall where we shopped for 3 ½ hours.  We didn’t even do a full quarter of the outlet mall.  That place is so huge!!  It’s awesome though.  We got in a full bit of shopping and then… I’ll let you guess… we went back to Whataburger.  The same Whataburger as last time.  Except, this time we went inside.  Then, we headed to my Aunt Vicki and Uncle Mark’s house in San Antonio where there were kind enough to host us for the night.

Once we got there, we chit chatted for a bit and then CALLED THOSE HOGS!  Just kidding, but we did watch the Arkansas/LSU game.  It was a GREAT game to watch, though the beginning of the game had me a bit worried.  But, we pulled it out.  Then, me, Rob, mom, dad, and Kirstie went and saw Jeff Dunham at the AT&T center in San Antonio.  It was very funny.  Robert and Dad laughed so hard.  Don’t get me wrong, it was very funny, but the guys definitely laughed harder.

Then we headed back to Aunt Vicki’s and where we went to bed.  My parents left at 4 or 5 AM on Sunday and Robert and I headed out of SA around 11:30.  Before we headed out, my aunt and uncle were kind enough to take us for some breakfast tacos at the Taco Garage.  Apparently this used to be an old car shop turned food place.  The lights were all made up of random car parts… hoses, mufflers, etc.  It was very cool and very good and filling.  I could only eat one taco!!!

And now we are back at our place.  All my Christmas stuff is out and set up.  The tree, garland, nativity scene, Christmas plates, décor, etc is here.  You name it, I got it up.  After reflecting on our week, I ultimately decided that family is the best thing you can have.  People will fall in out of our lives, but family will always be there.  I always love getting caught up with everyone hear about what they are doing.  God Bless my family… I sure do love them.

Group shot of everyone!

Family  =  I Got Your Back, You Got Mine.