Christmas 2011

Here's just a random assortment of pictures from our Christmas!!

We had a lot of fun this year hanging out with Blake & my parents,

and, as always, with our nephews & nieces and their families!!

Wow! My mom looks so sassy!!

My sexy husband, preparing some Beijing Beef!

Cooking up a storm!!

Of course, Ellie gets to sit aside while rest of us work!! :)

Awww, my little bro ... this really is a horrible picture of both of us, but it's the only one we got!

Don't ask me what we were doing - this is a silly photo!

A cup of chai in my Polish Pottery from my sister, Jess!

Our favorite give that we gave this year! In case you can't see it, the awesome gold foil letters read 'Bruthas Fo Eva'

Sweet Evangaline in her Christmas Cracker Crown!

Hello!

Lizzie & her hair feathers!! She LOVED them!!

Our Christmas Eve Chinese Dinner! Yumm!!

Ice cream with Omar!!

Donuts with Marisol!!

Carter Fam!!

"Sam, it's a hat ... full of CANDY!"

Silly Sam!

Sweet Sadie Jane!

A Christmas Miracle

Meet Blake - my favorite brother and chef extraordinaire!!

(Don't let the beard and scary evil tat fool you,
he's a softie ... 
AND,
I've NEVER eaten anything he's made that I didn't like)

Blake came home for a short Christmas visit

and wowed us all with his cooking skills for Christmas Dinner!!

For the fam, he made these ribs! 

They looked AMAZING, smelled AMAZING, 

and according to everyone eating them, tasted AMAZING!!

For me (because he loves me, and I'm his FAVORITE sister, 

and I happen to be partial to chicken and turkey,

and I haven't eaten anything other than one of those proteins since the age of 14),

he made this Chicken Madeira.

I have to post two pictures because it was just THAT good! 

The chicken was absolutely AMAZING 

(and it was fun to learn how to cook - the flames over the pan were quite impressive), 

and paired with the AMAZING mashed potatoes and the AMAZING asparagus, 

it was quite a perfect Christmas Dinner.

So there we were, enjoying our dinner, eating like kings on Christmas day ...

Then ...

This happened ...

Blake - my 'favorite' little brother, put a piece of ribs on my plate. 

Right there, next to my AMAZING chicken, my AMAZING potatoes, my AMAZING asparagus.

Of all the ways to ruin my meal ...

For 15 minutes I was told by my brother, 

my parents, 

and my HUSBAND 
(who should support my crazy eating habits NO MATTER WHAT), 

that if I were EVER to try a piece of meat for the REST of my life, 

THIS should be it.

The pleaded, and begged, and promised, 
and cut that tiny piece into an even tinier piece ...

I'm pretty sure that when I picked up the fork, my dad went into some kind of shock.

I handed Nate the camera and told him that if it happened, there had to be proof ...

And I DID it!!

I tasted the ribs!! 
I put them in my mouth, chewed them up, 
savored the AMAZING sauce that Blake covered up the meaty taste with ...

And then I spit it out into that bowl that you see sitting in front of me!!

It was Christmas, after all, and I didn't want to have a sick stomach for the rest of the night!!

But I did it!!

I tried them!!

I enjoyed the way they tasted!!

I tried a piece of the best tasting ribs that Nate had ever tasted,
then I confirmed with myself that I am content eating chicken and turkey!!

And even though my eating habits will remain the same, 
I took a step towards bravery that Christmas Dinner,
I tried a piece of ribs!


It was a Christmas miracle!!

2012

Wow! 2012 already?

It has been a great year for Nate & I! We spent a lot of wonderful time together, with our families, with our friends, and we made some really fun memories!

This new year is going to be a big one for us, with lots of changes that will be coming our way! We are looking forward to the changes as the challenges that we'll conquer together!

We rang in the New Year with our good friends, the Wilkies! We had dinner, played some games, laughed a lot, and counted down to midnight!

If things work out the way we're planning, these are the last holidays we'll be spending so close to our families and best friends, and it has made this year extremely special to us!

Pampered

I literally just got done getting a  massage! There is nothing quite like the feeling of getting all of the stress and tension rubbed out of your body!

If you've never had one, I HIGHLY recommend it ... especially when you've got nothing else going on that day!

Angies

Nate & I took our nephews Sam and Jack to dinner at Angies tonight!
Its been a while since we've hung out with them, and we had a great time!









As a side note, I got a new phone for Christmas, and I'm LOVING it!!
I'm pretty sure that I'll never be smart phone free again!!

What the What?

So I jumped on line this morning to see if any of my final grades were posted ... here's how it went:

- log in to Access

- go to 'Final Grades'

- look down the list

- realize that Stat's grade has posted

- cringe out of fear and worry

- actually look at my grade

- laugh, out loud, and say, 'what the what?'

- text Nate to tell him I pulled a B+

I don't know how I did it, I truly don't. Perhaps a little divine intervention, a good friend to study with, and a really awesome teacher ... I am so relieved that I don't have to take that class over again - I really was worried about it!!  I don't have the grades for my other classes yet, but for some reason, I'm not so worried about those!! :)

Downtown at Christmastime

I am lucky enough to work at a downtown office!
I love working early in the day and later in the afternoons in December because of this:

All Sugared Up

Last Friday, Nate & I hung out with our nieces, Lizzie & Eva, so their parents could go on a date!! We picked up a Gingerbread Kit, some extra candy, and some Peppermint Frosting (*** side note, Peppermint Frosting = YUM!! We were literally dipping our fingers to sneak tastes ***)

The final masterpiece!!

We're quite sure that more candy and frosting went into mouths while decorating the actual house, and the girls were a little sugared up for a bit, but Nate & I enjoyed every minute of our time with them!!