Merry Christmas!

Well, I had the best intentions of sending Christmas cards this year, but never got around to order them.  I have a hard time making purchasing decisions in general and I got a little overwhelmed by all of the options  :)  Anyway, here's a digital card from our family to yours!  Merry Christmas!!!

Way Back Wednesday - Ghosts of Christmas Past - Part 3 (2009 & 2010)

Well, ONE last Wednesday before Christmas!  Time for the last Way Back Wednesday recap post - to recap the past two Christmases!

2009 - In 2009, Tim and I went to Nebraska again for Christmas - and boy, was it COOOOOLLLLLD!  They ended up having the largest blizzard in about 20 years!!  The snow literally had drifts that were taller than the truck we were driving in.  It was unbelievable, especially for this girl who's been in a Southern climate for most all of the Christmases I can remember.  It was definitely a white Christmas to remember.  It messed with our travel plans a bit as some roads were closed and we lost power, but we also got a lot of fun playing in the snow!!!

Yup, that's me on the ground - not used to navigating in the snow - fell down off the drift!

Terrible pic of me, but one of the only ones I took this year, so needed to post it...brrrrr!

After we shoveled snow and did a little sledding!  Me and Tim's sister Shae

I did get to steal Landon for a day this trip - Lisa had to work and the boys (Tim &  Nate) were off hunting, so Landon and I headed to the play place and had a fun day just the two of us!

2010 - In 2010, it was back to Dallas for Christmas and we definitely did our share our celebrating - first to Fort Worth to celebrate with Renee's side of the family, Wilshire for the Christmas Eve service, Jonathan and Mary Beth's for Christmas morning/brunch and back to my Dad and Renee's that evening for more festivities!

Look at all those presents!!  Celebrating at Millie's house - I'm pretty sure we had her fried chicken!

I'm sure Hannah would love me for this pic, but she'd just had surgery. 

Christmas Eve - Moms and Pops came in town too



Proving you're never too old for Christmas jammies....wow.



More gift exchanging!

 Hope you've all gotten your Christmas shopping done - wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas!!!

Way Back Wednesday - Ghosts of Christmas Past - Part 2 - 2007 & 2008

Well, only one day late - let's just pretend this was posted yesterday...

It's that time again....Way Back Wednesday time!

In keeping with the holiday tradition, here are a few more ghosts of Christmas Past...

2007 - Tim and I's first married Christmas!  We started our celebration with my Dad and Renee coming to Birmingham a few days before Christmas to visit Tim, Rhett & I.

Tim modeling his gift

Dad & Renee in our apartment - Tim & I's first time to host a holiday!

Opening gifts

Then, Tim & I headed to Nebraska for more celebrating - my first Christmas with the Snider/Suchan/Graff clans and they welcomed me with open arms!

Mike, Jody, Tim, me, Amber

The whole crew!

Sad to admit I didn't get any pics in what I affectionately like to call P-town (Palmyra, Nebraska), but we did also have Christmas with Dan, Teresa and Shae there!  This is also the very first time Tim & I got to meet our godson, Landon (Nate & Lisa's son)!!  Isn't he the cutest? 

1 month old - December 2007

2008 - My mom and Allen have a house in Naples, Florida, so for this year, Rhett, Ryan, Pam, Tim & I were all able to come to celebrate Christmas - we even had Christmas morning festivities outside on their back porch - what a different experience!  It was such beautiful weather. 

This is the life!

Pam getting in on the action with the singer at the restaurant - also love Ryan in the background

Pam, Ryan, Rhett - siblings!

And there you have it...now, can you believe there's only ONE MORE wednesday before Christmas???

Way Back Wednesday - Ghosts of Christmas Past

So, Alison, one of my friends from Camp Ozark back in the day generally does a post each Wednesday titled "Way Back Wednesday" to look back at old times.  Her pictures are usually funny or sometimes sweet, but either way I always enjoy it.  Plus, I know it can sometimes seem like no one out there is reading - this whole blogging thing can often feel like a one-way street so I thought I'd let her know I liked it!  Here's a link to her blog:

By the way - I'm pretty proud of figuring out how to add that button (not that it was too difficult, I'm just still learning how this whole blog world works).  Anyone want to explain to me what a link party is???

And of course, I thought I'd add some of my own Way Back Wednesday pics - and since its that time of year, I thought I'd do some old Christmas pics.  Including today, there are only THREE Wednesdays left until Christmas (scary thought since we haven't done our Christmas shopping yet!) so I thought today I'd do pre-marriage/childhood photos today and then our most recent Christmases the next two weeks.  Most of these pics are pre-digital age - I have a few pics scanned in prior ones that people have sent me before I got my digital camera for various projects that I've done - enjoy!  :)



Memphis - I love Megan (bottom right) and Ryan's (next to Moms) expressions...Moms sure knows how to excited everyone!



Another Christmas in Memphis - Clarissa wore the shirt I was wearing on Clarissa explains it all, I totally thought I was so cool!

Apparently this is '96...I think this may have been in my "too cool for school" phase

Christmas in Dallas - not sure the year, but Will and Katie look so cute!!

I believe this was our cousin dance to "Keathley Pies for this Bunch" (lyrics written to tune of "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" - don't ask how we started a tradition where the cousins are required to do a performance?!  Luckily we've gotten out of it the past few years...

Probably an encore performance..



Fort Worth - Denise & I



I made this for Dad & Renee...  Still want to beat Renee in Words with Friends!  I think she cheats :)

Brothers

Christmas in Alabama

 

Have to have matching jammies...thanks Mom, we know its a hassle but we still love this tradition!



Fort Worth Christmas - Enjoying the new karoke machine- my apologies to all of you who had to listen!



Another year, different pajamas!



Another Moms and Pops game - Deal or No Deal!  This was one of my favs - along with the year they set up a full game of "Who Wants to be a Millionare" with family trivia (complete with lifelines and all!)

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Memphis

This year, Tim & I went to Memphis (where my grandparents live) to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Tim worked 1/2 a day on Wednesday and we drove up in time to meet Moms, Pops, my mom, Allen and Ryan for dinner.

Dinner on Wednesday night at Humdingers

Happy to see my brother!  Missing Rhetter :(

My aunt and uncle, Kay and Mike and my cousin Megan and her husband Blake also came in town.

Megan & I - cousins!

I do have to brag on Megan a bit here - she just graduated from Alabama (I love her anyway) and was on the gymnastics team.  They won the national championship last year and she recently got her national championship ring.

It's huge!  So pretty!

Thow in an SEC ring to boot...

Our wonderful hosts - my grandparents, Moms & Pops

Blake & Megan - newlyweds!

Mom & Allen

Me & the hubby

Thursday morning, the girls (minus me) spent THREE HOURS at Walgreens and CVS doing couponing deals.  Megan coupons a lot - she is one of those people who can plan it out so she actually walks out of the store with more extra care bucks than she walked in with (i.e. she makes money and takes home a ton of stuff).  The women in our family (myself included) are BARGAIN shoppers.  They love a good deal!  I was already planning on Black Friday shopping and didn't need many tolietry type items so I took a rain check.  I went on a run through my grandparents area that morning - the weather was pretty blah, but they live on a golf course, so I ran the cart path which was at least pretty smooth.  I ended up getting a little bit turned around on the golf course though and ran longer than I planned - although it was my longest run to date!  Only about 1/2 a mile short of the 10 mile goal I have for the race in January!  My knee has been hurting since then though  :(  At least I didn't feel bad on splurging on some yummy Thanksgiving food!

We had green bean casserole, dressing, squash casserole, mashed potatoes, strawberry salad, green salad, rolls, ham, turkey AND pork tenderloin.

Yum!  And really good leftover!

We took a breather in the afternoon to watch some football - luckily both the Longhorns and the Cowboys pulled out a victories with last minute field goalsover A&M and the Dolphins.

Football time



Hook 'em!





Happy Thanksgiving!



Mom & I

Allen & Mom

Blake, Mike, Megan and Kay

Then, of course - the main event in our family is the dessert!  Everyone brought something - Mom's puppy chow and chocolate chocolate chip cake, Moms' crockpot candy, Megan's oreo balls, Kay's derby pie and pecan pie and my pumpkin pie cheesecake swirl (we needed at least ONE thing that didn't have chocolate?!).  I'll post the recipe later this week.

Delicious!

We also played a few rounds of cards during the week - I must add, the only game we finished all the way I was the winner (of course, do you think I'd bother to tell you about it if I'd lost?!)  We like to play Shanghai - and I caught everyone on the last hand to come back from behind!

We also always go Black Friday shopping - I just like the thrill of the chase, even if I'm not hunting anything big (which I wasn't really this year).  The whole opening stores at midnight REALLY through us for a loop this year - its hard to decide whether to stay up or go to bed and go early?  We ended up deciding to go at midnight and somehow convinced Tim and Ryan to go with us...

They're only smiling now...

THEY HATED IT!  I can't say I blame them this year - we went to Macy's and really didn't find ANY good deals.  It was incredibly crowded, our coupons wouldn't work on any of our purchases and it just wasn't all that fun!  We went home pretty quickly, got some sleep and went back out at 8 that morning (sans Tim and Ryan).  We went to Dillards (good deals on purses - I got a Lodis wallet for $10!) and Loft and hit up a few other stores in the mall.

That afternoon, we caught up a bit on sleep and Tim made chili for the whole family for dinner that night.  I must say - Tim makes a mean chili. 

Last dinner together

Tim & I drove back yesterday to catch the Auburn/Alabama game...tough game, but its still great to be an Auburn Tiger! 

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!