holiday blog #1...and more to come

So apparently my technological prowess isn't quite what it used to be. I spent over an hour today trying to figure out WHY our photos wouldn't upload - and what to do to correct that problem - only to find out that I simply needed to restart my computer. Good. What a waste of time. Since I've already wasted enough today I think I'll try to get down to business blogging about the holidays.

I really should have blogged about things as they happened, but I wanted to include photos, so here I am with a bunch of half-memories to tell you about. Better than nothing though, right?

Christmas is always crazy for me - it has been since I was little. I have at least 4 places I'm supposed to be every Christmas Day. It tends to work out to be a fun, albeit tiring day. Since Chance and I have been married - things have gotten slightly more hectic. He closes the store on Christmas Eve and has to be back to work on December 26th at 7:30AM...which doesn't leave much of a holiday. This year the plan was the same as last: head to Tyler around 8pm on Christmas eve, getting there in the wee hours of Christmas morning...spending Christmas day running around town to the four Christmases with Chance driving back to Austin exhausted at the end of the day and leaving me in Tyler. This year, I was pretty excited about spending a little time in Tyler with family and friends - even though I was gonna miss Chance like crazy. He had the house to himself for over a week - which I'm sure he enjoyed. No being nagged to clean things up after coming home from work..just playing with his Christmas presents.

Anyway. We're not there yet. We haven't gotten to the presents. I can already tell this is going to be a VERY vain attempt to be brief.

Let me back up. Before we even GET to Christmas...I've gotta at least mention the slew of visitors we had beforehand. Well, maybe not a 'slew' persay...but we had several houseguests right before Christmas. Robert Adam and Casey came in the 12th to see The Soldier Thread at Antone's and to hang out with us...and we certainly had a good time.


We ate some good food (mmm, Polvos), played some AWESOME board games, and went on this cool Modern Open House tour in Central Austin. It was a pretty adventure-filled weekend. The following weekend, the Deckers came to visit. We get to see Kris and LJ about twice a year, since they live in DC...so seeing them is typically rare and quick, but always special. We got to spend some quality time with them checking out Christmast lights, eating more Mexican food, and playing more games.

We also spent some time leading up to Christmas wrapping up (literally and figuratively) Christmas presents, making our first ever Christmas candy, taking photos for/making/and mailing Christmas cards...


and cramming in everything else we could fit in.

Chance and I celebrated our 'family Christmas' on the 22nd, his last evening off before the 'holiday'. We opened our gifts and our stockings, and minus one minor incident had a pretty good time giving and receiving candy, good-smelling-stuff, utilitarian gifts, and toys to play with.

The gift-giving was followed by our 'annual' trip to Kerbey Lane for a scrumptious dinner/late night meal.

With all the festivities, I think we were both already pretty worn out by Christmas Eve...but we packed up ourselves and the dogs and headed to T-town around 9:00PM. The dogs came with us on a 'trial run' because my gracious sister Luci was planning on keeping them later when we visited Amarillo, and we wanted to see how they'd do with her pups. Anyway, we rolled in to Tyler around 1:30AM or so - introduced the dogs...and crashed.

Christmas day, like I said before...is pretty much a tour of Tyler. We tend to start the day at my dad and Karen's house for the best homemade french toast I've ever had (made by Karen)...and open presents there. This year was a little different - Logan wasn't with Luci and neither Eric nor Shawn (and Mandy) were there for breakfast. Shawn and Mandy celebrated their Christmas in Tyler early, and Eric wasn't coming until later in the afternoon. So - we did our Christmas at dad's...


(which was awesome - and included a new point and shoot)...


...then headed over to Christmas at Golly's (my mom's mom).


There we opened gifts (more really cool stuff - clothes, gift cards, home decor)...


...and had a yummy Christmas lunch (I can still hardly tell the difference between Thanksgiving and Christmas food...).


Chance carved the turkey to everyone's liking (he was getting a LOT of praise for his carving job - lol - I guess he WAS the only man there). As soon as we finished lunch, we were shuffled back over to my dad's for Christmas number 3 (number 2 at his house for the day)...with Eric. We hung out there for probably 30 minutes - talking to Eric, watching him open gifts, opening our awesome gift from him (a Roku)...and eating candy. Then it was BACK to Golly's for dessert. As soon as we crammed some pie down our throats it was off to Nana's (dad's mom's)...for Christmas with the Barrett clan. We weren't able to stay for long, unfortunately, just long enough to eat a tiny bit more and open a few more presents and give some hugs. By then - Chance and I were both about to pass out - and he still had to gather the dogs and drive back to Austin (it was around 6pm or so)...so we decided to call it quits. Unfortunately, it was Chance's 2nd year in a row to miss Christmas at PaPaw and Margie's (Karen's dad and step mom)...and my first. Once Chance got on the road, dad and Karen had been there and were ready to head home themselves, so I stayed in the rest of the evening and worked (at my sister's) while my family went and saw Marley and Me...and while Chance drove back to Austin.

I wish we could spend a Christmas night together. Maybe SOMEDAY we'll be able to. I also found myself wishing everyone in my family would do Christmas on different days...so we could spend more time with each group. Or...so Christmas would be more relaxing - you know....eat food, take a nap, watch tv, play games...that kind of Christmas. I can't complain too terribly much though - there's always lots of good food and good times with family (just NOT ENOUGH time)!

We came away from this Christmas saying we weren't 'doing Christmas' next year. I'm pretty sure we've both already changed our minds about that. Lol. Never lasts long. But maybe next year there'll be less pressure. Maybe someday. Or...maybe we'll just run away.

Goodness. I've been typing forever and just covered Christmas. Looks like you'll have to wait til tomorrow for a blog about my time in Tyler. And expect an upcoming post by Chance about our time in Amarillo. With even more photos. Dang. Alritey. I'm off to go watch American Idol. Yuck. I don't even know why we're doing this to ourselves. Lol.

pc or bust

No, I'm not talking about being politically correct. If you know me, I am about the last person that cares about that. I am talking about my PC being busted. I love me some computer trouble. I think Claire and I have a curse on our comps. As soon as one of us fixes a problem the others goes out. My most recent problem: my screen shuts off after reboot but the computer continues to run. Yeah not an easy problem to fix when you need a screen to access the information on the computer to fix it. So far I have reformatted the hard drive, purchased a new monitor which is really pretty, ran the computer with the case off, and bought and installed a new power supply for the whole computer. NO luck with any of it. Yes it is slightly frustrating, but at the same time I have a little more time to waste everyday as I am not wasting it on the computer anymore.

If your a computer whiz and have any thoughts on repair that would be great. Other than the pc ordeal Claire and I are just trying to chug along through Christmas. We still have a billion things going on and a billion more to do. Somehow we managed to put off the Christmas picture for our cards until today. Guess how cold it was outside today, yes thats right 32 degrees. Not exactly the nicest day for outdoor photos. But sometimes you learn, as a husband, you just suffer through what the wife wants. Yeah it was cold, and it involved a lot yelling and arguing but for dang sure these cards will be full of Christmas cheer. HA! I am glad Claire wants to do them although I hate the process. Brewster wasn't to happy being out in the cold either.

The other fun event of the day: Allergy Testing. Results: I am allergic to everything but dog. No seriously. The only thing not itching on my back today was dog, cat, cockroach(yeah gross), and some rare mold. Everything else made me swell up and itch like crazy. The antidote: 5 different medicines and the possibility of shots in the future. Oh well, at least now I know what causes my allergies......air with any particle of anything in it. I try to keep a good attitude but sometimes everything comes together all at once and you feel a bit overwhelmed. Claire is feeling it, as am I. I work about 90 hours through Christmas eve so I have little time off to accomplish anything and today we got very little done other than discover I shouldn't go outside and my computer has a unsolvable hardware problem.

Tis the season for joy!

I am not really that bitter! Just somewhat full of sarcasm. I hope everyone's Christmas season is going well so far and they are all done with errands and shopping!

christmas dash

My time off has been mostly consumed by Christmas. I don't think I really wanted it this way. But when you have parties to go to, presents to buy/make, food to make, friends visiting, work to run you down, and a billion other things going on you kinda lose track of time. Well I do anyways. I have been wanting to post about some great dishes I cooked up over the past few weeks with recipes and pictures included. Time has slipped away and I still haven't posted. Don't fret though..I will get them on here for everyone to delight in. I am sure y'all just can't wait. For now it will have to be wrapping and planning and checking off lists. Maybe on vacation in January I will put up some interesting blog stuff.

I think at this point I am more excited about vacation than I am Christmas. Really, who wouldn't be after working for 15 straight months. Whew I'm tired.

Oh, and just to throw this out there like everyone else has been today. It snowed last night. Not the real snow that you see up north or even in Amarillo where there are large visible snow flakes. But the flurry white stuff that you can only tell the difference between it and sleet because it kinda floats rather than pelts. Exciting non-the-less. I love the cold weather.

let there be light

Today was a first. We lit the house with lights. After Church, and then lunch with new friends and old friends we headed home to finish our Christmas decorations. It was the first time I have ever attempted to light the roof of a home, much less my home. Thanks to Claire's cousin Howie we were afforded the lights we needed to make our home the envy of the neighborhood.

After a surprisingly easy two hours of applying clips and snapping the lights on to shingles we were all set to go. The only hindrance was the 30 mph wind and cold gusts threatening to blow us off the roof. We prevailed in the end and now have all our Christmas decor done. Something strange ensues after Thanksgiving, every day off seems extraordinarily great. We made new friends, had a good time with old ones, put up decorations, ate some thanksgiving leftovers and topped it all off by relaxing out a local coffee shop and doing some reading.

We only have more of the same planned for tomorrow. Well that is if you exclude taking the jeep into the shop. Hopefully once we get whatever is wrong with it fixed, it will continue to be reliable for another good 5 or 6 years. We shall see. Anyways, just thought I would post a note on how great the days off have been lately. Hopefully they continue to be that way all the way up and through my vacation in January. Can't wait for that week off.

o christmas tree...

Sorry my blog last night was a rant - when I sat down to write I was exhausted - and the whole Brewster incident had just occurred (apparently Brewster ALSO bit Chance and broke skin...grr). I had intended to blog about our WONDERFUL day after Thanksgiving, but I got distracted by the situation at hand.

So...without further adieu, the day after Thanksgiving story commences. Ha.

Chance was off of work (thank GOODNESS) after having worked almost constantly for four days. We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little...and when we woke up it was nearly time for lunch. The doorbell woke us up - some guy who thought we called in for our dryer to be repaired. That never happened, unless I did it in my sleep. Nothing is wrong with our dryer. Anyway - he must have written down the address incorrectly or something. Oh well - it got us out of bed. (:

We hadn't yet decided if we were going to take it easy, or put up Christmas decorations. We ended up doing the latter (after eating some delicious homemade soup - I'll let Chance tell you all about that since he made it).

It only took us a few hours...well, probably about 5 after it was all said and done, to decorate. It was fun to get all of our things down from the attic and see what we had to decorate with - things we'd forgotten about, and things we loved putting up last year.

We turned on the Christmas music channel on the tv and half made-fun-of, half sang along with the classic holiday tunes. We talked, laughed, and enjoyed each others' company while we put up the tree.


It was raining outside the first part of the day, but once that was over we went outside to begin decorating the outside. I re-lit the garland and pulled grass/weeds out of our currently vacant flowerbed (so that we can plant winter plants asap), while Chance put lights on the bushes. He lit one of the two trees in our front yard, but we decided it looked skimpy/silly so he took those lights down and used them on the fence instead.

Last year, I created a pretty crummy wreath out of some extra garland. When we pulled it out of the box it was squished and looked terrible, so I decided to reshape it. I thought a "P" wreath would be different and more appropriate.


I can't claim all the credit, I'd seen the idea in a blog I read. And, well, theirs look better. But I'm pretty happy with it considering I just used things we had laying around the house, and no form.

We called it quits at dusk. We're still considering lighting the roof - Howie gave us some big lights so we might do that on Sunday or Monday. We're not sure - we didn't even decorate this much last year.


But...it was a fun day. I LOVE the day after Thanksgiving. Leftovers, decorating for Christmas....it's so much fun. (:

Especially the sleeping in part. After last year's escapade with Nicole to the Black Friday sales at 4am, I decided that sleeping was more worth it this year - and that put me in a better mood for the whole day!

Today I've cleaned the car and the house (the car REALLY needed a good vacuuming) cuz Chance's allergies are terrible. The rest of the day: work. But that's okay. Chance has two more days off this week! I'm thrilled. Shoot, I think the spirit of Christmas is upon me. It must be - I'm not generally in this good of a mood on Saturdays!