Getting Ready for Christmas

We are officially ready for Christmas at our house.  

On Saturday, we put up our lights.  Kolby pulled roof duty last year, so it was my turn.  It is not as easy to get up on a roof as you might think, by the way.  It was worth it, though.  Here I am making it happen (hello front teeth!):

  Kolby convinced me that the best way to get down was to climb from the roof into a tree.  Which went well, but then I was just stuck in a tree and not any closer to the ground than I was on the roof.  It was touch and go for a bit, but then I climbed onto Kolby's shoulders and eventually made it down.  This was all in the front yard, as several neighbors were out raking leaves and thinking we were crazy.

The final result:

Then on Sunday, we went out to some of my family's nearby farmland to chop down a Christmas tree.  It was  super cold and windy, but we found a winner.

Did I mention it was rather cold out?

Our friend Jay came to help out.

  
After dusting off a wasp nest and some bird feathers, we brought it in and gave it a little trim.

Then we put on some Christmas music and went to work.  I think it turned out awesome.  I love people's reaction when they walk in and see it.  It may not look it in this picture, but it is really big and takes up a fair share of the living room.  It is also not a type of tree that is typically used for Christmas.  A friend that was over last night and asked if it was a shrub.  But then another friend walked in and said she absolutely loved it and said it was "Charlie Brown meets Anthropologie."  Best compliment ever.

***

On Tuesday night we hosted a Christmas Party for our Bible study group.  We had 18 people over for dinner and a gingerbread house contest.  It was nuts.  I *may* have taken a few moments during a seminar at work to game plan how we were going to fit that many people in our house for a meal when we don't have a dining room and our kitchen table sits 6 at best. 

By 7:30pm our house was super loud and nearly splitting at the seams, but it was so great to have our friends over for such a great night.  I love a full house.  I feel like it was one of those nights that Kolby and I will look back on years from now and remember very nostalgically.  This is our first house.  It is rather small.  Our kitchen has one drawer, two cabinets, and virtually no counter space.  But man did it strut it's stuff last night.  It was warm, cozy, and smelled like Christmas, and everyone had a great time gathering together here-- eating, laughing, building gingerbread houses, and chatting.  We felt very blessed.  We also blew a fuse (twice).

The night in pictures:

(Yes, Kolby made a baseball stadium.  Obsessed, much?)

 One of the couples has three of the most precious children, and they joined us last night.

I love these two pictures above because neither of the guys holding these sweet little boys are the kids' dad.  Our group has definitely become more like a family than anything else, and I love seeing the tangible ways that plays out.  Mike let that baby drool ALL OVER his hand.  Also, the little toddler-- my oh my does that kid melt my heart.  We are in BIG trouble if we ever have a kid half as cute as him, because he could get away with anything with that sweet little voice.  And he is so mellow.  Kolby and I may or may not have debated taking him home with us after a Christmas concert we had at church last week.

***
Then today we celebrated Christmas with Kolby's family.  I love having Christmas twice.  We gathered with Kolby's extended family for a delicious meal at his grandparents' house.  It was a wonderful day!

Mimi's famous extra-large dinner table:

  

 One of Grandfather's barns:

 The beautiful house:

Kolby's lovely grandmother (Mimi):

 Mmmmmmm.......

 Mimi's awesome chocolate pie:

 Grandfather reigning at the head of the table:

So glad Christmastime is finally here!  Kolby is off work already (lucky dog!).  It's been a very busy week, but we're happy to get to celebrate Christmas with our friends and family.  Let the festivities continue....

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving in Wimberley with Kolby's family.  There was plenty of eating, relaxing, reading, college football, and more eating.

We even managed to take a few family pictures while everyone was together: 

We tried to get a picture for our Christmas card, but we failed for two reasons.  1) Maya got into some wild mushrooms, went on a bad trip and then threw up twice, resulting in her being less than eager to cooperate.  2) After we took several pictures, figuring we had surely gotten at least one good one, we called it quits--- only to look at the pictures later and see that Kolby looked rather.... crippled.  Somehow his skinny legs combined with a weird camera angle, ghostly pale ankles and Toms shoes to make him look a bit like Tiny Tim.  I laughed so hard it almost made it worth it :)

When she wasn't off hunting for shrooms, Maya would find a peaceful spot to keep watch and refused to come to us when we called for her since she knew she was well within our eyesight.  Too bad she wasn't aware of how hard she is to find out there:

On our way home today, we took the back roads to avoid traffic and stopped off in a small town along the way for a quick lunch.  When we came back out to our car, guess who had parked next to us?

There was a plastic bag filled with who-knows-what stuffed inside the deer, and its eyes were open and its tongue hanging out.  Keeping it classy.

Now we're home, watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and counting the days until we can go get our tree and put our lights up!

Catching Up

First, let me start with some BIG NEWS.  Summer 2011 will bring Kolby and I the title of uncle and aunt for the 1st time!!  Brad & Remy are expecting a baby, and they had a doctor's visit last week that confirmed that everything is looking great (praise God!).  My heart could explode just thinking about having a teeny baby just up the road that I can hold whenever I want, and likely take home with me when they aren't looking.  Congrats bro & sis--- we're so happy for y'all.  I'll plan to pack up and move in around mid-June.

Next, allow me to brag on my brilliant husband for a moment.  Kolby is the best teacher ever.  For a lot of reasons, actually.  Last week he hosted a poetry reading at a local Barnes & Noble for his creative writing class, and 50+ students and parents came and it was a huge success.  Several of his students came up to me at the end of it just to tell me how much they love him and that he's the best teacher they've ever had.  Kolby has a very natural ability to #1, instill confidence in his students and build them up in a real and meaningful way and #2, get them interested in English and writing in a way that will give them a tremendous advantage in college (he teaches seniors).  I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I think he's found a perfect niche for himself in teaching, and I'm very proud of his work.

I went to New Orleans for work at the beginning of last week.  I had never been there before (the food was delicious!).  I'd say the highlight of the trip was that I didn't trip and fall on my face during the presentation I gave, and I'd say the lowlight was that I did trip and fall on my face the very next morning, walking from the hotel to where the meetings were.  It didn't help that it was right in front of the 5 co-workers I was walking with, including my boss.  Awesome.  And I fell all the way to the ground--- it wasn't just a little stumble.  I have the bruised knees and scraped elbow to prove it.  My pride actually recovered fairly quickly, on account of how kind everyone was about it, but I can't say the same for my slacks, which were ruined by marks on the knees from where I hit the concrete sidewalk, or my brand new very first pair of nice heels, which got scuffed up in the utterly embarrassing fiasco.  I would have been much more upset about the whole thing, but this was the same day Brad & Remy were having their first OB appointment, and I kept reminding myself that if something had to go perfectly right that day, I'd obviously rather it be that than me being able to successfully walk from point A to point B without humiliating myself.

One of my very best friends got married this past Saturday.  It was a beautiful wedding to be a part of.  Here's the happy couple (Katie & Daniel) at their rehearsal:

And here are some pictures Kolby took of Maya, just for fun.  He is off from school this week and was in charge of raking the yard yesterday.  I got a text from him while I was at work that read, "Guess who decided to pose for a leaf pile photo shoot?" to which I replied, "Chris?" and then laughed out loud to myself.  Chris is our friend that lives in our garage apartment.  I really feel like I hit that one out of the park.  

[Note that I messed with these pictures a lot because I've downloaded several photo editing software trials so I can figure out which one to ask for for Christmas.]

Well that about sums it up here.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween, we had our Life Group over for pumpkin carving, apple cider, and caramel-chocolate apples.  It was a great night. 

Kolby's pumpkin.  You can probably guess where his design is headed.

Heather reviewing the literature.

This is Chris.  He's our friend that lives in our garage.  And he can carve a mean pumpkin.

We had several prizes.  You can see how enthusiastic Mike is about his lambskin seat belt shoulder pad.

Kolby's finished product.  It's the Rangers claw.  He won a special edition DVD of Harry and the Hendersons. 

On Halloween night, my mom helped me hold down the home front with the trick-or-treaters while my dad and Kolby went to the World Series game.  I discovered that I was completely unable to resist the temptation to guess what the kids' costumes were, and I never guessed right one single time.  One time I guessed a fairy and the girl informed me that she was Tinker Bell.  So the next fairy that came around, I politely asked if she was a fairy or Tinker Bell.  The little 4-year old girl not-so-politely told me that no, she was the queen of the butterfly princesses.  Obviously.

Now we're ready for Thanksgiving!