It's January 9th and my Christmas tree is still up

However, the ornaments are off. I only did that this afternoon. I really have not been the mood to get everything put away this year. Actually, I want to get it put away, I just don't have the motivation to do it. Ugh. Our guest room looks like Christmas exploded. Hopefully this week I can get the last of it packed up and put away.



So, where have I been the last four months? Working and living. I don't even remember when I last wrote (I think it may have been September), so I'll try to do a quick recap:

* Work, work, work, and more work. I have been incredibly busy at work, but it has been really good. I've got my review coming up this week, so I am hoping for more good things to happen.

* My best friend had a baby boy!

* We had some pictures taken by a girl I work with. Those pics would be a great post! Check back in!

* I had jury duty. Thankfully I wasn't selected.

* We drove to East Texas to see best friend and new baby.

* I helped my mom with a garage sale that she said was never going to do again after the LAST one!

* Josh started the RCIA process at the church we go to. At Easter he will officially be Catholic!

* We celebrated our 2 year anniversary. (Has it really been 2 years already?)

* I made eyeball cake bites for a neighbor's Halloween party and that led to me getting a lot more orders this fall! Check out all the latest creations!

* We started getting really serious about starting a family and it's not happening as quickly as we thought, but we are staying positive and saying LOTS of prayers.

* I supported my dad as he ran in his second San Antonio half marathon.

* We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. It was a huge success and it was so nice to be able to be at home at the end of the day.

* We spent Christmas in Ft. Stockton. We were there for almost a week and it was nice to be able to slow down and relax.

* We rang in the New Year in Schulenburg. I actually rang it in in my sleep because I was out by 10:30!

* I got a Nook Color and a new pair of boots with my Christmas money and they have both been well worth it! :)

* We started the Couch to 5k program. We are one week down and looking forward to keeping it up.

I think that pretty much sums up the major points of the last few months. I am really going to try to do better about keeping up with updating this!

Happy New Year!!

Now back to our regularly scheduled Christmas 2009 recap...

I'm a horrible procrastinator. I know this. I embrace it. But it's over a week after Christmas and I'm still posting about it. Yeah, that's a little sad. But this Christmas was pretty good. And I took a ton of pictures.



This is going to be all about the tons of food we ate during the Christmas weekend. It's a little sickening. You've been warned! :)

My dad's sister from Vegas was down and she was in a food/candy making mood! Most of this stuff is courtesy of her ideas!

Of course, I made red velvet cake balls!

And I made cinnamon sugar pecans which are always a huge hit!

These pralines were courtesy of my aunt!

My dad decided that he wanted to make homemade poppyseed kolaches for the weekend. It was a huge undertaking, but they were soooo good! My grandpa even said they were really good!

Kneading the dough

You wouldn't believe how many kolaches come out of a ball of dough this size!

Almost ready to go in the oven

Fresh out of the oven!

All of our baked goods ready to go!

Christmas Eve buffet!

Pretty cake balls!

My dad also decided he wanted to make a Lemon Meringue Pie with fresh lemons. It turned out really good!!

And this is just the dessert table for Christmas Day. I completely forgot to take a picture of the rest of the food!

We were all so full every day! It took me a few days to get my system back on track and to even get hunger pains again! And I also have a few extra pounds to get rid of!! :)

Dog's Christmas

My puppies got to have their own Christmas while at my parent's. Every year Walmart has stockings with dog toys for $5. I buy each dog their own and that is all the toys they get for the year. It's about 12 toys for $10. Sounds pretty good to me!

They each have their own stocking as well that I put the toys in. I took those to grandma's house and they got to "open" them Christmas Eve.

These pictures are a little blurry because they wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a good one!

Bayla sitting on his stocking

He went absolutely crazy when he got the new toys! He immediately laid down to start chewing!

This is the only picture I got of Rylie, but she was trying to get away!

Checking out another toy

Enjoying another one

Bayla & Josh with his stocking

His favorite thing to do is lay down and hold the toy in his mouth, but not really chew on it.

They had a really good Christmas and are really enjoying all their new toys!

Christmas

Christmas this year was a lot of fun! My aunt and uncle from Vegas were down and they came over to my parent's house to help out the whole weekend. Most of my family was down, so it was a loud, crazy time with too much food.

I decorated the tree. It's my specialty! :)

My mom has a ton of Christmas decorations so just about every surface-horizontal or vertical-has some kind of decor.

My brothers collection of nutcrackers

Josh got a stocking this year! :)

My dad's parents getting ready to eat

Some of our guests...

...and a few more.

My sweet grandpa. This is the closest to a smile I could get out of him!

Christmas Gifts

Money is a little tight this year, as I'm sure is the same for everyone. Although, you wouldn't know it by looking at the mall! Last year was pretty much the same, so I had made ornaments for our families and friends. I wish I had taken pictures, because they turned out pretty cute.

This year, I decided to make something again, as well. I took this idea I had found online and made it a little more personal and 'Christmasy.'

This was for the girls. It was the ingredients and instructions for Cowgirl Cookies. It turned out really cute!

And this is for the guys. I had already decided what I was making for the girls and wanted to do something along the same lines, but more manly. I came across one of my beer bread recipes and instantly knew that it would be a hit!

Merry Christmas!!