Holiday Fun!

The holidays are slowly dwindling down. It is kind of sad. We had such a great Christmas in TN. We flew into Chattanooga and stayed with the grandparents for one night. And then went to Nashville for two nights. Nothing truly eventful happened but it was a good time. We visited Opryland on Christmas Eve. It was pretty packed. But it was beautiful. The grandparents were pure entertainment. On the drive to Nashville my grandfather asked me to call the newspaper and stop the Saturday delivery. We were driving down the highway and he hands me a phone book. Did you even know they still made phone books? I just googled it on my phone. Then we had to pick up my grandmother from the beauty shop. I swear I walked into a scene from Steel Magnolias. Those ladies were a hoot and a half. My nieces are just as cute as can be. Emma is about 20 months and Sydney is 16 months. They would point at each other and say “baby”. It was so sweet. On Monday I got to have dinner with three of my girlfriends. 2 were visiting from out of state. It was so nice to just have a casual dinner and catch up.

We still have some holiday fun left this week. Tomorrow night we are taking Mimi to dinner at the Magic game as a Christmas gift. It should be fun. She has not been to the new arena yet. And then Friday we are doing a Christmas dinner with Michael and Madison. I can’t wait to give her the gifts we got her. We still don’t know what we are doing for New Years yet. I am kind of looking forward to a few quiet days at home. It seems I have been on the go nonstop since Thanksgiving.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and will have super fabulous New Years! I love seeing everyone’s Christmas wrap up post. All the smiling faces, pretty deocrations and yummy food make me happy.

What a Wonderful Christmas

Some of these are photo perfect and some will make you laugh.  It was a great Christmas!!

I am pretty sure this is not supposed to happen...

The airplane was smoking! I am not to sure about Allegiant Airlines.  This was our first experience with them.  The plane was at least 20 years old and made all sorts of strange noisse.  And the cabin filled with smoke...or what they called "condensation" before we took off.  It was so bad you could not see and it was hard to breathe. This cannot be normal. 

Ya'll know I like to steal pictures from Facebook....

I get to see this little pumpkin on Friday.  We talk on the phone a lot.  Our conversations consist of her saying Ayyie (Ally), Pop Pop, Mima, and no.  Baby genius.

And I get to see this little fairy princess on Friday too.  I can't wait to see what she can say.  The poor little thing has been sick all week.  I hope she feels better so we can give her lots of hugs and kisses.  And maybe this time she won't sneeze in my face like she did in Hilton Head.

This was Maria and I at the wedding a couple weeks ago.  So much fun!

Kisses!

It is still super busy around here. I will catch you up.

We went to a fabulous wedding this weekend. It was our friends Steve and Jenny. Dave and Steve have been friends for more than 10 years. So Dave was in the wedding. The ceremony was at a lovely church on Park Ave. It was really nice but really long. I am not Catholic so I don’t understand their traditions at all or why it takes more than 10 minutes to marry someone. But nonetheless it was a beautiful ceremony. The reception was super fabulous. It was at the Grand Bohemian downtown. This was my first reception there. They did cocktail hour at the rooftop pool and then we had dinner and dancing in a ballroom. But it was very nicely decorated. There was even a cookie bar and a photo booth. And as place cards they made photo coasters for everyone with pictures from their Facebook pages. I guess they handpicked their favorite photos from your Facebook. I super impressed with that idea. It was such a great wedding. They really did a great job planning and adding personal touches. And you should have seen the brides dress! I won’t post pictures yet because I think it is rude to wedding pictures before the bride and groom. But I will show you pictures of us.

Dave is sick again with who knows what. I am convinced he has the flu. I just hope I don’t get it. He better get well soon. He has not done any Christmas shopping.

We leave on the 22^nd for Tennessee. I am meeting some friends for lunch that day and we are delivering our gifts to the adopt a family. That should be fun. I have 2 families this year. I am all donated out. Seriously…I bought more gifts for strangers than my own family. And people are still asking for donations. And when I don’t donate they get mad. Does this bug anyone else??? I have donated so much this year to adopt a families, United Way, Breast Cancer month, etc….I have nothing left to give. I have bills to pay people . If I give anything else I will be on your list next year accepting donations. Don’t get me wrong. I am happy to help and really enjoy doing it. But I have to draw the line somewhere and you have not right to judge me when I do so. Okay, I am done with that.

I went to have my oil changed Monday. I have 54,000 miles on the Pathfinder and it is 4 years old…ancient. That is the longest I have ever had a car. They tell me at 60,000 miles I have to get new drive belts and flush fluids from random things. All of this cost $1000. And shortly after that I will need new tires. Another $1000…I have big tires. This is why I get a new car every 3 years. Why spend all this money on repairs when I can have a shiny new car that needs no repairs. And then to have to deal with the stress of knowing you could have car trouble at any time. I don’t get it. I was going to try to hold onto this car for another 2 years but I don’t know that I will make it that long. I can’t deal with this nonsense. This is why I will never, and I mean never, buy a used car. My time is more valuable than the money I will save.

Truly Outrageous

I knew my wardrobe was missing something.  Go visit 80s Tees.com to find t-shirts you cannot live without.  The "rainbow posse" shirt is on sale for $9.99...probably because it says rainbow posse.  Awesome.

For goodness sake....EAT!

So there is this thing that REALLY bugs me. I have never heard anyone else complain about it so I am wondering if it is just me. I will let you decide. I love to cook. Sometimes I am good at it. Sometimes I burn things and set the kitchen on fire. I also love to entertain. I like to cook a big meal for friends and family. I really enjoy it. So I spend days planning this big meal and exactly how I am going to time it perfectly so that everything is ready at the same time. I then spend hours cooking. And then the meal is done. I call everyone to the kitchen to eat. And they just stand there. I call them again telling them it is getting cold. They still just stand there. Maybe one or two people start moving around. Dave calls them to eat. Nothing. So one more time I ask them to please come eat. They slowly start to move to the kitchen. Then they stand in kitchen and talk. At this point I am like screw you guys I am eating while the food is still hot.

I am seriously offended and insulted by this type of behavior. I spent days planning and hours cooking this meal. And they act like they don’t even want it. When I cook a meal I want my guests to make their plates first. But inevitably I am the first to make a plate due to other people’s slowness and lack of interest in eating. And then I don’t want to be rude and start eating before everyone else. So I am forced to stare at my plate of food and watch it get cold while everyone else slowly, and I mean really slowly, make their plates. And on occasion a guest will excuse themselves to make a phone call or do something else that could totally wait until after dinner. Seriously…I want to slap people. But that would not be nice.

So you may notice if you have me over for dinner that I will always be the first to get my food. Because I know as soon as you say it is ready that I need to make my plate. I have always wondered if people think I am weird to always be the first to get food. But this is where it stems from.

This bugs me so much at times I have considered never cooking for people again.

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

There are too many sales out there for me to keep up with! But it seems every time I go Christmas shopping for other people I only find stuff for me. But I have been really good and not bought anything for me. I was at the outlet mall on Sunday and Kate Spade had everything an additional 50% off! They have the cutest black and white striped patented leather tote bag that was marked down to $95 and then it was 50% of that. That is $47.50 for a big Kate Spade bag. It took all of my will power not to buy it. And it even had a matching wallet. Santa needs to book it over to Kate Spade at the Prime Outlets on I Drive like now.

I went back to Coach. Even though I swore them off last week. They had their usual 30% off plus another 10% off. That is the first time I have seen the extra 10%. They had a really pretty red patented leather bag that I love. But I was there looking for other people. And I left with nothing. I did not buy a single thing at the outlet mall. Maybe I should not try and shop for Dave at Kate Spade and Coach. Just maybe…

I got some great deals at Macy’s during their friends and family sale. I think I got the best bargains on jewelry. I really wanted to buy a new dress for a wedding we are going to this weekend. But I was good and I bought a new necklace and bracelet to go with an old dress that I have only worn once instead. They would have been about $75 regular price but with sales and coupons I got them both for $15. Yay me! That is all I can talk about from Macy’s…for now.

I visited my wish list items at Lululemon. I love the purple hoodie and gym bag. I also visited the earrings I want from Swarvoski. They are a lot bigger than they look online. I think I am okay with this.

I am failing miserably at my holiday shopping. I have so many people to still buy for. This weekend is pretty much out because Dave is in a wedding on Saturday. That is an all day event. One that we are looking forward to. We get to stay at the Grand Bohemian Saturday night. And the rehearsal dinner is at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday. It will be fun. And I may have to squeeze in some shopping on Sunday.

Random Holiday Thoughts

Fake trees look so much better than real trees. They just do. Real ones take forever for the branches to fall. And when they do it leaves random holes in the tree. And they dry out super fast and start to break. I just don’t like real trees.

Everyone’s Christmas tree should look like it is on the showroom floor at Macy’s. Anything less and I am disappointed. I am disappointed a lot.

Where do you hang stockings if you don’t have a fireplace?

I heard the song Merry Swiftmas on the radio this weekend. I know…it is couple years old. But it made me laugh. Especially when he sings about how disappointed he will be if Santa brings him Britney instead of Taylor Swift.

Why do they not sell premade ginger bread cookies dough? I can’t find it anywhere. Do you have any idea how many ingredients it takes to make gingerbread cookies?? Where would I even buy molasses??

I don’t understand the “Elf on the shelf”. Someone needs to explain this to me. Why are parents freaking out if they forget to move the Elf? Does he not live on the shelf??

I love it when they play Christmas music on the radio. Especially the XM stations. It is just fun.

On that same note the following people (maybe they are not people) should not be allowed to sing Christmas songs: The muppets, the chipmunks, barking dogs and Jewel. None of them can sing.

My favorite Christmas song is Mele Kalikimaka. It reminds me of Christmas Vacation and Cousin Eddie.

Our adopt a family at work is going to have the best Christmas ever. Seriously…you should see all that we have for them. I can’t wait to see their faces when they come to the office to get it all. The mom wants to bring her 4 kids to meet their “Angels”. How sweet is that! Someone called me an Angel.