What I've been up to

Funny how things start to pile up if you don't blog about them fast enough. I have lots of great pictures and recommendations about where to go look at Christmas lights, but I guess I 'll have to wait on that. However, you don't think I would really neglect to post pictures from Christmas, do you? Here is a rather LONG post to tell you how we celebrated baby Jesus' birthday:

We started with cheering the Longhorns to victory at the Big 12 Championship game in Dallas. (Yes, my shirt has bevo with a santa hat. I looked EVERYWHERE for a Raider Red with a santa hat shirt, and they don't exist. Plus, look how cute we looked in matching shirts.)
We spent several nights driving around looking at lights, looking at the "snow" and giant Macy's Christmas Tree in the Domain and anything else Christmas-y we could think of. You'll have to wait until next December to see those pictures and hear about how much better North Austin was at "Keeping Austin Weird" than the rest of the city was.

Larry and I decided that we would start a new "Christmas pedicure" tradition, so here he is in his massage chair. Real men aren't afraid of a nice pedi.
I spent hours (literally) in the kitchen, baking. Loaves of pumpkin bread are pictured.
We spent Christmas Eve doing the Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck - I helped make the 140 sandwiches while Larry loaded the truck.
It was c-c-c-cold that night! Therefore, once we got home from church, I made myself a nice chocolate peppermintini and sat by the fire.
Blossom got a new rubber chicken for Christmas. She tends to destroy any sort of plush toy, so I was excited that this chicken was made out of tough rubber. Here she is playing with it:
And here she is about 5 minutes later, licking her lips after chewing off every single one of the chicken's toes. (If you look closely at the picture, you can see the toes scattered amongst the blanket.) The new chicken lasted *maybe* 20 minutes before we threw it away so that she wouldn't swallow any tiny pieces of rubber. Guess we will have to stick with rawhide.
As usual, Larry did a great job on my gifts this year - he went with 2 themes: Tech and Happy Hour, 2 of my favorite things. I got a bottle of my favorite "special occasion only" wine, a new little corkscrew set, and gift cards to 6 of the places we frequent. (The case of Shiner was a gift from our neighbors for dog-sitting their pooch for a week. It was just too heavy to move.) The Tech gifts consisted of Alamo Bowl tickets, a purse made out of a football with the Double T embroidered on it, and earrings and a bracelet made out of red/black/white guitar picks bedazzled with shiny bits.
Here is a close-up of the bracelet:
Larry and I were supposed to head to Lubbock on Christmas day, but they got snow and ice and the roads were dangerous, so we didn't go. I was sad, but we had a nice meal at the IHOP and took a nap. We went the next day instead - Larry is so sweet... he drove me all the way there just to make sure it was safe. We got there at 2pm, visited with my family for a bit, then we took him to the airport to catch his 5pm flight! While there, my parents gave him a new windsock for the backyard. (He loves windsocks.) This giant pepper is named "Pepe."
Unfortunately, my camera battery died right after that picture, so I didn't get ANY of my precious nieces and nephews. I used my mom's camera and am waiting for her or my sister to upload them into Shutterfly or Snapfish. (hint, hint....)

Here I am wearing all of my Tech garb right before the Alamo Bowl. You wouldn't believe how many compliments I got on that purse!
After the Tech win:
(No comment on the whole Mike Leach firing. I am very upset with the Administration. Regardless of the outcome, I don't feel that things were handled in a manner becoming of a Division I school.)

All in all, we had a blessed,wonderful Holiday season. I am amazed that I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by the most incredible man, family and friends. Looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in store!