Christmas Blessings

The hubby and I just got home from seeing this movie, which we thought we'd love... Yes, obviously you know it's going to involve blood, etc. just from the movie trailers, but I thought, it's a musical, has a fun actor, it'll be good. My GRACIOUS there was a lot of gore! (And not of the Inconvenient Truth kind...)
Depp did a great job in the acting dept., of course, but I'm not a fan of scary movies, and this was not "scary", but when there's blood and guts, I just lump that all in together with the scary movies that I try not to see. Anyways, so to take my mind off the yuckiness that is still lurking, I decided to post CHRISTMAS PICTURES!

:)
We had a very, very blessed Christmas season in my home. I love decorating my home for the holidays and just all the festivities that accompany this time of year. Which, sadly of course, comes to a halt the day after Christmas...ahem, today.... but sit back while I reminisce about my personal holiday memories from this year.


Putting up our tree.
I think we did this the first weekend in December. My husband and I disagree about putting the ribbon on the tree. He likes his tree simple, just ornaments. I grew up with garland and ribbon and tinsel and, etc. So I compromised by *just* putting up ribbon - no garland, no tinsel. He still would prefer to have no ribbon at all, but we did that last year and it was just TOO plain!

My favorite part is our star. It has little star shaped holes cut out all over it so our ceiling has little glowing stars on it.

Our poor tree had a falling out this year with one of our dogs - go ahead and take a guess at which one.

We each were able/asked to take our childhood ornaments from our parents' home last year. I love getting to put those up. The "Joy" purple construction paper piece with my Kindergarten school picture in the "o" is my favorite. It has *always* been right at the top and center of every one of my trees growing up, (as you can see, it still is - when you help decorate the tree, you get to put things where you like, no matter if others disagree who were not fast enough to place their favorite ornament front and center!)

So one night last week I was in my office working on the computer when I heard a big CRUNCH*CRUNCH*CRUNCH! I run out to find Pearl sitting on the rug next to the tree licking her chops. Hmmmm, what ornament just got devoured??? (This is a first too, by the way. She, thankfully, has not done this before, and well, I hope never again.) I tried to open her mouth to swoop out any leftovers and looked around where she was sitting to play detective to figure out what we've lost. All I came up with was a small, skinny piece of wood connected with wire. I brought it in to my husband, and he instantly knew - his little boy ornament playing the violin made of baked clay that he received as a child when he played the violin in his elementary school orchestra. Yeah, it was an irreplaceable one. The little piece of wood remaining was the bow to the violin. I felt so bad for him!
Dumb dog... whatya gonna do? I guess we now know to keep the chewable, irreplaceable ones up top! (next to my "Joy" one.)

Christmas with my parents a week ago. (They spent Christmas day in NY with my grandmother.)

I was so excited to finally get a CHI! Hopefully now my hair may stand a chance at not having the my hair is too thick/takes too long to blow dry so it's just constantly wavy look.

My little brother's dog, Squirt, got a little brother of his own this year! He was a surprise gift for my sis-in-law.

The new addition, Hercules - a Boxer, was certainly not sore for attention. He has the sweet puppy smell and was soooo soft. A little puppy envy on my end, but then I remember potty training....

The remote-controlled helicopter was an entertaining success! All the boys in the family got one this year. At one point they all had their's flying at the same time, but that went about as well as having the idea to try to tease Squirt with the helicopter: see video below

It was also my dad's birthday! Well, his birthday was on the 15th, but they were out of the country then, so we celebrated a little late. As my uncle said, he turned the big "double nickels" this year.

Okay, last one of my brother's puppy. It just looks too cute to be real here! Like a little stuffed animal!

Last Thursday, we went in to see my mother-in-law and I: A.) got a haircut, & B.) helped her ice her traditional Christmas sugar cookies! A. - the haircut was overdue. I went to Stuart's cousin's salon in Ft. Worth and she did a great job. It's now a "style" and not just blah. I love it! B. - My mother-I-L makes these famous cookies every year, but ONLY at Christmas. They are quite a treat that we look forward to all year! I like to help ice them because then the "broken" ones go in my tummy, and I get to pick out the good ones for our plate to take home!

At home Thursday night with our affectionate, lovable, one-blue-eyed, loud-barking, problem child, Pearl.

Christmas night at Stuart's mom's with our girls.

SUCH a wonderful holiday time. PTL!

I'm getting ready right now to photograph a wedding tomorrow! I even rented the big dog for the big day! I already know that she is my next big purchase from the reviews I've read, but I've never actually shot with it! It's easy to figure out because it works the same as my current camera body, but just a bit larger in size, so it's weird getting my hands used to gripping it. But it is quite a beauty! Looking forward to tomorrow!
:)