New year's eve celestial show at sunset...

So...for those of us in the Central Time Zone...that means here pretty quick...go take a look outside.

Venus, brighter than all the other planets and stars will be just below the cresent moon in the southwestern sky. Should be imposible to miss just after the sun goes down.

Soon after, Mercury and Jupiter will show up on the south-southwestern horizon (just above where the sun went down) and will be really close together. Jupiter is very bright and easy to spot. Mercury is fainter but you will know it because of the location just left of Jupiter.

Jupiter and Mercury will set less than an hour after the sun, so get out and look quick. To see them, you will need a clear view of the horizon, no obstruction by buildings, mountains, or clouds. Good luck!!

Right now, Venus is so bright, you can actually see it during the day, since it is so close to the moon right now and few people can say they've seen two planets during the day. So go out and have some fun. Good luck.

We're back from all our Christmas fun and I promise to post updates soon. Just wanted to get this post in real quick first.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Hope we all have a healthy, happy, and remarkable 2009!

Happy Christmas everyone...

Fender, Drew and I wish each of you the very best Christmas ever. May you be filled with the peace, love, hope, and happiness that the season brings.

Oh...and since no one answered my Christmas tree poll last time around, I've given you all more time in case you missed it or haven't had a chance to check this site with all the busy holiday bustle going on. :) I love that there is so much fun to be had at the holidays. Also...I've added another poll just for kicks. If you participate in the capitalistic side of the Christmas season, when does your family open presents?

Traditionally, I grew up going to midnight mass and then we'd open our presents when we got home. So Christmas Eve for us, but as midnight mass actually ended at midnight back then, technically it was Christmas day already. And we open our stockings Christmas morning. Nowadays, if we go to midnight mass, it starts around 6:30PM...so not the same...but either way...in my opinion the ONLY way to do it...is share presents on Christmas Eve and wake up to open your stocking and any presents Santa may have left on Christmas morning.

Catch all post...

Drew and I attended the annual office holiday party. The food was lacking compared to some office parties we've attended, but the atmosphere was great and it turned out to be one of the best office parties we've attended.
Us at the party:
 

This picture is just to show a little more of my dress which I think is so awesome. It is vintage 1940 and was actually my Aunt's dress and we've had it for a very long time.
 

A quick pic to say our resident vultures are back. Pic shows only two, but all three are here again. Welcome back: Vinny, Velma, and Vorla.
 

We went for a quick birthday luncheon with Aunt Lala, Memaw and Papa.
 

This past Saturday was the annual Gingerbread House party at our neighbor's and I was so excited for Fender to be a part of it this year, but as luck would have it, he wanted a nap just as it began so I went to the party by myself and with the help of a my 7 year old Creative Director named Sydney, I made our 2nd Gingerbread house. Fender came over to play when he woke up and Daddy got roped in as an impartial judge. Everyone gets a prize. Here are the houses and one train. No spaceship this year. :) One little girl did the Miser brother theme (one side red hot and the other side snow cold). I thought that was too cool!! There was incredible use of pink this year, especially in the winner, which was a pink church. It was awesome but we think the judges were guilted into giving it best overall. ;)






Fender and neighbor's daughter, Lily.


And a last note with an eye update:
Where I stand with my eye right now is the initial uvietis problem seems to have gone into remission. No more steroids for now. And I am truly thankful for that! However, the second eye surgery, while it appears to have repaired the detached retina...further worsened the cataracts caused by the first surgery. The cataract is so bad that I can't see anything with that eye at all. The plan is to have cataract surgery after the new year once the gas bubble from the surgery is finally gone...this is a REALLY SLOW acting gas bubble...it has been over a month since surgery and it is still there. But my hope and with continued prayers and by the Grace of God, after cataract surgery I may be able to see with it again.

Christmas Parade

First and foremost... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY, Aunt LaLa!!

Fender was in his first Christmas Parade today. He and I rode on the Environmental Co-op's float. The theme of the parade this year was Children's Nursery Rhymes so our float was "Hickory Dickory Dock, Recycle Around the Clock." Pretty cute. We all dressed up as mice on the float and kind of crazy, but our float won 1st Place in Traditional Christmas floats. We were excited. It was windy and cold, but we had a great time. Fender hollered "Merry Christmas" and "Recycle" to everyone all through town. We don't have pictures of us in the parade, but we rode up front and got to see everyone on both sides of the road. Daddy tried to take a picture of us with his cell phone camera, but he said they didn't turn out well. We've come to expect a lot from our little phones, ya think? :)
 

 
 
 

Stockings, christmas trees, and more...

Uh, well, haven't had a lot of time to update lately which makes for longer posts when I do. Sorry about that. Here's what we've been up to and more than enough pics to prove it. Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season...we are!

Fender has THE BEST MEMAW in all the land. I started this Christmas stocking for Fender the year he was born and made very little progress the past two years. And this year, with my eye acting up I knew I had little chance of getting anything done on it again so I called on Memaw who whipped this beautiful stocking together in a jif...which was no easy task!! So super thanks to Memaw for getting the job done. The stocking looks pefect!
 

Coloring with feet on the wall.
 

Last Saturday we had a FULL day of Christmas fun. First up was "Breakfast with Santa" hosted by the local Methodist Church. We did this last year and Fender did not care to have his picture taken with Santa. This year you can see how his enthusiasm changed...
 

He did enjoy the pancakes and sausage for breakfast that morning and he loved playing with all the kids. It was really the first time I've taken him anywhere and just let him play with all the kids and stepped back and watched. He played well whether he was alone or in a crowd of kids. He colored at the table and he played cars on the floor with all the boys. Later he tossed bean bags through the big Christmas tree cut out and had a really great time. Being a small town, we saw plenty of "folks" we knew from church, daycare, and relatives too.

We left from the breakfast to go directly to the DOK (Daughters of the King...a group of women from the Episcopal Church) Cookie Swap which my cousin was hosting. Earlier in the week, Aunt Pauline (my 85 year old Greek Aunt) and I made rum balls just for the occasion. Fender enjoyed the party, especially the part where he got to pick what cookie he wanted to eat and he went for a big one.
 

Fender had a quick nap after the busy morning then we loaded up the truck, this time with Daddy and Sebastian too, and headed out to Walls Family Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas Tree.

Along the way, Fender found a fun hole to play in.


Daddy and Fender thought this tree might work, but I thought it needed to be just a wee bit larger.



So Fender started measuring them and thought..."how about this one?"


...or this one?


...Ah...Daddy and I can fit underneath the branches...now we're talking...let's start cutting.


Momma helped out when Daddy needed a brief break.


On Sunday, I spent 6 hours getting the lights on and ornaments all up and then it was "The Fall of 2008." The tree fell over...apparently too big for the stand...which was a huge heavy duty stand to begin with. Bulbs shattered, two strands of lights were lost. It wasn't until Monday that I was able to go out and buy a new stand (this one holds up to 10 ft tall trees and ours is 9) and it held fine overnight. Tuesday I got nerve enough to put lights back on and it kept standing overnight again. Wednesday I put all the ornaments back on but most of our prettier, breakable bulbs and all our heavier bulbs are now on the back side of the tree because I don't trust it that much. So far so good, but I still think we should tie something around it and nail it to the wall or the base of the windows for extra support. Anyway...here's Fender helping decorate the first time around...and then the final product.





Coloring by the fire.

Thanksgiving...

For thanksgiving, Drew, Fender, Sebastian (our dog) and I drove to Amarillo to spend the holiday with my mom and sister. Fender traveled very well. We even had the laptop set up to play Fender's new favorite movie "Wall-E" on the way back if we needed since we were driving all day instead of at night, but we never had to bring it out. And other than a couple of extra stops to "please potty in the toilet" when Fender refused to potty in his pull-up. The trip went off without a hitch.

Thanksgiving meals with my family in Amarillo are a bit different than most everyone's "traditional" holiday gatherings. Used to be we could pick up a fantastic turkey dinner for the family from Black-Eye-Pea but they closed years ago. And since most restaurants are closed for the holiday, Gran had to get creative in recent years which led to the following...

Drew, Fen, Gran and I drove an hour south of Amarillo to Clarendon to pick up our Thanksgiving feast. We boxed up 5 buffets to go, which included turkey; ham; stuffing; corn; sweet potatoes; gravy; and all the fixings with rolls and dessert too. The few people who were dining in the restaurant seemed to enjoy seeing Fender's lively presence running about the place. We had a lot of fun. And finished up just in time to drive the hour back to Amarillo and get to the airport to pickup my sister (Aunt LaLa).

I am not one to go shopping EVER so the "Black Friday" shopping experience doesn't appeal to me in the least. However, Drew and Loren both wanted to check out BestBuy and Barnes and Noble so after some breakfast and hot-chocolates at IHOP that morning, the two of them took Fender for some look-see while mom and I took the much more relaxing route and had pedicures right next door. :)

It was a fun, relaxing, and refreshing Thanksgiving. The drive back was not, but it wasn't bad either. Just exhausting sitting in a car for 6 1/2 hours.

Enjoying catfish and fries in Decatur on our way to Amarillo...
 

...working in a little Wall-E in the hotel room.
 

...picture in front of the old movie theater and a decent tumbleweed in Clarendon on Thanksgiving day.
 

...checking out the view from our room.
 

...Fen and LaLa giving us "the glare", which Fen can do on cue. It is really funny in person.


...Amarillo's painted horses are all over town. Fender liked to visit this one outside the Drury hotel where we stayed.


...windy and cold as always in Amarillo. Gotta keep the hood on.


...having some fun after dinner at Kabuki Japanese Steak house. Fen loved the smoking onion volcano that spurted fire. He liked the soup and all the food too.


...bedtime after a long, cold day.


...me with Lily Jun (her mother and I were friends even before elementary.)


...a brief nap on the drive back home. Banana in one hand and book in the other.