So Much Fun!

What a great time we had! We celebrated Christmas this past weekend with the Davis clan - the entire Davis clan - 31 to be exact. It was really a lot of fun. All the stressing of the last several weeks paid off. We all watched and enjoyed the excitement as the little kids all opened their gifts from the aunts and uncles. I was so glad to see that my little nephew loved the "Texas" book that we gave him. He lives in Virginia, but it is a true Texan at heart and Lori (his mom) says that he loves to learn about history even at only 5 years old. Wonder what he will do when he grows up (teaching runs rampant in his family). After the kids finished up, it was time for the adults to partake in the traditional gift exchange, i.e. Chinese christmas, white elephant, whatever you want to call it. The funny thing was no one was stealing anyones gift until the very end with only about 3 people left. I got to keep what I opened and it was awesome....a Texas star with a snowman painted on it! I love it. I did think at one point I was going to have to take Kenneth down when he tried to steal it from me, but turned out he was just kidding! We had tons of food, lots of wine, bunch of beer (just ask charlie) and a really really great time! Oh yeah, forgot to mention our niece that lost 126 pounds since last Christmas - we thought Josh had picked up a new woman! She looked amazing! And how could I not mention how stinking cute Shelby looked...all dressed up in her fancy dress!

That was Saturday day, then Saturday night all the kids and grandkids spent the night. Now THAT is a true family Christmas - we had blow up beds laid out everywhere! Lyn and I slept in the living room so that we could keep an eye on Santa to arrive. We had made a special deal with him to come early to bring gifts for everyone, so we wanted to make sure we greeted him face to face when he showed up! He brought tons of stuff (notice the red Santa bags in the picture)!

The highlight of the night was the gingerbread houses. We only had 5 kits, so we coupled up and all gathered around the table to make them. It was a blast. Mine and Shannon's became more of a contemporary style home complete with solar panels and a "gummy lifesaver" chimney after our icing wouldn't hold the house together. Surely it couldn't have anything to do with the wine and beer that we were also enjoying! I thought we were pretty clever to come up with our new style of gingerbread house!

We had some awesome designs - the tree made by Dakota and Baylee was very nice! They did so good! Ashley and Cheyenne were a little more patient that Shannon and I, they actually got their house to stick together.

The little kids did an amazing job also - Deegan's had a little candy cane on the roof!

Carrie was the expert - she has obviously done this many times before - her's looked like a REAL gingerbread house that a pro had done! Cheater!

We really had a fantastic time and started a new tradition as well!

Sunday morning was reserved for donuts, coffee and SANTA gifts! Oh yeah! Sleepy eyed but definitely "bushy tailed" the kids were so excited to see that Santa did really come early just for them. The next few hours were spent opening gifts and enjoying being together! There is nothing better than the look on a childs face when they open up christmas presents! The rest of the day was filled with fun as well - we stayed in our pj's most of the day, played Rock Band, sang like true Rock Stars (karaoke style), ate everything in site, from fajitas& tamales to cookies, candy and pie, drank more wine and stayed inside in the warmth of our house! It was soooooo cold outside! Another family Christmas - what a great time and so much fun!

So Much to Do

Wow - time is flying right past! I can't believe December is half over already! My house is definitely abuzz with Christmas spirit. This coming Saturday is our big celebration day. We've been so busy trying to finish up everything before the big day....Presents are wrapped, groceries are bought, cookies are baked (thanks to Ashley!), egg nog is in the fridge, one final cleaning on Friday and I'm all set. You know (or some of you may not know), Martha Stewart will be visiting, so everything has to be just right! I'm just kidding of course, there is no way I can compare to Martha (aka Beverly, Lyn's sister), but still, I like for everything to feel "Christmassy". Am I really the only person that puts Christmas decorations in the bathroom? I thought everyone did! Anyway, I'm getting so excited, only two more days and I'm outta here! I've borrowed enough blow up beds for all the kids to spend the night, we'll be making gingerbread houses, playing "Nuts", listening to Elvis sing White Christmas one more time and eating till we can't hold one more bite! I love Christmas time! I love to watch all the kids open their gifts.....they make the whole hectic month worth while! Can't wait! Merry Christmas everyone!

What a fabulous day.........December 11, 1956.........Dallas TX 9:06AM.......My birthday!

I've always had fantastic birthday celebrations as far back as I can remember.....two weeks before christmas and still lots of presents and hoopla!

Today is no exception. My day started off with Lyn pretending that he had forgotten (even though I knew he hadn't), I got a very cute card and $100 gift card to go shopping! woo hoo -can't wait for that! Then got into work and my office is all decorated with red, green and white streamers, balloons all over the place, Julie made me a chocolate Kahlua cake (yum- you can't beat Kahlua at work), Noemi brought in breakfast from Chic-fil-a and Brooke got me apple cider from starbucks! I also got a very beautiful cross from Noemi AND a bottle of wine and a cross ornament from my Secret Santa! Not to mention tons of calls from family and friends....Am I loved or What?

Thanks everyone for making my day special. I love birthdays! This one will go in my memory book as being just as special as the others!

The Spirit of Giving...the Harley Way

Every year around Christmas time, ordinary, everyday people get all dressed up in their favorite leather gear and boots, strap toys to the back of the motorcycle and take off on a very fun and fulfilling adventure. Otherwise known as The Toy Run. Lyn and I have participated with friends of ours in several of these over the years; this year it was the Lewisville Toy Run held this past weekend.

Harley Mama!

It was so cold as we headed out about 9am to downtown Lewisville to register for the event.

(Please note in the pic above: the dark spot on the ground in front of me is the dog poop I managed to step in and track all over the place before I figured out that I had stepped in it and that I was the one who was actually stinking!)

Anyway......after we registered and signed the accident waivers, we headed over to Main street to check out all the vendors that were set up and hopefully find something good to eat before the ride.

Mission accomplished.....We followed our noses and found some fabulous tamales - yum. I know, not the typical breakfast food, but still very good on a cold December morning. Lyn also bought me a beautiful wooden cross very similar to this one. I have the perfect spot for it in my entry way!

Motorcycle roll time was set for Noon, so about 11:30 we headed over to the bikes to get ready. I don't know how many bikes were there, but I would say in the hundreds. It was so cool and so much fun and SO Loud. We rode from Lewisville over to Flower Mound and back all through the streets and neighborhoods. It was a blast! The best part was seeing all the faces of kids lined up on the streets waving and smiling. Once back to downtown, we dropped off our toys and were treated to a live band and Hooters wings to finish off the day.

All of the toys collected will go to Toys for Tots.

It was so cool to see so many people turn out for such a great cause.

Can't wait for next year! ............Ride on baby!

ICE, ICE Baby!

Every year for the past 4 years, our family has attended the ICE display at Gaylord Texan. This year was no exception, except that we had more people this year - 19 to be exact! Everyone was so excited as we met each other in the lobby before we headed upstairs to stand in line to get in, but much to our surprise, there was no line! How awesome is that? we walked right in - donned our bright blue parkas and got all bundled up ready to experience the 9 degree temperature. First stop, the picture area - this year in front of a green screen, what a great surprise when we picked up the picture to find out we were standing in front of the ice bridge!

We all had so much fun, the kids especially as they touched the ice, caught snowflakes on their tongues (kinda yucky, actually) and raced to the next room to see what was next. Shelby was so cute all bundled up with eyes big and bright taking in all the sights. She couldn't quite figure out what we were all doing with these big blue hoods on.

We took romantic pictures under the icy tree canopy,

Posed for pictures in the candy train,

And the kids even got to sit on Santa's icy lap!

Whoa - that'll freeze your hiney!

The highlight of the night had to be the reindeer slides. Rudolf and his gang lead the way as the kids slid down over and over again.

Little Kids ...

And the big kids too!

We finally got everyone off the slides.....next stop...over to get our free glow necklaces. I think the lady just about flipped when she had to pull out 19 of them! We also saw the "real" Santa. Deegan wasn't even afraid to talk to him. He wouldn't sit on his lap, but he made sure to tell him he wanted a kitchen for Christmas.

We left the hotel about 9pm and all headed over to El Fenix for the famous Wednesday night Mexican special. Yummy! It was kinda nice too because since we got there so late, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Finally about 10 pm (way past our bedtimes!) we decided we better head home. It was a such a fantastic night filled with lots of family fun. Can't wait till next year!

O' Christmas Tree

I love tradition. Ever since I can remember as a child we always put our Christmas tree up during the first week of December usually around the 5th and always, always before my birthday on the 11th. I am a little early this year, but if you read my post from yesterday you will see that I have a million things to do this year so I didn't really think a couple of days early would break the tradition. Anyway - putting up the tree has always been a major affair. As a child, we always got a live tree, so the day would start with us all going with Dad to pick out the tree. We would all gather in the living room as Dad brought the tree in to put it in the stand with Mom all the while telling him how crooked it was. Once he finally got the tree up, the decorating would begin. We would always start with the lights and the garland then proceed to hang up our favorite ornaments one by one while of course listening to Elvis Christmas records on the "stereo". What a wonderful tradition.


I have tried my best to keep that tradition alive. It worked well when the kids were little, they really got into the idea of picking out the tree and hanging their own ornaments and even listening to the music. But as they've grown older, tree prices have increased and there is less time to get everything done, some things have changed. We now have a pre-lit artificial tree and unfortunately sometimes it seems decorating it is just another chore to be done and usually ends up with Ashley finishing up everything. Well this year we tried something different. Deegan came over and helped us decorate the tree. He was so anxious to get the ornaments out and asked about every one as he meticulously placed each one at eye level (the eye level of a 2 year old that is). He had so much fun and so did we. As I look at our tree and see how beautiful it is, I think I've decided to start a new tradition. A tradition that will continue as more grandchildren are born and hopefully be passed on to their children as well.

Time

December already? Where does the time go? We spend our days wishing for days end, wishing for the weekend, wishing for next week, next month, next payday, yet we always wonder in December how it got here so fast. It's that time of year again.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day spending time with my family and two of my little grandbabies and of course plenty of food to eat for sure. There are so many things to be thankful for - I think that's why we have holidays. Time that we can spend with our families as a reminder of the good things we really have in our lives and how much we really have to be thankful for each year. Dad was not feeling very good on Turkey day but he was determined he was not going to miss another holiday like he did last year and he made the best of it anyway. All in all it was a wonderful day!
Now it's on to Christmas - I managed to survive Black Friday shopping coming home with several great bargains! My holiday shopping is now well underway and really close to finished- yee ha! We are hosting the Davis extended family this year, so my to-do list is a mile long just getting ready...so much to do....cookies to bake, candy to make, decorations to hang, outside, inside, parties, potlucks, secret santa, gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, not to mention 18 stockings to fill and 16 of my own kids and grandkids to buy for. It will all get done in time......Time.....So little time, not enough time, time to relax, time to reflect on the past, time to be thankful for the present.

Sweet Dreams?

I dream most every night and sometimes it seems all night long. I know people say they don't dream or that they don't remember their dreams. But I on the other hand can never seem to get them out of my mind. But why are they sometimes so strange. Here's how it went last night...We (I don't know who else was there, but it was someone close to me, maybe Lyn) were at a carnival, we were rambling around just looking at everyone, and checking out the rides and all the food, when I realized that I had lost something (I don't know what I lost, but it was something) Anyway - so we start looking everywhere to find what I lost and came upon a man that was sure he could help us. This man's name was Robert Beers. In real life I knew Robert from school. He was a freshman when I was a senior. He was nothing more to me than a bratty, anoying red headed freckle face, freshman kid. He was in the band and thats how I knew him, but why on earth was he in my dream. Well, anyway....in my dream I think I kept asking Lyn why he was here and could never get an answer.....my dream never really went further because I woke up thinking about Robert Beers and why I would possibly be dreaming about him. What could it mean? Night before last I dreamt about Volkswagon bugs...Shannon had gone somewhere and her car broke down but she told me not to worry because they had plenty of VW bugs for her to choose from to drive - What color did I think she should drive. Dreams are just so strange - mine are almost never really what you would consider Sweet Dreams - never really nightmares either, just really really strange. I'm hoping for one of those dream interpretation books for Christmas to help me figure it all out. One thing is for certain - I am a dreamer!

Monday......Monday

Monday, Monday - da da-da-dada-da da ------ It's a song for those of you that don't recognize my singing :) ....What a day - its been crazy busy....I've been trying to post my blog all day about my great weekend, but just too busy to get to it till now.

So - I started the weekend with a totally fab girls night out - "young girls mostly" - me, Lou, Carrie, Shannon and their long time friends, Amanda and Jade. Notice I included myself in the "young girls" part, because that's how I feel when I'm with them - they are so much fun to hang out with.

We had a wonderful time, we talked and laughed about all kinds of girly things - it's kinda sad to see them all grown up - but thats a story for another day. It was a great way to spend a Friday night, I can't wait for the next one!

Saturday, my day started at 8am in my garage - yep time to clean out some of that crap - so therapeutic! we cleaned for about 5 hours before we called it quits - my garage looks awesome now, I don't think it's looked this way for about 5 years at least - (I gotta get a life if I'm getting excited about a garage). Then Saturday night, 4 of the 5 grandkids came to spend the night - we really had a great time and so enjoyed having them over....we went to eat at their favorite place - Asahi or "fire food" as Deegan calls it! so cool!

Now back to today - I took my Dad to see "Dr Jeremy" the chiropractor - he's never been and we are hoping this is the key to getting him feeling better, after all he's tried everything under the sun to feel better - I'm convinced after this appointment that all will be well - He was so excited too after the appointment. I'll keep you posted on the progress. The day is finally winding day and I'm tired - time to start dinner, finish laundry and hopefully relax for just a bit - Lyn will be home soon and Dad is coming over to eat - so to the kitchen I go - Happy Monday everyone!

Face Painting Gone Wild!

Wow - 2 posts in one day - what's going on with me!

Actually I just got my pictures off my camera from this past weekend with the little grandbabies. We went to the Gaylord Family Picnic and took them with us. Deegan was totally into it and kept saying the whole time - "Let's play games, I wike games" Shelby on the other hand would rather just sleep through the whole thing. We got balloon creatures from the lady clown, jumped in the bounce house and rode the barrel train. The highlight of the day was when we stood in line for over an hour to get their faces painted - Deegan was so excited to be a tiger and all Shelby would stand for was the little bitty butterfly on her cheek. Anyway just wanted to share the pics.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

To Blog or Not To Blog.....

So it seems this blogging thing has really taken off.....Last week in the office it was just another "buzzword", with a couple of people talking about it and NOW.......everybody's doing it! There's only one problem I see with it, and maybe its just me ....but I am stressing out over what to blog about. I'm sitting here this afternoon, thinking to myself, OMG I haven't blogged yet - what should I say, what should I talk about....It's so much fun to read everyone elses and its almost like you just can't wait for them to read yours to see what you had to say for the day, but it's also kinda funny, cause now everything I talk about in person, I decide might be something worth blogging about. Why bother, I've already told everyone! Is it just me feeling this way, is anyone else out there stressing over what to blog about.......To Blog or not to Blog - what have I gotten myself into?

Making a List and Checking it Twice....

Several things on my mind today that sum up the word frustration! First of all - christmas lists. Why do we create christmas lists in the first place - who started this "tradition" anyway and why? I actually require my kids to turn in their "lists" prior to thanksgiving so that I can plan and prepare for the big day-after thanksgiving black-friday shopping! With kids, stepkids, grandkids, and family drawings I have to plan my excursions ahead of time or I would never accomplish finding the gifts on the "lists"! Now in christmas' past I have been know to purchase just about everything on these lists, counting to make sure everyone has an equal number , stressing out over whether it's the perfect gift, making sure it's wrapped just right----- which is absolutely insane! I keep saying I'm cutting back, but have yet to do so.....(I really am cutting back this year)...we'll see......the frustration part comes in here - these "lists" have dwindled over the years - maybe because the kids are older now and realize the value of the dollar, or maybe they too see frustration in making the list - because, it seems we get down to putting something on the list just to have something on the freaking "list".....choices that really leave you no choices - it's to the point where they should be called "expectation lists" rather than "wish lists"! Well this year folks its a new year - a year of change (hmm, seems we've heard that somewhere before) I'm not buying something just because its on a list - this year by gosh I'm buying what I want to buy even if it's not on a list ....there I feel better.

Ok Next - Last night we get home after our weekly enchilada Wednesday night dinner at El Fenix - I change into my pj pants and get all comfy ready to sit down to watch my favorite Wednesday night prime time show "Private Practice" - only to find out that it didn't tape on my Fios - what the heck is going on - so I go into the living room and there sits Lyn watching his show - come to find out mine was bumped because he had the NCIS marathon scheduled to tape even though its mostly re-runs that he could recite from memory - His was scheduled higher on the list so mine did not tape - ughhhhhhh - first of all why do you need to tape a "marathon" - hello - you've already seen them - does anyone else see a problem here - 2nd of all - don't come in and put yours higher on the list than mine - I was first! What is it with me and "lists" anyway......Lists, lists, lists, there everywhere! I will definitely be checking it twice from now on!

This Day in History....

Wow - we have a new president - let's just say its not the way I voted....but nonetheless, we have to move on. Yes I'm curious and anxious to find out what's REALLY going to happen - we heard the promises but what did they REALLY mean - Change is coming? Hang on tight gang - I think change really is coming, just not the change that we want or need.

As the old folks used to say - I never would've believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!

Hello...It's Me Again

It's been awhile since I've posted here - actually I forgot that I had even created a blog to begin with - since it was 2005 I think.....it seemed like such a great idea to start with but just like most things it takes time to do it and it must become something that you habitually do or it just kind of goes away. But .........after reading my co-workers fantastic blogs, I felt like this might be kinda fun to get back into.