November:
For the first time in a long time, we traveled for Thanksgiving. We went to the hubby's brother's house in Austin to spend a few days with his family. They just bought a new house this past summer, so they wanted to host this year. This is a great excuse for me to get to spend some time with my awesome little nephew, Beckham!
There's never a dull moment when he and I get together. I love this little man! We had a ton of food that we consumed that week, but since it was that time of year I don't think any really cared. Since we left Thanksgiving week, we had to put up our Christmas decor a little early. Don't worry, I won't bog you down with all the decor....just our favorite tree in the kitchen:
Each year since we've been married, we buy a new ornament for our tree in our living room. This was our 2014 ornament:
December:
This was a jam-packed month for us. Every weekend we had something going on. It started off with our holiday party with friends from church. This is a busy and fun time at school, too. Our Elf on the Shelf came back and our class had fun searching for the elf daily and doing fun activities with her. We got an early Christmas present from my wonderful in-laws: the newest most awesome Keurig out there!!!!
We've been enjoying this so much since we've received it! The hubby and I also love to do couples' painting classes at this studio in Grapevine called Art in the Vine! We found a fun painting that had a winter, but not Christmas, theme to it.
This has become one of our most favorite activities to do together. We love displaying our original work around our house. Not bad for a girl who thought she didn't have an artistic bone in her body!
We had some fun at work, too. We did a gift exchange and a cookie exchange along with my birthday lunch. This year was good because the kids got out at 12:20 this year instead of 1:45. So, we did lunch and the exchanges after the kids left that Thursday before Christmas. I have the best team!
The hubby and I decided to start a new tradition this year: Starbucks caramel apple ciders while driving to look at Christmas lights. We saw some pretty impressive displays:
December is one of my favorite months because it just also happens to be the month that I was born. Ahhhh....December 21: the greatest day of my parents' lives:)
This year, the hubby took me to Bass Performance Hall in Sundance Square to see The Nutcracker. I've never been to Bass Hall and I've never seen The Nutcracker. It was the perfect December evening. Dinner at Del Frisco's Grille (not a fan: not enough food for the ridiculous price you pay), Starbucks and Cheesecake in the square by the Christmas display, The Nutcracker at Bass Hall, then pictures in front of the Christmas display where he proposed to me!
This is also the first year since I've been married that I was able to go home and spend the holidays with my family back in Lubbock. We left Christmas Eve afternoon and came home that next Monday morning. My family thought they'd be cute, so this is what we had waiting on us when we arrived that evening:
Pretty clever. That's an air mattress in my mom's scrapbooking room (which used to be my old bedroom many moons ago). Also, my dad broke his old toilet and had to buy a new one. He had been going on and on about it for a while when we talked on the phone. I kept telling him I couldn't wait to use it, and he kept insisting that he wasn't letting me anywhere near his new prized possession (my dad and I share a bond over weird toilet humor that no one else really understands). Since my dad is the funny man he is and knows me so well (meaning: I'd hit the bathroom as soon as I arrived), this is what was waiting for me:
Classic dad humor! I'm glad I get my humor from him:)
We brought our 2 dogs with us. Add that to my parents 3 dogs and each of my sisters' dogs, and that equals 7 tiny dogs running around the house. They easily outnumbered us!
We always eat well when we come to visit my family because my dad cooks good country comfort foods! This was only one of the amazing meals we had while we were here.
We also got some good Christmas loot from my family, too! My favorite having to be the gift of the onesie pajama by my youngest sis...gotta love her humor, too!
And, I got to see these two knuckle heads while I was here! They're my sisters, so I guess I love them a little bit;)
My twin besties were also in town visiting their family, so we met up at the Pie Bar in town for coffee and Pie! How awesome that my hometown besties moved to DFW, too!
We also go a little snow in Lubbock a couple of days after Christmas, but it went away just as quickly as it came. But, not before we could get a pic:
We celebrated the new year back home in DFW. New Years Eve was spent with some of the hubby's work friends as we rang in 2015 together!
January:
We did a small Christmas with the hubby's family a few days into the new year since we all did our own things over Christmas. The hubby and I have made commitments to get healthier this year. We do this every January, but this year I've got to make it stick. We want to start a family. To do that, we must get healthy. We each turn the Dirty 30 at the end of 2015, so we need to get serious. I found this sign at a Hobby Lobby that generally describes my attitude to dieting:
I guess I won't commit to a diet, but a lifestyle change. I've begun taking steps to make that happen. Since I've been back at work, I've been getting up at 5am M-F to go workout at the YMCA for about 40 minutes each morning. I'm also doing the www.thefresh20.com to get weekly healthy recipes. Thanks to my girl www.simplyswarbrick.blogspot.com for recommending this to me. We love it! I'm going to start working with a trainer once a week and possibly doing some Zumba once a week (hopefully with a friend:) Time to get healthy to get on that baby train!!!
Last weekend was a test of our marriage when my Dallas Cowboys took on his Green Bay Packers in the NFC divisional playoffs. Football Karma was in full swing when my Cowboys lost in the final minutes. It happened to the Lions the previous week, and it also happened to the Packers last night in overtime. I suppose I'll have to be a Seahawk fan on February 1st. I NEVER root for the Patriots!
The hubby and I also found another painting to do. We've been waiting on this one for a few months. We did this lock and key painting last Friday night. We already have it up on our wall!
I got my 5th stamp on my painting card, so next time I get a free class. They also do 3 drawings at the end of every class for a free class. Imagine my surprise when my name was the first one drawn! This was especially funny since I was just telling the hubby on the way how it would be cool if my name got drawn this time since I never win anything (he won a free class a couple of paintings ago).
I suppose we will have to go again. We have our eye on a couple of more paintings that we want to do. We may be running out of room on our walls, but we will just have to get creative. I already have a space lined up for our next painting!
If you are looking for a great fun place to paint, check out www.artinthevine.com. They always have Groupons for 1 or 2 people on www.groupon.com. The owner/artist is great and so are her assistants. They teach, guide, and help you through the whole process. They want to make sure you are happy with your painting. Just be careful when you give your phone to the owner for pics. If it's in "selfie" mode, she will take a selfie of herself:
Again, sorry for the ridiculously long post. I'll try to keep up in the future. Mr. B and I are looking forward to what the year 2015 brings us. We fully intend to have a #mightyfine29 year before we hit the #dirty30 by the end of 2015!
