Fun weekend

This past weekend was really fun and relaxing. Michael had a wrestling tournament in Sterling, VA so we made it home for part of the weekend. Friday my mom came down to Charlottesville and we went out Christmas shopping. Barracks and Fashion Square Mall in all their glory. We were very successful with our shopping and followed it up with a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts with warm coffee for the ride home.

In Manassas, Preston turned 15 and we went to dinner at the restaurant of his choice, Red Lobster. Cheddar Bay Biscuits anyone? I finally got my haircut with the best stylist in the world. You can tell she's talented because no one has noticed my new layers - which means it still looks good. Saturday was spent hanging out with the siblings and parents. This weekend was MAG's Christmas concert complete with 100 person choir, ballet, drum line, full orchestra and children's choir. Brianna was in the kid's choir so she made her Christmas concert debut in full style. 

No Christmas should be spent without at least one attendance of a Christmas Concert - they are so good and put you right in the spirit of worshiping God. I finished up making my Christmas Hot Cocoa today. I was frustrated because I was unable to find all the right decorations for them, but I think they turned out alright. Some of you just might be receiving it if you live in the area. No surprises here.  Merry Christmas! 

We need a little Christmas

Two weeks to go and we have finally settled on our Christmas plans. Thanks to my wonderful father and his airline miles, Michael and I now get to travel to the great state of Oklahoma for my cousin's wedding! The following is our itinerary:

Dec 19 : Head home for the Manass-side

Dec 19-21: Celebrate Christmas with our Worthley family

Dec 22-25: Celebrate Christmas with our Daubert family

Dec 26: Fly to Oklahoma!

Dec 26-29: Spend time with our Oklahoma family and Nathaniel gets married

Dec 29: Fly home, get in the car, drive to Sunset Beach, NC

Dec 29-Jan 2: Celebrate the New Year with our Daubert Family at the beach

Jan 2: Finally back in C'ville

Wow. I'm a bit overwhelmed with that schedule. But it will be fun and I am thankful that the Lord provided! 

Here are some snapshots of last weekends cookie bake:

Celebrations begin

Last Friday was our first Christmas party of the year. We had fun but the car ride home was miserable. Jenny and Pat rode with us and got to experience the frigid conditions. Michael's Jeep has NO HEAT and when we got back in the car by the end of the night, the drivers side window had broken. We couldn't roll the one window up - so clearly Michael and Pat decide that all the windows need to be open. Jenny and I are in our little dresses and sandals, it's 25 degrees outside, no functioning heat and all four windows are down. We were cold. We stopped at TGI Fridays for a half-way-home warm up, ordered some appetizers, then headed back home in the ice box. Thankfully, no one got sick! 

(Mom, here's my new dress. Thank You!)

This is how Jenny and I felt the whole way home:

Deck the home

Christmas is so wonderful. I honored Michael by waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate our home. We do not have enough decorations to make our humble abode a Winter Wonderland but we do have a tree.  A fake one from pre-1986. Here is what we have done:

I love babies

We are overjoyed with the arrival of our friend's, The Andrews, new baby Parks. He was born November 28th and is just too precious. (Bek, remember when you asked me that Friday if he was born yet and I said no, well, he was actually in the middle of birth but my phone was dysfunctional so I didn't get their texts on time.) 

Michael and I drove home and got to see Parks on Sunday when he was not even a full two days old! He was such a handsome newborn. I could just hold him forever. Here's a sweet pic of His Preciousness:

Quotes from tots

Today I babysat these sweet little boys who are 4 and 3 years old.  I drove them around to different places in town and they talked their little hearts out. It was so cute.  The babysitting agenda looked like this: 

Lunch at Chic-fil-a, followed by play time in the kids area

Barnes and Noble to look at books and buy "Dog Heaven" (compliments of Jenny)

Take the 4 year old to Kung-Fu

Play with the 3 year old until mommy came to pick him up

Sweet phrases from the wee ones:

-To himself, "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit"

-"Um, I tee-teed in my pants" (which then led to 30 minutes of sitting at Kung-Fu with the tot in his underpants because we didn't have clean clothes)

-"Dogs go to Heaven you know? Our dog died. We didn't kill him.  His bones turned to dust."

I am very thankful to have the opportunity to babysit since Ethan Allen closed.  I even gave my number out to three other moms while I was babysitting.  Am I too old to be doing this? I love children but I thought my babysitting days were long gone. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day was a nice combo of fun, relaxation, and good food. Poor Michael got a cold the exact amount of days we were home, but he was a great sport! I put up a bunch of photos because we all know pictures say more than 1000 words... and I really don't have 1000 words to say about it.

Here's a pic of our short day trip to JMU to visit Heather
Mom's favorite H-burg joint
Family shot

Sister shot

Brother shot

Dessert time, I sampled it all

The Rents