Christmas 2010 and New Year's

Here is a recap of December...

On December 10th we attended the annual NWYM Christmas Party, complete with Olive Garden food, homemade desserts, and of course the always hilarious Ornament Exchange (like White Elephant). This year we intentionally picked a hideous looking ornament - a hand-painted rat wearing a pink dress, fake pearls, high heels, and glued on eye lashes...quite the hit at the party. Sorry, no picture of it!

That same weekend we helped the Taylors move to their new home. We have loved being in their Bible study for the past year. They are such a great couple and mentors to us.

After several weeks of long hours working on a driving study at TTI, I took the whole week off before Christmas and caught up on some much needed sleep. So I had a full 2 weeks off over the holiday break - it was amazing and so very relaxing! One beautiful day, we took our dogs to Research Park and let them get some energy out...



On the 23rd, Michael, our dogs, and I all drove up to Lake Whitney to stay at a lakehouse with Michael's mom and his sister and her husband. His mom and his sister brought their dogs, so it was a very full house! We all went on several walks down to the lake shore and Michael enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake. Well, this encouraged Ginger to go swimming in the lake! In case you don't know this story, Michael and I used to live at an apartment complex with a pool. We tried on several occasions to get her to swim in the pool, but she would not have any of that! But at Lake Whitney, maybe because she could walk in gradually herself, she felt more confident. Anyways, it was SO cute getting to see her splash around and snap at the water as it splashed up in her face. Here are some pictures of this momentous occasion.



We all drove home on Christmas Day and ate dinner with my parents and Meemaw. All of the holiday meals were so delicious!! And I don't think we've ever had a stock-pile of this many desserts in our house before...yikes! If there was ever a test of our self-control, this is it!

The week after Christmas we pretty much did nothing, which was perfect. We stayed up late and slept in the next morning (afternoon) and just spend time together. It was wonderful.

Then on the 30th, the Cherrys came to town to visit!! We ate at Red Lobster with them and the Parishes the first night. Then we went and played pool at P.O.E.T.S. (where Michael and I first met 6 years ago), then went home and played New Super Mario Bros. until after midnight. I missed all those frequent nights of fun time hanging with the Cherrys before they moved! So it was very good to see them again. The next day we played Monopoly Deal at Sweet Eugene's, got a treat at Spoons, and then got ready for the New Year's Eve Party at the Taylor's house for the NWYM class.

The party was so fun! We brought supplies to make virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. We started the night off with a huge game of Taboo - grr...the husbands won. Then several smaller groups broke off to play different games until midnight. After midnight, most of the guests went home, but the Taylors, Cherrys, Parishes, and us stayed and played a game of Quelf. It was hilarious!

We ate lunch with the Cherrys on New Year's Day at On the Border and then all went to the dog park with Ginger and Abby. Jonathan and Michael had fun throwing the frisbee to the dogs and each other.



Then the Cherrys headed back to Dallas. Hopefully Michael and I can make a trip up there sometime soon.

Stay tuned for a special post highlighting 2010 events and looking ahead to 2011...