First Christmas!!

Believe it or not, this was Tripp and I's first Christmas spent together. We were excited to share our first Christmas together!! After brunch on Christmas Eve, we spent time at my parents' house hanging out with the family and helping get things ready for Christmas. That evening, me, Tripp, mom, dad, Claire, Laura, Darr, and Aunt Peggy had a fabulous dinner at Tony Angelo's. We opted to get the "Feed Me" where we were able to sample many of the chef's favorites from the menu. We had marinated mushrooms, shrimp, salad, homemade pasta, pork, rosemary chicken, fried catfish, and more.

After dinner, we went to visit Aunt Peggy's husband Tim who was working Christmas Eve and Christmas at the firestation. He showed us around the station and even took us for a spin around the block in the firetruck. Once back at the station, we played around in the truck taking pictures and goofing off. Pictures to come!!


Christmas morning, we had breakfast of scones and cappuccino and began opening presents. We all got some really nice gifts and had a great time as a family. Once the mess of all of the wrapping paper was cleaned up, we got ready for family to come over. Many relatives came over for lunch and visiting. The holiday celebration ended with a game of "White Elephant." Tripp and I stole with strategy and lucked out getting $25 cash and a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card!

We then left for another visit with members of my dad's family at Aunt Peggy's house. We visited, snacked, and played another round of "White Elephant." This time, I left with a set of 4 New Orleans themed glasses. Tripp got a cool shooting game, but wound up giving it to a family friend who had stopped by during the game. He was so excited to get such a cool present.

Throughout the day, Tripp and I talked to Tripp's parents and siblings who were celebrating in Mentone, Alabama. They were surprised with a white Christmas. The pictures they sent we beautiful with over 6 inches of snow on the ground! We missed seeing the Griffith clan!

It was a wonderful first Christmas!!

Yummy brunch with great friends!

Tripp and I arrived in New Orleans late Thursday night and kicked off our Christmas celebration Christmas eve morning with a delicious brunch. Months ago, my closest friends since high school (Meghan, Amanda, and Vanessa) started planning a get together for Christmas. We decided to go to brunch at The Court of Two Sisters with the girls and our husbands/boyfriend.

Yum!

Dessert!!

We met up to ride together down to the French Quarter. We were seated next to a three man jazz band and immediately ordered a table full of bloody marys and mimosas. Our waiter explained the brunch to us and rattled off a never ending list of yummy foods on the buffet. The list included: fruit, salads, meats, cheeses, eggs, omlets, bacon, spinach, veggies, hashbrowns, biscuits, sausage, carving stations, shrimp creole, grits and grillades, turtle soup, bananas foster, bread pudding, homemade ice cream, and much more. We tried a little of a lot on the buffet and were stuffed, but we of course saved room for dessert! Our waiter suggested bread pudding topped with homemade vanilla ice cream, topped with bananas foster. I don't want to know the calories, fat, or sugar, but man was it delicious!!!


Once we were finished, we went out to the courtyard to take some pictures. The boys made it interesting of course. It was a fun morning with great friends!!

We had to try to get a "creative" picture

The group

The girls-Vanessa, Meghan, me, and Amanda

The boys-Ray, Trevor, Prad, and Tripp

Just Dance!!

Tripp bought himself a Christmas gift last weekend with a gift card he got as a gift and a gift card we had for recycling an old television. He bought a new game for the Wii called Just Dance 2 that we had been seeing on commercials over the last few weeks. We immediately began playing when we got home and have to say it has been our evening entertainment this week. It is super fun and quite a workout! I snuck a picture of Tripp as he was breaking it down :)

We can't wait to challenge mom, dad, Claire, Laura, and Darr when we are in New Orleans for Christmas!!!

Owners of a new table and chairs!!

After looking at a few more tables, we finally decided on a table and chairs that we love! Thanks to a Christmas present from my parents and money we were budgeting for the table, we made the big purchase! Here is a picture of the table. We can't wait until it arrives next week. More pictures to come once it is in our apartment!!

Christmas Cookies

I tried my hand at sugar cookies with flooded icing this Christmas and I have to say that it was a success!! I whipped up two batches of homemade sugar cookies which made about 80 cookies. The lucky recipents of these yummy cookies were my dear co-workers!! It was the least I could do for being amazing friends that I get to work with.

I wound up choosing to do trees, bells, and stars. I planned out my designs, baked, cooled, made icing, and began the decorating process.

Here are some pictures of the messy but fun process:

They were delicious, pretty, and someone asked if they were store bought which I took as a giant compliment. What should I try next???

Italia!!!

Where do I begin to summarize our amazing trip to Italia?? Since I could probably write a short book on all the amazing sights and memories from our 10 day trip, I will hit the highlights from the three cities we explored and share some of my favorite pictures. To see almost all of our other pictures, check out my facebook albums.

Days 1-4:
City: Houston, TX; Frankfort, Germany; Rome Italy

Sights: Trevi Foutain, Ancient Rome-Colosseum, Roman Forum, Panthenon, Piazza Navona, Vatican City-Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Borgehese Gammery, Spanish Steps, Campo di Fiori, the Metro (subway), beautiful scenery

Food: German "hot dog," pizza, lots of gelato, lots of cappauccino, delicious pasta, lots of wine, amazing veal

Days 5-7
City: Florence, Italy; Pisa, Italy

Sights: locals on bicycles, archways, shops, Accademia--The David, Duomo, Baptistry, Bell Tower, Galileo Science Museum, Ponte Vecchio, market, Leaning Tower of Pisa

Food: tons of gelato, lots of wine, incredible veal, pasta, bean soups, olives, amazing sandiches, cappuccino, osso bucco

Days: 8-10
City: Venice, Italy

Sights: water!!, canals, gondolas, water taxis, flooded streets, platforms to walk on when the streets were flooded, winding streets, no cars, bridges, the Bridge of Sighs, St. Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, Clock Tower, Carnival masks, Correr Museum, pigeons

Food: amazing lasagna, pasta, veal, lots of wine, gelato, pizza

Favorite Rome Pictures:

Favorite Florence Pictures:

Favorite Venice Pictures:

Another family visit

We were so excited that Tripp's parents had planned a weekend to visit us in Houston. They arrived Friday evening and the weekend began with a dinner at home of bakd chicken, pasta, salad, and was topped off with an apple crumble. We visited the rest of the evening and made plans for Saturday.

This visit was for two reasons, to visit us and family and to take some furniture back to Alabama. Saturday morning after a pancake breakfast, we went to rent a moving truck. That process took some interesting turns once we arrived to pick up the reserved truck to find out that it was not available (not sure how you reserve something and then they don't have it but...). After researching a few other options, we left with a much larger truck than needed. We dropped off the truck at our apartment and went to Captain Tom's for lunch. Captain Tom's is one of our favorite seafood restaurants here in Houston. It has a unique atmosphere and great seafood!


Once lunch was finished, we loaded the truck with an arm chair, kitchen table, and chairs. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon before getting ready for a family dinner/get together at Tripp's cousin's house. All of the Houston relatives had gathered at JJ and Jerry's house for margaritas, Mexican  food, and visiting. The kids roped Tripp, Mr. Wesley, and Jon into helping them "wrap" a friend's house with toilet paper to end the night.

Sunday morning, we got up early, went to another cousin's house to pick up another table and baby jogger, and direct Ms. Kat and Mr. Wesley to the interstate. It was a great visit!

That afternoon, Tripp and I left again to see 9 to 5: The Musical. It was a fun show filled with comedy, great music, and wonderful dancing!

Painting with a Twist

We had been talking at work about getting some girls together to go to Painting with a Twist for a while. We finally picked a day and painting anf scheduled the girls outing. Stefanie, Sarah, and I were excited to hang out outside of work and to try our hand at painting. We had a great time and left feeling relaxed and with a pretty painting!!

Family visit

The first weekend of November brought my mom, dad, and youngest sister, Claire, to Houston. They were in Houston for another round of tests to monitor my dad's lymphoma. They arrived at our apartment Thursday night late after a day of doctor visits, exploring Houston, and attending a Joyce Meyer's convention. They arrived with enough time to get settled and make plans for the next day.

Friday morning, Claire came to work with me to check out the school where I work and to learn more about the daily adventures of my job. While Claire was at work with me, my parents relaxed until they picked Claire up around 12:30 so they could make it to another doctor's appointment.  My work day ended with a phone call from my parents letting me know that my dad continues to be in remission!!!

We celebrated another great MD Anderson visit and my mom's early birthday with dinner at Carrabas. We had great food and drinks before heading home to enjoy a homemade cake for mom's birthday. We ended the night by playing Outburst.

Saturday morning, the fam left and Tripp and I spent the rest of the weekend packing for Italy!!

Weekend of shopping

Taking advantage of a free weekend,  Tripp and I spent all day on a Saturday going to furniture stores looking for a new kitchen table and chairs. We were ready for a table that we picked out together but without knowing what we liked, furniture shopping here we came!

We went to store after store trying to figure out what we liked. Did we like regular height? counter height? fabric covered chairs? wooden chairs? light wood? dark wood? traditional? modern? We saw a lot and it was hard to keep all of the different designs straight in my head! We left finding out the types of tables and chairs that we are drawn to and an amount to start budgeting for!

We spent the rest of the weekend preparing for our upcoming Italy trip. We made a few stops to gather necessary items such as travel sized toiletries, jackets, gloves, etc.

Houston visitor!!

Just a few hours after my car accident, my dear friend Nicole came to visit from Dallas. I was upset that I was not feeling my best and that we may have to change some of our plans, but it was a great weekend!

Friday, we enjoyed a yummy dinner of veggie lasagna, salad, bread topped off with homemade pumpkin ice cream.  We stayed up chatting before getting to bed.

Saturday, we treated ourselves to a pedicure, ate lunch, and talked. It was so nice to catch up in person! That night, Nicole, Tripp, and I had dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Escalantes,  and went to see the movie Catfish. The movie was not quite what we expected, but it was a fun evening.

Sunday, Nicole and I went to mass and returned home for a cooked-at-home brunch of breakfast tacos, hashbrowns, and fruit salad before Nicole headed back to Dallas. It was a super fun visit. I hope to plan a Dallas visit in the coming months!

I was just minding my own business.....

when..... on my way home from work on October 15th, I was rear-ended! I was at a stop yielding to turn onto the frontage road of I-10 when a small Dodge Neon came crashing into me. I was shocked and even more shocked to see that my car just suffered some small scratches. I pretty much immediately began feeling pain in my neck. Well, to make a long story short the girl that hit me does NOT have insurance which makes it super fun! Fortunatley, my uncle who is a wonderful personal injury attorney is helping me handle the mess. I saw a chiroprator for about five weeks and am feeling back to normal. 

Blogger Slacker!!!

Man, I have really slacked at blogging these days!! I have gone to sit down to blog several times, but something always takes precedence over it. Well, today I am making time to write about all of the happenings in the last two months!!!

Weekend in New Orleans

Tripp and I spent last weekend in New Orleans! We drove in Friday night after work, so we did not arrive until close to 11:30. We chatted with my parents and then headed to bed. Saturday morning, I got a great haircut from my very talented sister Claire. My mom, sister, and I met my dad and Tripp at Parkway Bakery for lunch. We enjoyed awesome ham, shrimp, and roast beef po-boys. I then ran errands with my mom.

After getting back to my parents' house, we got ready for the Light the Night Walk at a nearby park. Just in case you did not read an earlier post about the walk, it is a walk raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A team was formed in honor of my dad for the walk. When we arrived at the park, we were surprised to see the amount of tents, tables, and food. Soon after we arrived, a group of my dad's co-workers, my mom's co-workers, family friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents began arriving. We visited, enjoyed the food, and the live music.

Just before the actual walk began, we were treated to some entertainment from the 610 Stompers. What a way to get the crowds pumped up!! Then the walk began with each of us carrying a lighted balloon.  What a fun and successful night with over $180,000 raised to help find a cure for blood cancers!!!

Claire with her favorite brother-in-law!

Cousins

Tripp and I

Me and my dad

Dad's co-workers

610 Stompers

On the walk

Final Class!

 My cake class came to a close this morning. Our assignment was to design a cake, make the cake, make the icing, frost the cake, make flowers, dry the flowers, and bring it to class to decorate. Since I had a lot to prepare, I worked on little bits throughout the week. I made and tinnted icing on Tuesday, made flowers on Wednesday, make my cake on Thursday, and frosted the cake and gathered all of the materials on Friday. I cam up with a design consisting of a white buttercream frosted cake with orage colored ribbon roses, coral colored swirl drop flowers, coral colored rosette border, and orange colored dots scattrered on the cake. I had a few hiccups during the week, but I was ready to go for today! Here are some pictures of the preparation for today:

With all of my materials in hand, we got a lesson on writing with icing, a few other tips, some houseskeeping items handled, some help on ribbon roses, and we were off to decorate. Here is my final cake and my certificate from the class. I am roud of myself for completing the course and learning so many new things! Here's to baking!!!