So I get a call from Andy yesterday and he tells me he has found his dream car, it is in great condition, exactly what he wanted. So he leaves work early to drive to San Antonio to pick it up before someone "steals his baby". Fast forward to this morning, I get up and he is anxious to show me his "dream car" since he got home late last night and I was already asleep. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.....
One of my favorite things about Andy is that he sees the potential in everything and loves a challenge. I am not creative enough to see his vision at this point but know he can make it beautiful. Did I mention it doesn't run, covered in rust, 4 flat tires, but I've been told it just needs a "little TLC"....
Okay, so I say this every year, and mean it, but this year really was the best Christmas ever. It had all the makings of a memorable, perfect Christmas- my crazy, fun family, lots of laughing, tons of good food, laying around watching movies, and the best of all- 7 inches of snow! It was so beautiful. Ever since we got our pidly little 10 minutes of snow a few weeks back I've been hoping for a white Christmas, well we got it! Let me start from the beginning though.... We left Tuesday and spent the day with my best friend Sara and her fiance Drew in Oklahoma City. Sara is getting married in May, so I went with her to get measured for my bride's maid dress and try on lots of gorgeous dresses. Super fun. Sara and Drew!
Then we drove over to Andy's mom house and are dinner, opened presents, talked, watched this crazy movie and spent the night.
Annette bought me some really thoughtful presents- all Beatles stuff- LOVE IT! Wednesday morning we went to a French bakery for breakfast and it was AMAZING!
Then we left for Sand Springs to spend the rest of the week with my parents. The timing was perfect, the day after we got there it started snowing. It was so perfect and so beautiful.
Emma, the cutest, most cat-like dog was there to snuggle with us the whole time too!
We had so much fun sledding!
Molly LOVED the snow, but then again, Molly loves everything....
3) SNOW So this is kinda a lame picture of snow, but more than we get down here in south Texas. I never in a million years thought that I would miss cold weather,being that I HATE cold weather, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas when people are wearing flip flops. I miss being snowed-in, everything shutting down, streets being nothing but sheets of ice, true snow days.
4) BC Clarks Jewelry's Christmas Jingle This is a much as a Christmas song to me as Jingle Bells, probably more so being that it is played over and over again on tv/radio every single Christmas since before I was born.....
5) Non-crazy aggressive drivers People not only don't speed like crazy, but there are others like me that actually go under the speed limit! I know that Austin isn't as bad as say, Dallas or Houston, but still a big difference than Oklahoma drivers. Be nice and slow down Texans!
6) Braums Another thing I didn't think I would miss until it wasn't there anymore. When we lived in Norman, at least once a week I had a bacon cheeseburger with crinkle cuts fries and a chocolate milkshake. So good. A friend of mine was trying to describe Braum's commercials to some other friends that had never heard of Braums at work the other day. That it is scientifically impossible not to want ice cream after you see one of these slow motion, uber delicious looking sundaes. She described it as "food pornography" and at least for me that is an accurate description
I could certainly go on and on, but for the sake of not boring you all to death, I won't. As much as I miss and love coming back (in 2 days!), I love that I get to live in a town where the motto is "Keep Austin Weird", with so much awesome stuff to do, beautiful weather, and most importantly we have made our home here, both have good jobs, found a wonderful church home, and have develop some really special relationships.
Tonight I hosted an "ELF" and gingerbread house party. For those of you that haven't seen Elf, it is such a sweet, quirky Christmas movie, one of my very favorites. What a better way to watch it than with good friends and lots and lots of candy, err, I mean decorations...
Working hard...
Wish I would have taken pictures of the houses finished, they were beautiful! All it all it was a wonderful night! 8 days till Christmas!
It's actually been done for awhile, but I hadn't gotten around to taking photos yet. I love how it turned out, and it means even more that it turned out like it did since we took that thing down to nothing. Let's take a walk down bathroom renovation memory lane..... BEFORE: The icing on the cake of ugliness would have to be this plastic/fake gold/chain light fixture.... DEMO BABY YEAH.... Can I just say that ripping out walls and busting out tile is crazy fun, favorite part of this project by far! Take that wall! Andy soldering some plumbing, there was quite a bit of re-routing the plumbing, Andy rocked it out- not a single leak! Although logically you know renovation involved putting it all back together, at this point in the project, when there is nothing but cement, studs, and hole in the floor, that moment of "what have we gotten ourselves into?" is a scary one.... FINISHED PRODUCT:
I am really pleased with how it turned out and so very proud to say we did every bit of the work ourselves. It's been a running joke through this process that when I say "we" I am mostly referring to Andy, well that is pretty close to the truth. I helped with as much as I was able to, but this was the result of Andy's hard work and mad crazy skills. On to the next project, we are trying to decide between replacing the fence (Molly has been escaping!), redoing the flower beds, and finishing the garage...oh the fun life of a DIY home owner ;)
Mmmmmmm, so many things I love about Christmas time, the spirit of giving, being around family, the decorations, finding the perfect gift for someone, watching movies you've seen 100 times before, but somewhere inappropriately high on that list would be cookies. Sugar cookies, pecan sandies, macaroons, chocolate chip, it doesn't matter the kind, cookies are my holiday crack.
My sweet friend Rachel loves Christmas as much as I, so Saturday the Fullers came over and Rachel and I attempted sugar cookies. I don't believe I have ever been successful in my sugar cookies endeavors. But the holiday spirit suckers me into trying it again and again.
Our attempts to overcome my sugar cookie curse were unfruitful...
Disgusting egg-like, burnt cookies + hungry tummies = sad faces
Our husbands took a break from their welding (seriously, they were outside welding, what manly men we have for husbands) and bought us some store bought dough. This happy picture is brought to you by Pillsbury Sugar cookies dough...
This isn't just a story of how I am an awful baker (which I am but refused to come to terms with) but how a night of burning cookies to a crisp can be such fun times with good friends and a little Christmas spirit!
