christmas

very excited about her homemade pot holders

shake, shake, shake. "i just KNOW it's hawaiian sand! i KNOW it is! I KNOW it's hawaiian sand"
(actually lip gloss)
then later, "oh, nothing in this is moving around making a noise, it's just my hair hitting the container"

cousins


an after christmas sail.
right before a "hugh! where are you going!? that way!"


beautiful weather!

the turkey saga

a christmas turkey. in photos.

this year we had the opportunity to get a turkey from a local organic co-op and decided to make it for christmas dinner... our first turkey.

hugh knew that i wasn't excited about getting into the raw turkey's business and took over the initial handling and preparations. he quickly decided that he wanted to try and do all the prep- and i was happy to say okay!

hugh and dad rigging the thing to brine in the fridge...



the dressed bird...


done!


delicious! Sr, you'd be proud.

carols and foosball

the winning red team

the nutcracker

____________________________________________________________________

with our ballerina friend, dewdrop. aka marissa.

christmas sweaters and a cookie exchange

a wonderful afternoon

with a special friend.

my desktop

love this picture. it makes me smile every time i look at it. totally my sis' personality too.

she's standing in the middle of an enormous christmas tree, in case you were confused :)

small group christmas...

thought you might get a chuckle out of this. our small group had a christmas party this week, along with white elephant, etc.

this was taken right after a 'prized' ornament fell from the tree due to a certain mischevious boy (and it was not jaden, the 2 year old)

stand by me

i thought these were fun ...

thanksgiving

i have such a back-log of photos and stories waiting to be shared, but for now here are a few from thanksgiving.

the parking...

hard at work...

these ladies have it made!

___________________________________________________________________

wow

i recently visited my parents in texas. while i was there i came across this interesting piece of work...

my dad's neighbor is responsible for this, uh, thing. it is, according to him, a hurricane shelter.

now, for starters, this piece of poured concrete is definitely in the middle of his backyard. it is also only about 4 feet wide on each side (i know what you're thinking- perfect for all 4 members of his adult family to fit comfortably while they wait out the many many hours of a hurricane). i also haven't yet mentioned that, aside from the concrete, nothing about this is hurricane proof- no special windows or roof or anything.

now i know that the houston area has suffered a lot these last few months and has lost a lot because of hurricane ike, but is this really the answer?

(side note: this is a sneaky sneaky photo taken through the fence :)! )

battle of the brazos

a quick shout out to my baylor bears... who beat the aggies (texas a&m for those of you outside the state of tx) 41-21 in the 105th 'battle of the brazos'.

sic 'em bears

question...

i’m watching the election coverage on TV and just watched an update on the winners of 4 seats on the 'Mosquito Control District' in one of our neighboring counties.

is this weird to anyone else? what exactly is the need for an elected official in Mosquito Control?

election day

we voted!

my first voting experience... so cool! it was so much fun to be a part of this whole thing. i came home feeling excited and productive and like i'd made a contribution to something big.

i recently read the book '1776' and am now reading 'john adams'. having been engrossed for a few weeks in the details of the hard work of this country's forefathers' in getting us to where we are today, being a part of something like an election (and especially with this as my first to participate in) seems to have greater meaning.

now, the energy i have been feeling might be a product of the excitement of the day... there are people everywhere dressed patriotically, wearing the colors of the party they support, holding signs and waving, honking their horns, flags everywhere... it may also be due to the fact that hugh and i visited starbucks immediately following :) a fun little outing to celebrate the day, and we got free coffee to top it off! (i was told that ben & jerry's is also handing out freebies, so maybe ice cream is in my future as well, haha)

seriously, though. i've really enjoyed today so far and am wearing my 'i voted' sticker proudly.

halloween

for the first time in many years we spent halloween out.

some pics of the fun gathering...