Christmas!!!!

We had a great Christmas this year and here are a few, several, ...ok, a LOT of pictures to prove it! Enjoy!


Isn't my tree pretty?? Kidding.. this is what it looked like after Oliver destroyed explored it. It was such a mess that I had to take everything off, lights too, and start completely over.


Ahh... much better!


Dave and Melinda (Josh's parents) at the extended family Christmas.


Diane, Philip, and Claire :

LeAnne, Jay, and McKinley:

Richard, Steve, Trent, and Sonia:

My family has a tradition that every year on Christmas Eve, we go to the mall and watch all the frantic people doing last minute shopping. The only rule is that you can't buy anything. Carrie broke the rule this year, but we'll forgive her!

Carrie and me posing:

Covering up the nekkid lady:

Think Nordstrom will hire us?

Christmas Eve service! It was way awesome this year

Christmas morning at Josh's parents

Davis family picture!

Christmas Evening at my parents. This happened a lot all night:

Hamilton family picture!

Carrie and I hanging with Nana

Rock Stars:

After all the fun, Doily and I needed a quick rest:

Speaking of Doily, I go to play with my new camera a little!

My gorgeous cousin Leah and her fiance Jody. They're getting married this summer!

Dinah (my cousin) came down from Omaha with her three kiddos for a few days. Dinah, me, and Carrie in the Stockyards:

Indiana and Isabelle:

Indy:

Izzy:


Autumn:


So there you have it! We got to spend lots of time with family and friends and, most importantly, celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Hydroxycut!! Now for cats too!

Before Hydroxycut:



After Hydroxycut:



Wait.. maybe it's the camera angle... we'll never tell.

FOUND IT!!! This is by far the best Christmas song ever. Every single time I hear it, it makes me cry. Seriously. You have to listen through to the very end though because it's the ending that will get you. Yes, it's funny, but it's SO powerful. And no, I am not being facetious!

Peace Child

This is one of my top two favorite Christmas songs EVER. You'll have to excuse the totally twee video... it's a very obscure song and this is the only place I could find it online. Strangely, my second favorite Christmas song is also incredibly obscure and I can't find it ANYWHERE online to share.If I find it, I'll definitely be posting it later!

Enjoy this one though! It's by The Normals.

Fun with Byron

The scene:

Our house on a low-key evening. Robin digging through a cabinet looking for a CD. Finds two forgotten nerf-y guns. Forgets about CD and decides to recruit Josh to help "play" with the cats.

The perpetrators:

The unsuspecting cat:

Aaaannnddd... ACTION!

A fun time was had by all... except maybe Byron.

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

It's done! Success!
We had our skillfully planned "holiday luncheon" at work today. Oh, how I hate politically correct corporate America. It killed me to have to write "holiday luncheon" instead of Christmas luncheon. Ah well.

It went off without a hitch. Luckily, I was able to find a restaurant that handled all the decor as well which was a major load off my back! As silly as it may seem, I was stressing about how to decorate for a "holiday luncheon". I mean, what can you use these days that will not offend someone? I was afraid I was going to have to put a Nativity next to a Menorah next to a Santa next to a kinara (google it). And all that would probably STILL offend someone. I mean, heck... I had people offended that it was Mexican food and not Italian (yes, seriously). Oh well. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care who the heck my nativity offends because it's my freedom to celebrate the Christmas holiday. That said, being an admin in charge of a "holiday luncheon", I had to appease the nations. Sucks.

Anyway, it went well. Those who weren't offended by fajitas and sopapillas were stuffed to the brim. And for those who were offended, well....we ate plenty for them in their absence. I'm just praying that someone else gets the "honor" of planning the luncheon next year!

It really makes me sad that "Christmas" has become such a bad word in our society. I hate that I walk into stores and hear Christmas songs yet the cashiers are instructed to say "Happy Holidays". Drives me batty. There has been a movement for a couple years to boycott the stores that do this. I admit, several years back, I refused to shop at Kohl's and Walmart for that reason. I adamantly refused to benefit a store that would suppress my beliefs. But I've had a change of heart since then.

First of all, I realized what a nerdy kind of protest it was that I refuse to shop there for 1 month but gleefully filled up my cart there the other 11 months of the year. Just silly.

Secondly, what good does it do for me to sit at home in my Christian bubble and mope about it? It's an opportunity to go out and minister to them and proclaim the Good News of Christ's birth! They, whoever "they" is, didn't tell me I couldn't say Merry Christmas... I now embrace the opportunity to go out to these stores and wish them a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I think some Christians get so offended by the fact that stores won't say Merry Christmas, that we sometimes lose sight of what's really important. I'm sure everyone (especially the grumpy, overworked and underpaid cashiers) would much rather receive a "Merry Christmas!" back from the customer than a "I think it's crappy that y'all won't say MC to me."

I don't know about you, but I'm going to try to let Christ shine through me as much as I can while I finish up my shopping!


Now if gray-haired granny in her Hoveround steal my close shopping spot... all bets are off...


I leave you with this, courtesy of WBAP and Stubie Doak:
http://rope.wbap.com/audio/stubie-christmas.mp3

Tagged by Brenda

8 TV Shows I Watch Regularly:
1. The Office
2. Chuck
3. Jon and Kate plus 8
4. The Hills (yeah, I totally admit it)
5. House Hunters
6. Kath & Kim (when I remember)
7. I can't think of a 7th show that I watch
8. I can't think of an 8th show that I watch...


8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Rosa's
2. Cotton Patch
3. Texas Pit BBQ
I don't really like eating out so I can really only think of 3 that I like ok.

8 Things that happened today:
1. Got my sister's Christmas gift
2. Went to work
3. Went to the doctor
4. I worked on Christmas cards
5. Watched Josh clean the kitchen
6. Played solitaire
7. Bought a bunch of fruit and veggies
8. Made dinner


8 Things I look forward to:
1. Being off work for almost 2 weeks
2. Watching my brother get married in a few months
3. Seeing my cousin Dinah and her kids after Christmas
4. Early retirement
5. Having a couple kids
6. Convincing Josh that we need more than 2 kids.
7. Getting a bigger house!
8. Being "normal" again


8 Things I wish for:
1. A long, happy, healthy life with Josh
2. That Josh and I will become independently wealthy by age 30. :)
3. That my neighbor would take care of his dogs.
4. that my cats would stop shedding all over my comforter
5. That I had more time in the day to re-pick up hobbies like scrapping and playing guitar
6. that I enjoyed running (ick...)
7. That the friendless people out there would find a friend
8. that kids would be kids instead of trying to grow up so fast

8 People I tag:
1. Crissy
2. Amber
3. Elicia
4. Jessica
5. Kari
6. Kate
7. Linda
8. Sarah

The First Fro-el

The First Fro-el



The first Fro-El
The Linigers did plan
Was for silly Unionites
With their hair looking swell

With sweaters they came
And two Santa gifts as well
Laughs and grills were a plenty
No two gifts were the same

Fro-ellll, Fro-ellll, Froooo-elll Frooooo-elll...
That was the party in a nutshell

Endeavour part 2

Here are some better pictures of the Endeavour I got this morning. I got to work super early because it was supposed to take off at sunrise, but due to weather, it was delayed a bit. It finally took off around 11:00 AM.

Endeavour

So this is cool. I am watching the space shuttle Endeavour out my window at work right now. Apparently, due to weather, they had to land here and will stay until tomorrow morning. If I can drag myself out of bed, I might try to bring my zoom lens up to work before sunrise and try to get a pic of it taking off again. We'll see. I'm pretty darn lazy.

Anyway, not that you can see anything in this because the camera on my phone stinks and always makes things further away than they really are, but here ya go!

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Space-Shuttle-Flying-into-Fort-Worth.html

Make that 12...

I now know 12... yes, TWELVE people who are pregnant. This is becoming quite the epidemic!

And no, for those who are wondering, I am NOT the new addition to this number.

Finally!!

My baby brother is not a baby anymore. Sunday, Daniel asked his wonderful girlfriend, Emily, to marry him and thankfully, she said yes! Josh and I were honored to be part of the scheme and be there when it happened. I won't post too much just yet so that they can get the word out themselves, but here are two teaser pictures! We love them both so much and are so thrilled to have Emily join the Hamilton ranks!! She fits in perfectly! (Oh, and there was a reason for the totally gay sweaters... it's a tradition for me to take their Christmas pictures in funny Christmas sweaters every year. They don't normally look so goofy!)

11

That is the number of people I know who are pregnant at the moment. (I think.. I might be forgetting someone...so many to keep up with!) Two of which are having twins.

Holy cow...

Note to self: Go buy stock in Bluebell and Claussen.

Rebel For A Cause Raffle!!

As you can see by the button on the left sidebar, I read a blog called My Charming Kids (MCKMiracle, MCKMama..whatever.. it's all the same!) She's a wonderful Christian woman with 4 beautiful children, one of which is a true miracle and testament to prayer. If you haven't clicked on the link and read up, DO IT! Anyway, right now, through Dec 14th, she is holding a Rebel for a Cause raffle. Basically, she is raising money for 3 super awesome organizations (String of Pearls, Elison Project, and No Hands But Ours) and when you donate, you will be entered into a drawing for a sweet Canon Rebel package. Mckmama explains more about these three organizations on her blog. So, read up and please prayerfully consider donating to these wonderful ministries! Click on the link above to get more info! Gracias!!

Thanksgiving in review

Josh and I had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving this year. My family went to Austin for the holiday and his parent's went to Plainview. We (or rather, I) didn't want to travel because I hate traveling for the holidays so it was just us! We had a HUGE feast! We had a 10 lb turkey, an 8 lb ham and a bunch of sides... just for the two of us! Needless to say, we have a ton of leftovers. Still. That was the smallest turkey and ham I could find! I decided to try brining the turkey this year using Alton Brown's Roasted Turkey recipe and it came out very yummy if I do say so myself!


All that food (plus the ham in the oven) for two people!


My turkey!


We ate and then just hung out all day. Mostly watching football. Or rather, Josh watched football and I just hung out. Fun stuff. We went to bed around 11:00 PM then got up at 12:3o so we could get in line at Best Buy at 1:00 AM. It was cold. It was raining. But it was mostly fun. The only really sucky part was the jerks who cut in line in front of us. It just about made our blood boil. When we got in line, we were just on the other side of an overhang. While it was raining, the people coming in line after us didn't want to stand in the rain (boohooo...wimps) so they decided to stand under the overhang. No big deal except that when it stopped raining, they STAYED in line in front of us rather than coming back to their rightful spot in line, behind us. Soooo not cool. Luckily, we still got tickets for the items we needed to get, but if we hadn't, we (I) would have pitched a fit. Believe me!

We ended up getting everything we went for which was great! We bought a bunch of stuff for Josh's parents since they can't do the whole early morning Black Friday thing plus a few things for ourselves. Christmas came early!


The line at 1:00 am. The overhang above is where everyone was sneaking in line. We were just to the right of this photo, just outside the overhang.



Blurry picture of Josh and our set up (plus umbrellas!)


Terrible picture of us.



Blurry, but this is a pic around 3:30 AM, once the line started condensing.

While they were gone, my parents left their dog with us so that was fun. Chuckie was my dog growing up so it was nice to hang with my homedog for a few days. When I was living at home, I was always the one to give Chuck his haircuts, much to my parent's chagrin. He always ended up with his name shaved into his back, or a Mohawk, or tufts of hair sporadically (yet strategically placed) all over his body. This time was no different! Here's a before picture:


Poor Chuckles doesn't know what's about to happen to him!

And the after:




Ain't he handsome? It's the chili bowl look for dogs. He looks like a young pup now! If he could see better and walk better, he'd have been out there lookin' for a hot french poodle to canoodle with.

The cats were SO curious. I was impressed with how good they did! Oliver had never been around a dog before so we had a super puffy, fluffed up cat for awhile. He was hilarious! I never got a good picture of him all puffed up with his back arched, but you can still see the fluffy tail in this pic:








Oliver got really brave. I was impressed!

Hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving!!!