Christmas in Review!

Happy Monday to all my blogging buddies out there!  I hope you guys have had a WONDERFUL holiday season celebrating what you chose to celebrate and spending time with the family members you were blessed to see!  I will try not to make this post too lengthy but we had such a wonderful Christmas break I really don't know if that's possible!

Friday, December 18, 2009
After work on Friday Bret and I headed to the house, loaded up the car and hit the road!  Bret's shoulder has been bothering him a lot lately so I drove us to Springtown so he could relax some.  I was shocked that we didn't get stuck in any traffic and it was a pretty smooth drive.  I didn't have to stop once to pee even! SHOCK and AWE moment for sure!  When we got to Springtown we learned that the family dog, Mia, had run off while she was outside earlier in the day.  She was nowhere to be found so my mother and father-in-love were both pretty upset and worried about her.  Mia's sister, Molly, (who lives with my brother & sister-in-love) had also fallen ill that day and wasn't expected to make it through the night so the family pets were definitely on all of our minds.  That night we visited with Bret's parents, ate a sandwich, played some games, watched Home Alone and hit the hay! 

Saturday, December 19, 2009
I was up bright and early doing my Shred DVD.  Go me!  I haven't done that video in for.ev.er. and I thought I was going to die.  So sore afterwards too! We learned that morning that Molly had passed away during the night so we couldn't help but be a little upset for the family.  That afternoon was Mayo family Christmas so the morning was filled with me and my Mother-in-love, Sheri, cooking.  I whipped up some baked raviolis, 7-layer dip and queso - YUM! All the family came over to the house about 1:00pm and we spent the afternoon playing with the newest family addition, baby Braxton, eating, opening gifts and enjoying each other's company.  That night me, Mallory, Rusty, Bret, Mark and Summer all headed to a bar in Ft. Worth to watch the Cowboys wreck shop on New Orleans! WOO HOO!  It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with my other siblings and spending time goofing around with them.  I married into such a wonderful family - I am truly blessed!  On the way back from watching the game we drove through a few neighborhoods in Springtown still trying to track Mia down.

Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, I once again got up and worked out - Yeah me!  Afterwards we all got ready and headed off to Hilltop Family for a special Christmas program.  We sang Christmas carols, read from the Bible the story of Jesus' birth and took communion.  It was a very nice service.  Me, like a blubbering idiot, got emotional thinking about my brother not being with us for Christmas and cried for majority of the service.  Lovely.  After church we cooked hamburgers, snacked on left overs and then we all headed out to see The Christmas Carol.  I was sad that is was no longer in 3D (thank you Avatar...) but it was still very good.  I always enjoy Christmas movies!  That evening we hung around, played some games and I snuck away to bed while everyone else watched movies.  I was tired and worn out from the day!

Monday, December 21, 2009
I was up again working out and the crack of dawn, yeah!  While waiting for everyone to wake up, Sheri called the vet's office and learned that somebody had called in saying they had found a missing dog which turned out to be Mia! Yeah!! Truly a Christmas Miracle!  After that excitment, we all headed next door to Nannie's house for some of her yummy breakfast! We try to sneak that in at least once every other Springtown trip or so.  While we were there we got to see some more of the Mathis clan, Brandon, Sarah and their sun Keagan.  It was nice catching up with them and seeing how much Keagan has grown!  Afterwards, we all hopped in the car, ran to get Mia, then Bret and I hit the carwash.  Our car was so filthy!  After getting ready for the day Bret and I drove down to the Antique Mall to look around for a bit, ran by the cemetary to see his Granddad's grave with its new flowers, stopped and bought some last minute grocery items for Sheri and then got me some crayons and coloring books! I was in the mood to color and boy did I color! That afternoon, the rest of the family came over for Mathis Christmas.  We had the traditional Christmas dinner and then spent the evening opening gifts, playing games, watching movies and enjoying more time with our family and the newly found Mia!

Tuesday, December 21, 2009
Woke up, worked out, coughed up a lung and discovered I was sick.  Again.  No fun.  Tuesday however was a fun packed day! Me, Bret, Sheri and Nannie loaded up the car and headed to Granbury to see Mallory (and Rusty's) adorable house they have been fixing up!  While I know Bret would never let me buy a house like that, I would TOTALLY live there.  They are renting the house for now and it is one of the older, wooden, hollow sounding houses that I just adore.  Love, love love!! All of us then headed to the square in Granbury to get in some more shopping where I bought a magnet for our collection and an ornament that was a red cardinal.  Just something that me, Bret and my dad enjoy :)  We got to eat lunch at Babe's, where Mallory works, so it was fun seeing the place she is at 95% of her time! After telling Mallory and Rusty bye, we headed back to Springtown where I loaded up at CVS on Meds, cough drops and kleenex.  That evening, since I had been craving Mexican food, Darrell took me, Sheri and Bret out to dinner in Azle which was a lot of fun.  It is normally so busy in Springtown since all the family lives there (which is a huge blessing) so it's always nice when Bret and I get a chance to have some one-on-one time with our parents to catch up.  That night we watched 4 Christmas' (HILARIOUS), packed up, played a game and went to sleep!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009
I woke up to a text from Daddy saying "It's the day before the night before Christmas" that he had sent at 12:06am.  We always tell each other this every year and I informed him that he DEFINITELY won this year! Bright and early Bret and I said goodbye to his parents and hit the road to Longview.  We got there in time to stop and have lunch with Daddy which was amazing.  We hit up the Butcher Shop in Longview which has AMAZING hotdogs.  If you don't know this about me, I.LOVE.HOT.DOGS. love.  Afterwards we headed out to the house to hang out with Mom, play with Chip and wait for the rest of our family to arrive.  Mom decided she didn't have anything to wear for our Camp Christmas Eve party so her and I headed to Dillards to fix that little problem.  While we were there a tornado hit Longview, never a dull moment, but luckily didn't do any damage to our family.  Sadly though there were some homes that were demolished.  After our exciting trip to the mall, we headed home, followed by Daddy, who got yummy Pizza King (canadian bacon, pineapple and bell peppers for me).  Shortly after Dad, Aaron, Claire and Avery walked through the door from Austin!  We had just seen Avery at Thanksgiving and she had already grown so much! It was amazing.  That night we all played with Miss Avery, taught Aaron, Claire, Mom and Dad how to play Farkle and relaxed with each other while everyone had to suffer through my coughing and sneezing. Ew.  I did whip up my Cheesy-Bacon Dip for Thursday night's party and, with the help of my Dad, I baked some Chocolate Peppermint Cookies that I swear tasted like toothpaste.  I was not a fan.

Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve! Yeah!  During the day Bret and I were super lazy - We colored, played games, watched TV, hung out with Avery and just relaxed.  At one point we did head up to Dillards to grab a Christmas outfit for Avery but other than that, pure laziness.  That evening, around 5:45pm, Maw came over so we could exchange gifts with them and then about 6:30 - 7:00, all of the family started to arrive for our Christmas Eve party.  And SURPRISE, it snowed!! We experienced a tornado and snow in Longview all within a 2 day span.  Love it.  It was a fun night of eating, ornament exchanging, gifts, fireworks and hanging out with the family.  My parents have been hosting their Christmas Eve party for 30 years now (ever since their first Christmas together) and it's nice that they have been able to keep the tradition going.

Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Christmas!  Friday, once we were all up and going, we got to witness Avery on her first Christmas morning.  It was so fun seeing her open her gifts and play with each and every one.  Oh the joys of being a kid!!  We all had an amazing Christmas filled with fun gifts and stories! Me and Bret got a new camera for Christmas so I was out and about taking pictures around the neighborhood as soon as I got a chance! I have been enjoying reading up on all the wonderful features! Be prepared blogging world, you are about to see a lot more random pictures from me!  Our Christmas dinner that evening was fantastic! Steak, potatoes and salad! Yum! We played games, watched movies and sat by the fire for the rest of the evening.  Never once getting out of our PJs.  Got to love Christmas!

Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday morning, after eating a yummy breakfast prepared by Dad, we loaded up the car and headed out to Gilmer to get Maw and then we moved on over to Gladewater where we spent the afternoon walking through antique shops.  Can you tell my family likes to browse antique stores?  Bret and I got a Fiesta butter dish to go with out dishes that I was very excited about.  We ate a very late lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant in Gladewater, took Maw home, headed to Hastings so Mom could grab some books on tape that she needed for an up-coming Austin trip and then we spent the night being lazy.  I was a fuddy-duddy and headed to bed about 9:00pm.  It was amazing!

Sunday, December 27, 2009
While hating to see our Vacation end, Bret and I were on the road and heading back to College Station by 9:00am.  We got back in town a little afternoon, had some lunch, unpacked EVERYTHING and then decided to spend some of our Christmas money!  We headed to Best Buy where we picked up 3 more DVDs, and some camera gear for the new camera - THEN, most exciting thing ever, we headed to the mall to buy me my new running shoes!

Say hello to these beauties!

Tomorrow I begin training for my next 1/2 Marathon that is coming up in March so I am hoping my new running shoes will help me out some :)  At home Bret and I had a lazy dinner, I colored some more, we watched the Cowboys and I was in bed by 9:30pm to get ready for my 5:21am wake up call to begin my work out schedule again this morning!  Ta-dah!!