It's Christmas Time in the City...

This year, we stayed in town to celebrate Christmas with Colin's family.  On Christmas Eve, we went to the Christmas Eve service at the Heights and then celebrated with the Hanks side of the family.  Sadly, I did not take many pictures.  Needless to say, there was plenty of food, plenty of good company, and plenty of...let's just call it CHAOS with all of the kids and puppy running around.  Always an eventful evening, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

We are blessed that his family lives so close by so that we can sleep in our own beds and have our own Christmas morning, and then make a short drive to celebrate with family.  We celebrated Christmas Day with the Faircloth's - Colin's Mom's side of the family.

 As we sat down to eat lunch, it started to snow!  How exciting to have a white Christmas!  We played a game - Apples to Apples, and then decided to head home before our driveway was too covered and icy to make it into our garage. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, drinking hot chocolate, and playing with our new toys!

It may be a small group, but they're a BIG blessing!

At our last small group gathering before Christmas, we celebrated the season with a dinner party. Erin made a DELICIOUS pork shoulder (Richard claims he helped, but we know better), and everyone else helped with the fixings - beans, rice, chips & salsa, & guacamole.  Anna even had a precious table setting for us!

It was so good to have a relaxing evening with friends.  Everything was wonderful - the food, the conversation, and the company!

My little treat that I gave to each family was some Chocolate Mint Cookies with a note to our friends.  Believe it or not - I did NOT find it on Pinterest! 

How to party...HR Style!

On Friday, Kendall hosted our very first (and hopefully annual) HR Holiday Party!  (Notice, since it is an HR party, it is NOT a Christmas party.  However, all decor was Christmas inspired!) 

We all made hor d'oeurves or a dessert.  I found a recipe on Pinterest for bacon-wrapped tots.  I cut the strips of bacon into thirds (they wrapped easily and helped the bacon go further).  I left out the cheese because I did not have time to add it on to so many, but used a seasoning salt to give it a little kick.  Make sure you let the tots thaw a bit.  It makes it much easier to insert the toothpicks.  I baked them for about 12 minutes on each side (to help the bacon cook all the way around).  They were delish! 

Kendall had multiple "stations" setup so you could go anywhere you wanted.  There was tons of food in the kitchen, games in the living room, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation upstairs in the media room, and a Wii setup in the office so we could play golf (a favorite sport of my boss and several of the hubby's at the party).

 

We also had a "Thieving Santa" exchange, where we all brought 'good' gifts.  There was a bit of conspiring between some parties to make sure they got the gifts they wanted.  You have to love the two steal max rule!
 

We have a great team, and know how to party - HR style!

A Joyful Weekend

On Saturday, we volunteered at the Trains at NorthPark, a trains exhibit that supports the Ronald McDonald House, with Colin's ITRA team from work.  It truly is a spectacle if you have never seen it.  They have tons of trains that ride through different cities and landscapes.  The amount of detail is incredible!  I love the subway station under the New York City skyline, the hot air balloons (new this year!), and the San Francisco bridge. 

That night, we got dressed up and went to the Omni Hotel downtown for Colin's work holiday party.  We had a great time visiting with Colin's friends, but sadly, I did not take any pictures!  We arrived at the parking garage at the same time as another Aggie on Colin's team, and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw they were twins!  Can you tell Johnny Football was on their minds?  (Speaking of, we saw the announcement that Johnny Manziel won the Heisman while we were at the party, but got to watch the whole thing later because Colin recorded it!  WHOOP!)

On Sunday, we went on our 3rd Annual Christmas Lights Tour with the Muellers! 

After dinner at Grimaldi's, we went to Deerfield in Plano.  Boy, do they know how to do Christmas lights!

 

One of my favorites had Toy Story characters at Al's Toy Barn.

This house had huge helium balloons made to look like Santa, a Nutcracker, and a Snowman in their house.

This house had a dancing Santa, and several Santa's that all supported a local team.  Mrs. Claus encourages us all to go shopping!  She's so wise!

Several houses even had lights synchronized with a radio station.  We couldn't believe all of the strands of lights hanging from this house.  One house even had LED screens on their house and lights all over their yard.  CRAZY!

We had a great time oohing and ahhing over all of the lights.  It was a great end to our joyful weekend!

ABF Christmas Blessings

Colin and I have been SO incredibly blessed to make wonderful friends through our ABF over the past couple of years.  What a joy it was to celebrate the reason for the season at our Christmas Blessings party with them!

 Ladies in Black

The 'Christmas' ladies

All the ladies!

 The boys

This dancing cowboy Santa just kept dancing!

Matt liked the nightgown I re-gifted from last year.

 

 The Ogles announced they have a 'bun in the oven!'

Thanks to the Goodings for hosting this beautiful soiree!

No Shave November

This year, several of the guys in our small group at church decided to partake in 'No Shave November.'  They all made a pact to not shave, and all of us wives just shook our heads and looked forward to December.

I must admit, it kept us all entertained throughout the month.  We would always look forward to seeing how the guys' beards were progressing.

Ray, Matt, Colin, and Richard

November 18

As if this was not enough, the guys decided to go to church today with a mustache to end 'Movember' right (thanks, Richard). Matt had shaved for Thanksgiving. (Nicely played, Anna!)

Colin, Richard, & Ray

December 2

Colin is clean shaven again - thank goodness!!  I don't mind the beard, but the mustache is just wrong!