new friends

Tonight we had our neighbors over to watch the SuperBowl. Shea & Nicole are our garage side nieghbors, and have been since we moved in. Addison greets their cat Zeke and dog Maggie every chance she gets. Robert had a bold streak one day and invited them over. We're not really good a making new friends, so that was a huge step for him/us. We learned that Nicole & I have a lot of similarities: our name, we are both teachers, we both like the same kind of Sketchers shoes, and we wear the same size. They both love Disney World (they have annual passes like we do!) and they just found out that they're going to have a baby girl in August. I was impressed with their willingness to play along with Addison's tea party and her insistence for playing Candyland. Addison, of course, thought Shea & Nicole were here to entertain her, not us. I had fun, and I'm glad that Robert helped us make new friends. We really love our old friends, but you all live so far away. It's good to have fun people to hang out with here.

We bought the most amazing new mattress for Addison's "big girl" bed. I have slept on it twice for naps. I want to get the queen size version for our room now. This is the most comfortable bed I have EVER slept on. It's like laying on a cloud. I love it. And she refused to sleep on it tonight. She's in her toddler bed again. Don't really know why...but it's the second time this week. I guess she likes to keep her options open - to know that both beds are available for her use. What a princess!

My intern just called and said she's stuck in North Georgia. She & her fiance got a flat tire as they were leaving, and being that it's Sunday night, there are no tire stores open to buy a replacement. Bummer.

I'm inspired to redo my entry way. I plan to paint the walls blue (not sure what shade) and do a collage of photos from our travels in matching frames. I think I will use 7 (or 9) different images in various sizes. I hope it turns out like I see in my head. I typically have trouble bringing my visions to life...

I cannot believe how quickly the weekend went. It was a fun, busy weekend. Hopefully this will be a productive, fun week at school. I'm looking forward to my birthday! Addison said she's going to make me a card, which is exciting!

Looking forward to big February birthday celebrations on Saturday!

Christmas Break Recap

I can't believe I go back to work on Monday! I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!

Christmas was amazing. We made delicious sugar cookies with my family. Andrew and Hoyt were more interested in eating them than decorating, so in the end mainly just my mom and I decorated. They turned out really pretty & were quite tasty, even though some people were worried because I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose bleached flour. You couldn't taste a bit of difference and the cookies were almost classifiable as healthy! My mom made our traditional manicotti for dinner, which Addison really enjoyed this year. After dinner we opened presents. Highlights were Evelyn's cow salt & pepper shakers, Mom & Dad's new digital camera, my new purse and new laptop pad, Robert's leaf blower, Hoyt's cowboy boots, Papa's photo calendar, and Addison's Tinkerbell purse. I don't remember anything that Andrew got. We then gorged ourselves on dessert, and called it a night.

Addison slept relatively late on Christmas morning - awoke around 7:45, only at my insistence. I was too excited to sleep any longer, so I woke her & Robert up. We did stockings which Addison quite enjoyed and the did presents. Addison loved her new painting supplies, books, puzzle, but mostly her kitty keyboard. Robert was quite thrilled with new reusable shopping bags, dish cloths, and his new cordless electric edger/trimmer. As usual, Robert put me to shame with gifting. He swears that he will always go above & beyond whatever I do. I guess I have no choice. This year it was obvious. He got me all the new music I wanted, some much desired kitchen supplies, a new pillow (which is making me sleep much, much better!), and the highlight was a new necklace. We took our time, but were ready to go by 9 AM, and decided to head back to Nonnie & Doodah's house for breakfast pizza.

When we got there, we did our second set of stockings for the day. These are probably my most favorite part of Christmas. My mom does stockings like no one else. She finds the neatest, most unique but useful items for stockings. I love this part of Christmas. We traded off names this year to do "secret santa stockings". I got Hoyt and Robert got Andrew. It's tough to shop for the two of them because there are many things that we wanted for both of them. So, I'm sure in the end there was some overlap, but I think we did a pretty good job. Papa had my name, so my mom ended up doing most (READ: all) of mine. Andrew (or Evelyn?) had Robert's name. We both ended up with lots of neat items.

After breakfast and stockings #2, we ran over to Robert's parents' house for lunch. We did our 3rd set of stockings there, followed by more presents. Addison got a cute little crib for her baby dolls that Pepaw made for her. She's really enjoyed it so far. We got some cook books from Janie & Craig and another angel figurine for my collection. This one is holding a star. Craig ended up getting really sick and going home, so the day was cut kind of short by that. We all stayed for lunch (turkey), but the group disbanded pretty quickly after that. We wanted to get out before we caught the germs Craig had spread around all morning. Thankfully, none of us ended up with it!

After lunch, we came home so Adds could nap. She didn't end up sleeping, so we went back to my parents' house for dinner (ham).

Christmas is absolutely our busiest day of the year. We are on the move from the time we get up until about 9pm that night. It's an awesome day because we get to visit with so many people that we love, but it really is exhausting.

The next day we started packing for our beach trip. Addy was prepping to spend her first 2 nights away from us. (My parents kept her for the first two nights of our beach trip.) We ended up loading the car down. Thankfully, Addison wasn't in the car on the way to St. George, because we could not have fit everything that we needed in! Amaly drove down with me, and Marcus, Jason and Robert drove in Jason's car. The beach trip was outstandingly awesome. I never wanted to leave. I wish with all my heart that the group could be together more often. We've decided to make this an annual occurrence. Hopefully next year everyone will be able to stay longer...we're hoping to plan for a week, perhaps to include the new year holiday. I cannot wait! While we were there, Robert took some really, really stunning photos. I think his colorblindness gives him a different perspective on color and light/dark than the rest of us have. This is my favorite picture that he took. He took a few others that are quite wonderful, so please check out my pics online.

On a related but unrelated note, Matt & Helen, who joined us at the beach this weekend, got engaged last night! We are all very excited or them & will be celebrating our traditional way - with a game night at Trevor & Jen's house.

Regarding my beloved friend Heather - if you're going to be in Jacksonville on January 9th, PLEASE check out her benefit show at the Endo Exo starting at 8pm.

Happy 2009! If the wondrous events that happened in my life during December are any indication of the year ahead, 2009 should be a great year for me & my family! Best wishes to all of you!