Christmas Eve and Morning

Jane set up a photo session before the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

We were once again almost bigger than the tree.

We went to Panda Garden for Chinese food and then Midnight Mass that conveniently started at 11 p.m.

Mother and I wore our colorful coats. She is embracing various hues these days as well.

 Kashmir  pondered the true meaning of Christmas.

 Robeghan arrived late for mass and then were up bright and early for Caroline in the morning.

Rob rocked some North Carolina shorts from 1999.

Caroline arrived in her Santa boots with Chip and Mamarazzi trailing behind.

She loved her doll that she receive from Gail.

Miss CeCe was the best gift this year.

She wore a dress for the occasion.

Eve before Christmas Eve

Christmas started last night at my parents' house.  Caroline got her gift from us a little early.  She loves to play school. I put together this personalized calendar board for her.  

It was a huge hit.

Caroline brought her new pet, Cece.

She is the size of a guinea pig.

 Mother had a fancy table for us. That chandelier took 2 hours to decorate, just so you know.  I know because my mother told me.

That tree obscures my bridal portrait.  

I mean, really!  

Caroline introduced Uncle Kent to the Christmas crackers. Each one held a tissue paper crown.

In typical family fashion, we called a neighbor and had our picture taken wearing them.

The preparation was time consuming and hilarious. London refused to cooperate.

This is a totally normal moment for us.  Mom and her brother come from a long line of odd birds. They have continued that tradition with their own broods.

 This one is actually good.

I never miss an opportunity for cake.  Christ and cake, people, Christ and cake.

Festivities

This past week has been full of fun Christmasy activities.  Muuka and Allyson hosted a holiday soiree, and we had a fabulous time.  

I  tried some Cupcake Moscato.  That stuff is sweet, sugary, bubbly ridiculousness.  

 We celebrated Christmas with one of my precious students.  He put a  cowboy hat at the top of his list.  Now where does one find a cowboy hat?  Boot City, of course!  He wore this all evening, and it was very hard for me not to hug him constantly.

His brother was very pleased with his loot.  Now that little chunk of precious was hard to resist.  I was so glad that at 18 months old, it was perfectly acceptable for me to lug him around the room.  He got a year's worth of squeezes in about an hour.

We opened our gifts at home one evening.  I declare this to be the most fabulous box ever!

I love my new purse. 

You know me and color.

We're friends.

Trinity looked like Peter Pan modeling his Lulu-tastic pants and shirt with his new belt.

We dined on cheese and champagne cocktails and the B&B.  We stopped at the liquor store on the way home to buy some St. Germain.  We will be mixing lots of those up for Christmas with the fam.

How 'bout those railroad tracks?

We live on the right side of them!

Holiday Soirees

We met our dearest friends for dinner downtown at Mo's Steakhouse on Friday.  We have gone to Ruth's Chris for the past two years, so we changed things up a bit.  Our dinner lasted three hours and included Pacer sightings.  Those guys are hard to miss at like 6'11.

On Thursday evening we attended my yoga and pilates studio's annual holiday party.  We had a marvelous time.  I really enjoyed walking around and not worrying about clenching my butt muscles or flexing or pointing my toes.

Speaking of toe pointing, I can't do it.  I'm not joking.  My toes will literally not come together into a pointed dancer position.  When the instructor says point, I flex.  I'm a rebel like that.

Here are some of my favorite instructors, Nicole and Amy.

They tolerate my whiney attitude in class and my propensity to laugh while at the ballet barre.  I am a welcome addition to any class, I tell you.  Trinity finally met all of my fellow pilates peeps and yogis.

I had a lot of champagne.  I can't really resist that stuff.  I forcibly "offered" my brownies to everyone at the party.  T says I wouldn't take no for an answer.  After several champagnes, I enticed my friend Nicole over to the barre.

That's the way you spell bar when you're talking about ballet.  I studied at Julliard, so I learned proper artistic spelling there.  That barre is really not my friend.  

But this lady is!  Amy owns the studio and is all kinds of cool.  

I love this picture.  We look like we're in some fancy loft in New York.  What a trick!

All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!) (Shazam V...

Eleven months of the year I loathe one Miss Mariah Carey. Her inability to find clothes that fit, her odd obsession with butterflies, that weird high note that sounds like a shriek, and her overall skankiness irk me. All of this aside, when December hits I must high tail it to the nearest Gap to hear her sing "All I want for Christmas is You" on repeat. Gap, Inc. loves that song during the holiday season. I know, as I am a former resident of the Republic of Bananas.

Now with the joy of technology, I need not run to the mall. I have a Mariah holiday station on Pandora on my phone.

I recently discovered she redid this song with that baby faced crooner, the Biebs. I find him to be adorable with his hoodie and popped tongue sneakers. I've had lengthy discussions with many a 5th grade girl about how he is just a doll.

I've watched this video a lot.

It has its faults.

It clearly was filmed in a Macy's, not a favorite of mine.

Mariah seems only to be able to gyrate against a wall in a indecently short Mrs. Claus get-up.

Biebs needs to share the brand of his moisturizer.

Merry Christmas from me, the Butterfly Skank and the toddler-

Travels, Muppets and Cocktails

We have been out of town lots this past week or so.  Trinity attended a national conference in Las Vegas for health and safety engineers.

Nerd.

I'm saying that because he wouldn't let me go, and he was gone a week!  He said my presence would be "unprofessional."  I was sad.

He went to see The Hoover Dam.

He stayed at Caesar's Palace and seriously redeemed himself by working his way through The Forum Shops.  I was quite pleased.  I only got the Vosges chocolates as a souvenir,  since the others are for Christmas.

I made him jealous by going to Little Rock.  I didn't take any pictures.  There isn't a lot to show you there, although I do enjoy that sweet little city.  

Kashmir was glad I returned and the family was finally reunited.

I had to get a picture of kitty and me in front of the tree.  My snarky husband snapped the preparation.  

 I had to drag her out from under the coffee table.

I think my tree is shrinking.  It looks like a tree that would look better on a bookshelf.

When we get a new house, we are definitely getting a new tree.  This one will go in Kashmir's bedroom.

We met Robeghan at the Claddagh to celebrate Rob's finals ending.

I loved the Guinness shamrock.  We decided to add the Guinness brewery in Dublin to our list of future trips.

Trinity took this killer picture of us-

at least my brows were nicely arched.

Last week I took these darlings to see The Muppets.  Would you ever guess they are 5th graders?  They are definitely two of my favorite children.  Oh, and yes, teachers have favorites.

Speaking of Muppets, I loved this picture of my niece and my brother in law.

It looked familiar to me-

Adorable.

Photos courtesy of my iPhone, since I don't have rights to the actual photos.  Those dang privacy/ownership rights!

Christmas Card 2011

Let the Christmas carding commence!!!