Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, low key Christmas. First, we opened gifts at home. Here's my handsome hubby getting us organized: Then we headed to Mulberry for the festivities. Here's Patty, whose lap is always coveted by both pups...at the same time:
Here are the dogs in their new jammies. They are thrilled beyond words, as you can imagine, but the pjs are so adorable!
Josh opening gifts:
Ron opening his cookbook that Giada signed to him. (Thanks again, Natasha!)
Patty opening Josh & Christina's Favorite Things 2008:Then we had my most favorite dinner, briscuit. SOMEbody made his way up to the table...hmmm...who's the pushover???Then we headed to Mamaw & Papaw's. Here's a pic of some of the girl cousins. Laura, Caitlin, Elizabeth (with Kennedy who will arrive in 2 weeks!), Me, ShellThen we added Aunt Dayna and Mamaw in and everyone imitated a gesture that we get from Mamaw when she gets flustered:Finally, we got Mamaw & Papaw with some of their great grandchildren. Parker, Caleb, Linc, Jrake & Griff. Laney wasn't into having her picture taken.

After Mamaw & Papaw's we went back to Ron & Patty's to pick up the dogs and we all decided that we should take a dip in the hot tub. It was such a fun way to end the night! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!!

Christmas Lights

We have made a tradition of packing ourselves (Ron, Patty, Josh, me and the dogs) into the car and going to look at Christmas lights. It's fun and we love the one that has the music to the lights, but this year, that house wasn't decorated. Instead, we headed to Rossville for the huge light show.

for my hubby

Because he was absolutely distraught that I didn't include this picture:

He is so proud for capturing one of my hair flips (which, by the way, he can imitate pretty darn well).

In other news, we booked a getaway for early 2009!! We're going to start the new year off right with a week full of relaxation. For the past few months, we had planned on taking a cruise in January because the prices are so great right now. However, over the past few weeks, Josh and I have discussed our history of going on vacations and packing our days full to the extent that we are exhausted by the end of the vacation. We are certain that we would do exactly that on a cruise, so we have been tossing around the idea of a cottage getaway in which we pack up ourselves and the dogs and get away to relax and enjoy our sweet family for a few days. With Josh's crazy busy 4th Quarter, this option started sounding better and better.

To top things off, one of my coworkers has a timeshare that has several extra weeks which will go unused and she generously offered to let us stay at one of the available destinations if we could find something we liked. We had a list of about 10 places that I had narrowed it down to (ranging from Williamsburg to Utah to Asheville) and then Josh and I sat down and eliminated all but three based on distance, the resort/cottages offered, and our desire to CHILL OUT. It came down to Door County, WI, Branson, MO and the Poconos in PN. From there, I did a lot of research as to whether we would be able to take the dogs, what the actual cottages looked like, if there were any local attractions/quaint shopping, etc., and I had it narrowed down to 2 different places in Branson, MO. (Crazy, huh?!? I never would have thought that we'd ever go to BRANSON, MO, of all places!! Especially with our track record for vacations!! But we're actually really excited.)

It came down to Stormy Point Village, which are these adorable houses that are all very bright with white picket fences and they have been made to imitate Cape Cod-style homes, OR the Cabins at Green Mountain which are log cabin-style and very quaint and peaceful (similar to the cabin we stayed at during the worst vacation ever). After an office-wide poll (thanks everyone!), all votes led to the cabin. (Josh told me just to choose...he didn't care after looking at the website.) We all agreed that if it were a summer getaway, the Village would have been great, but the cabins will be amazing with some snow (we hope)!

So the countdown begins for a week with board games, movies, magazines, books, pj's, lots of wine, some vajunka, two snuggly pups and two snuggly people! We plan on being holed up in the cabin, cooking dinner and reeeelllllaaaxinnng! We can't wait!!

Chicago, my love....

We had a short get-away to Chicago this past weekend and had a great time! I had the CASE V Conference for work and Ron, conveniently enough, also had a conference in Chicago, so we decided to go a little bit early for some family fun. We had planned on taking Patty to Chicago for her birthday back in October, but those plans had to change a bit because of some out-of-town guests that they had. We packed a LOT of stuff into about a day and a half!

Our first stop was to the Hershey's Store to get some hot chocolate. Yuuuu....mmmmm... As we were there, we decided that we would take a horse-drawn carriage ride while we drank our hot chocolate. Here's Ron & Patty in the carriage: And us in the carriage: Here's Patty and I after our ride:
Then, after walking along the Magnificent Mile for a bit, we decided to stop off for some Chicago-style pizza. Oh, the bliss!!

It was POURING down rain, which put a big damper on our night. Chicago is so amazing at Christmastime, but we would have much preferred some big fluffy snowflakes to the rain that we got. Our pizza warmed us up a bit and then we headed to see the Macy's Christmas windows. Here's Josh under the horns that come out of the building:
Next, we made our way to the Christkindlmarket which is a German Holiday Market. It got to be pouring pretty bad, but we did a bit of browsing and Patty and I enjoyed a cup of the hot spiced wine. Here we are across the street from the Market:
And here is Josh and I in a bit of a reinactment of last year's Sear's Tower picture which was taken on the same weekend right before the 2007 CASE Conference:
On Sunday, my conference started at noon, so we met for breakfast, did a little shopping at my favorite store and then I left them to enjoy the city. Josh and Patty had a great day touring the city, shopping, seeing the Winter Wonderland at Navy Pier and burning off some of the (many) calories that we all consumed the day before! J didn't have the camera but if there are any pictures, I will post them later.

That evening, my coworkers, Wendi and Susan, and I met J, Ron and Patty for dinner at Portillo's. We had some more Chicago-style hot dogs and roast beef. It was sooo good!

As if that wasn't enough, we got back to the hotel room and dug into our More Cupcakes. J and Patty picked them up during their afternoon of shopping and I couldn't wait to dig in!! Mine, not surprisingly, was a whole lot of chocolatey goodness! Josh's, not surprisingly, was a whole lot of caramel goodness!(There are some much more embarassing pictures, but lucky for me, I am the one who writes these blogs, so you will never see those!)

Worth.Every.Calorie.

Josh left on Monday morning to get back to work, so Monday night, I had to introduce Wendi (who might love chocolate more than me!) to the Hershey's Hot Chocolate. We did some Mag Mile browsing (yes...BROWSING! I only bought 1 small stocking stuffer for J! Despite the several things that were calling my name at Eddie Bauer and Crate and Barrel.) Here I am enjoying my brownie & hot cocoa:
After some more walking, lots of browsing and dinner at Buca di Beppo, we stopped for some fun pictures near the Tribune building. Here we are, Wendi to the right and me behind the suitcase:
Then we got some silly pics. Here I am in front of the Tribune Building:And here is Wendi being blown around in the Windy City:

Finally, on the way home from the conference, Wendi and I stopped at the Visitor Center in Hammond. It is the 25th Anniversary of A Christmas Story, which happens to be one of Wendi's alltime favorite movies, so since the weather cooperated, we decided to stop by. Wendi took lots of pictures, but (and I am a bit afraid to admit this) since I haven't actually ever seen the movie all the way through, this was one of only a few scenes that I recognized (along with the mall scene where the elf kicks him down the slide). We had some fun with the scenes and it was actually pretty impressive. They all moved and seemed to be pretty realistic to the actual movie. Here I am getting into some trouble with the flag pole along with Ralphie.

On a side note, we are thanking our lucky stars because Josh was in an accident on the interstate as he was on his way home Monday. Thankfully, no other cars were involved and he wasn't hurt. It was just the honda against a guard rail...and unfortunately for both bumpers, the guard rail won. You can imagine how much I got out of the conference session that I had to walk into about 2 minutes after talking to Josh. I am just so happy that my wonderful hubby was unscathed and we have much to be thankful for this holiday season!

thanksgiving with my cousins

We decided to have Thanksgiving dinner with our cousins (and aunt) this year, which we've never done before. We always laugh a LOT when these guys are around, so we decided we needed to get together for the holidays. Josh had to work that night so he didn't get to come to Shell's, but we had a fun time!

We played lots of games. Cheers!
We had the boys take pictures before going to bed. This is DeAndre and Linc...I'm not sure where Carter and Griff were. But how adorable is this picture??! Then later on, we decided to do some photo shoots ourselves. This is Matt, Robin, Shell, DeAndre, Tracey and me:
Then we decided to reinact some of our sibling photos a la 1987.
I *so* wish I had the originals of these...so hilarious!!!
Then Danny and Matt decided to get rowdy with us. Here's Matt picking people up:

And Danny trying to feel people up!:

My cheeks hurt the next day!

the first snow!

We finally got our first snow last weekend. We (I) were so excited for the winter to finally arrive!! Here are a couple pictures that I shot:

Across the walking path behind the house:

Outside the front door, our unruly bushes:

YAYYYY!!! Christmastime!

lazy dogs

Our 2 favorite things: two always-snoozin' dogs!

Lukey boy: Kowe Sue:

how does our garden grow?

Why, in a pot, of course! Here are two pictures of our new herb garden. Patty gave us all kinds of herbs from her garden and J potted them all into this one planter. We have curry, rosemary and oregano. He got rid of the parsley, but this is pretty neat, huh?!

Giving Thanks (version 2.0)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! We've had a quiet and relaxing day and we've enjoyed it very much. Comfy pj's, no make-up (Josh takes forever putting on his makeup! heehee) and an entire day of cuddling with our pups was really wonderful. Here are some pictures from our day:

We started the day by watching the parade. I always get excited to watch and I get especially excited when the Mike Miller girls come on! It was exactly 10 years ago on Thanksgiving that I was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade as one of the Mike Miller dancers, along with my best friend Jess and another friend, Kelly. New York City for three high school seniors...no parents and a big huge city with all of the sight-seeing coordinated for us was such an amazing experience! Seeing the parade every year reminds me of our trip and the freezing cold day that did the 2 1/2 mile march/dance in the parade and I love seeing the girls and remembering how much fun we had. (Coincidentally, last week I was out visiting Mamaw & Papaw and I got a big bag of some of my things that Mamaw found as they were doing a remodel. The bag contained my Macy's uniform and my warm ups. I certainly didn't try to fit into them but it was neat to see them again.)Okay, back from memory lane! After a pretty relaxing morning watching the parade, Josh started cooking. Here he is tending to the turkey (which, by the way, turned out aaahhhh-maaazingly well! soo moist!):

omg, yummm! sweet potatoes and turkey!:J pouring his beloved Thanksgiving turnips:

Lukey hung out hiding from the broom and the vacuum whenever possible:

J carving the turkey:

My mom came over for lunch and she filled up on Josh's delicious cooking, too!:

Eat up!:

Me and my sweet, gorgeous hubby! (bearded and all...)

Kowe Sue always finds out who will be handing out scraps!

After eating, we all relaxed on the couch for a bit and then ate some dessert. After that, we all crashed and took a nap, even my mom! Here's a picture of the dogs...they were tuckered out!!

Our day was long, restful, food-filled and wonderful! We did miss our families (besides mom), but we were thankful to be at home with our dogs. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we thought we would give thanks like we did last year.

• As always, we are most thankful for our happy home. We are blessed to have a strong marriage and we have been through some very difficult things this year...things that tend to drive many couples apart. Thankfully, we have only been driven closer through all that we've endured. That's certainly not to say that things are all roses and butterflies, all of the time, but things are really very good, which is more than we can hope for!
• Our babies are second on the list because they complete our sweet little family. They bring joy to us that I'm sure no one else understands, but they have carried us through a lot of those tough times that I mentioned before. (Lukey is *the* most compassionate dog and he knows how to cuddle you at just the right times when you're feeling down. He's very intuitive and seems to be highly empathetic. I have cried on Lukey's shoulder more times that I care to admit! For that, I am very thankful.) Yes, we have had our fair share of bites, fights and barking fits, but we wouldn't trade those two mop-heads for the world.
• Family is a given. Being close to family is such a blessing and we appreciate all of the time that we are able to spend with them. Personally, I am beyond thankful for the strength and support of my sister. She is the only person (aside from Josh) that I know I don't have to pretend with. She gets me better than anyone. I am also incredibly thanful for the best in-laws that a girl could ever ask for. I say that a lot, but it is really true...and unusual, unfortunately. I wish more people were able to experience the kind of in-laws that I have.
• We're thankful for our abundance of nephews! They offer lots of entertainment, that is for sure. Nothing makes you feel better than when those little boys light up at the sight of you. They melt our hearts every day.
• Along that same line, we are not only thankful for Alex's healthy and safe arrival, but also for the joy that he has brought to everyone, especially his proud daddy. We can't wait to watch him grow and his picture updates are a highlight of our week!
• We are thankful for friends, both new and old. We have gained some wonderful friends this year and continue to be thankful for the friends that we have had all along. Good friends are hard to come by and we're lucky to have the ones that we do!
• In looking back over the past year, we realize how very lucky we are to have been able to see new places and experience new things.
• I am so thankful to still love my job. It's still my dream job and I work with a group of wonderful ladies, which makes things even better.
• Pretty much, it comes down to the people in our lives that we're thankful for. Things are pretty good in the Wright household these days!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!