Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge: Day 2

Day 2: Favorite Holiday Tradition New or Old

Family: When I was little my family and I would go see the Austin Trail of Lights and the Zilker Park Christmas tree (I grew up in Austin). 

Zilker Tree with the Austin skyline in the background

View from inside the Zilker Tree. I used to look up, spin and get really dizzy! Ah, memories! :)

I would say over the past 10 years or so my family has a tradition of singing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve (my sister plays the piano while we sing). Or, I should say, I attempt to sing. My sisters got all the musical talent, by the time I came along, nothing was left! :)

Friends: There are some of us that drive around and look at Christmas lights every year. We've been doing that the past five years or so. One year we couldn't find Christmas music, so we listened to Michael Jackson while looking at Christmas lights. Nothing gets you in the Christmas spirit like hearing Thriller! ;) I have another group of friends I met at church when I first moved to Dallas in 2004 and we have a "Ladies Christmas Get Together" every year. 

I'm hoping this year to start some more traditions with some new friends!!

Happy Tuesday y'all!!

XOXO!

Fabulous HOLIDAY Blog Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: Favorite Gift Received EVER

I've been debating on what gift I wanted to write about, it's hard choosing just one. At first I wanted to post about the Astronaut Barbie I received when I was like 6 or 7 (there is a really funny side story about the time my dad found Ken's head in Astronaut Barbie's space helmet-just the head, no body), BUT, I think that was a birthday present. I'll have to tell that story another time!

So, it's a toss up between the Heart Family dolls and my Snoopy and Belle dolls (did you know that Snoopy had a sister? Her name is Belle). 

I LOVED the Heart family. It had a mom, dad and a little boy and a little girl. And they always dressed up really fancy. There was some lipstick type stuff you could put on the mom's mouth and it would leave a "kiss" mark.

I got the Heart Family one Christmas when I was 7 or 8 (dressed in their red Christmas outfits) along with the playground and "casual" clothes set. I love how the casual clothes are still really fancy.

I think the same Christmas I also got a Snoopy and Belle set. It had the two dolls, a few sets of clothes and this plastic carrying case that opened up into their house. You could change out the backgrounds depending if they were in their bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, backyard, etc. It also had a closet to hang the clothes in (along with little hangers).

I have no clue what happened to my Snoopy and Belle dolls, but I wish I still had them. I just saw online someone is selling them for almost $300.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was wonderful! I always enjoy spending time with my family. Oh yes, I'm going to share pictures! :) We had a small group this year- there were only 25 of us! But, the 23 pound turkey and 13 pound ham did not make it past Thursday. :) Since Thursday was a nice day, we were able to eat the main course outside (we saved the pies and dessert to eat inside while watching football). We usually eat our Thanksgiving meal about 1:00 or so (we are a Thanksgiving lunch family). Author's note: The majority of the Thanksgiving day pictures were taken by my beautiful niece Stephanie, who is a professional photographer (well, she wouldn't claim to be, but I think she is one!) :) 


Note to family: click on the pictures for a bigger view of it. :)

Me and my siblings waiting on lunch!

Table one

Table two

We line up to eat by age (I think my dad does this so he can go first). :)

Me and my brother Steve eating. Yes, that is ketchup on my plate (did you think I was lying?) :)

The football watching crowd in my sister's living room.

My dad had a "no electronic devices" rule for Thanksgiving Day, but E and C were exceptions to it. Here E is showing Aunt Rachel how to play a painting game on his Meme's old iPhone. C is in the background on Meme's iPad.

My folks with their six children.

The kids with mom.

The kids with dad.

Me with five of my nieces (I have seven, two of them weren't able to be there this year).

My great-nephew G loved my iPhone camera (this was taken Friday, after the ban of electronic devices was lifted!) :)

Aunt Rachel with G and B (and a dinosaur).

Making silly faces.

E and Aunt Rachel looking at Christmas trees on Saturday. Pic stolen from my niece Alice's Facebook page

E hugging Aunt Rachel. Pic stolen from my niece Alice's Facebook page

Picking out a tree for Gigi and Pawpaw (my folks). Pic stolen from my niece Alice's Facebook page

C and E helping Meme with the tree. Pic stolen from my niece Alice's Facebook page

C was excited that they were giving out cookies to anyone who bought a tree. Pic stolen from my niece Alice's Facebook page

Hope everyone has a good week!!

XOXO!

Thanksgiving confessions...

First of all, I wanted to wish all of you and your families a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING. I have so many things to be thankful for right now, and you my sweet friends, are on that list. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Y'all mean so much to me! XOXO!

 

Thanksgiving confessions and ramblings:

-I can only eat turkey at Thanksgiving if I have ketchup with it. I'm not a fan of gravy. I'm not the only one in my family who does that, so don't look at me like that! :)

-While we are talking about food, I also don't like cranberry sauce. Or anything pumpkin flavored (I think I just got disowned by one of my sisters).

-I sometimes hide the rolls so my 16 year old nephew doesn't eat all of them.

-I get really annoyed that the TV stations show more of the hosts and guests at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade than the actual parade. I could care less what star of some soap opera I don't watch is there, I WANT TO SEE THE KERMIT THE FROG BALLOON! And the floats. And the marching bands. That is why it's called a P-A-R-A-D-E. If you want to talk to people for two or three hours, have a T-A-L-K S-H-O-W. I may or may not have written a letter to CBS one year expressing my displeasure of the broadcast. I never heard back. They obviously aren't aware of the wrath of Rachel. They can consider this their warning. I won't hold back if I'm displeased with the parade showing this year! :)

-After barely surviving a Black Friday shopping trip about 10 years ago, I told myself I would never do it again. NOTHING is worth that. NOTHING. I don't care how great the "sale" is. I can live without it! :)

-One of the highlights of my Thanksgiving weekend is watching It's A Wonderful Life with my sister Martha- it kicks off the official Christmas movie watching season! :)

-With Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 after this year, I'm wondering what Thanksgiving will be like without the traditional Texas vs Texas A&M football game.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL!!

Tuesday Tunes- Kenny and Tim

It was announced this past week that Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw will be touring together next year. They make a stop in North Texas to play at Jonestown on Saturday, June 9. Tickets go on sale next month and "the BFF" and I will be getting tickets. We haven't seen either one of them in concert before so we are pretty excited about it (I think we are more excited about seeing Kenny though)! I thought for my Tuesday Tunes I would post some of my favorite songs of theirs. :)

This one is the BFF's ringtone on my phone! ;)

If you are a football fan, this one is good. Even if you don't like country music!

Hope everyone has a great day!
XOXO!

Confessions of a Pinterest Addict

Unless this is the first post you've ever read on my blog, you are aware of my obsession addiction passion love fondness of Pinterest. It's so funny because up until a few months ago, I had no clue what it was. It started when I noticed my fellow bloggers mentioning it. Then I saw people I follow on Twitter talking about it. At first I didn't think much of it, but my curiosity got the best of me and I finally took a sip of the Kool-aid, went to the website, just to see what it was all about. It took me a while to figure out what it meant to create a board and the whole "pinning" process, but after I got the hang of it, I went crazy. 

It's hard to explain in words what Pinterest is, but you might get the idea by checking out my page here. I thought today I'd give you a few samples of pins from some of my boards (click on the title to view the whole board).

Quotes:
I think I quote this daily!

Source: thinknice.com via Rachel on Pinterest

So many of my friends will say Amen to this! ;)

Source: Uploaded by user via Rachel on Pinterest

I love this one- so true!

Source: a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net via Rachel on Pinterest

Books Worth Reading:

Source: google.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Rachel on Pinterest

What? This is a great book! :)

Source: google.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Random Crafts:

Source: itsacraftylife.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: mysalvagedtreasures.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: positivelysplendid.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Fashion:

Source: polyvore.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Hotties:

Source: google.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: i2.listal.com via Rachel on Pinterest

So, you can basically "pin" any picture you want and put it on a "board". And you can arrange them however you want (and name the boards whatever you want). I know, it seems kinda silly, doesn't it? Just beware, I thought the same thing when I was first learning about Pinterest. I should have known better than to doubt my friends. When my friend first told me about the Twilight series, I thought she was crazy, and, well, look how I got sucked into that!! :) By the way yes, I enjoyed the Breaking Dawn movie on Friday night. I enjoyed it a lot more than the book (have I mentioned that book 4 was my least favorite of the series?) I can't wait for part 2 (which, from what I'm being told, won't come out until next November). I can't believe we have to wait a whole year!!

So anyways, for those of you who love crafts, Pinterest is perfect for you. You can find AWESOME craft ideas. I may or may not have spent more at Michael's in the past two months than I have in my entire life!

That is what Pinterest is "all about". For my fellow addicts, happy pinning!!

Before I forget, be sure to check out Neely and Amber's upcoming Holiday Blog Challenge! It starts next week!! :)

XOXO!

It's OK Thursday!

It's OK...

...to count the nuggets in your Chick-Fil-A meal to make sure you weren't shorted one.

...to be happy when you realize you got two more nuggets than you paid for.

...to be 33 years old and going to see Breaking Dawn tomorrow night.

...to be singing this song at your desk:

...to have been shocked at the end of this week's episode of NCIS: Los Angeles

 ...to spend entirely too much time on Pinterest.

...to put up your Christmas decorations this weekend because you are out of town next weekend and won't have time after that.

...to REALLY want to attend George Strait's concert in Tulsa, OK on Feb. 16.

 ... to have drawn this during a department meeting:

...if you haven't entered Judy's soap giveaway! You have one more day! :)

What's OK with you today?? 

XOXO!