Christmas Time is Here

With all of my immediate family's crazy schedules(one's a police officer, one works swing shifts, and another is a flight attendant) it is very hard to get everyone together for Christmas. We had to celebrate Christmas the Saturday before Christmas. My mom decided to have breakfast and my sister suggested that everyone come in their pajamas.

 My dad and my nephew, in his Angry Birds pajamas, getting ready for breakfast

 My mom and my niece celebrating her first Christmas

 My soon-to-be sister-in-law and my niece

 My brother and nephew giving each other hugs and love. I love the look on their faces in the second picture.

 Me and my sweet niece. I'm wearing my new robe that Chris got me for Christmas. I'm also wearing new Bear Paws slippers that are so comfy and warm, but you can't see those in the picture.

 My nephew playing Angry Birds. He knew exactly what to do with no help from adults. He's only 2!

 My dad got a new TV stand and needed help to put it together, so he had the son-in-laws and sons help him figure it out. Oh, and my nephew helped too!

 My dad LOVES anything National Lampoon movie related. One of his favorite movies is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I picked his name this Christmas. I had been saving this shirt on my phone for a few months now and knew that this would be a great gift for my dad. Can you see the excitement on his face??

Later that evening, we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family. One of my little cousins decided to push a laundry basket around the living room and pick up wrapping paper.

 A few of my cousins, aunt, and cousin's girlfriend posing for a cute photo.

I love being with my mom's side of the family. I have so many great childhood memories that include them. We had so much fun this Christmas catching up, laughing, playing Chinese gift exchange, playing games, and building puzzles. We don't get together as often as we used to, so we really look forward to the time we do get together. I wish I had more pictures to share, but I was having too much fun and forgot to take more.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and found some time to remember that our Savior is born to us. We rejoice that He has come in history and now we await for Him to come in majesty! I attended Midnight Mass with my family. This is my favorite Mass of the entire year. The church is beautiful, the choir is exceptional, and everyone is so excited to rejoice for the newborn King. One of my friends posted this picture of what the church looked like at Midnight Mass.

Here is another picture of my church at Christmas time. It is absolutely beautiful and one of the main reasons why I chose this time of the year to get married.

My next post will be about our one year anniversary trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas!!

Play Us A Song

     Last year, my great Aunt Joanie had posted on our family page through Facebook that they were wanting to get rid of a piano that had been sitting in their house. I have always wanted a piano in our home. I took lessons when I was in elementary from Sr. Kathryn and again in high school from Ms. Powell. I wasn't very good, but really liked playing. So after thinking about it for a bit, I answered that we would like to have it.

     My aunt had mentioned that it was very heavy and would take about six men to move it. We live about 1/2 mile from them, but couldn't think of six people who would voluntarily move the piano for us. So fast forward over a year later and we still had not picked up the piano. A few weeks ago, we had decided that we need to go get it and asked a few burly cousins to help us. But before we got everyone together, my aunt called and wanted us to come get it in a few hours. We tried to think of who we could get to help us in a short amount of time, but then my aunt called back and said that it wasn't that heavy and they were already on their way over. My great uncle and two cousins put it on a trailer and helped us move it in the dining room.

 

     It works as a great display for Christmas cards. It's a bit out of tune, but I don't think we will use it too much for playing. It fits perfectly in the dining room. We needed something to go along the wall and the dark color of the piano gives the room a whole new look. 

     Maybe one day it will be used for playing again...

Christmas Pictures

A few weeks ago, Chris and I arranged to have Christmas pictures taken with our sweet doggies. We have plenty of pictures with Doris, but not too many with Mr. Bates since he is new to the family. It was a perfect day for pictures in town. I hired my friend, Tammy Koch, to take the pictures. She gave us a fantastic price and really worked with us.

I had bought a "Merry Christmas" felt sign for us to hold. It looks easier than it really was. Trying to hold the sign up, hold my dogs in the right place, and stay in a squatting position was not the easiest task. But it worked

 But most of them turned out like this

It was so hard to keep these doggies looking at the camera. We had the photographer meowing and we tried to turn their heads forward, but that didn't help too much. As soon as they got a whiff of a new smell or a car drove by we lost them.

Here are a few more good shots

Tammy had some suitcases that we could put the dogs in

 But this one is my favorite

Even though we have the saddest looking dogs in the world, they are so sweet and I love this picture. The colors came out so well and the dogs are at least looking at the camera.

And the grand finale....our Christmas card

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I'm working on writing and addressing cards tonight so they can go out this weekend. I know that if I don't get them done now then they will never get done and I will be sitting with all of these cards in a box.
If I don't post sooner, I hope that everyone remembers the reason for the season. Prepare your hearts for the celebration of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!!

Deck the Halls

If you have met me for more than five minutes, you know that I LOVE Christmas!! Heck, I even had a Christmas themed wedding! Because of the wedding, I had some new decorations to put up this year for our house. First, we had a ton of garland. This is from the first day of decorating for the wedding

 We took all of that garland and put it around the hall

When we went through it a few weeks ago, Chris and I decided to use it for our Christmas decorating.

We put the majority of it around the outside of our house 

 Me holding the garland while Chris was up the ladder

 

It went all the way up our driveway

 It fit perfectly. It looks so pretty and is very unique.

Our front door and "Merry Christmas" sign that my best friend, Lauren, and her husband gave us as a wedding gift.

We also used some of the garland and big ornaments to decorate inside the house

We had Christmas dishes from the main table at the wedding as well as a Christmas teapot, platter, and mugs that we registered for our wedding. I've always wanted to set up my dining room to look like a nice Christmas dinner was about to happen. I did my best and set the table

 The two ornament balls hanging in the window are what my flower girls carried up the aisle.

 I like that we are using parts of our wedding in our Christmas decor because it reminds me of our special day and it also gave me a good excuse to get rid of my old and cheap-looking Christmas decorations from years before.


In my next post, I will display our Christmas card!! YEA!!

Just another day at Gilburtshire

I said in my last post that I was making some new Pinterest recipes. This first one was for a meatball appetizer. It was frozen meatballs, grape jelly, and chili sauce all mixed up and put on low for 4 hours.

I know others have told me that they have used this recipe since their mom taught them, but I never knew about it. They were delicious and a big hit at the Halloween party we went to.

I also made Spice Cake whoopie pies. This was my first attempt with Spice Cake and I have to say that these are probably some of the best whoopie pies that I have made. The spice cake mixed with the cream cheese filling went so well together and tasted somewhat like a pumpkin roll. I had many compliments on these and will remember to make them more often during this fall and Christmas season.

 I also dyed the frosting orange for Halloween flare.

I made this Pinterest recipe last night.

 It didn't have a name, but it was delicious and ridiculously easy. I used chicken breasts, halved new potatoes, and frozen broccoli. I then poured some olive oil over it and sprinkled Italian dressing seasoning on it. It went in the oven for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. 

 The dinner before putting it in the oven

 

And after it was cooked

 

This meal was so delicious that there we NO leftovers. Chris and I devoured this meal. The chicken was very juicy and the seasoning on the broccoli made it melt in your mouth. I would make this any night of the week.

Remember on my last post when I said that we got a new mattress? Well, I think our doggies love it as much as we do. On Sunday, I wanted to wash the sheets with the rest of my laundry, but getting these two out of bed was like an act of Congress.

This is after I told Doris she needed to get up. Can you see that she listened to me?

 I said the same to Mr. Bates and he at least lifted his head.

 But, then he went back to this

He still wouldn't move even with the sheets being pulled up

I finally drug the sheets from under him and he got off them. We have some very sleepy and lazy doggies at our house.
In my next post, I will show you what the doggies are going to be wearing for Halloween.

I said, Hey what's going on??

Gilburtshire has been busy lately. October has been a busy month and it's taken me awhile to sit down and get it all out.

1) We are in the process of refinancing our home. When we bought it, almost 2 years ago, we owner-financed it for 2 years. I was trying to get this done in the summer time when I could commit more time to this lengthy and tiresome process, but things never work out that way, do they?? We're almost done with it except for getting contact information for Chris' last job, which was the Royal Air Force. He hasn't been working there for over 2 years and his base has been nonexistent about a year ago. Trying to find someone who would know my husband and his credentials is becoming a big pain. I have a feeling that this is one of the last things that they are waiting on for us. Hopefully we will get some emails back soon and get this over with.
2) With the refinancing, we are taking out a bit more to do home improvements. Our house was built in the early 70s and it hasn't had a lot of major work on it. We are wanting to put in new windows, as the ones we have are paper thin and several have bb holes in them. We also want 2 new air conditioning units. Ours are off a few degrees and are on their way out. Insulation would also be nice as we can feel air through the outlets.
3) I love my job, but I hate leaving my doggies in the morning. They get up with me, I feed them, and they send me off. This is the saddest face in the world to me. I see this almost every morning after I close the back door and head off to work.

4) Chris and I went to the Texas State Fair with a few friends a week ago. While we were there we ate a Fletcher's Corn Dog, pizza, and Texas-brewed Tea. When I went with my family a few weeks ago, I had a deep fried red velvet cupcake. I would eat that any day of the week.

 

While we were there, we purchased a new mattress. It's similar to a Tempurpedic mattress. We got it delivered the next day and fell in love with our bed. This thing is so comfortable. When you lie on the bed you feel your body sink into it. We have had amazing sleep on this mattress and the dogs love it too. It's hard enough getting them out of the bed already.
5) I tried Taco Pasta Bake from Pinterest last night

I would say it's very similar to a Hamburger Helper recipe, but calls for a bit more cheese. I would cut out some of the cheese for next time. Overall, my husband ate it and we'll make it again for a weeknight dinner. Hamburger Helper would have been a bit easier to make.

6) We're going to a Halloween party this weekend and I'm going to try a new Pinterest appetizer recipe and Spice Cake Whoopie Pies. I'll let you know how it all turns out!

2nd Civil Anniversary

Two years ago, on a warm September Thursday in San Antonio, I skipped class and married my sweetheart. With a gathering of about 15 people, we said traditional vows and kept it low-key. I bought a dress for $99 and Chris bought a white shirt from The Gap. This wedding was much different than the one we had 9 months ago.

It was a beautiful day and we just kicked back. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant and one of my college friends bought us a wedding cake.

My mom bought us some flowers and my other college friend bought my veil. My closest friends and family came down to San Antonio to celebrate with us. It was so nice to see them all there supporting us in this new adventure.

People have always asked us if we will celebrate both anniversaries, the civil and church one. We really didn't think too much about it, but as the civil one got closer we realized that we wanted to recognize it and celebrate that special day.

This year, that day fell on a Sunday and Chris happened to be off that day too. We made a day of going out and enjoying the nice weather.

We started our day with a big lunch at Romano's Macaroni Grill. We got a gift card from our wedding in December and finally found good use for it. Chris had never been there before, but he loved it and we will be going back. Even though it tries to push itself as a swanky restaurant, they put paper on the tables and give you crayons to color with. Chris couldn't help himself.

 And this is my terrible drawing. I really hope our kids do not inherit my lack of artistic ability.

 We had Macaroni and cheese bites and something else with bacon on it for an appetizer. I had chicken and mushroom canelloni and Chris had a delicious pasta dish that I cannot remember the name of.

We headed to Old Navy where I got skinny jeans and red jeans for $19 a piece. Chris found a hoodie and swim shorts on clearance. I just assumed that there would be an Academy in Cedar Hill and there wasn't. Chris was a bit peeved at me for not finding out exactly before we left the house, but I made up for it. We went to Dick's Sporting Store and he found some new trainers.

We ended our day at the movies. We went to go see Looper with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It was a total guy movie; lots of f-bombs and blowing people up. It wasn't my kind of movie, but it did have a good plot and acting.

Next time I get to pick the movie

We had a fantastic day and look forward to many more years together!