Since Christmas Eve

Well, let's see. Since I last wrote, we had Christmas day at Chance's dad's house. Taylor got to go with us this year. She had a good time with her cousins. The sister-in-law's were both sick, so I hung with the guys and my mother-in-law. This year, I got some cool presents. I got a new skirt and top set - (my sister-in-law has been teasing me for months about it cuz she heard it had tassles!). But it was actually ok - has fringe at the bottom of the skirt - it goes to my ankles. Will look cool with my new boots I hope to get. And I got a pretty nice ceramic bowl for my kitchen and another sweater. After all the presents and food, we played games. Dave brought a new Pirates of the Caribbean dice game. It was rather fun. We played many rounds and I actually won a few. After we beat Amanda, Dave's 16 year old daughter, she gave up and I was left playing with Chance, his Dad, and the other two brothers. Couldn't believe I actually hung in there - they are sharks when it comes to games!!! It was a fun time.

Tuesday was our 8 year anniversary. Can you believe that? Wow - seems like yesterday. Taylor was at her mother's and Tristan stayed the night with mom and dad. We stayed in the Sheraton in bricktown. We saw Pursuit of Happyness with Wil Smith. OMG - it was such a good movie. A little slow at first but I have to say, that man deserves where he is today. Not many people would have made it through what he did. I bawled and bawled. Don't get me wrong ... it isn't all sad. You actually cry when the good stuff happens too. Afterwards I stopped in the ladies room and as I was in the stall, I overheard one lady say to another, "I know what movie you just got out of!" Everyone was all red eyed. If you don't see it in the theatre, rent it. It's a true story and it makes you very thankful for what you have and for your family and friends. And it teaches you to have faith in yourself and your abilities...to never give up on your dreams. After the movie, we hung out at the Hall of Fame bar and grill for a while. It was early. Watched some football. Then we went to dinner at Othello's. That was some good food. We told them it was our anniversary and they helped us pick a good bottle of champagne. We went back to the hotel and had a nice complimentary breakfast yesterday. They have really renovated that hotel. All in all, we had a nice stay. It was nice to have some time to ourselves too.

We were pretty tired yesterday. Neither of us slept well for some reason, so we stayed at home. Today the boys had haircuts and I made Chance take me to Factory Direct so I could get this $8.95 coat rack I've seen on TV. I need it for my office at work. While we were there, he began looking at dining room tables. We've been needing a smaller one and non-fabric chairs. Well he decided to go ahead and bite the bullet. So I not only got a coat rack, I got a new dining room table. Woo hoo - it looks so much better! And my new ceramic bowl goes really well on it. It is the first non-hand-me-down table for both of us. Now I need to find someone who might want this other table and chairs. Beth comes to mind...

Tomorrow, Mom and Dad are coming over. I'm taking her to Dustee's to spend her new gift card and so I can spend some of my Christmas money too. I think Dad is staying here with the boys so he can see Tristan's new PS2 and games.

I hope to get my hair highlighted again on Saturday. My sister-in-law does it and she has been sick. And we will probably go hang out with them on New Year's Eve so the kids can play and we can play games or something. I guess the only day that nothing is planned is Monday. Then it's back to work for the second most horrible month of the year. I hate working screwy hours. It gets our routine all freaky and makes me cranky. But I am thankful for the time off I get each year. So I will endure and remind myself how nice the holidays were.

Oh and another good thing that happened...I received some pictures of Sami and Levi and Randy and Susan in the mail. That was nice. Haven't had pictures of those guys in several years. Reminded me we so need to have some new family pics made.

Well that's all for now. I'm getting tired and think I wanna read or snooze. Not sure which will win out. Later dudes!

Morgan Christmas by Tristan

Here is his second set of photos taken with his new camera. Should be more tomorrow from the Eastep Christmas. I will have my photos up here soon too. I have to admit, that for the first time ever I have not taken many pictures. There's been too much commotion going on!

You shoulda seen the ones I deleted! LOL More later. I gotta run...it's almost time for Santa to get here!

Sanders Christmas

We had our family Christmas at Pat's today. Tristan got his first digital camera. I made this slideshow of his best pics. My apologies to the subjects! :o)

I hope you enjoy this. I'm sure I'll be posting more later! My cable keeps going out so I'm going to try to save real fast!

Pico de Gallo

Today, Chance, Tristan and I spent our day shopping for our last 3 Christmas gifts. We now only have 1/2 of a gift to get. Oh and part of what I got Moms is broken for some reason, so now I have to take it back tomorrow and get it replaced. That was a major bummer when I got home. It was my favorite part of her gift and I'm not sure they have another one. But I will find something to replace it.

Before we started our journey, we stopped at a new mexican restaurant here in Moore called Alfredos. It was our first time to go there and it was pretty good. They have fresh squeezed limeades and their dishes are extremely large. Had two meals in one. My meal came with pico de gallo. As I was munching on it, I was telling Chance the story of the first time I had it. The first time was in Dallas on one of my visits to Pat and Randy's house. I was a teenager, but I can't remember if it was when I was 13 when Meredith was first born, a "for fun" trip, or the trip I took after papaw died. But my memory of having pico has never left me. Randy took us to a nice restaurant and I was enjoying myself. There in this little dish was the pico but it looked like a cute little salad to me. Randy says, "Hey Brandee. Try one of those tomatoes." Without even thinking that this is Randy, the practical joker of all times, asking me to eat an innocent little tomato, I say OK and go for it. In about 2 seconds, my mouth was on fire. There was not enough liquid in that whole restaurant to extinguish it. He and Pat just laughed and laughed at me. Oh, it burned for hours. Now, as an adult, every time I get a chance to eat it, I do. I really like spicy foods. So today I'm telling Chance that I try it everywhere I go, but I have never ever found another tomato that has ever been as hot. As I'm talking away, I'm eating away. Then I grab a green piece of pepper and my mind is thinking bell pepper for some reason. I munch right down cuz I am talking and talking and whoops...I'm burning up again. Just as hot as that tomato. I guess I'll never learn. But it was nice reliving that old memory.

Well I don't really have much to say. I'm looking forward to Christmas next weekend. We have an event three days in a row. At least they are spread out this year. I will miss my family who cannot attend but I am thankful to be with the ones who will be there. I read my the blogs about Phil's visit and how sad he was. I too am sad about not having a "home" for all of us. And I get more and more saddened at how spread out we all are. If there is a bright side, we can sure try to make some time for us all to visit - a reunion of some sort, some time in the future. It still feels like home being with all my family no matter whose house we are in even if it is not grandma's home. I don't ever want us to get so separate we never ever get to see each other. Our central home may be gone, but we will be family forever.

Well I got myself a new computer game today. Chance says I need to wrap it and put it under the tree. We aren't supposed to buy frivolous things at Christmas that isn't meant for the holiday. But...well...I want it now. So, I'm going to go play it. I don't do such things for myself very often and today felt like a good day to do it.

Cya later gaters.

Santa

We went to visit Santa today. Tristan was excited even though he was shy once he got there. He did tell him what he wants for Christmas.

We are very, very close to having all the shopping done and the wrapping done. Oh what a feeling!

Aunt Beth

My aunt Beth came to see me at work yesterday. She is now officially a college student. Yeah for her!

Better Late than Never!

I'm thankful for the snow

Although I detest icy roads and bitter cold, I am thankful the snow came and allowed my work to be closed. Since I took off on Wednesday due to our family trauma, I will have had 5 days off by the time Sunday rolls around. That is nice. Even though the beginning of the week was not very fun, I have been able to relax, cook and get tons of laundry done. We have not left the house since the storm hit, but we are venturing out tomorrow to do some more Christmas shopping. Tristan will be going to grandma and grandpa's to play. He is very excited about that.

I was the one who got to tell Taylor's mom about her latest episode. She and I spent a long time on the phone, and I must say, that this is one of the few times if not actually the first, that we agree on what to do with the situation. That's like a major miracle. She came and got Taylor yesterday as she was worried about the storm getting too bad to get her today. They ended up having issues today and called Chance. He spent a great deal of time on the phone with them today. So even though there's been trauma, it's not been located in our house. It has been peaceful.

We've done a lot of cleaning and rearranging. Let me rephrase that...Chance has. I just took care of laundry and the kitchen and the cooking. He nests every winter. It's really kinda cute and actually nice for us all. We've downsized in our room again, and especially our desk. It is nice to have room and not a bunch of papers hanging over my keyboard. I plan to get to Tristan's room soon. I'm clearing out some clothes and toys for Caden. Hope he likes them! And I actually started my Christmas card list and getting the kids' pictures ready.

While looking at blogs, I realized that I never finished my video thing (like Sara has on her blog) of our vacation. I think I may work on that tonite. It will give me something new to do.

Well I don't have much to say. Later.