Christmas festivities

It's become a tradition (you know, the second year in a row now) for us to go and get a real Christmas tree.  Sean loves real trees.  I'm impartial*, so real tree it is!  I love Christmas weather in Texas, it was 65 degrees the day we picked out our Christmas tree...yes, Sean was in shorts.  In Chicago, if it's not negative degrees by this time you are winning.

*I do wish they weren't so messy, but they do smell really nice.  That means saving money on Christmas candles...right?

I love Christmas time!

 Well, I'm trying to start traditions for us!  So, hopefully I can continue this one.  Hopefully I don't lose or break these over the years!

 We had a few projects going on in our garage.  Obviously, cutting the tree, but also putting together our photo booth for our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party 2013!  (pics and post to come soon)

I got my first natvity set this year! I was SO excited about it!  I've been eying this Willowtree Nativity Set for years.  

Merry Christmas to me!

The finished product!  

Christmas festivities are not complete without Will Ferrell playing Elf in the background.  

 The holiday season at work was a lot different this year.  The dentist I've worked for the past few years sold his practice.  Dr. Doles bought the practice, and I really like him a lot.  Dr. Loftus never did Christmas parties (weird) so we had our first Christmas party this year!  Dr. Doles treated us all to Mi Cocina (love Mi Cocina), and it went really well!

 I got to hang out with Jensen for a night while Lindsay and Evan went to their work Christmas party.  I love this little crazy! You have no idea how long it took to take this picture. :)

 We went and saw some of the Christmas lights at Frisco square with our besties, Gerret and Sarah.  They took us to this great restaurant on the square, yum!

 Sarah and I may have forced their hand at getting some frozen custard afterwards...

Unfortunately, not all of our December was fun Christmas festivities.  This {insert derogatory adjective} girl hit me on my lunch break.  I was innocently driving straight when she made a left turn in front of me.  I slammed on my brakes, layed on my horn, and was almost at a complete stop...which didn't slow her down in the least bit.  She continued to turn and hit my brand new car.  I'm still cursing her in my mind.  It's been 9 weeks, and I still don't have my car back.  

Sean came a few minutes after the accident happened and I told him what happened.  All he asked me was why I was yelling...I told him because I'm furious.  Apparently he said I sounded like a psycho.  Well, that may be so.  

 Since Paige and I don't work with each other anymore (still severely depressed about this), we had our own Christmas get together!  We exchanged our Christmas gifts, and we rambled on and on about how much we miss seeing each other every day.  Sad times.

 Sean had his Christmas work party at The House of Blues, down in Dallas.  I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of us...because we looked dang good that night!  Probably because it was one of those types of restaurants you feel like an idiot taking a picture (even for me, the girl who has no picture shame).  It was a really fun night, and the food was delicious!

 I love buying and wrapping Christmas presents for people!

Janene and Aaron had their sweet little twins right around Christmas.  We had to go straight to church afterwards, so we couldn't stay for long.  It was so good to see them, they're adorable (shocker).  Janene is a champ and my future (one day) pregnancy idol.  

She's basically amazing!

 Christmas Day!!!

 This year Sean and I decided to do our own thing.  We always get a lot of slack for this...it's not our first time being by ourselves on Christmas.  We both have big families, and they're only getting bigger.  But, Sean and I are our OWN FAMILY.  It may just be the two of us, but I love it.  Especially since Sean had gone back to school, we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together, so it was nice to stay home, sleep in, relax, and remember the real meaning of Christmas. 

We don't get each other a ton of gifts, but it's fun to exchange a few with each other.  I was very excited about getting Sean this watch for Christmas.  And if he doesn't like it, he puts on a good show, because he wears it all the time. :)

 Whenever it's just the two of us on Christmas, we make a turkey!  I grew up having turkey and Christmas, and I love it!  Sean and I both agreed this was our best turkey yet!  It was absolutely delicious!  We're getting pretty good at this. :)

Our Christmas dinner for two. 

 I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Jay-Z concert

I feel like at this point in our marriage, I know Sean pretty well.  Apparently not.  Sean told me he bought some tickets to see Jay-Z at the American Airlines Center downtown.  I thought that was a little weird, since Sean has never spent money on concert tickets before.  I asked him why we were going, and then he told me that Jay-Z is his favorite artist.  Really, Jay-Z?  I feel like this is something I probably should have known...you know, because we've been together for 6+years...

Well, Jay-Z...shmay-Z!  I was excited for a night on the town with my hubby!

 We took the train down into Dallas.  It was kind of nice not to have to worry about traffic or parking.  It dropped us right in front of the arena.  

Video of Dirt off your shoulder, amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwS1N1Nr17o&feature=youtu.be

Pretty sweet!

I've got 99 problems...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBwgzxNCUTg&feature=youtu.be

 Sean was getting into it, Roc-A-Fella!

Everyone who grew up in the 90's should know this song...
H to the Izzo...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pSvPRO5mg&feature=youtu.be

 I tried to get a picture of it, but throughout the night everyone would put their hands up making the Roc-A-Fella sign!

In Ney York, New York, New York!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uILP-zQr9OU&feature=youtu.be
Thought of one of my besties, Rachel while this song was playing!  She took my NYC virginity!  And how could I not forget about Steph and Janene and we sang (or screamed) this song at the top of our lungs skipping across the Brooklyn Bridge a few months ago.  Loved every minute of it!

 We had such a fun night at the concert, I'm so glad we were able to go
. And bonus--now I know who Sean's favorite artist is!

Thanksgiving and more...

This year we stayed in Texas for Thanksgiving.  Aunt Elaine had us and the Packard clan over.  I can't believe it was a year ago that we went to visit Nate, T, and all their littles in Seattle...time flies! This year was pretty low key, but pretty relaxing.  As always, we're thankful to be around family.

Aaron and Janene's sweet Savannah got into Kayla's mascara.  It was pretty funny at the time, and we all thought it was a good idea to take pictures of it.  But, then I felt bad when she started crying, sad!  This made me understand a little bit more why parents think it's a "good idea" to post a picture on Instagram or Facebook when their child is hurt/bleeding/into mischief/pooped all over something...INITIALLY it's fun--Side note, no one's poop is cute people...not even adorable little kids...it's poop.

 Hottie mama of twins!

Our good friends, Holly and Scot had their little baby Luke in November!  Look at how tiny and adorable he is!  **Side note, we both look terrible in this picture...must have been a long day...although I'm sure not as long as Holly's was!

The weekend after Holly and Scot had Luke, we thought we would give them some alone time...or time to nap, or do whatever they wanted without three kids!  So we took Nathan and Ryan to the park and to dinner for the night.

We have an amazing park in our subdivision.  It has a great playground, running path, covered area with picnic tables, and splashpad.  If we weren't so lazy we could have walked, haha! It was a perfect 65 degree day here in November!  

We had to get the boys some fun stuff to do.  So we got some silly string (who doesn't love silly string) and let them loose on each other.  Poor Nathan, Ryan got the hang of it a little better than he did.  :)  Apparently there is just never enough silly string in those little cans!

Na-na loved the swings...although it doesn't really look like it in this picture.  They thought it was hilarious how I would push them really high and run underneath them.  I think I thought it was just as entertaining when I was a kid.  Who knew it was such a good workout?!

Crazy Uncle Sean!  I'll have to admit he's their favorite...let's be honest, most kids'

 favorite.  He's so good with the kids (possibly because he's one of them).  He always plays with them and lets them have fun.  He loves to wrestle with the boys especially.  

He's going to make a great Dad one day.

I love me some Nay-Nay. :)

This kid is hilarious, his "surprised" face is one of the funniest I've ever seen!  So freaking cute!

We got the boys those foam little toys that expand in water, occupied them forever!  They don't look thrilled in this picture, but they really were having fun!

Nay-nay!

At the end of November I got pretty sick.  Of course, my patients schedule their appointments six months in advance...so they're not happy if they have to be rescheduled last minute.  Desperate times call for desperate measures!  Our new assistant, Claudia showed me a trick she used when she has a runny nose so it doesn't drip down into your mask (gross...I know), shove dental gauze up your nose.  Even though it looks completely ridiculous, it actually works!  These and a Z-PAK saved my life!

Of course, this meant that I got Sean sick too, he tried to do the same thing at home...haha!  It's just not quite the same without cotton rolls. :)