December.....

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. Its not because of the presents...but because of the family time. Lots of time - doing nothing but being together...laughing, cooking, catching up, teasing each other and loving one another. I love being home with my family...in the cool weather, sitting around in our PJ's for hours at a time, napping...just being together. This year was no exception. I got to spend almost a whole week at home....probably a good thing because I also was sick - so it was nice to be home so Mom could take care of me :) thats always a plus!

My mom's tree was as beautiful as ever.... this year, she got mad because I posted something she said on FB...it went like this:

Mom: Don't unpack your presents - they don't match my tree!!!!

Karen: What? are you serious?

Mom: Staring - like hell yes I am serious. Here is her pretty tree - after my twinkie waited till she left and put all the unmatching presents under the tree!!!

All of her presents were gold - all the other colored presents are everyone elses. She threatened Santa wouldn't come becuase I was ugly and put it on FB...but she didn't follow through , thank goodness!

one of my other favorite things to do is this:

We have been making cookies for ever....we used to have a little picnic table in the kitchen we would sit at and make them. It was tradition. ours now are a little prettier...at least mine are. ha ha. That was just for K - her cookies are either gorgeous or so ugly we have to eat them. But I think the really ugly ones are on purpose!

the other thing I look forward to every christmas are all the parties...I swear, there are a milion. I love but hate them. Love because I get to see everyone and hang out and catch up. Hate becuase I don't sleep a lot and I end up eating a LOT of yummy food, which I then have to spend more time at the gym working off! a vicious cycle, I tell you!

But one my favorite parties every year is hanging out with these girls:

Miss KC has a party every year and we love getting together one more time before everyone leavs town for the holidays.

and I love taking pictures too....as if you didn't already know that. I feel like that is one of the only times I ever get good picts with the family too! Here is me and mom and dad. I love them - I am SO blessed to have such wonderful, loving parents. SO wonderful. I'll tell you more about why I love them later...in the next post I promise.

and here is me and my twinkie...don't think we didn't take three pictures and she deleted the ones she didn't like! ha ha ha ha ha. (and you saw the picture of me and LL at the top.). I love my sissy's too...way too much to even begin to tell you why!

And after all the wrapping paper was thrown away, and we travelled back home....I got to spend some more time with friends. I spent New Years with some work friends...we went to the K's house and hung out...watched fireworks, talked a lot, watched the boys get out of control and then sent them to bed. It was a good night! Here are the girls:

And the next night I went out to hang out with the D's. I haven't gotten to spend nearly as much time with them this year as I would have liked. Their daughter is now 5...I can't believe it. She was one of my first college friends to have babies and her baby isn't a baby anymore!!! I got to spend a LOT of time playing with the kids and catching up with anna. It was so great. but one of my favorite things was this:

What's he doing you ask? Well, Dad was coming out to grill with his "head lamp" on to see the meat. So next thing I know this cutie was running up stairs to get his too...and he goes into the kitchen and asks mom for his tongs. And i go outside and this is what I see...Dad and he cooking...both on their "grills"....

Is that not just precious?  seriously. Those kiddos are just so stinking cute! So we had a slumber party and the next day I kissed them goodbye and ran off to join KC and her hubby and Miss LM to go to the Texans game. That was my first Pro-Football game....I know. can't believe it. Here is the view from our seats of Reliant...

They were GREAT seats....the Texans playing...not as great. But it was still fun! here we are:

and those boys behind us...well, they liked to YELL....good thing it wasn't obsecenities...just funny stuff. But LOTS of yelling!

That was Decemeber....it was a fantastic way to end the year...now it's January and busy season. WOO-HOO. At least this busy season doesn't last NEARLY as long as it did when I was in public accounting. I can handle 7 business days vs 3 months!!!!