Christmas with the Johns

After spending some time in Enid, we took the turnpike over to Tulsa for some time with Michael's family. 

We got there on Sunday night, and much to our enjoyment the first stop was Mazzio's!

It was there that I was mistaken for Ashley and Emily's Mom...haha.

but they are so sweet that I really didn't mind.

We spent as much time as we could with those girls while we were in town.

I mean, we love the rest of the family, but we LOVE those girls! 

After Mazzio's we went to Rhema to look at lights, and then went home to watch movies.

On Christmas we had dinner with Cheryl's side of the family, and it was so great to see Michael's cousins, especially the newly engaged Lauren! 

Christmas is also Michael's sister's birthday, so her and I celebrated by going to see Breaking Dawn.

It was even better the second time.

Rhema Lights

Beautiful little girls!

Happy about their Princes presents

So excited about my cupcake stands!!

Johns family on Christmas Day

It was a great couple of days, and we are so happy to be able to spend the holiday with both families! 

We are definitely blessed!

Hope your Christmas was just as happy as ours!

Christmas with the Bairds

Christmas is officially gone in our house.

Michael and I got back to Houston last night, and spend all day today putting away Christmas.

It was sad, but it is nice to have everything back to normal.

We had a great trip to Oklahoma for the holidays though, 

and I wanted to share a few of the best moments.

First, we went to Enid for Christmas with the Bairds.

We got there Friday, had our Christmas Eve on Saturday, and Christmas day on Sunday. 

*It felt so much like Christmas, it was strange that everyone else wasn't headed home from church to their Christmas dinner on Sunday.

As with any weekend in Enid, there was breakfast at Wee Too, shopping at Park Avenue, playing at Leonardo's, board games, and lots of delicious food!

Back in the red dirt state!

Best sugar cookies in Enid!

Breakfast at Wee Too

$10 desk I passed up at the thrift store and then someone else bought it

We love a good photo op

Oliver beating us all in the speed game. Perfect!

Santa has been spotted!

Another perfect Christmas with these guys

Great new game for the family! Too bad Ben won every time...

Christmas dinner with the family - Oliver was busy playing his new DS.

The time seemed to move too fast, like always.

Michael and I are so happy that both our parents live close to each other so that we can spend time with both families on Christmas. 

My parents always go above and beyond with the holidays, 

and we are so blessed by their generosity, hospitality, and love.

It is always a very Merry Christmas when we are with the Bairds.

Ornaments of 2012

Well, it appears that the Mayans got us good!

Or...did they??

As much as I love my blog, I refuse to believe it made it to the afterlife,

so I will just go with my true beliefs that the world is still turning and our Lord Jesus has not made His return yet, so we will continue to eagerly await that day.

In the meantime, I wanted to share about the ornaments that Michael and I picked for this year.

That's right, I said ornaments.

Plural.

I could not choose just one.

And to be honest, I wanted more, but I have to set a limit somewhere.

So here they are, the ornaments of 2012:

We got the first one way back in January when we were in Orlando.

This came straight from Harry Potter World.

It was our first trip of the year, and we absolutely loved the park, so we had to commemorate it with an ornament. 

Next, I got this little beauty at the Brookwood Community.

It was handmade, and hand painted by the residents at Brookwood.

I know, it's Texas, but I just had to take the plunge.

We are homeowners now, which seemed to increase the claim we have to Texas.

Oklahoma will always be #1 in my heart, but I might as well give a little bit of love to Texas.

And lastly, we couldn't go to Las Vegas (post/s coming soon!) and not get an ornament...

or two. 

I think they represent our trip perfectly!

 

I also wanted an ornament to say "we bought a house!" but I just couldn't get another ornament.

We gained several other ornaments through gifts this year.

My favorite came from Sister, and I LOVE it!

 The others were given to us by Michael's family from their trip to Seattle, and cruise to Alaska. 

They are beautiful, but I forgot to take pictures.

So that wraps up the ornaments of 2012, and now, here is our beautiful tree.

 *We tried having the Christmas tree in this other room for the year.

I'm not loving it.

I think it takes away from the Christmas spirit to not be able to sit on the couch and look at my tree.

It will most likely be back in the living room next year,

unless someone helps a girl out and cuts a whole the living room wall.

cough, Jon, cough.

And here is a last view of the tree lit up.

(This new room is also very difficult to take pictures in)

Family Christmas

Last year I told you about our tradition of Family Christmas. 

Usually we make a nice dinner, open our gifts to each other, take a family picture, and watch Christmas movies or make a gingerbread house.

Last year, we opened the gifts, but ate dinner out.

This year, we didn't even eat dinner.

We used our only free night of December to have our Date Night,

and since I wasn't finished stuffing stockings, we couldn't open gifts then.

So, we did it after church last night!

Buster even gave us gifts this year.

 He is such a great gifter!

And he is good at keeping secrets, because he surprised us both!

As per usual, Michael and I already knew what we were getting from each other,

and we both loved it!

Also as per usual, Buster was very excited about his gifts.

 I filled his stocking on Tuesday, and it about killed him to wait for it.

I really thought he would take out my mantel decorations, but they survived.

He was very excited about his bones, tennis balls, and stuffed squirrel that he got.

We ended the night with the traditional family photo in front of tree.

I love my little family, 

and am glad that we were still able to find time to have our own special Christmas!

Smiling's Our Favorite!

Merry Christmas!

From Buddy, Jovi and Santa!

We are Elves (Not on Shelves)

I love holidays.

I also love parties.

Which is why I was so excited to help throw a Holiday Party for the youth group this past weekend.

Luckily, I was not the brains behind this operation

(I love parties much more when I am not in charge!)

We spent more than enough time decorating and planning, 

and the end result was well worth it!

 No, we did not make all that food.

We were so blessed to have several people from church volunteer to bring some snacks.

And they were GOOD!

My favorite part of the night was when Buddy the Elf and Jovi showed up.

Yes. My character's name is Jovi.

Don't worry, nobody else knew that either.

Or knew that I was even from the movie, Elf.

Buddy though, oh they LOVED him.

Its okay, I love him too. ;)

We had a few activities planned for the evening including:

- Making Santa magnets for the little kids at church

- A white elephant gift exchange

- Minute to Win It and other Christmas-themed games

-  A photo booth

but it is amazing how quickly teenagers get bored...

so, then we turned on a movie and just let them hang out.

Oh to have a 10 minute (or less) attention span again.

Get it - White elephant gift...elephant hat. Its funny.

It was a great night, with some great teens,

and the perfect ending to a wonderful year with this youth group!

Michael and I are already looking forward to 2013 with this incredible group!

Christmas Date Night

Yesterday was a very Christmas-y day for me

(aside from the fact that it was 80 degrees and extremely humid outside)

Michael went to see The Hobbit with some church friends,

so I spend the morning watch Christmas movies and wrapping gifts.

 I'm so happy I finally had time to catch up on all my Christmas tasks.

We only need a couple more gifts and we will be DONE.

Last night was also the only night we have free in December, so we used it to go on our traditional Christmas date.

The past 2 years we have been blessed to receive Pappasitos gift cards from sweet youth families, so I guess fajitas are somewhat of a tradition for us too.

You may remember that Michael and I started a new tradition last year of picking out a new Christmas book.

If not, you can read about it in this post here.

We continued that tradition last night and went to Barnes and Noble to pick out our book after dinner.

They had quite the selection, but some of them were just weird.

Here are the ones we each picked.

 We found a little corner and sat down to read them

(what happened to the seating areas in Barnes and Noble? There were none!)

A few of them only last a couple pages,

but the others we read all the way through.

We ended up choosing an oldie, but a classic, Charlie Brown Christmas.

After the bookstore, we went to get a coffee, and then drove around looking at lights.

We had heard about a neighborhood in town that goes all out - so we decided to go there.

Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint!

Each street has a different theme, and every house on that street has coordinating decorations.

America!

The Christmas Zoo

Disney

We even found a Snoopy-themed street!

The neighborhood also gives out awards to different houses:

Like this house that won best door last year

 And this house that won best lampost.

 It was the perfect Christmas date night!

I'm so happy that we were able to take some time just to spend with each other before Christmas gets here in just a few short days!

And our new book has already made itself at home on the bookshelf.