Christmas time is here

I've totally been neglecting my blog lately.  We had a great Thanksgiving -- I played golf in the morning with my dad, a family friend, and his son.  Then later we went over to their house with the rest of our families and had dinner.  Afterwards, I went over to my friend Michelle & JJ's apartment for a Texas A&M game watching party with some of our coworkers.  Whoop!  What a great game.

It was super odd not having a bird in our own oven, so that Friday my mom and I made a smaller version of Thanksgiving so we'd have left overs and the smell of turkey in our own kitchen.  side note: I decided this year that although I love the smell of a roasting turkey, I could totally do without it -- I get much more excited about the sides.  Even Molly decided to join in on the Thanksgiving fun with a festive bandanna .

We set up our tree that Friday-- I love going through all the old ornaments.  My dad and I finished most of our Christmas shopping yesterday -- which was a huge accomplishment to knock out.

 

We also took advantage of black Friday for the first time ever.  We didn't go out to any stores, but I did buy a brand new 42" LG LCD off Amazon for under $500!  It's my first big purchase for an apartment.  My mom also decided she would get a Wii for the family this Christmas...we've been living under a rock in this house with gaming systems from the 90s (Sega anyone?).  Our Wii arrived a few days ago and my brother and I quickly became obsessed with this dancing game.  It. is. so. much. fun.  You don't even realize you're exercising!

My favorite gift so far is one I'm giving to my mom to hang in our guest bedroom.  My original idea was to print macro shots of flowers that I've taken and turn them black and white and put them in mismatched frames...kind of like the picture below, but I wanted to do like just 6 frames not a whole wall.

However, after much persuasion by my dad (apparently my mom did this before and didn't like it) I went with a really cute piece I found at T.arget.  I printed some of my shots from our Europe trip and converted them to black and white -- or kept some black and white but added splashes of color.  I really like the fact that it's all been captured and edited by my camera and photoshop, so I hope she likes it!

Despite the fact we have to stay in Texas this year, we've definitely been getting in the Christmas mood.  I discovered that I love Starbuck's skinny gingerbread lattes and I could watch Bobby Flay's Feast of 7 fishes throwdown countless times before getting bored.

My grandparents come the 27th, my GMAT is on Jan 10, and my sinus surgery is on Jan 17.  It's going to be a busy few months!  Hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit...and just in case you need a pick me up: I suggest Elf.  One of my personal favorites :)