Christmas at the Prom

For the past several years we have had a theme for our family Christmas on Mom's side.  This year was Christmas at the Prom!  We all had so much fun fixing our hair in updos and putting on fancy dresses.  Aunt Rachel and Uncle Billy hosted it at their house.  We had brunch and a white elephant ornament and gift exchange.  

Gran Gran and all of her girls

Gran Gran and the Granddaughters except for Jennifer

The entire crew

Gran Gran and her son-in laws and grandsons

Gran Gran and all of the grandkids

Uncle Billy had all of these chain saws in the back of a truck so of course we thought they would make a great prop for a family photo!

December

We have had a busy December.  Lot's of Christmas parties and other fun things.  

Here are some some iPhone pics of the first part of the month.

Dot posing by our tree.

Our 3rd Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange at Rachel and Brandon's

A new park recently opened.  They covered the interstate and turned it into a park to connect "uptown" and "downtown" Dallas.  It is really neat.  Gourmet food trucks park along the side and there is a playground, dog park and you can play games like table tennis, croquet,  and there is a putting green.

Brett's parents came in for the night to be "Santa".  We made these cookies and I took them to the Christmas parties we had that weekend.

Brett was on call for the weekend in Ft Worth and Nelson and Winston had a Christmas party there that night we wanted to go to so we decided to spend the day and night there and take the pups.
We went to the park.

Stockyards

Brett and Nelson with "Margarita".  Nelson got her when we all went to Costa Rica.  We carried her around with us and pretended like she was a part of the group when we were on that trip!

At Nelson's Christmas party.  I can't find the pics I took of their decor but it was awesome of course!

We stayed at the Sheraton and this was right across the street.  It is called Fort Worth Water Gardens.
There were 4 different "water gardens" and it was really pretty.
The Sheraton allowed dogs at no charge.  Something good to know if you travel with pets.  La Quinta doesn't charge either.

On our way home we went to Bass Pro to do some Christmas shopping.  The dogs shopped til the dropped!

Gift and Christmas Card Ideas

I got both of these ideas from Pinterest.

I am going to give this to the girls at my Dallas office.  

I posted HERE last year about other gift ideas.

I wrote "for your mistletoes and frosty nose" on the bag.
The gift is a candle and nail polish.
I think it is a cute gift and I got it all for less than $10.

Some of ya'll may be shocked to know that I actually save Christmas cards!!  

I keep them with my Christmas decor and get them out every year.  I got the idea to organize them from Pinterest.

At first as was going to group them separately by the year, but then I decided to put them all together in order of years.

 So I got a hole punch and a ring clip and got them organized.  It is so neat because you can watch families grow and change over the years.  

I also did this with wedding/birth announcements and birthday invites.

I only save the ones with photos on them.  But a have a few of my friend's save the dates, wedding, baby shower, birth announcement, kid's birthday, etc...  It took a while to get it all grouped, but now that it is done it will be easy to add too.

The Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend.

Friday night we got our tree and decorated it. 

Saturday morning I had a Christmas party with the office I work at in Dallas.

We had lunch at a place called Rise.  They specialize in soufflés.  I have been wanting to try it for a while now.  It was delicious.  

I had a Truffle Infused Mushroom one for my meal and Chocolate for dessert.  They also have Violet infused Mimosas.  It was all so good.  

My parents, Clayton and Gran Gran came in town Saturday afternoon.

We went to the Arboretum.  I thought they would have some Christmas decor out, but not yet.  But, the  Chiluly Glass is still there so we were happy to see that again.

Just like last time I suggested Gran Gran use one of their wheelchairs so she could see it all.  Dad thought it would be funny to wrap a towel around her leg and text a photo to Aunt Becky.  He is always making Aunt Becky worry when he has Gran Gran with him.  I don't think she thought it was funny but he definitely got a kick out of it!   

 You will probably see one of these again on the Christmas Card.

We had fun taking these pics believe it or not.  It is usually a battle to get everyone to cooperate for group pics.  Apparently that never changes no matter the age because I know my friends with little ones have a heck of a time getting a good photo too.

Everyone was getting a kick out of the Santa hats.  We let 2 other families borrow them for their pic.  They loved it!

Saturday night we went to The Granda right down the street to hear Monte Montgomery sing.

My family left after breakfast on Sunday.  

Brett worked on the jeep while the dogs and I enjoyed the beautiful weather. 

Sunday night we went to Brooke and Clark's house and cooked backstrap from the hogs they got at the lease during Thanksgiving.  After dinner we went and rode around in Brett's jeep and got ice cream and looked a Christmas lights.  It was a blast.  Only in Texas can you wear shorts, eat ice cream and ride around in an open-air vehicle to look at Christmas lights!