It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

My long-standing tradition has been to decorate my house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm usually excited to get in the Christmas spirit and that's when I allow myself to start listening to Christmas music. I don't know what my deal was, but I just wasn't feeling it this year. I didn't get it done on Friday. Finally, on Saturday evening, I WILLED myself to do it. I knew that if I didn't get it done this weekend, then I might not have time to do it at all. (The worst part is dragging all of the stuff out!) Believe me, the thought crossed my mind of skipping the decorating all together this year -- but now that it's done, I'm so glad I did it. I love Christmas decorations!

Just when I had all the boxes strewn all over the living room -- I had a surprise visit from my friends, the Cragun family. They helped me set up the trees and decorate them. They brought some cookies to bake, and we listened to Christmas music and watched football. It made it SO much more fun than doing it alone.

(This cute little tree was decorated by the Cragun girls.)

They even convinced me to let them help with the outdoor lights even though it was completely dark outside. We got the yard decorations in place, now I just have to put the icicle lights on the roof and the garland around the door and the porch and I'll be completely finished.

I am blessed to have such good friends and I'm definitely feeling the spirit of Christmas now.

I hope your heart finds Christmas, too.

Black Friday

I spent "Black Friday" at home in my pj's, sniffling and coughing and wondering what good deals I was missing out on. I browsed all of the ads and found lots of stuff I'd want, but not much I could afford. So I balanced my checkbook to unequivocally confirm that I was indeed doing the right thing by staying home.

With the money I saved on "Black Friday" I decided to go shopping on Saturday! :) I didn't have much to spend, but there were a couple good deals I really had to take advantage of. And like all good deals -- that means I bought a few things that I didn't really NEED, but I saved money doing it.

For instance -- I completed my set of the Gilmore Girls series. I had all but a few seasons and they were on sale for $14.99 (Down from $48.99). Did I NEED them? No. But it was a good deal. (If any of you haven't seen the series but are the least bit interested, I would gladly lend them out. My friend, Karen, got me hooked a couple of years ago and I joined Netflix that summer just to catch up with the series. It's very cute and very addicting.)

This is my other VERY COOL purchase:Not the ipod -- I had that -- but the little bitty speaker. This was on sale at Brookstone for $19.99 (down from $35). I can't believe how good the sound is from this little thing. I mean, it's no Bose -- but it's decent! It runs on double-A batteries and so you can just carry it around from room to room. I love it!

In full disclosure, there may have also been another purchase -- a pricey hair-styling tool that was rated #1 by Consumer Reports. I realize that you can buy a 20-dollar blowdryer -- and that's always what I've purchased in the past -- but this Chi dryer has been beckoning me to take it home. Until now, I've ignored its siren's song. But the stars aligned and I felt it must be fate. Judge for yourself:

• A knob broke off of my blowdryer.
• I saw an ad that it was on sale for $40 off this weekend.
• I received a coupon in the mail that would make it another 20% off the sale price.
• We ran a Consumer Reports story this week on the best hair dryers and this very model was ranked #1.

Justification OR Justified? You be the judge. I'll let you know if it's as fabulous as the reviews say it is.

Thanksgiving '08

As they say, "There's no place like home for the holidays".

Unfortunately, I spend most of my holidays at work -- (See: 4th of July) -- and Thanksgiving is no different. Most of the producers have to work on Thanksgiving because we have every one of our newscasts that day. (The Friday after Thanksgiving, we only have a 6pm and a 10pm so most of us can have that day off. Another reason to LOVE FOOTBALL).

Anyway -- the bosses bought us a turkey lunch from Grady's-- Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Pumpkin Pie. (Thanks Dave! I mean "Kenny") It was delivered on Wednesday so I volunteered to heat everything and serve it to our crew of about 20 or so on Thursday. I meant to take a picture of us sitting down for our "family" dinner, but I forgot -- so that's why you have the picture of our tables without people at them. I bought some rolls from Luby's and some cranberry sauce to complete the meal. It was good but of course it wasn't NEARLY as good as my family Thanksgiving meal. I always make the fam PROMISE to save me a plate for dinner. (Several years ago, they forgot to save me rolls and mashed potatoes, but I'm working through that loss and I think I'm over it now.) I usually make it out to my family's Thanksgiving gathering just as everyone is saying their goodbyes. That's what I had planned to do again this year, but I had a really bad cold and by the time my workday was through --- I was too. (Sorry, Shawna!) I just wanted to go home and get in my pj's -- plus I didn't want to spread my germs to my relatives. (I had already exposed the co-workers as I prepared their meal for them. HA HA -- Just kidding. I washed my hands a ZILLION times and didn't breathe on anything. Just ask Mario who was hovering to make sure.)

Anyway, I went home and my mom and brothers delivered my leftovers to me! A HUGE plate of food and a HUGE plate of desserts. It was so delicious!!! I had enough food to last me for several meals. Well done, family!

This is the part where I should write about all of the things I'm thankful for. I won't bore you with a LONG list ... I'll just say I'm most thankful for my Family, Friends and my Faith. And even though I have to work on holidays, I am very thankful that I have a job!

Leaving Lost Maples

Fall has finally arrived in Texas.

And as my favorite motto (See Also: excuse, rationalization) goes ... Better Late Than Never.

One of the traditional Fall treks for those living in this neck of the woods, is to Lost Maples State Park where you can take in some of the best Fall foliage. The colors at the park were at their peak about a week ago and people have been flocking to Lost Maples to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I haven't been to Lost Maples since I was a kid. Every year I want to go, but I just don't seem to make it. So when a friend said he wanted to go this weekend, I was very excited to finally make it up there and get in a good hike amidst all the pretty leaves.

We knew we needed to get an early start, but our ideas on "early" differed somewhat. (Sorry, but I was so tired and had gone to a late showing of Quantum of Solace on Friday night). So we settled on 8am. As I headed out the door to meet him, I picked up my morning paper and right there on the front page was a picture of Lost Maples with the headline: "Storm blows the leaves off of Lost Maples." A wild cold front had blown in Friday and it was monstrously windy and apparently it blew most of the Fall leaves off the trees in the park. Great. Oh well, there would still be some color on the trees and because of the cold front, the weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday. It was the ideal day for a drive in the Hill Country.

I mean ... come on ... how pretty is this?

Apparently, hundreds of other South Texans had the exact same idea. After a missed turn and a 45 minute detour, we arrived at our destination to find this:
There were dozens of cars lined up waiting JUST to get in the park. The wait was estimated to be about an hour or so.

Sadly, we decided not to stay. I had to be back in town for a meeting at church at 5:00, plus the low-fuel indicator light was on in my friend's car and we were about 40 miles from a gas station. (Luckily, he has a diesel VW with insanely good gas mileage).

So another year, and I still haven't made it to Lost Maples -- but all was not lost. We still had a good time. We stopped at this Apple Orchard/Bakery and did some antique shopping in Bandera.

And the scenic drive was absolutely amazing.
(I hope blogspot lets you enlarge these next two pictures because they are so pretty.)
We stopped on several bridges to take pictures. This one is my favorite:

See? Texas can be pretty in the Fall.

Sock it to Me

This is how I went to work this morning and how I stayed all day long.

"Why only one sock?" --you may be asking. Well here's the deal. We've already established my issue with tardiness -- so of course I was frantically trying to get out the door this morning. My last stop was the dryer where I was going to fish out these socks. I searched and searched but could only come up with one. The other is still hiding somewhere amidst the t-shirts and workout shorts. I was running so late that there really wasn't an option to run upstairs and find another pair.

"So why wear the one sock -- why not just go barefoot?" -- you may be asking next. Well, here's the deal.

1. These are my new shoes and I want to keep them nice.
2. They're just more comfortable with the socks.
3. Why should both feet have to suffer when there is one sock available?

Perfectly rational explanation, I think. And to be fair, I let my right foot wear the sock for the first half of the day, then I traded it to the left foot.

Girls Day Out

I promised my friend Ami's daughters I would take them to lunch and a movie for their birthdays - which were within a few weeks of each other. So Saturday, Kenley, Adi and I went to see High School Musical 3 and then had lunch at Firehouse Subs. Despite the grimace on Adi's face (I took the picture with my arm outstretched and we were looking right into the sun) we had a great time! They are such sweet girls!!

Afterward, I did a little retail damage and purchased some random things that I really don't need. I was sucked into the after-Halloween 50-percent off sales! Here are the items I ended up with:
I got everything displayed on this bookcase for about 55 bucks. I won't show you what else I bought (shirt, shoes, a purse or two) so as not to be subjected to further ridicule.