Christmas Decor

I thought it would be fun to practice some photography "skills" around my mom's house. She had a lot of neat Christmas decor, so there were plenty of opportunities. I am hoping to take an Adobe Photoshop training class at the Wichita Arts Center this month, so hopefully I can learn some editing skills as well! Enjoy!

This is a real "One Horse Open Sleigh" from the late 1800s!

Christmas Dinner for the Birds

Downey Woodpecker and female cardinal

Kitty dreamin' of a Christmas dinner

Male Cardinal

Woodpecker in the tree

Woody the Woodpecker

My dad and stepmom have a beautiful backyard view from their house. They also have a variety of birdfeeders to attract some feathered friends! These are a few pics I took on Christmas morning out their window. They looked so pretty against the blanket of snow!

Christmas Lights

This year, we got to decorate our first house for Christmas! Jason did a great job putting up the lights and making our house "festive!" He was going to try and hang lights on the steep parts of the roof, but it was pretty dangerous. Hopefully next year, we'll have a better ladder that will reach. For now, we're happy with the results! (I wish that more people in our neighborhood would put up lights). Thanks for all of your hard work, hun!

"Tacky Christmas Sweater" Party

Last weekend, Jason and I were invited to a "Tacky Christmas Sweater" party by one of my co-workers, Patti! Unfortunately, the thrift store was running very low on Christmas sweater inventory, so I had to improvise. My "ensemble" was more of a winter theme, but Jason's sweater was pretty funny. It was a shiny gold sweater, complete with metallic thread. It was a touch small for Jason, probably because it wasn't exactly a men's sweater (although it looked ambiguous :). He made it "work" by adding a turtleneck and pretending to be "Cousin Eddie" from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation....haha!

Here are few pics - the first pic is with Patti and Cindy (my co-workers at the VA)

Merry Christmas 2009!

Thanksgiving at Lake Texoma

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with Jason's family in a cabin at Lake Texoma - surprising, this is a lake on the border between Texas and Oklahoma! :) This is the second Thanksgiving that we've spent at the cabin, primarily because we need the space for everyone. The weekend got off to a bad start after it took us 7 hours to get to the cabin from Wichita...normally a 4.5-hour trip!! There was a ton of traffic on the road, and the several construction zones we encountered didn't help a thing! Thankfully, we made it safely to the cabin.

The cabin is part of a camp owned by the Catholic churches in Oklahoma. Since Jason's parents both work at All-Saints Catholic School in Norman, OK (yes, the same school Jason and I worked at when we first met), they are able to get a great deal. It has seven bedrooms, so there is plenty of room. It was really nice to get to spend time with the family. Jason's parents (Harlan and Cathy), his sister (Heather), her husband (Chuck), their daughter (Eden), Jason's other sister (Kellie), her husband (Marcus), and their respective kids (Chelci, Kail, Marquel, and Marquis) were all able to come. Since the weather was so nice, we spent a lot of Thanksgiving day outside. Cathy prepared a delicious turkey and Heather prepared the ham. The rest of us all brought various side dishes and yummy desserts. My contributions were a sweet potato casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, and homemade white and wheat hot rolls. Jason was in charge of making the green bean casserole.

Here is a pick of some of the cabin--see how close it is to the lake??


Cathy and Heather working in the kitchenKellie and Marcus watching all of the kids play
Jason and I
Heather and Eden -- Heather asked me to take pics for their Christmas card
Our niece, Eden...she didn't think it was funny when we sang, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."
Unfortunately, I just realized I don't have any pics of Harlan or Chuck. :(

On Black Friday morning, I got up at 4:00am with Kellie to go to the Wal-Mart in Madill, OK. She really wanted a laptop that was on sale, so I thought I would tag along. After all, I've never actually been to an "official" Black Friday sale. I couldn't believe how many people were at Wal-Mart so early! The aisles were so packed, you could barely move a cart! I ended up getting a great deal on a digital, programmable Crock Pot....I know...not very exciting!

Anyway, we ended up having a great time the entire weekend! We went back to Norman on Friday afternoon, and both Jason and I went to the OU/OSU football game on Saturday. I sat with my dad and Jason sat with Chuck (our bro-in-law). OU won! BOOMER SOONER!