A Very Merry Christmas Wrap Up!

Merry week after Christmas! I assume we all survived the holiday and had a wonderful time with family and friends! I know we did.

Our Christmas adventures started off on Friday night with Christmas at my Dad's apartment. The whole crew met to exchange gifts and eat a delicious beef tenderloin my dad had prepared. I think this is the first Christmas we spent together in a few years, since he just moved back to Oklahoma. It was fun and we had a great time just visiting and relaxing. Also, everyone got to meet the super cute Elizabeth Taylor that night as well. She was a hit. :)

Christmas Eve Kaytie and Nick came over on their way to Tulsa. We gave them their presents and had lunch.  I made chicken tortilla soup. It was yummy. Kaytie and I then made cookies for Santa. However, she left before we could frost them. They looked more like big blobs rather than snowmen and Christmas trees! Oh well, I never said my name was Betty Crocker! Later that day Veronica came over to the house to stay the night and my mom came over to stay the night! It was so fun to have people other than us in our house for Christmas Eve. I love having my family here. This year I was in charge of Christmas dinner and let me tell you that is a ton of work!!! Saturday, I fixed the mashed potatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs, pecan pie, and put the ham in the slow cooker. I seriously spent from 7 pm to after midnight in the kitchen. I was tired! I then asked my mom how people did this with kids. In theory if this was a Christmas that we had kids, after I fixed the food for Christmas dinner then I would have to make sure all of Santa's gifts were in place as well! Do parents sleep on Christmas Eve?

Then next morning I got up early and made biscuits, bacon, and sticky buns. Then we opened presents! It was wonderful and my sweet hubby did such a good job this year! I didn't really give him any direction and he totally surprised me. He got me a porch swing that we are going to hang from one of the trees in our backyard. I saw this cute idea on pinterest with a swing hanging from the tree and a cute garden around the tree! He remembered and we are going to set it all up in the Spring! He also got me a Xbox 360 with Kinect!! This came out of nowhere but it is really cool! He also got me Just Dance 3 and that is going to be my new workout! Have you ever played? It is so fun, but OMG such a workout! Dance party at my house! Come on over! :)

Okay, back to Christmas day! Once presents were opened I started on lunch. I was going to attempt to make a turkey. Okay it wasn't a full turkey, just a turkey breast, but still! I put that in the oven to cook, then an hour later, put the potatoes, baked beans, and dressing mom made in to warm up and bake. By the time it was all said and done everything was so yummy and the turkey turned out REALLY good. Since only a few of us were here to eat, we are going to be having leftovers for the next week. Mom spent one more night with us Christmas night, so after lunch we all took naps and then spent the rest of the evening watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel. It was perfect!

Christmas was really great this year. We did a great deal of celebrating and spending time with our family all through the month. .

Now it's time to get the decorations down and get back to normal! Wish me luck! I have a ton of work ahead of me this afternoon!

Talk to you all soon,
Leigha

A new puppy for the Pembertons!

Merry Week of Christmas Everyone! I hope you all are enjoying this final count down of the Christmas Season. I have a few more gifts to buy and wrap then Friday kicks of the Christmas weekend!

As many of you may have seen on my Facebook, we have adopted a sweet little boxer/terrier mix. I named her Elizabeth Taylor after Charlotte's dog in Sex and the City. TJ has asked me all year what I want for Christmas and with out fail I responded with I want a puppy!

Tiffany, a girl I work with at UCO, decided to foster puppies. The first one she fostered was Elizabeth Taylor. She posted her picture on Facebook and I knew right away she was the one. So we picked her up on Saturday and been in love ever since!

The pup is only 7-8 weeks old, so we have a long way to go on the potty training scale. She doesn't quite have a quick enough response time from "oh I have to pee" to "oops!". We are working on it. The first night she was with us, we all three slept on the couch together. She cuddled up to TJ, like he was her long lost love. It made me a bit jealous, after all, I am the one who wanted her! :) Last night Morgan came over for the first time. In case you don't remember, Morgan is the neighbors dog who thinks he lives at our house. We love him too! He seemed a little put off that there was another dog in the house and ran away. Of course this made me sad. Later that night when I was taking E.T. out (which is what TJ calls her by the way) Morgan came back over and came in the house. I think he was scared of the lightening. TJ calmed him down finally. Morgan slept on the floor, Elizabeth Taylor and I on the couch, and TJ in the bed. Tonight I am sleeping in my bed! I am exhausted! I love both dogs, but seriously, I am sleepy! E.T. did great. She licked my face when she needed to go out both times so score for us! Let's just see if we can keep it up.

I am so happy to have her at home. It is a fun dynamic to add to the Pemberton house and it's funny to see our discipline styles come through. So far, I am a push over for a cute face and TJ not so much! LOL!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

This holiday season is upon us and in full force! It seems like it just started and in two weeks it will all be over!! I love this time of year. The lights, the songs, the shows on tv, and all of the festivities happening all around. I enjoy spending extra special times with my family. Last year we were so engrossed in the wedding and honeymoon it barely felt like Christmas. I am embracing every day of this season and loving every minute of it!

The Calfy side of the family got together to start this season off right! We had a wonderful time playing dirty Santa and visiting. The best part was they all got to come to our house! I just loved opening it up to everyone! It seemed like there was enough room for everyone to be comfortable which was a nice change from the old place.  The funniest part of the night was when Tim's dirty Santa gift consisted of a thong and some other "things" and TJ is the one that ended up with that gift! He thought it would be appropriate try it on over his jeans and model it for all to see! It was honestly the most fun Christmas related event we have had together since since my grandparents passed away. It felt like we were all happy for once. I love them all and I wouldn't mind making it a Calfy family tradition to start the Christmas season off with a fun party every year!

TJ and I celebrated our one year anniversary on December 4th! It was a wonderful 1st anniversary. We went to a wonderful bed and breakfast called Echo Canyon. We stayed in a wonderful room with balcony that over looked beautiful woods. We had an AMAZING dinner that included filet mignon, garlic butterfly shrimp, bbq chicken breast, twice baked potato, a wonderful salad that had watermelon, black olives, apples, etc in it, and cheesecake and chocolate moose for dessert! It was insane. The best food we had ever eaten! It was such a fun time, I told TJ we need to do it more often. :) I made a sappy little video with pictures from our first year! Don't feel like you have to watch it. I just did it for us to commemorate our first year!

My mom, sister, and aunt came over this evening to make Christmas treats! It was crazy. We ended up with 10 boxes of goodies to give out or eat for ourselves! It was fun. We tried several receipes from Pintrest. Only one didn't turn out right. There was one receipe that said you could put a peppermint kiss inside a brownie and bake it, then tada! you have peppermint brownies. Yeah, I tried twice and ended up with peppermint kisses stuck to the bottom of the pan! So we cut up the brownies in small bites and called it reindeer poo! lol! We had a fun time and made a TON of treats!

I hope you all are enjoying this sweet time of year with your families and loved ones. Keep focused on the important things and not the material things. The latest and greatest gadget or toy will be tossed aside in a months time, but those specials moments and memories will be with you forever!

Merry Christmas to all!!
Love Leigha