Christmas Eve 2005

Christmas Eve we went to lunch with my dad and Leanne at Mimi's Cafe. The food was pretty darned good. I'm not sure how often we'll go back, but it was a nice change from the same old, same old. After lunch, we spent some time at their house and exchanged gifts.

Their gift to Alyx was a crisp, new 50 dollar bill. Of course, he really had no concept of what $50 is. He just knew he had real money with which to buy some toys! Naturally, we went straight to Target after leaving dad's. He got a very cool triceratops and truck thingy. Happy boy. Oh yeah, Anthony & I got a bit O' cash as well. Anthony spent his on the Serenity and Brother's Grimm dvds and I spent mine on new boots!

After the newness had worn off on Alyx's new dinogear, he begged and begged to "open just one more present". We finally gave in and let him open them all. We figured with Santa gifts, a gift exchange with the neighbor boys and my family's gift exchange the next day it might not be a bad idea to spread the love, so to speak. That way he wouldn't be so overwhelmed all at once.

Ah well, enough blather....here's the link. Pics

My sister's Christmas gift

I did the scrapbook for my sister and brother-in-law's trip to NYC this summer as their Christmas gift this year. They loved it so much and it was very gratifying to see how touched they were. I only had the pictures a week and I was finishing the book on Christmas day (ok, so it was ALL day) and its a good thing they were an hour late getting here because I finished it 45 min after they were supposed to be here LOL!

NYC Scrapbook

Bricktown Canal Ride 2005

Mom, Alyx, Ethan and I went down to Bricktown Friday night for Santaland 3d but when we got there, we saw they were running the canal boat rides for free so we decided to do that first. We had such a great time doing it that we decided we didn't need to hit Santaland after all. Perhaps it was the 1 hour and 10 min wait in line and the fact we were all frozen after the ride... anyway, it was fun and the boys and I got these really cool lightup mouth things (I'll post a video of them once I figure out how). Here's the Pics

I'm a crafty girl.

I made the mistake many years ago of making all the presents for all the aunts/grandmas/mothers and now they expect it. I tried to not to do it one year and they all let me know about it.

So, anyway, here is this years project. As far as I know, none of the people getting this for Christmas visit this site so... but, if they do, well, then I guess they know what they are getting :)

Yet another family pic...

Wow. I now know what I do NOT want to be when I grow up - a portrait photographer. Three sets of parents/grandparents said, "what I really want for Christmas is a family picture of you kids together." Well, trying to mesh my sister's family schedule with mine... *heavy sigh* Well, lets just say it was hard. And by the time we did, we couldn't get an appointment with a professional. So, I volunteered to take it. I mean, I do take pictures all the time right? Oh my. Who knew.


Number 1: You need a lot of space to set up shop, otherwise you end up with this wierd perspective thing.
Number 2: Lighting. 'Nuff said.
Number 3: Setting the timer and running into the frame - gets old fast.
Number 4: Not everyone smiles everytime.
Number 5: there is not enough valium in the world....


So, we agreed that next year, if anyone asks for a pic for christmas we just offer to slit our own throats or pay them $10,000. {THAT IS A JOKE PEOPLE! We actually had a very good time together. Good grief! comment added after reading this ruined someone's day...}

Ah well, enough blathering... here they are.

Family Pics

Saturday Night Christmas Party

Saturday night we had our annual Christmas party with our Thai food friends. Colby and Jess hosted it at their new home out in BFE... no, wait... Shawnee, yes, Shawnee. Not everyone was able to make it this year, but those that did had a great time. There were Joe, Val, Doug, Colby, Jess, Tyler, Alyx, Anthony and I. Jessie made burritos. Doug made his famous cheese dip. Val made her yummy chocolate cake. We brought Taco Tico tacos! Woo! Woo!

Here are the pics: pics

2005 Family Pic

Well, here we are. It ain't great, but its done and everyone atleast has their eyes open and actually looking at the camera. Actually considering we just used the timer on the camera its not so bad...

2005 Christmas Card

I can't remember a year when Christmas cards have gone out as late as these will... but atleast they are going out and atleast they are not store bought. I'm a snob, what can I say. Actually, its just that I can never find a premade card that 'fits'... so, anyway, we debated between picture and alyx drawing something and all of us drawing something together and anthony drawing something. Welll, noone ever drew anything thing so I decided we were taking a pic tonight and getting them done. So, while I was going through the photos and designing the card, Anthony had started drawing... *sigh*

But, it was actually pretty funny I thought and I could still stuff the pic inside the card. So, now its done and will go out in the mail tomorrow.

Lights!

Well, here's the house. I'll try to get pics of the whole street later... as always, click the pic for a larger version. Btw, thanks John for clearing up the pic for me!!!


Here is our cul-de-sac... the perspective is a bit off, but, oh well... the image is best viewed larger. Bah! I just checked and you can't see crap in that picture. Well, actually, I guess all you can see is crap. I'll post the individual pics later so you can see how outta control a couple of my neighbors are.

Busy today. Update tomorrow.

Alyx's Tree

Oh my... Christmas is almost here and I am so unprepared this year. Typically, I am 95% done with my Christmas prep by Thanksgiving. You know, decorations up and done Thanksgiving night, Christmas cards made and ready to be mailed Dec. 1, presents made, presents bought. Not this year... I've bought a few gifts for Alyx, the Christmas decorating is less than half done. I've got most of the outdoor decorating done and the tree in the living room is up and half decorated. I don't know where my head has been this year, but its surely not been in the details. About all that I have actually finished this year is Alyx's tree in his room, which isn't really me finishing anything other than getting his things out of the attic and setting it up. He did all the decorating and he is so proud. So, this is all I'm going to post today and I'm gonna take the server downtime and try to get some things done so maybe I will have more pics to post next Tuesday. See ya!

For John.

Um. Ow. Ow. Ow. Did I mention, ow?

Not as bad as my whining suggested huh...


PS~John from Warcraft, not Raina's John ;)

The roof is on fire...

Around 3:30 am the Friday after Thanksgiving, the house behind us burned down (the first picture is taken from our back porch). We were still in Texas when it happened thank goodness. I don't think I'd care to have witnessed it. Although, our next door neighbor (his yard is to the right of ours in the above pic) was home and heard and saw nothing. He didn't even know about it until I pointed it out to him.

We still don't know what caused the fire, but apparently there was a problem with 911 and a cell phone. The people got out and used their cell phone to call 911. The call was routed to the OKC 911 service instead of Moore's service because the cell phone bill went to an OKC address. According to the local TV station, the fire department was delayed by 5-6 minutes due to the misrouting - enough time for the entire home to be destroyed. Its rather sad that the fire hydrant is located in the front yard. So close...