Buchanans/Andersons in Fort Worth ~ some longer than others...

On Friday, the 19th, Julie and Janie (Dave's sister and mom) came in town. It was SUCH a treat and I know it meant the world to Dave to see them so close to Christmas ~ especially since this is the first time he would be away over the holidays.

We had a great time!! Lots of shopping and eating! We started off at Southlake Town Square after they landed. Mom came with us and we had a yummy dinner at Mi Cocina and then walked around checking out everything. We of course got a Starbucks and everyone was excited about their new 'short' size! (Thank you Jenn for telling me about those). If you haven't seen them, they are perfect for just a mini coffee morning or night...8 oz compared to the tall which has 12 oz. The cups are too cute!

Here is Julie and Dave...pregnant shot. ;-) Sweet Julie is due February 18th with Carter...so not far! In fact, this was the last weekend she was supposed to travel! We are SO excited for him to get here! She is such a cute pregnant woman as you can tell. She has only gained weight in her tummy and hardly any of that! I hope I am that lucky when the time comes!

So the Town Square must be where the high school kids like to hang out because we saw lots of them making out! It was kind of awkward to walk by...so what did we do? No! Not make out ourselves, but rather pretend for a funny photo op!

Here is a more appropriate, Dave and Kristen style pic. ;-)

The next day we got up early and headed to DSW (a Buchanan favorite!). We were very lucky with what we found there. We found everything from driving shoes (for the boys) to snake skin flats to black shoes in every style. We left very happy! Thank you so much Janie!!

Then, we met everyone including Mom and Marianne for lunch at the Lunch Box. It is one of our favorite spots! They have the best chicken salad EVER ~ even Janie, who doesn't care for chicken salad loves it. We had a great long lunch where we solved all of the world's problems as usual. ;-)

We continued to shop until we could barely walk anymore! Dave bailed early to catch the KU game. We found all sorts of goodies including Christmas gifts for each other. ;-) Again, thank you so much Janie for treating us to jewelry, shoes, etc! It was a wonderful day which included a little downtime at McKinley's for cookies and catching up (always my favorite times).

We met back up with the boys (being Dave, Dan and Aaron) for dinner at Ocean Rock. It was delicious and fun for the guys to catch up with Janie and Julie (which they have so much fun doing). They value Janie and Julie's opinions immensely on everything from houses to clothes to women. Then we got more coffee and drove around to view Christmas lights. Dave and I both LOVE looking at Christmas lights. You all know - there are some that are awesome, some that are great and some that make you just wonder. We cracked up looking at lights! A great cap to the evening.

On Sunday, we went to Church and lunch with Mom, Terry and Marianne. It was fun to UCC all decorated for Christmas. I hadn't been back since our wedding, so it brought back fond memories for all of us. ;-) Then, surprise appearance by Van and Brett! (Dave's dad and brother). Brett is moving down here and so they decided to bring a load. It was so funny because they showed up and then after 30-45 minutes of catching up, they said, alright, back on the road...and they left for Wichita! It was definitely too short of a visit, but again, special for David to see more family before Christmas.

Janie and Julie took off that night on a late flight back to Wichita. It was sad to see them all go! Mom kept trying to talk all of them into staying and having Jerry and Grayson drive down. Maybe some year we can work that out. But for now, we SO appreciated the visit! The holidays are so special and make us all long for family. It was a blessing to have those desires fulfilled and we look forward to the next visit!! Thank you all for coming down!

Curative Christmas Party

Doing a little catch up here...on Thursday, the 19th, we had our work Christmas party. We decided to break things down into teams ~ so Curative (my dept) celebrated separately and we had a blast!

Trevor, one of our agents, came up with the idea that we would draw names and then at our weekly meeting, each person would bring the outfit that their person was supposed to wear to the dinner at Cafe Aspen.

Here is Jenae and I. Jenae got a fancy hat to wear (with real divinity and fruitcake!) and I had a bedazzled number. Jenae drew me ~ not cool!

I had to wear the dress you see above, clip on earrings, red velvet scrunchie with white fur, jingle bell necklace and the best part: socks with individual slots for each toe. It was creepy ~ Dave was not liking it. ;-)

Trevor, Danielle and Caroline. I drew Danielle and I found a stunning red skirt suit at Goodwill with this fabulous blouse ~ all for $11.00! I didn't want her to look too good, so I got an elf's hat, earrings and a jingle bell necklace also. She was a great sport!

Here is Raley and she is over the entire Title Department. She had a beautiful t-shirt that lit up, snowflake earrings and a lovely tiara.

Here is most of our team. We had a hilarious night ~ laughed a lot! Thanks so much you all for making work such a fun place to be!

Christmas Questions

Okay, so I swiped this questionairre from Elizabeth...but thought it was a fun post!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I prefer wrapped, but it doesn't always work out that way.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real!
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible after Thanksgiving!
4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? My dad makes a really yummy eggnog recipe - not sure I have tried anything else.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably a Nintendo or Mall Madness. (wow, I can't believe I remembered that)
7. Hardest person to buy for? David, because he doesn't want much.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Marianne, we have the same taste.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No and I want some badly!
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I am doing them this year for the first time...still need to be addressed, but be looking in the mail!
11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? hmm...not sure...definitely have received some random trinkets.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation/Love Actually
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? 2 weeks before?! I am horrible!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope!
15.Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pigs in a blanket on Christmas morning ~ maybe with a Poinsetta ;-)
16. Lights on the tree? Yes! Lots of white lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night.
18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? I have either been in Lubbock or Fort Worth - but I am now adding Kansas to the mix!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? hmm...Dasher, Dancer, Prancer ,Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph?! Not sure those are correct actually.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We are still acquiring decorations - but I did see a pretty star at Pottery Barn that matches our stuff...kind of waiting for the sale.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My dad is a HUGE stickler for only opening Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? It just feels crowded everywhere.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like gold and silver, sparkly!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Tenderloin, salad, rolls with mom's homemade jam.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? $$ for a new washer and dryer.

favorite shopping websites...

okay, so every morning I wake up, look at my phone and see 5-6 emails from specific shopping websites. every morning I think, 'I need to unsubscribe,' but the thought of a deal coming along too amazingly good to pass up keeps me from doing so.

so I have decided I will try to get you all hooked on them too - then I will feel better about not unsubscribing. ;-) oh and please pass along your favorite sites! my husband is going to love this!

www.hautelook.com
-Every day they have different sales from different designers - like today is Laundry.

www.shopittome.com
- Again, every day they actually provide you with items (40-100) in an email that they think you might be interested in based on the questionairre you fill out when you join their mailing list. You can choose from stores, brands, styles, etc.

www.activeendeavors.com
- They have tons of trendy brands with everything from accessories to shoes to clothes. When you enter 'shop40', you get 40% off everything NEW until midnight tonight.

www.shopstyle.com
- Shows you the items from every store so you can compare prices, get the color and style to you like!

www.singer22.com
- I love this website because it shows you what the celebrities are wearing!

www.shopbop.com
- Every brand under the sun! Enter code SNOWDAY for 20% full priced items through tonight!

www.revolveclothing.com
- 30-80% off right now!

www.replacements.com
- For those of you missing pieces from your china, silver or crystal. They have replacement pieces. From what I have seen they are usually $5-10 cheaper.

happy shopping!

holiday deco

We have started decorating for the holidays....so fun!!

Here is Dave and Dan putting up our lights:

They turned out great! Although pics don't do it justice.

Then we started work on the inside...

We got our tree this week at Lowe's. It's fun to get a tree for the first time in a new house (well new to me). We had to figure out placement, size, etc. We wanted to put it in front of our big window...but our tree was too big. So here it is in the corner - which works great because you only have decorate about 1/2 of it really well!

I keep trying to take a pic of the ornaments and lights - but our ornaments are gold and silver. I guess they just don't show up when photographed very well. We tried day and night for pics.

Here are my favorite ornaments. Do you all have favorite ornaments on your tree?

Over Thanksgiving, we were in Wichita visiting Dave's family. It was so fun because we went shopping on Friday to one of my favorite shops - Trio's. Janie, Dave's mom, got this fun Christmas tree for us because we are a little low on Christmas deco (being that this is our first together). Thanks Janie!!

I love the holidays!!

Thanksgiving Practice Round

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Dave's family in Wichita. We had SO much fun!! I must admit, I was quite nervous because everyone in Dave's family prepares a dish for the Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I have helped my mom cook before, but never have I really prepared dishes on my own without her help!

Thankfully, our friends Brooks and Maggie decided we should do a preThanksgiving dinner at their home on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It was so fun to celebrate with friends and practice our dishes!!

Dave was responsible for the turkey and I was responsible for sweet potatoes and green bean bundles. Dave did an AMAZING job! The turkey looked (and tasted) awesome! He used his dad's recipe which included stuffing it with apples, celery and onions. I think a little rosemary on the outside too! I borrowed my mom/sister's recipe for the green bean bundles and Lindsey's (bff) for the sweet potatoes. It all turned out yummy!

The results:

madrod?

Is anyone else completely weirded out by the matching of these two? Do you think they are really together?