A Very Merry Christmas - Part 2

Christmas Eve, after having Christmas with Joey's family we went to Snyder. Christmas morning Mom and Dad, Zach and Alison, Gran, Joey and I all got up for Christmas with each other. Then we had the traditional breakfast casserole for Christmas morning breakfast. After cleaning up and packing up our Christmas, we got ready and went to Gran's house. By that time all the family had made it to Gran's house. We all enjoyed a brunch buffet of sausage balls, dips, and sweets. Then we had our Christmas with the whole family. It was a lot of fun especially with the two 8 month olds, Abbye and Kenna. As we cleaned up, the men began to cook the steaks that we had for Christmas dinner. Steaks, baked potatoes, green beans, salad, and bread made for our delicious Christmas dinner with all kinds of pies for dessert.

Slideshow of Christmas Day in Snyder

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A Very Merry Christmas - Part 1

We have had a very merry Christmas! It was wonderful to spend time with our families! We began our Christmas journeys by heading to DFW to pick up my brother and sister-in-law, Zach and Alison. It has become a tradition for us to pick them up, stop at Whataburger for some taquitos, and come to Stephenville to spend the night before going west. We loaded the car full of our suitcases and presents and their suitcases. It was so full that you could not see out the back of the car. We stopped in Abilene and my dad and mom picked up Zach and Alison, and we stayed in Abilene for Christmas Eve with Joey's family.

Christmas Eve with Joey's family was filled with fun games and good food. We also made a trip to Christmas Lane to look at lights. Then when it came time to open presents we had the traditional Christmas carolling. Everyone picks a Christmas carol to sing and we all sing them before opening presents. After we opened present Cody, Jaden, and Jaxon enjoyed playing with their new games and toys.

Here's a slideshow of Christmas Eve:

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Wii Played All Night!

Joey and I got a Wii for Christmas and we tried it out tonight. We have played all of the Wii Sports tonight! Well, Joey is doing the boxing right now while I am blogging. My arm is a little sore from beating him at bowling and golf!! :) He did beat me at tennis and baseball! It is really a lot of fun! We do not have all of our Christmas gifts put up or our Christmas decor put up, but since we just got home today that can all wait and "Wii" can play all night!!

Me bowling - I'm sure this was one of my three in a row strikes!

The scorecard - Leslye 165 Joey 118

Joey and I playing tennis together

Joey boxing

We are going to have lots of fun playing with our new Wii! Hopefully tomorrow I will stop playing long enough to put up Christmas and post some Christmas pictures!

We think we really liked it there!

Tuesday as I was recovering from the stomach bug, Joey finished up the house cleaning, cooking and packing. He was such a good nurse and we are both glad that I am feeling better!

Tuesday afternoon, we went to Ft. Worth. First we stopped by Kristi's house and had a tour of her recent remodels. Then we all three headed to Bass Hall to see Annie. It was a great show and we had a lot of fun!

Then after a quick bite to eat, we said bye to Kristi and headed to DFW to pick up Zach and Alison. It has become a tradition for us to pick them up, stop at Whataburger for some taquitos and then go to Stephenville for the night.

Then we got up Wednesday morning and went to Abilene where Mom and Dad met us to get Zach and Alison. Joey and I stayed in Abilene for Christmas with his family....the title of the next Christmas post!!

A Christmas gift...

On Friday, I got to spend the day with Leslye at school. I went with her to film the school Christmas program for the Santo Elementary School, including her Pre-K class performing Five Little Reindeer and Rudolph. They were cute in their little t-shirts they made with their feet as Rudolph's head and their hands as his antlers. They went home afterwards and we de-Christmased her room and prepared it for the winter. I painted a snow man and a polar bear on the doors out front, and she cleaned everything from top to bottom trying to get rid of the "bug" that was going around the school that week.

She also did some lesson plans and got her room ready for the first week of school when they get back.

I enjoyed helping my wife during the day. As many of you may know she has helped me at home football games in the pressbox, and I love having her helping me in my work, and she has told me several times this weekend that she was glad to have me there, too.

As I waited for the Pre-K to start, I watched my wife interacting with her students. I took several pictures with our video camera that is supposed to take still pictures, but it only kept one that I don't remember that I took, and it was of a crowd of people. I can remember several pictures that I took of her and the little ones as she interacted with them (of course, without their parents' permission, I wouldn't put them on here anyway).

I saw the look on her face as they practiced for the program before, the smile on her face as she watched her little ones perform, knowing the hard work had paid off. I watched the joy she had as she talked with the kids after the program and hugged them as they parted ways for the holiday break.

The kids really love her. Not only do they tell her often (some every day - and you should see the joy on her face as she tells me the daily stories), but you can see it in the way they look at her. Just by seeing that, you can see she is a great teacher.

More than that, though, her principal loves her, too. I can tell by the things I hear and by the way she interacts with her when I have been at school - she knows Leslye is a great teacher, too.
This Christmas, Les and I decided the new car, the new house and the new-to-us car were going to serve as great presents for each other. We are going to fill each other's stockings tomorrow, but I believe I got what I wanted.

I saw my wife in her element. I saw my wife and the way people interact with her, and the way they love her. I saw my wife truly loving her job, and her job really loving her. That made me very proud... and that was a great Christmas gift for me.

A Chocolate Factory

Lately, I have felt a little like Lucy and Ethel wrapping candies! As you can see from my previous post, I have been enjoying Christmas goodies cooking! As I was bagging up 30 plus bags of chocolate covered pretzels for everyone at school, I thought of this episode of Lucy! Those of you that were in the Kappa Lucy show remember the reference to this episode in the show and the night of practice that we watched this episode for motivation! That was were I was first introduced to this funny episode!



Thankfully, my wrapping of chocolate went better than Lucy and Ethel! I got all of my pretzels wrapped in cute green bags with red and white polka dots. I also found something else to dip in chocolate - peppermint sticks! It was actually Joey's idea. I thought they were pretty and we all know anything dipped in chocolate is good!

Cute Gift!

Today was our school class Christmas parties! Since I have a morning and afternoon class, then I have 2 parties. If you are a teacher or have ever been to a school party, you know that sometimes they can be a little crazy. I was very fortunate today that I had 2 calm parties and lots of helpful parents. I also had many kind students and parents that gave me a Christmas present. I got lots of treats to eat, lotions, candle, jewelry, etc. One of the cutest and most creative gifts I got was this decorated paint can.

The can is an empty paint can from a paint store, covered with scrapbook paper. There is a special kind of scrapbook glue that you have to use. (I don't remember what it is called, but I am going to ask again.) 2 of the moms in my class made these together and then filled them with goodies.

The also made one for the principal and one for my assistant. They were also so cute that I had to take a picture of them too! The mom that made them said that she has made them to take to baby showers before and filled it with baby lotion, small toys, etc. I thought that was such a great idea! I know that so many of you are very creative and crafty, so I had to share the idea with you!

Yummy Yummy...Christmas Cooking!

This weekend my mom and dad came and we all did some Christmas cooking! Too bad Joey was gone on a trip for basketball and didn't get to taste anything! We made chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate covered peanuts, hot candy (cinnamon candy), and red velvet cake balls.

Dad and I are finishing off the red velvet cake balls.

The hot candy recipe and one of four batches of hot candy cooling.

I made the red velvet cake balls last year and they were a big hit! The real name for them is Pandora's Box. I guess since you can not really tell what is inside is why they are really called Pandora's Box, and that it is a yummy surprise when you bite into one. Several people have asked how to make them so here it is:

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Ingredients:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

1 can of buttercream icing

almond bark (white or chocolate)

Prepare and bake one box of red velvet cake. Let the cake cool, cut it into pieces, and crumble in a bowl. Using a mixer add a can of buttercream icing until cake and icing is mixed well. Refrigerate cake and icing mixture overnight or if rushed for a few hours. Roll mixture into balls, dip in almond bark, and lay out to harden on wax paper.

This is what the red velvet cake balls look like after refrigerating.

We did some white and chocolate almond bark. When you dip them out it is easier to use a slotted spoon. We also tried to lay them on the wire rack to harden so the extra would drip off and not gather around the ball. It looked like it was going to work and make them look much prettier, but when it came time to pick them up they were stuck to the rack.

We made so much that mom took some home and I kept some here. It was fun to do it together! We had only one kitchen to clean up and lots of goodies!!

LCU Praise Choir

Last night the LCU Praise Choir had a concert here in Stephenville. I enjoyed getting to help with the meal before the concert and the refreshments afterwards. I also really enjoyed the concert! They did a great job! I was in the Praise Chorus for my freshman year, so at the end of the concert I went up and sang The Lord Bless You And Keep You with the choir. I am truly thankful for LCU and the friends that I made while I was there. Just seeing the LCU students made me think of the wonderful memories that I have from my time at LCU!

A Week of Christmas Parties

Tis the season for Christmas parties! We began our week with our Bible class caroling and Christmas party on Sunday night. Then Monday night the ladies at church had a Christmas party. Last night, we hosted our first Christmas party at our house. We had Joey's assistant, student workers, and significant others for a Sports Information Office Christmas Party. There were 10 of us, and we all enjoyed sour cream beef enchiladas, rice, beans, and chips and dips. I also made a great punch that we had with our appetizers of chips and dips. It had red and green frozen grapes floating in it and was so pretty that I had to take a picture.

The chips and dips and punch

A close up of the punch

Then for dessert we had cheesecake and candy cane cheesecake. If you are a fan of cheesecake you should try the candy cane cheesecake recipe on the back of the Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses. One of my favorite things about this time of the year is all the times we get to spend with friends and family. I also enjoy getting to cook all the yummy candies, cookies, and other yummies - I'm looking forward to doing that this weekend!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend Joey had a weekend off from any Tarleton sporting event thanks to finals and dead week! He traded in Memorial Stadium and Wisdom Gym for a day of high school playoff football games at Texas Stadium.

We got up Saturday morning and drove to Dallas to meet Jason, Jami, Jaden and Jaxon. Joey and Jason headed to Texas Stadium while Jami, the boys and I enjoyed some Christmas fun and a little shopping! We went to Grapevine for most of our Christmas fun! It truly is the Christmas Capital of Texas! One of the highlights was a carriage ride around downtown Grapevine! I had never been on a carriage ride before so it was a new fun thing for me to do! This is the four of us on the carriage ride!
Joey also had a great time spending a day at Texas Stadium for the last time! We spent the night in Dallas and got up Sunday morning and drove to Arlington with Jason, Jami, Jaden, and Jaxon to go to church and then we went to lunch before heading our separate ways.

We all had a great time! Thanks to Jami for the pictures - I took them off of her blog!

We had a fire at our house....

thank goodness of course, I started it in the fireplace. And it was beautiful and warm. We took the opportunity to fire it up and watch it burn (though actually we are cooking and cleaning, so maybe later we can relax a bit and watch it).


As seen in a previous post, we have been decorating for Christmas, and we got most of it done last weekend, minus the outdoor lights. On Monday, I put up what I didn't get up Sunday except for the strings on two of the ridges on the roof. Today when I got home from work, I did finished it out, and we think the house turned out pretty.


I don't know that we will say we are completely done, because it is always fun to buy and add more, but I think our wallets say "enough" for this year.

We hope you enjoy the sights from 688 Bluebonnet... we sure do!

Star light... star bright...

This evening, as I was putting up Christmas lights on the house (yes, I'm almost done) I looked to the Southwest and remembered an email I received earlier today from our science department.

As you can see in the picture I took to the right, Venus and Jupiter were very closely aligned with the moon this evening. It was a beautiful sight to see three of God's creations right there together. And later, I saw the two planets even closer to each other.

I have always enjoyed looking up at the sky at night, trying to count the stars, gazing at the moon trying to find its face, etc. I have also been known for using silly lines about the night sky, such as "Your dad must be rich because he bought two stars and gave them to you for your eyes" - or something just as cheesy.

All joking aside, stars are brilliant sources of light that stands out in the darkness. Their beauty is unsurpassed, and I guess I have always been struck by their majesty.

Here's to hoping the people I come in contact with see me as a star - not one with a big name or someone famous, but one who stands out in the darkness of the world and one who reflects the beauty and majesty of the God I serve.