A Christmas Eve Tradition

Is is just me, or did Christmas come and go in about 3.4 seconds? Thanksgiving until now has seriously flown by in an instant.  About 2 months ago, Jordan's momma made our annual reservation at Maggiano's in Northpark for Christmas Eve dinner.  We went to Northpark a couple hours early to window shop and admire all of the beautiful gifts available for purchase. Normally, Jordan's Dad makes his purchase for the Mrs., but this year I'm pretty sure Jordan snuck away for one last gift (but I'm not complaining!)
Last year was special- but this year was EXtra special.. Patrick and Kat got to tag along with the Massey clan for some delicious grub at (probably) my favorite restaurant.

I Believe..do you ;)

I think Big Massey gives Little Massey a run for his money.  It is clear where the looks come from.

Christmas Kisses from my Sweet!

Waiting patiently for our table before dins.  This woman makes my heart smile.

Roy and Bree

Kat and myself in between making the difficult decision on what to order

Take three of this one.. they were cracking me up.

 Sister-in-Law and myself

Patrick and his sweetie

It was confirmed that Patrick is 6'4".  John-Evan (24 yo brother) is 6'5", and Sam (13 yo brother) is close to passing me by at 5'3".  I am just fine at my 5'5".

After dinner we went back to Bree and Roy's to watch Christmas movies in our PJs and fall asleep, excited for Christmas morning to come!  Patrick and Kat stayed the night as well, so they would be able to celebrate this holiday with us, too.
Libby (Jordan's parents' dog..and one of Britt's pups! Hard to believe that!) and Patrick made quite the bond.

I find it out of character to have absolutely no pictures from Christmas morning- and I'm really sad for that.  Boo..We had a beautiful Christmas with so much to be thankful for.  After a somewhat lazy morning, Bree and Roy headed to see Mr. M and MeMe while JBree met her in-laws for Christmas dinner, and Jordan and I headed to Austin to spend a day with my family (again..no pictures.) 

I hope you all had a blessed holiday- remembering what this celebration is truly about- Jesus Christ, The Son, that died for us have our sins washed clean. 

Merry Massey's 2010

Special Thanks to Andrea of Slightly Askew Designs for making our cards extra special this year :)

Merry Christmas, Sweet Friends!

Santa Party (Baby!)

This weekend Jordan and I celebrated Miss Ashley's 27th birthday! What is a party in December without Santa?  Santa made an appearance in more ways than one on Saturday night- it was neat to see everyone's depiction of the man in the big red suit.  

The hostess with the mostess, and Birthday Girl- dressed to impress in her custom tutu (yes, thats right folks, I said tutu!)  Miss Candy Cane herself.  Me>  I was the classic Mrs. Claus.  Like the outfit?  We threw it together last minute.  By 'we' I mean Jordan.  He is the crafty can-you-sew-my-button-on or iron-my-slacks kind of husband.  Like the perfectionist he is, he strategically placed the white boa fluff on my (cheeeeaappp) red dress.  He does the laundry, too- I've never washed the sheets to our bed on my own.  :)

Happy to call her my friend!

There is the man of the hour- and his mistress ;)  Ahhh, Jarrett.  You never cease to amaze me.

My newest precious friend-sweet Jacqueline.  She is just a stunning pregnant woman.

Jacqueline made Ashley's beautiful cake. She took some cake decorating classes and now is an absolute pro.  It tasted just as wonderful as it looked, too.

Ashley shared her night with two other birthday girls- Heather (E.L.F.) and Jordan (Tacky Sweater Helper)

My less than festive husband.  He placed all his creativity in my outfit, I guess..

The birthday girls and myself

Jordan was super tickled by something..  makes me tickled to look at this picture- tehe!

Long John Santa, and Mrs. (Homemaker) Claus.  Phillip and Jenna are SO CUTE!!

Ashely, her newly graduated brother- Zak, and meeeee.  Zak literally graduated college on Friday and made it to Dallas to celebrate his sister on Saturday night.  Sweet brother!

Zak brought his precious (new) girlfriend Chara.  Really happy she chose him ;)

Jordan and I had a blasty, blast celebrating with these girls for their birthday(s).  I have almost lost my eyes in this picture, I'm cheesing so hard!

As a Bonus- Sunday was the Fort Christmas.  I was less than successful in taking my usual amount of photo-ops, but snapped a few here and there.

Cousin Jordan and Jackson- the most precious picture of the day!

 The crowd of Fort's (and then some) coming together to celebrate the Season

 Me and J- very festive in our red I might add.  I guess I didn't realize that we matched that well :)

3 days to Christmas!  It is going to be a fantastic one, for sure.  Patrick will be waking up Christmas morning with Jordan and I at the Massey's.  I'm excited to share the married traditions Jordan and I have created these past 5 years. 

'Tis the Season for Supper Club

The past weekend Jordan and I celebrated the Christmas season with a visit to the North Pole.  Our Supper Club bundled up in warm parkas and entered a winter wonderland created with TWO MILLION pounds of ice, well kept at a wintry 9 degrees. Okay, not quite a winter wonderland, but the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan Resort is about as close as we will get here in a place where Mother Nature cannot make up her mind (It is a warm 78 degrees today and said to be in the 40s by Friday- in other words, a head cold waiting to emerge.)

I've just realized I have not officially introduced our Supper Club friends :)
Here are the Lallaways (The engaged A.Lally and J.Dunaway)- ready and waiting to brace the cold!

 The Tapella's- keeping that baby 'T' warm in the stylish blue puff.

The Cabrera's- with a red noses already! 

Charlie and the rest of the Peanuts characters were the inspiration for this year's exhibit.  Solid ICE!  Very cool.

 SNOOPY

 The Ladies- love them and wouldn't have chosen a better group to share bread with.

 Ashley and myself trying to keep warm..hadn't quite lost the feeling in my fingers yet

 Silly Massey's

The SLIDE!  Jordan had a break in control and almost came down on his belly

 My favorite slide (picture) from the evening.  She was quite the conservative slider.

The non-sliders.  Nine West (and their beautiful boots) prevented my opportunity to slide- the ICE! people wouldn't let me slide down. :(  Sweet Jacqueline stayed behind with me to watch everyone else slide down.

 Charlie and Linus were nice enough to pose in a picture with us

 Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree- an ICE-y Christmas tree ;)

Rule #1:  Do NOT lick the ICE.

 Un-thawing after turning in our parkas and ready for a warm dinner.

I'm sad I didn't pull out my camera during the rest of our visit to the Gaylord and the1.5 million lights adorning the huge atrium.  We ended up keeping to casual and eating at the Sports Bar there so we could catch the Cowboys and Kitna play the Eagles.  Another perfect time with our Supper Club.  Everytime we get in the car to drive home- the comment 'I really love our supper club friends' comes out of both of our mouths at least once :)

We really love our supper club friends.

Its Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Saturday, after almost a week of that box sitting in the corner of the family room, my sweet man and myself put up our tree, and so began my obssession with the decorating of my house.  This is a little later than my preference, but I've decided I'm fine with it-and I'm lucky to have it finshed, for the most part, with all that we have going on. 

Jordan stringing the lights on the tree.  We opted for the cheaper tree and got one without the lights.  I understand the ease of the pre-lit tree, but-I always end up putting MORE lights on my pre-lit anyway, so it didn't seem like it was much more work.  Or..maybe, just MAY-be it is because I was standing back watching Jordan put the lights on and set up the tree while I took pictures. Who knows.  We added 1500 lights to our tree.  Overkill?  Nope.  Never.  I would have liked some more but Jordan vetoed.

My completed mantel.  It almost got the best of me- but I won.  I think my manicure would say different, though.

My Treeeeeee!  I'm a proud mother of my new 7 1/2 footer.

Bree made a visit to help re-vamp my door wreath- didn't she do an amazing job!??  Love it!! Thanks Super MOL :)

All these were from my iPhone cam- my camera ran out of batteries- and I've been too focused on shopping for family/Jordan/decor that I forgot and remembered and forgot again on three occasions yesterday! Owell- these will do :)