Monday, December 22, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Brrr....well that warm weather was definitely short-lived! I'm still trying to thaw my toes from walking into work at a measly 10 degrees!!! Good Lord, what's up with this weather!?!

Tomorrow Jason and I head off to California to spend the holidays with Jason's family. I'm so excited for the break from work and enjoy some total relaxation. To be able to sleep in every morning with my man is a little piece of heaven :-) AND this also means, that for our house - CHRISTMAS COMES TODAY!!!!!!

Jason woke up to me this morning bouncing up and down on the bed - "IT'S CHRISTMAS! IT'S CHRISTMAS!". To which he responded, "How old are you?" BAH-HUMBUG! "I'm 30 and I want to open presents!!!!!" But I have to wait till after he gets home from work tonight before the festivities can begin. I'm pumped.

Ok and speaking of Christmas. SO yesterday Jason and I were teaching our little 3rd & 4th graders at Sunday School and I asked the class whether they had finished their Christmas shopping yet. And one little girls asks me how many gifts are under our tree? Then our class helper, who happens to be one of the dad's of a boy in our class pipes up and says, "Well Santa hasn't brought our gifts yet". I'm sorry WHAT? Excuse me, but isn't 3rd & 4th graders a bit old to still believe in Santa!!?? Dude, do you want your son to be ridiculed at school for still believing in Santa at that age? At this age, most kids are past the point of just receiving gifts and are learning what it means to GIVE and save their allowance to buy gifts for others. As they say in the south, I wanted to have a little 'Come To Jesus' with that father right then and there.

Well what do you guys think? I know when I was little I got gifts from Santa, but I was probably 5 or 6 when I was past that make-believe stage. So what do you think is an appropriate age for kids to learn the truth?

Friday, December 19, 2008

A tan for Christmas anyone?

I asked my friend Brooke if she wanted to join me on the roof of our building to try and get a tan for Christmas! ha!!

I kid you not folks - its 73 degrees right now!!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Sorry for the lack of updates folks, to say I've been overwhelmed is pretty much an understatement. There has been so much to do and still more to prepare for as we get ready to head to CA next week and I'm usually so wiped at the end of the work day that I have ZERO motivation to get off the couch and work on my to-do list.

But last night as I was lounging on the couch relaxing and chatting with a friend of ours, I see that Jason is calling me from work. I answer the phone and he asks me if I recognize the strange new gift that showed up under the Christmas tree?? What Gift? OH! That gift! Huh, that's strange. So I look more closely and am quite excited to see that its addressed to "My Babydoll". Yea, that would be me!! Then after a few more minutes, something starts to seem a bit familiar. Wait a second. That gift is wrapped in a very familiar shape. So I ask him, "Honey, that isn't the box of wall shelves we bought for the guest bathroom is it?" Jason responds, "huh, what? I gotta go." ......"Honey? Did you or did you not wrap up the wall shelves we've had for over a year and put it under the tree?" Then he responds again, "Baby, I gotta go - can't talk right now!"

Hmmm.....Then I remember a conversation we had a couple days ago where he said that he felt bad because there were more gifts under the tree for him than he got for me. Well I don't care about that, I like giving him gifts. I'm not keeping score. So here's my thinking, I'm a bit suspicious that my loving husband is pulling a "Tom Kelly" move and beginning to wrap up items from around the house to give to me. If that's the case, he's in some serious trouble folks.

Pray for him people, this could get ugly ;-)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tis' The Season!

Wow is this time of year a busy season or what?! Thankfully I'm able to start checking off some of the holiday to-do's, so I can kick back and enjoy it.

I sent off my family's Christmas gifts in the mail yesterday, and all my Christmas cards are ready to be mailed out. All that's left to do is finish shopping for Jason and do a little baking for a couple upcoming holiday parties. Then the week of Christmas I work only on Monday, pack for our trip to California and then I'm off for 13 days straight - hallelujah!!

But the parties are just beginning and its starting to get crazy. Last Saturday was my friend Brooke's 26th birthday, so a bunch of her friends got together for pizza in Nashville to celebrate. Thought you might enjoy a couple pics from the evening:
These are my girls from the office, I seriously don't know what I would do without them :-)
(Left to right: Kacie, Brooke, myself and Angela)
Angela is just the sweetest most genuine person and I've loved working with her this year. These girls are awesome because our friendships go beyond the office and we often like to hang out and see movies together or grab dinner.

Here's a couple pics from our Thanksgiving party, but I will say that I had been waiting to receive more pictures from Matt, but he's just been too busy. So they're not the greatest, but you get the idea :-)
These are the majority of our small group ladies - left to right: Kendall is in the yellow sweater and has been coming for about two months now. Then I'm to the right of Kendall. And to my right is Tabby in the white shirt, she is a doll and reminds me a lot of my sister Kris. To the right is Amy Walter, a very dear friend to me. To her right is Melanie Sutton, our Children's Director at Harpeth Community Church. Then Ida is to the right of Melanie, she's also new and has been coming for a couple months now. And finally Alicia, who is also a very dear friend of mine and I love to pieces :-) These girls are all huge blessings and answers to my prayers.Here's another shot of dinner at our house on Thanksgiving. You can see we had the votive screens in the dining room lit and behind Melanie at the head of the table was another table set up in the living room where the guys sat. In this picture you can see Jason on the right and then Melanie's husband Ryan in the doorway. Best food evah!

This Friday is our company Christmas party at Mortons Steakhouse, so I'll be bringing my camera to that to grab some pics and next week it's our Small Group Christmas Party at Ryan & Melanie's house, which I also hope to get pics of!!! So with all this partying, what's a girl to do??!! I KNOW - Shopping!!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Flat On My Face

So yesterday I'm leaving my parking garage heading into the office to start the day, when as I step off the elevator I COMPLETELY trip and fall flat on my face! And no, not graceful-stumble-catch-myself-falling, not wobble-squat-to-my-knees-and-hands....we're talking face to floor splayed out flat. I have bruised knee caps, ribs, lower back and butt. I feel like I was in a car accident and suffer from body-lash. Oh! And here's the best part!! Of course some Deirks Bently look-a-like is standing in the lobby as I smack into the floor and tries to immediately starts yanking me up by the elbow before I even understood what's happened. Now not only am I in pain, but red from embarrassment. And yes to prolong the agony, he walked half a block by my side and then told me to be careful as he took off - "YEAH THANKS!! HOPE I NEVER HAVE TO FACE YOU AGAIN!!"

I think that's the first time I've ever done that in public. Fortunately I had a physical therapy appointment for my back anyway that afternoon and my therapist hooked me up to one of those electric-shock treatment thingys with a warm heating pad...that was a piece of heaven right there.

Alright your turn - have you ever had a nasty & embarrassing fall in public before??

Monday, December 01, 2008

Well Jingle My Bells It's Christmas Time!

Christmas has got to be my favorite holiday hands down! And nothing brings home the reality of the Christmas season than bringing home a real tree. Last Saturday we met up with our friends Matt & Amy at Starbucks before heading out to Smyrna to pick out our trees. We have only been able to find Noble Fir trees carried out at this one particular lot, where a nursery trucks them in from the West Coast. Call us tree snobs, but they are by far the prettiest trees to decorate!! It was Matt & Amy's first real tree together and we were so excited to be a part of picking one out with them. We even got some great shots of us with our trees before loading them up in the truck!
Here's Jason with his coffee before heading out into the cold rainy weather to pick out our tree!! You would think we were back in Seattle with how gray it was outside.
Here's Amy using a tree for shelter from the rain as Matt grabbed her coat.
The Walter's first real Christmas tree!
And we are so thrilled with the 7 foot beauty we picked out! This picture just might be a contender for the Christmas card this year :-)

After we dropped Matt & Amy's tree off, we headed back home for our own Keith family tradition of watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and decorating the house. But this year, we did something a little new and Jason spent a few hours outside putting red lights on the roof of the house. I'll have to get a picture to show y'all how cute it turned out!

Even our cat Banks gets so excited at Christmas time, because her favorite spot is nestled up in the white tree skirt under the white lights. She sat staring at the tree patiently waiting all day, till it was completely decorated before crawling under its limbs and snoozing away. Just too cute for words. (I know family that you're rolling your eyes right now!)
Hopefully, I'll have some pictures up soon of the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted at our house with our small group friends. Plus, Jason and I spent Thanksgiving day with Matt & Amy's family out in Franklin and it was a great time. So I should get pics from that day soon as well!!
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays everyone!!!