from MY family to yours, Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve night with my immediate family... 
     well it's just the best!

This was our first Christmas with my niece's twin boys Conner and Brady - they'll be 8 months old on the 26th and they were a nice addition to the Carver Christmas fun!

don't you just wanna smooch those sweet little faces?!

Conner hung out with his daddy during the gift opening

 And Brady was with mommy 

My oldest nephew Caleb is stationed at Fort Bragg and last week we found out he wasn't going to get to come home for Christmas.
Boo~ 
But he surprised us all and showed up. Apparently his superior (at the last minute) said he could take a couple days off and come home. Yay! 
What a blessing!

At my parents' house we always eat first of course, then open gifts. 

I need my nieces & nephews to stop gettin so big :-( 

After gifts there's always a game or two. 

This year it was 5 Seconds and then Scattergories. Both games were fun & provided lots of laughs. 

I love my family. They're just the best! 
God is so good! 
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, too! 

I'll leave ya with just a few more ... 

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !!!

Birthday rewind Part II

My birthday was last Tuesday. I turned 37. So there's that.

I'm dreading the big four oh but there's worse things. 
Obvy.

I have a whole lot to be thankful for. 37 years of blessings. 

And this guy at the table with me - he's at the top of the things I'm thankful for list - 

 me and my man at my birthday dinner

We try to go somewhere different, somewhere kinda neat for our birthdays and anniversaries. We try to find a place we've never been. So that means we usually end up in Nashville somewhere because we don't venture down there all that often.

This year we were talking about one place but after checkin the menu online we decided it didn't quite seem like our kind of place.

So then Anthony mentioned Puckett's. It had normal Southern comfort food type stuff on the menu so I was game! 

Off we went!

We were seated in 5 minutes without a reservation. Winning.

The server recommended the Southern Fried Chicken so that's what I ordered. 
She didn't have to twist my arm.

Doesn't it look delish?! 

And just so you know, that chicken breast was almost as big as my face. And juicyyyy! 
That cajun cornbread cake - oh that was a treat it sure was. 

Anthony went with the smoked bologna sandwich. 
He said it was really good but he ate the thigh from my entree and said mine was better. 
It's only fair, right? It was MY birthday after all. ;-)  

They have a stage inside the restaurant. Phoenix Drive entertained us a while. They sounded really good! Their harmony was tight and somethin about em reminded me of Little Big Town kinda.

So anyway, me and the hub we keep our birthdays kinda low key because they're close to the holidays (his is around Thanksgiving). 

On Monday he had text me I've struck out on your birthday gift. Nobody has what I need. 5 different stores. I suck!

So I said lol don't worry about it. 

Turns out he tried to find the Chuck Taylors I've been wanting but no one had my size. Go figure. 

But I thought it was super sweet he tried so hard. And the fact HE LISTENED to what I wanted. I.e., I hadn't specifically asked for em. 

Anyway, he gave me this sweet little birthday card though and that's always a win. 

A happy birthday night for me with my favorite fella indeed. 

Blessins. Blessins for sure!!!!

Birthday rewind Part I

I realize everybody's in Christmas mode right now, but hold up a minute cuz I had a birthday last week I gotta tell ya about. 

When you work in an office, there's gonna be cake. And maybe ice cream. 
And it'll be in the conference room.

And sometimes your coworkers are gonna try to be cute with what they tell the bakery to write on your cake. 

AND I LOVED IT!!!! 

I mean, who doesn't love being called ADORBS, right? 
And the fact that the icing is polka dots and purple. . . yesssss !!! 

Oh and in an office, sometimes your office gets kinda trashed. 

And again, I LOVED IT!!!! 

So what if it took me like 5 minutes to unwrap my mouse & log in?! It's not like you're setting productivity records on your birthday anyway. 

They even taped my light switch. 
Yeah.
So I sat in the dark a few minutes. What of it?
I heard my boss was the ring leader of the mess. I'll spare ya all the pics, but just believe me when I say it was quite a sight.  

And nobody hates walking in to a nifty gifty like this pretty little thing...   

And then another... 
     Someone's feelin the love.... 

My friend Brandi is such a thoughtful gal. She even double checked with my hub about the CD before getting it. Kelly Clarkson is only just about my fave PLUS this is Christmas music. Woot woot! 
And the scarfy was so perf I wore it that night to my birthday dinner out on the town. 
More on that later. 

Brandi got this little necklace a few birthdays back for me & me being the goob I am, I tuck it away every year and bring it out ON MY BIRTHDAY. 

I usually wear it all day but this year I only wore it for the conference room cake. ;-) 

I didn't wear the tiara this year. What is wrong with me? 

My boss was out of the office that day and she asked for a pic of me because she heard my hair was extra cute that day. 
I of course obliged. 

My coworker told the boss I looked so pretty that day I should be written up for it. LOL 

Lotsa people wished me a happy birthday. I felt so loved. 

My first happy birthday text came from my nephew Cullen (whose birthday is the day before mine) and then I got one from another nephew (Kerby, the adopted one whose birthday is 11 days before mine). I got several more texts throughout the day. 

At work I opened my email to some happy birthday emails. Got em from people I used to work with, family, church friends and there was even one from my hubby's step-cousin. (thumbs up)
  
I got the happy birthday song sung to me by my oldest brother and his kiddos. 

When I got home from work I told Anthony I reallllllly had a nice birthDAY & it was mainly because people took a minute to tell me happy birthday. 

Just remembering my birthday makes me extra happy because when your birthday is so close to Christmas you kinda feel like it gets overlooked a bit in all the hustle & bustle. But this year I felt like everybody cared & wanted to make my day special. And that's cool! 

It's not about a gift. Not at all. 
Just remembering is enough for me!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Ugly Christmas Sweater Soiree 2013 

My friend Brandi is the hostess with the mostest - the one in the OCD shirt and homemade bow skirt. 
Not only does she put up 7 Christmas trees in her house, she's an excellent cook, an awesome wife & mom, a crafty McCrafterson AND always looks like she just stepped out of a fashion mag. 

In 2011 she started hosting an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party & every year it gets bigger and better. 

Well, this year Angela ramped up her game with her ensemble... she usually just wears a sweater and jeans. 
But this year... this year she ... 
welllll... I think the picture speaks for itself. Check it out. 

She even had jingle bells sewn into her skirt. 
So full of Christmas cheer she was. . .

She won the top prize. 

It was really no contest. 

Here are the big winners of the night -

L-R Alice for Best Accessories; Amy for Most Wearable in Public; Jenny for Best Sweater (best meaning worst lol); and Angela for Best Overall Look

My outfit wasn't good enough for any of the top prizes, but I was still proud of its uglyness. 

My sweater, turtleneck and pants came from Goodwill. . . aren't they precious? 

Pretty sure the pants are pajamas, but the point was to be UGLY so....

I made my hat the night before the party. 
It's made from 3 pieces of cardstock taped together. The garland and mini ornaments were from Dollar General and on the cheap. I made the star from cardstock and I made the lights from cardstock, too. I kinda wished for a strand of battery operated lights, but when ya decide to do stuff at the last minute sometimes ya gotta improvise. 

We played some games at the party, too. After all, what's a party without G A M E S?!

First up was charades/draw on the white board. The theme was Christmas songs and movies. We had some good laughs with that game. 

My team won. Of course.

Next we had to tear a Christmas tree from construction paper behind our backs without looking. 
Not.as.easy.as.it.sounds.

Katie won the prize for the best tree.

Angela did not. 

 

The next game was to decorate your tree (a person of your choosing) with only some construction paper, aluminum foil and tape. And one pair of scissors. :-/ 

Oh, and you only have 10 minutes. 

My team won - I'd like to think our aluminum foil "light strand" was the game changer. And (ahem) that just happened to be MY idea. 

Another way to win a prize was to guess how many ornaments were hangin' on this here tree. 

I actually won because I was the closest to the actual number. I was within 25. If you're curious about the number, post a comment with your guess. And don't guess 700 like my goofy husband. Good grief.

My prize was an Andy Williams Christmas CD and a bag of Hershey caramel kisses. And that didn't make me mad. ;-) Cuz those kisses happen to be my fave & who can find fault with a classic like Andy Williams?! 

Anyway it was a fun, fun, FUN night with cool ladies. Life is better with good folks like them. 

And I may or may not be already planning my 2014 outfit. hehehe 

Tossback to Thanksgiving yall...

We did Thanksgiving a bit early with my inlaws but I was coming down with what turned out to be a whopper of a sinus infection & a touch of an ear infection so I didn't shoot any pics that night.

Sorry!

And yes, I'm much better now. Thank you for asking. 
;-)

As for MY family, we did our meal on Friday night (the day after Thanksgiving) at my parents' house.

We had a great meal. And lots of laughs. 

I could write a whole lot about all the things I'm thankful for. But these folks right here - they're at the top of the list... they're the best!

This was our first Thanksgiving with these two little cuties. 

My great nephews. 

7 months old 

Brady (left) has the fuller face, Conner isn't quite as filled out 

I couldn't bear to Photoshop the food off their sweet little faces. I mean let's keep things real, right? Babies eat. Babies are messy. And we'll blink twice and these little toots will be grown. So there. Foodie faces.

Some of us older folk played Phase 10. 

I personally feel like they could make this game simpler. There are so many rules. And I'm pretty sure Anthony, my dad and I were reminded of the rules like 50 times. 

I won. 
It was pure luck.
Kerlandy did help me a little... but with this kind of card game a lot of it has to do with the cards you're dealt...  

 My brother sometimes gets passionate about the game

We Face Timed Caleb (my nephew in the Army) and Anthony pulled out the Barry Gibb impersonation... when Caleb attempted it, well... let's just say it was an epic fail. 

So I think I get my sillyness from Dad... 
pretty sure he was calling himself a unicorn here. Um... ok Dad... sure...
I actually love his silly side! 

The kiddos played some games and there was a lot of wrestling throughout the night. We all fought over the twins. 

But mostly the night was filled with laughter and love!  

So anyway... 

Hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving, too!

THE END 

Get it?  the END 

bwahahahaaaaaaaaaa