Ornament Decoration Contest

My orthodontist office is having an ornament decorating contest. The people in that office are really cool and extremely nice starting with my orthodontist, Dr. Ray.

Their office is always so nicely decorated, regardless of the occasion or holiday. For the Christmas holidays they gave out glass ornaments to the patients to decorate for a contest they are having.

Now let me back up a little and just explain something. Since I started coming to their office, they've been having all sorts of contest...from guess how many balloons are in the jar to how many candies are in the jar to the funniest yet...name the noses of the staff. For this one all the staff had an imprint of their noses made with the plaster used to make an impression of your teeth when you first start treatment there. This was pretty fun...I think I got 2 wrong.

Anyways, where I'm getting to is that I've NEVER won a single contest. Maybe it's because I'm always guessing the same number of items, 222, which happens to include my favorite number, 22. So when I saw this whole ornament contest going on, I thought this is my chance to win something - maybe.

I'm not very artsy but can get very creative with a little help especially from a certain store named Hobby Lobby. I originally thought about making my ornament all Longhorn decked out but quickly found out that the only way to get stickers and confetti would be to order them from the Co-op and have them shipped to my house - which unfortunately would not get here in time to turn in the ornament by the deadline of December 15th, so I decided to head out to the local Hobby Lobby and try my artistic luck.

Below as you can see are the results of my decorating. I must say so myself, I think the darn ornament turned out pretty cute. In fact when I went on Tuesday for my monthly appointment and turned it in, I received a lot of compliments. I did get a chance to look at the other ornaments that were turned in - I'll give them all credit...pretty cute, but by far, I thought mine was the most creative and decorative.

Anyway, the judging is to take place on Monday, December 15th by someone that does not work at the office so that the contest can be impartial.

I believe they will be giving out 1st, 2nd & 3rd place - and I'm hoping I can one of the 3.

Christmas on the Square 2008

Last night we went out to downtown to the annual Christmas on the Square. Frank, Sydney and I along with Rebecca, Dathan and Tyler braced the freezing temperatures of like 48 degrees to walk downtown and see the arts and crafts displays, the Christmas tree and enjoy some goodies.

The first thing we hit upon arrival was the "snow mountain" with real snow that had been set up. Tyler unfortunately could not ride because of his arm and well I ended up going down the slide myself since I didn't realize you could come back down as I was going up to take Sydney. I must say, it was a ton of fun....that thing really went fast....really considering my 100+ pounds going down it.

There wasn't very many food vendors like in years past, but they still had my favorite - funnel cakes. I purchased one to share amongst all of us....they were pretty big. I've attached pictures of the kids muching on the very greasy but oh so yummy funnel cake. I swear it was so good they were even trying to pick up the crumbs.

We next went to watch some man doing ice sculptures. It was really cool how he made them but you could tell the poor man was freezing his cajones off as well. At this point, Tyler made it known he had to use the potty. We decided to go hunting for the nearest one when Frank realized Sydney had a little boo boo herself and decided he would head home with her. :) I was very disappointed and although I kind of did not want to stay there alone with 3 very hyperactive kiddos - I figured they were very excited to see the tree lighting and Santa that I could not return them home without that.

We stuck around, found the potty for Tyler and then came back to the square part where there was a local school choir singing some Christmas carols. We sat there long enough to see Santa come on the stage and do the countdown for the tree lighting.

This was so cool. I had no clue they did fireworks and the kids really enjoyed that. It was really a sight to see.

By the time this was done - we were all so frozen over that I called Frank to come pick us up. Seriously, it must have taken me well over 45 minutes to de-thaw - no joke.

Christmas 2008 Pictures

So last week on Thanksgiving day, I decided we'd go out to the mall and take some pictures for Christmas cards.

I convinced my niece, Ruth, to go along for the ride as our photographer. According to her, and she will brag, she "captures the essence of people."

I must say she did a good job - well, no really she did a good job, but I have to give myself credit too. In the pics were I'm not in them, I am the one snapping the pic.

Anyway, won't you believe that we couldn't go 30 minutes without Ms. Sydney throwing 2 fits in between - I've attached some pictures of her all upset.

I went and made 2 Christmas cards that I think turned out OK for the first time doing this. Below are some of the pictures we took - aren't we all such superstars? :)

The boys in the pictures, by the way, are my nephews - Dathan & Tyler and my niece, Rebecca.

The Eagles!

This past weekend, my two sisters and I went to see the Eagles at the American Airlines Center. It was kind of a last minute thing that they went but either way, I do believe they had a very good time. I must admit though, I had a BLAST. I so totally belong in a different era - knew almost every song except maybe 3 or 4.

We were sitting basically in the nosebleed section (literally in the 2nd to the last row from the very top). Needless to say, if you suffered from a medical condition, being up there might not have been good for the heart.

During the break we ended up going down a little closer thanks to a couple that changed seats who were sitting where Eva had bought her tickets.

To sum up a great concert....no opening show (which really tells you what a great band they are) and they played a total of 30 songs for 3 hours with about a 15 minute break, if at that.

I surely would recommend anyone to go watch them live - whatever money spent will be worth every penny.

Definitely a night to remember!