Family Pictures

Every Thanksgiving the family is all together, for as long as I can remember, we take a color coordinated picture for my grandmother's Christmas card.

The pictures are usually marginal. Good, at best. Sometimes one of the family pets gets in on the action. There are the funny faces, the half closed eyes, the year of the giant pink scunchie in the middle of the red and denim color scheme (just kidding - I think I wore a denim dress and had my hair in frend braid pigtails with a topsy-tail-twist).

This year, I snuck in a secret weapon. The the camera was focused, timer was set... the light blinked, warning of the impending clicks.

Oh yes.
ClickS.
Six of 'em.

The first set caught everyone a little off guard.

Did the camera just click 6 times?

Oh yes. It did!

It was my intention to let the shutter release several times so that I'd have more options - someone smiling a little bigger, eyes not closed or half open.

Oh, but that brother of mine. He catches on quick...

Make your own animation

Then the other boys caught on.

We all know that Thanksgiving is really about football, right?

Kidding.

Kind of.

There's nothing that says Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas like an upside down longhorn and a raspberry.

Merry Christmas, y'all! /w\

(Go ahead, play them back a few times. You know you want to!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Brie and her people at Casa Gentis!

xx

The Poppy Party is (semi)Famous!

The Party Like a Kid blog is one of my favorite resources and a stand-by inspiration. Genius JMR sent them our pictures from Poppy's baby shower and we were featured!

Here is the  Welcoming Poppy post on Party Like a Kid and here is the full poppy themed baby shower on my blog.

Paper & Pictures & Postage, Oh My!

One more thing to check off my list... The Thanksgiving cards were mailed today!

(What, you don't send Thanksgiving cards!?)

And now that the Thanksgiving cards have been sent off on their merry way, I can start thinking about CHRISTMAS cards! Woo! Around our house, Thanksgiving day is also known as the official "Christmas card picture" session. (Anyone else's family color coordinate for this yearly ritual? I voted for pink this year and was shot down.)

I go through the same Christmas card debate every year... make them, semi-home make them, buy them, design and then print them? The possibilities are endless. After the craziness of the first half of the school year, I think this year I'll be letting someone else do the hard work - the designing, the printing, blah, blah, blah.

I looked high and low and decided that I love the new designs in the holiday card collection at Shutterfly.

This card makes me smile - I love the hand doodled, casual look. If we get a great "laughing" picture I think it might be the winner.

This gorgeous card is begging for an elegant, all in white, family beach picture. Too bad I don't live on the beach. Thanksgiving in Port Aransas, anyone? If I start lobbying for it this year, I'll have 367 days to convince everyone...

Be still my heart. This one is precious. Anyone have some kids I can borrow? I don't think I can get all of the furbabies in a "joy" filled picture for this one. But, I still love it.

While I was rummaging around, debating folded or flat - card stock or photo paper - one picture or three, I got some great present ideas.

Perhaps a calendar for my grandmother? I could highlight everyone on their birthday month and fill in the rest of the year with various family pictures.

I was thinking about stealing facebook pictures to make photo books for my brother, who could use a little college reminiscence in his life right now or to chronicle my sister in law's adventures with us in Europe this summer.

I can't decide which Christmas card I'm going to order... I think I'll wait to see how our pictures turn out! Until then, I'm going to keep drooling over the abundance of options.

Bloggers, Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards just for you!  Let me know if you'd like more info.

I'm a TryptoFan!

Thinking about Thanksgiving this morning - and running through the menu one more time. As soon as the Ikea dresser pieces are moved out of my dining room I'm going to set up (not set, Jojo) the table and get all my serving pieces out. I'm so excited to host our family again this year - I LOVE roasting turkey!

My Nonnie (who's 70th birthday would have been yesterday) always had all of her serving pieces out days before any large event where there was food. She'd put a sticky note in each platter, bowl, and plate clearly labeling what would be served out of it. Genius! Not only do you ensure everything has a place but noting is forgotten!

Our menu this year:
To start:
Stuffed Jalapenos
Bleu Cheese Crackers

Main Event:
Herbed Roasted Turkey
Jojo's Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Almonds AND Green Bean Casserole
Jalapeno Cranberry Relish/Canned Cranberry/Plain Cranberry Sauce (We have lots of opinions on cranberry sauce in my family)
Sister Schubert Rolls

Encore:
Bobo's Brownies
Myee's Pumpkin Pie
Update: GAR added cookies to the finale. I won't argue!

I don't think there will be anyone hungry! What's on your menu? Anything unique to your family?

Tom Turkey

Thanksgiving Day is almost here!



I can't wait! So excited! Get ready to be roasted Tom!

Aggie Football

Whew. What a ride we've been on this year with our Ags! Up. Down. Horrible. Ranked!?

After a two year hiatus from College Station we were anxious to get to the promised land of maroon, the Dixie Chicken, Laynes and Aggie football.

FMG, KJC, REH and I met up with JLS and MR to tailgate before the game.

REH is our token Sooner... and we had fun giving her a hard time all day!

It was good to see and spend time with MAR and CFR, too!

 Emerson went with us and got a tour of Aggieland. If you follow his blog (The Adventures of Dewey and Emerson), you know he recently went to a Nebraska Cornhusker game. It was only right that he went to the "right" school for a tour.

Emerson met E. King Gil, the Twelfth Man.

The giant Aggie ring on the Quad passed inspection.

And John and Francois had a blast introducing Emerson to the current Seniors in their old outfit.

We fit in all of our favorites, too...

  

Can't wait to BTHO Nebraska... I'd say the same for out Thanksgiving day game, but jojo might not bring half of the meal if I said I was looking forward to BTHO tu.  I love football season!

Thanksgiving Break Begins

The crafting bug bit this morning and I started working on Christmas presents.

Brie has a whole different approach to Saturday mornings.

Happy Birthday, FMG!

Happy Birthday to this guy... who likes his beer cold and his German food hot...

who always brings up the rear, in college, on a bike tour, or in life...

who's long arms take amazing self portraits...

who tosses the cat in the mornings, because - seriously - she loves it... (no, for real. she has a special meow s that means "toss me across the bed so I can run back at you and do it again")

who is a master canape maker and not afraid to show it...

who is a great furbaby "dad"...

See?

and who still does THIS and scares me to death!

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!!!!

I can't wait to spend a 100 more with you!

Baby Elephants and Wine

FMG recently had a RARE three day weekend so we ran off to Houston to see the newest elephant at the Houston Zoo, see GAR and CCT and visit MR and KK. It was wonderful!

 This little guy was the main attraction! He was only a few weeks old when we saw him but he weighed in at over 250 pounds! Insane!

His momma was super interested in the trainer that had pumpkins for snacking on. She wasn't much interested in his attempt for a snack. Can I get an "Amen" from my momma friends!?

I hear ya, though, sister. I'm currently obsessed with anything pumpkin. 'Tis the season!

Although, my methods of ingesting pumpkin are far different. I can't condone eating it raw... or whole.

But whatever method works best for you...

Then we had dinner with these two crazy kids at a fabulous wine bar.

More to come on that on fab*bites!

We also got to love on GAR's kitties - Ginger

and Banks (who is a little bit cross-eyed and a whole lot sweet!).

Such a fun weekend! But, of course, I didn't take any pictures of FMG and me or us with MR and KK. Figures.

Best QB Sneak EVER!

I love football - PopWarner, College, High School, Middle School, doesn't matter... and I usually disown a team for an "up the middle" play (let's be honest, how often do they actually work).

This just made my football season!

Think-About-It Thursday

Conversation I had with one of my (GT) kiddos about the recent elections and the Governor's race:

GT: So, exactly how do you decide on who you'll vote for?

ARG: Well, most people know there isn't a perfect person to vote for so they vote for the person who has the most things they like.

GT: Wait? There isn't a perfect candidate?

(I'm telling you... GT... homegirl thinks way beyond her 11 years).

ARG: Nope. Usually there is between three and four people who want to have the job. Most voters only look at two of the people running. Then they pick the one that they feel like agrees with them on the most things.

GT: Like the TAKS test?

ARG: What do you mean?

GT: Well, we get 4 answers. We cross out the two that are dumb. The two trying to trick us.

ARG: mmhmm....

GT: Then we look at the two choices that are left.

ARG: Exactly.

GT: But then, what doesn't make sense to me is that we're supposed to pick the BEST answer.

ARG: Right. The best answer.

GT: But what you KNOW that one is just the BEST. Not the RIGHT answer. Usually, you can figure out that both of the ones left are dumb, too.

ARG: (I have no answer.)

GT: So... people go vote for someone that is just the BEST of the two not-dumb choices.

ARG: So... how was gym?


Seriously, folks. Who knew? The insight? The transparency?

I'm so impressed. I love this kid. If only adults could follow that line of thinking! :o)

Think about it.