Off we go...

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

A few days early!

Christmas gift from Waco ISD

Waco ISD gave us our Christmas gift this morning with a delayed start!!! Those teachers out there understand my JOY! Now I have 2 hrs. to get those little things done that haven't gotten done yet this month (you know laundry, wrapping, getting Christmas cards almost ready) so here's to an extra 2 hrs. in my day and a little more Christmas cheer!

Christmas Cheer

Oh the weather outside is frightful... really even in Waco the temps have dropped and it was sleeting for a little while this afternoon. It definitely puts me in the Christmas mood. Of course, I picked today to run all my errands after school. It was crazy!

We got some great Christmas cheer news today from Baylor. Steve was appointed as a Senior Lecturer. He applied a few months ago and was unanimously approved by the math department. It then moved onto the provost and president's office for final approval. He is the first in his department to apply for this so that makes it extra exciting. What a wonderful way to end the fall semester!!


In other holiday cheer news... On Sunday we celebrated my parent's 15th Christmas Open House. It was tons of fun! It is always a fun afternoon to celebrate the Christmas season.


Some have asked so here's a quick update on my eyes... all is well. I can see great now and the haziness is gone. I have been back to the doctor once already and I go back on Thursday for another check-up. I'm so, so glad that I went through the process. It was a great Christmas gift to myself :)

I can see clearly now...

I can see, almost, clearly now that I have had lasik. Things are still a bit hazy but I can see with no contacts or glasses, absolutely AMAZING! Considering I was at the office about 45 minutes I can't believe I waited so long to get it done. The doctor and nurses were so nice and did a great job at calming me down, the Valium didn't kick in as I wish it would have. I couldn't feel anything (thank goodness) although it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, it didn't really hurt. My eyes don't look so good right now thanks to a few broken blood vessels but they feel fine. Sunlight is the only thing that bugs me a bit but that should go away after awhile. Although I missed singing in our church Christmas program (thanks to the lights) we made it to the Baylor Combined Choir Concert last night which is always a favorite holiday treat. I go back in tomorrow to see how everything is going. For those who are thinking about it I say "go for it" or at least go in for a consultation.

Ladies Night Out

Last night my mom, Andrea, and Judy (Andrea's mom) had a fun Ladies Night Out. We attended the Junior League of Waco's Deck the Halls ~ Holiday Market. There was so much to see and some yummy food to eat. I really enjoyed going from booth to booth looking at what all there was to buy. We did a trip around once and then went back to our favorite spots to purchase the things that caught our eye. One thing that was fun to see was all the really cute baby stuff. I held onto my wallet and didn't buy anything but I am already looking forward to coming in the future to get things for Emily. It was a wonderful way to spend a Thursday night!

Decorations

One of our favorite things about Christmas is decorating. So here's a sampling of what we have been up to.

Here's all our stuff out of the attic.

I don't know where we would put it all if we didn't have an attic!

Here's the official tree with all our favorite ornaments. We had several new additions to the tree this year with ornaments from our travels.

One thing I love out our house is having a fireplance and mantel. It's so fun to hang our stockings by the fire.

The past few years we have started collecting Department 56 houses. Our most recent is a travel agency, perfect for us!

We have 2 other trees and every room has some decorations, I didn't want to bore you :) Now the goal is to watch all our Christmas movies and listen to our over 50 Christmas CDs. I'm not sure I will have time to go to work each day, haha. In other news... we only have 18 more days till we leave for Italy, yes!