Christmas Eve

I worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the hospital. My traditional Christmas Eve with my family is spent going to church, then eating soup or chili and having a birthday cake for baby Jesus. Colby and I did get to go to church before I went into work and I even made the chili. The missing component was our birthday "poppers." Since it's a birthday party, we always have poppers with a crown for everyone and prize, followed by a joke. You saw a picture previously for the SAA Christmas party that had the crowns. Anyhow, since we didn't have the poppers, Colby made me his own version of a crown, it was so sweet and just perfect! Goodness I love him being off of school! The neat thing about working Christmas was that the hospital had toys for all of the kids that were on the floor and for their siblings as well. It was so neat to be able to set up "Santa" for all of them. I love my job!

Here's me and Rocky smelling the goodness

Colby in the crown before churchSarah and I with the toy bags!Me and Kellie delivering cheer at 4 am!

My Birthday Date

I had a great birthday! My friend Danielle made me a chocolate cake at work and it was delicious! I really appreciated her thoughtfulness. We celebrated my birthday on Friday and Colby surprised me with a fun date! He is Officially on Christmas break, so I am thrilled about getting to spend more time with him. He took me to Southlake town square to the Cheesecake Factory for a yummy dinner (herb crusted salmon). Then we started driving toward Grapevine, we turned into the Gaylord Texan resort and I was beside myself. He took me to the beautiful ICE exhibit. It was so fun but really cold. No worries, he had packed my gloves, hat, and coat for me! The room was 9 degrees and they gave everyone parkas to wear. It was a fun birthday and a fun date!

Danielle and I at work with my yummy cake! Thank you!

The Coca-Cola BearsA huge ice house to walk throughColby with the huge ornamentsMy favorite picture- all the sticks are ice, it was beautiful!

The Nativity Scene was the very last room, gorgeous and so detailed- perfect to get us in the spirit of Christmas and the coming of our Lord Jesus

It's a Special Day!!!

Happy birthday Love! Joanna is the big two six today, and yes it is after 11:06 or whenever she says her actual age changes so it's officially official.
Unfortunately I can't treat her to a proper birthday celebration tonight but I have secret plans on Friday! I'm sure she'll post a few pics this weekend... but until then
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNA!!!

SAA Christmas Party

We went to the SAA (Student Advocacy Association- the Spouses group with the med school) Christmas party at Dr. Chris and Karen Hull's home. It was a beautiful house and neighborhood and so fun to be with friends. It was so kind of them to open up their home. We had Babe's Chicken, which was fabulous, and enjoyed a fun evening and gift exchange. They even had the same holiday "poppers" that my family uses every year for Christmas Eve. So we enjoyed our crowns and time with friends from school!

Brad & Stephanie, Whitney & Clint, us

Casino Night

Friday night Colby's school hosted a Christmas dinner and Casino Night. It was at the Fort Worth zoo in one of the indoor pavillions. It was great to be able to get all dressed up and go out together. It was freezing of course in a dress, but beauty is sacrifice right? Ha! They had several heaters blowing, so I happened to stand by them several times to thaw out my feet in my heels. The zoo was all lit up with Christmas lights and then even gave us a train ride to the pavillion. We had a great dinner and a fun time. We played a few of the casino games, but the way things worked was you got so many tickets at the end of the night, depending on how much "money" you won. You then put your tickets in a basket to enter a drawing for a prize, so it really didn't matter how you did. We sat intently looking at our numbers for the doorprizes and Colby got inpatient and wanted to leave, saying we wouldn't win anything considering there were tons of people there. Well, ye of little faith- we won a $25 gift card to Pappadeaux! Hooray- can't wait for another date night!

Colby wore the hat that Papa gave him

My sweet friend Cassidy from Abilene- her huband Brandon is in Colby's classPlacing our bets at the Roulette tableLaShell and me, she's in Colby's class, love this girl!Colby and Christian, high rollersColby and Sam, "Big Tex"

Staff Christmas Party

Thursday was my staff Christmas party for the H/O Floor and Clinic. It was at the Main Event and was a lot of fun. We had yummy food and had fun bowling and hanging out with nurses from all shifts. I've been really blessed with awesome co-workers, especially my night shifters. They have been great to work with and the teamwork is amazing. It's always a plus when you actually want to spend time with the people you work with outside of work!

Tiffany, Mandy, Gina, Danielle, me

Danielle and me with Cindy, aka "OMG"

GRATEFUL

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful and we were reminded just how much we have to be thankful for. We drove out to west Texas to Andrews to spend the holiday with Colby's family. It started out kind of rough the day before b/c I was sick and couldn't keep anything down. But hey, Thanksgiving is not just about the food, right? Thank goodness I was feeling better by the day and could nibble here and there. Colby did great carving the turkey! The meal was delicious and I'm very fortunate that my mother-in-law is a great cook! I loved being able to relax and spend time with Colby. He took 2 whole days offof studying! It was great for him to be stress free and enjoy time with family. Since we divide the holidays between the families, we also had Christmas! Nothing like getting into the holiday spirit by opening presents early! It does me help to get most of the shopping done early. We loved our gifts, but were most fortunate for the gift of family and the blessing that they are in our lives!

Nana and Bill came over for lunch

Our annual bowhead picture

Colby took his guitar to the nursing home to play and sing for Papa. We love spending time with hime and listening to his stories. He even suggested that Colb should be on the radio- hey, a good fall back plan if studying gets old!