At Daniel's parents house, we had a total of 23 people there. We had 14 adults and 9 children all 7 years old and younger. Since we couldn't all fit in their house, several of us families slept at a hotel close to their house. I was perfectly ok with that just because we are not use to being around so many children at one time.
The day of Thanksgiving was great....lots of yummy food and of course visiting with everyone. We decided that since 5 grandchildren and I wasn't in their most recent family picture taken years ago that we were in need of a new one. So Daniel's cousin was very kind and help us out with that. Daniel and I also got to get some pictures of just us too. Unfortunately, by the time we started taking pictures, the sun was beginning to go down. So we decided to retake them again the next day after everyone was done with shopping.
Friday morning comes around and Emily and I had plans to go shopping. Well Jeremy ended up getting sick..I'm pretty sure it was the stomach flu and so we had a late start. We decided we wanted to go to Kohls, Old Navy and Famous Footwear. We made it to Kohls and Emily bought this really cute cashmere argyle sweater. I really liked it too but they didn't have my size and I wanted to save my money in case I saw something else I liked.
After we left there we decided to head over to Old Navy. After Old Navy, we had plans to meet my sister-in-law, Laura, and her daughter at a bead store at 1pm. So I search for Old Navy and found only one that was close to where we were. So we followed the GPS and started to head over there. I was beginning to get a little worried because it seemed like we were going too far and I didn't recognize the area. Well we ended up at the mall quite a ways from where we were suppose to be going. So we give my mother-in-law a call and she patiently guides us back to the location we were suppose to be at without having to get on the Turnpike. Now by this time, we were suppose to be meeting Shanta at Old Navy hours ago. But because we got a late start and then ended up at the wrong location, it is already 1pm. So we figured we would go to the bead store and then head over to Old Navy since it was in the same shopping center. So I didn't end up buying anything that day. I just didn't see any good sales.
Then Emily and I had to rush to the hotel to grab our stuff to get ready for pictures as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Jeremy was not feeling very well at all. He was extremely sick was had been up all night. We picked him up from the hotel and headed back to the house to get ready. Pictures went really well and we got some good shots.
Since we were doing Thanksgiving at Daniel's parents' house, we open Christmas presents from them during Thanksgiving. We were going to wait till Saturday but all the kids didn't want to wait. So we let just the kids open all their presents.
Saturday, we adults got to open all of our presents. Daniel got Season 1 of "The Big Bang Theory" and a ski trip in February along with his Dad and brother. I got a new camera, card stock, and stamps. We both got some new board games - Rumis and Boggle, luggage organization cubes, gift card to Best Buy, bread basket warmer, emergency preparedness items and then Daniel got a few items for this backpacking trip in August with all the boys.
Something that I left out was that out of the 23 people at the house, I think half of us came down with the stomach flu. I was very lucky that I didn't get it till the day after we got home. I went 12 years without throwing up until I got this stomach flu. It was not a fun experience. Thankfully, it only lasted 24 hours and Daniel didn't end up getting it.
For Christmas, we spent it at my parent's house. This was the first time that I got to see my parents new home since it was done. It was beautiful and they did a great job on it.
We left our house on Saturday morning and headed down there. After we took a tour of my parents house, we headed over to AT&T to add my name on the account as an authorized user so that I am upgrades our phones with out having to go all the way to Houston to have my dad do it. My phone broke recently and I was using my old phone that was all beat up. I wasn't planning on getting any phone that day but Daniel and I decided to both replace our cell phones while we were there. So we both bought the new Samsung Propel. I got the green one...of course and Daniel got the blue one. So far we both love them.
Wednesday night Daniel and I went over to my friend Sophia's house and hung out with her for a while. Sophia and I met in junior high and she lived across the street from me. On Christmas we all opened all of our presents. Daniel and I decided to bring down all our presents that we had for each other so that we could open them on Christmas morning. (this is more for me to remember for down the road) Daniel got 2 pairs of jeans, 3 long sleeve shirts, rubik's cube, 2 books (The Messenger & Ender's Game), 10 inch digital picture frame, 2 wii games (Zelda & Super Smash Bros), soccer ball, a board game, season 1 dvd of How I Met Your Mother and candy. Laura got a new watch, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts, a book (Replay), candy, massage chair, a blender and 2 seasons of So You Think You Can Dance. Then Daniel and I both got a blu-ray player. So we got lots of stuff for Christmas.
My brother, David, and his family came over later on for Christmas dinner. We spend some time with them and watched their kids open presents from us and my parents. Later that evening, we decided to head over to Brian and Shanta's house. Daniel helped Shanta hook up her new computer and Shanta helped me create some vinyl lettering for my house.
On Friday, we decided to head back home. But on our way out, we stopped by and met Deanna and Mark in The Woodlands for lunch at Jason's Deli. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed over to Deanna's parents house. We hung out there for a little bit but then we had to head back home.
On Saturday, we drove to Arlington to meet my friends - Jenn and Arie for lunch at Freebirds. Jenn and I met in college at A&M in 2002. She was one of my first friends there and we instantly became really good friends. We even went on our first cruise together back in 2003. After we got done eating at Freebirds, we stayed and talked for a while. Then as we were walking out I mentioned that my favorite restaurant was right in front of us in the same shopping center....BJ's. I mentioned that they have the best pizookie ever. So we decided to head over there and get us some dessert. We ended up getting the Pizookie party platter. We got half chocolate chip, 1/4 oatmeal, and 1/4 macadamia nut. Oh it was soooooo good.
It looks like this except four times the size!
