merry christmas, ya filthy animal.

Hello, everyone! 

I hope you all had a super rad time with your families over the Christmas holidays.  My time was just wonderful.  I'm pretty fond of my fam.

The mister and I....looking all happy and stuff.

 We started by celebrating at home together with Miss Matti.  She loved all of her gifts, but really loved her Ho Ho from littlebitfunky.  She's already named it "Brownie."  If you haven't seen them, you should definitely check them out.

Matti loved her HoHo from littlebitfunky!  Check them out...they're awesome!

Jax enjoying his Christmas bone.

 Christmas Eve kicked off at my uncle Mike's with our annual breakfast.  I'm not sure why, but this is my favorite family tradition.  The mister even wore his black Santa hat.  (I sometimes refer to him as Johnny Cash for his monochromatic fashion choices).  Because of this hat, we lovingly dubbed him as "Bad Santa."

Granny with Bad Santa.

 After breakfast, we stayed to shoot guns with my uncle and cousins.  Highlight of the day.  So much fun...even if I was the only girl.

Bad Santa doing some work with my Glock.

Bang. Bang.

 Afterwards, we headed to my mom's house for a much needed nap.  Breakfast & guns will take it out of ya!  That evening, we all met up again at Granny's for our Christmas festivies.

My mom, stepdad & 4-legged baby sister - Izzy.

 The mister and spent the night at Mom's that night.  It felt so warm and cozy to be back home with the light from the Christmas tree glowing through the living room.  There's really no place like home. 

I will always love this view -- Christmas at Mom's.

 We woke up Christmas morning to happy times, good breakfast and lots of presents.  

Merry Christmas to the mister. :)

My neice, Lexy, KNOWS how to make some hot cocoa.

I love this shot of Bad Santa.

 I said all of this to say -- this was one amazing Christmas.  I so enjoyed my time with my family and really enjoyed my time off from work with the mister.  I'm one happy girl!

 So, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from the Henry fam.  Hope your holidays were grand and that you ring in the New Year with awesomeness!

 

five senses friday #9.

Merry Christmas, blog friends!  This will be my last post until after Christmas.  Our festivities will start tomorrow and will be going strong until Wednesday night.  I hope you all have a wonderful time with your families.  Thanks so much for checking in!  Now, my Five Senses Friday...
Five Senses Friday is were I reflect on the last week or so through the senses.  Here is my week in review.  Enjoy!

Tasting::

My famous Oreo Truffles that I have started making every year for Christmas.  I've done good and have only eaten one.  I can't say the same for everyone else.  This tin is emptying quickly here at work.
Definitely looking forward to all the tasting I will be doing starting this weekend!  Wooo!  Bring on the fat pants & the Christmas awesomeness!

Feeling::

Seriously excited to start our Christmas festivities tomorrow!  This is my favorite time of year.  I love spending time with my family.

Seeing::

This cute little face looking up at me every morning...begging for breakfast.  I'm pretty sure that's one of his favorite words.  I love my Jackson.

Hearing::

Christmas music.  Christmas music.  And MORE Christmas music.  Thankfully I love it...but only during the month of December.  One exception is Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time."  The synthesizers in that song make me want to continually stab my ears with broken ornaments.

Smelling::

Peppermint.  Smelly Jax.  More peppermint.  I love the smells of Christmas.  I'll honestly be sad when the holidays are over.  They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.


What were some of your experiences this week?  Feel free to play along in the comments, find me online or post your own blog!

merry friendsmas.

This week, I celebrated my First Annual Friendsmas with my new crew here in my new town.  (#34 on my 35 Before 35 - done!)  To those of you that are new here, I recently discussed the difficulty of making new friends for the thirty-somethings.  Thankfully, I have been able to make some friends through work.  They are affectionately deemed K-Hop, MoJack & J-Wil.  
Friendsmas became a thing for me years and years ago.  Now that I'm in a new place, (and I've actually managed to make some friends) I felt it was time to implement the First Annual Friendsmas here.
J-Wil wasn't able to come since she's off in Cancun or someplace with her hubby.  Whatev.
But, K-Hop and MoJack were in!  We met up at Bayou Jack's and exchanged gifts. 

K-Hop, me & MoJack.

You have to appreciate friends who understand your geekish ways.  K-Hop surprised me with a new addition to my tree.  I was just talking about my Christmas tree and how much I needed more geeky ornaments and she has blessed my tree with this awesomeness...

 

Perfect timing!  And you know that when he's not gracing the Christmas tree, that he'll be on desk at work.  I love him!

The thing that did go on my desk immediately, is MoJack's sweet gift -- a Funko POP Darth Vader Vinyl.  

Now, we all know that I have an unhealthy obsession with Funko POP Vinyls.  This has spurred an even greater want. Ugh.  All the Funkos are belong to me!

 MoJack is a HUGE Potterhead, so one of her gifts included a wand.  I have seriously never seen anyone so excited about such a small gift.  I'm 100% certain that she brought it to work.  No lie. Of course, I've never read or seen any of the Harry Potter business.  I know how excited I got when I saw Funko POP Darth.  There was literally a squee heard throughout Bayou Jack's.

 We ended the night by going to see Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas.  Too much fun.  I'm thinking that we'll need to start planning a GNO once a month now. 

I'm pretty excited about my new friends.

Do you do anything special for the holidays with your group of friends?  What kinds of things do you do?  I might need some ideas!

 

o, christmas tree.

With this being our first Christmas, the mister and I have started from scratch to accumulate our much needed decor.  After getting everything arranged, I've come to one conclusion.  

I need more geeky ornaments.  

It's a shame that we look so traditional.  We are not traditional, folks.

Right now, my tree is cute.  But, most of the ornaments match.  I mean, seriously!?  Who am I?  What has happened to me?  Thankfully, I do have a few favorites that have managed to find their way.

 Just like my Texas pride, this ornament has stayed with me through it all.  This is actually #2.  The first one died in a freak accident.  Thankfully, I was able to replace it.  Hook'em Horns!

 I relish the fact that not every tree has Michelangelo hanging from its branches.  He was a gift last year from my amazing friend, Jeni, who now lives in Colorado.  I actually had the set, but they were separated in the move.  *sob*

The pickle is a tradition.  It has been on my Christmas trees ever since I moved out and had my own trees.  FACT:  Christmas just ain't Christmas without a pickle on your tree. 

 While not geeky at all, I had to share our very first ornament.  We plan to buy a new one every year. With this being our first Christmas, we thought this one would be perfect.  I love it!  Check out CharlieChalkDesigns on Etsy.  Their stuff is so stinkin' cute!

I'd love to see the geeky ornaments that adorn your Christmas tree.  Which one is your favorite?  Let me know!

ho ho ho.

On Saturday, I participated in my third 5K - The First Annual Ho Ho Ho Run in Tyler.  My good friend, K, tagged along with me.  Well...she drove.  Either way, downtown Tyler was filled with more Santas than I had ever seen! 

We picked up our suits at 7:30am and went to McDonald's to change.  First realization?  The suits were super cheap.  My hand went through the crotch before I even got it on my body.  Luckily, I was prepared with other articles of clothing...or it could have gotten pretty interesting (and even colder).  K experienced the same problem and even gained another hole from the seat belt on the ride downtown.  Once more Santas arrived, you could see that we weren't the only lucky ones to experience wardrobe malfunctions.  Nice...
You also gotta love the whole adult one-size-fits all plan.  Yeah, that always work out well.  I'm on my journey to being that "one-size"...that's why I'm at this 5K!  Sheesh!  Thankfully, it fit.  Of course, I was a rebel and chose to be Batman Santa.  It was necessary.  The people needed a hero!

After plenty of photo opportunities, we were lining up.  K was bright enough to bring gloves.  I, however, did not.  I'm not really sure that I actually even own gloves.  I'm a Texan for goodness sake!  One man made it a point to share force his hand warmers into my frozen paws.  He was very adamant about this...to the point that K and I took a nice, little stroll to put some distance in between us.  Ok, sir!  I'll take them!   
Aside from our poorly constructed Santa suits, we had a blast.  5K number 3 is in the books.  My 35 Before 35 goal (#12) is coming along nicely! The wind and rain could not stop Batman Santa!  Or maybe it was "Batmanta"....

finish the sentence & festive favorites!

Holiday Link Up Alert!   I'm lazy and Holly is doing a link up. It's Christmas themed. Also, Ashton has enticed me to share my favorite things.  Enjoy and link up!
 

My favorite Christmas was last year.  My first Christmas home after living in California for 5 years...and my first Christmas spent with Donny.  We were engaged and I was showing him off! 

The worst Christmas I had was my last Christmas in California.  Stress. Unhappiness.  Depression.  Not good.  (You'll get the full story soon...)  Also, any Christmas where I wasn't in Texas with family.

That one gift that made me scratch my head and say, "Hmmmm" was any time that I have gotten some random fragrance or lotion.  Makes me question my bathing habits...

One year I didn't even have a tree.  Make that more than one year.  That's just pitiful and unacceptable in my book.

I think the worst gift to give is lotion.  Seriously.  I'll buy that junk myself...

At Christmastime I typically go a bit crazy with all the Christmasy things I want to do. I want my life to be a Christmas cliche for that one month.  I want to be a Hallmark movie.  I want my house to look like a snow globe.  I'm an idealist at Christmastime.

If I could change one thing about the Holiday season, it would last longer and people would enjoy it more.

It is so hard to buy for my step dad. He is the man who wants something and buys it. His response is always nothing. Every single time.

My favorite Christmas tradition is waking up on Christmas Eve and trying to be the first to say, "Christmas Eve Gift" to my family.  Christmas Eve breakfast with my mom's side of the family.  Singing and playing music with everyone.
 

Santa, baby, bring me some motivation to hit the gym.  It's cold & I'm being lazy!

 

Festive Favorites!

Favorite Christmas song.Traditional:  "Oh, Holy Night" - the Mariah Carey version.  I will SANG that in my car, y'all!  That entire album is just good stuff.  I also love "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" by Elvis and "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby.  That version always makes me think of Home Alone.

• Christmas song you can’t stand. "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney.  It makes me want to stab my ears with broken Christmas ornaments.

• Favorite holiday movie(s).  Elf.  Christmas Vacation. Home Alone.  Does Gremlins count?

• Real or artificial tree? If real trees weren't so high-maintenance, I would love them.  But since they are, artificial & pre-lit all the way!

• White or colored lights? White.  Colored lights make me think of a Joe Diffie music video.  I'm aware that they do get a bad rep because of trailer parks and rednecks.  I'm sure they can be tastefully done.

• All matching ornaments or more random personal ornaments?  Both.  I have matching ornaments with a few random ones thrown in here and there.  We will always have a place for the Christmas pickle.

• Favorite ornament. The aforementioned Christmas pickle.  It's just awesome.

• Angel or star tree-topper? STAR!

• Does Santa wrap presents or leave them unwrapped? Oh, Santa wraps.  Unless he's lazy or the gifts too big.

• Favorite childhood memory. I don't have just one.  I always loved decorating the house with my Mom on the day after Thanksgiving.

• Coffee, hot chocolate, or eggnog? Coffee is always gonna be there, but I do love me some Southern Comfort eggnog!!

• Christmas morning at home or do you travel? Christmas morning at my mom's with the whole family.  I love it!

• Traditional holiday meal or something unconventional? We're usually pretty traditional.

• Personalized photo Christmas cards, store bought cards, e-cards, or “ain’t nobody got time for that”? This year, I sent cards with a Christmas letter...because I'm all super crafty like that.

 Now you!  Link up and let us know all YOUR Christmas secrets!

coming soon: the shiny happy

It's just about that time, folks!

*squee*

My new & improved blog, The Shiny Happy, will be launching!  I know that we had a date set for the week of Thanksgiving, but some things came up.  But, can I just say that my friend, Andy Van Engen, is a creative genius!?  True story.  After seeing the work he's done, I can barely contain my excitement.

Apologies for being MIA the last couple of weeks.  The delay on the launch and the holidays have thrown me off my game a little.  Plus, the lack of electricity throughout this Icemageddon we're getting here in south doesn't really help.  We'll get back on track soon.  I promise.

As soon as I know a solid date on the launch, I will let you all know.  
Thanks for hanging around & checking back in!

 

 
 

hey, santa.

Christmas time is just around the corner.  Do you have your list ready for Santa?  I know I do.  I've included some of my favorite wishes this year.  There's no way we have time to go through the full list, so I'm presenting my short one.  Santa already knows the rest! 

 

1.  Mantis Orchid Women's 26- Inch Bike

2.  Tom's Washed Camo Canvas Women's Classics

3.  Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] (1977)

4.  Michael Kors Bedford Ostrich Tote

5.  THIS Black Leather Jacket (or something similar)

6.  Timex Unisex Weekender  

7.  Rainbow Unicorn Mug by LennyMud

8.   Yamaha DGX640W Digital Piano 

9.  Mr. T Funko POP Vinyl (and every other Funko POP ever made!)  

10.  Olloclip iPhone Camera Lens System from ThinkGeek

Seriously.  I'm in LOVE with Funko POP Vinyls.  I find myself wanting to buy every single one.  I'm hoping someone will pity me and send me a new one since I need to stop ordering them.  Also, everyone should check out LennyMud on Etsy.  Most awesome mugs ever!! 

Have you been nice this year?  What things are you wishing for this Christmas?  Let me know by leaving a comment.

 

thanksgiving recap.

Greetings from the month of December, folks!  Can you believe it's here?  

Tis the season to throat punch someone be jolly!  Am I right!?

I'm finally rested from the awesome Thanksgiving festivities of last week.  This is how my holiday went down: 

• The mister and I drove an hour and a half to my mom's house on Wednesday night for the annual Pre-Thanksgiving Friendsgiving.  Just a bunch of good food (can someone say jalapeno burgers?) and good ol' boys. 
• Thursday morning consisted of pj's all day, cuddles with the mister during our annual James Bond-a-thon, and cooking with mom.
• Thursday afternoon, we left to go to my grandparents house to meet up with the whole fam.  Did that include skeet shooting?  Yes.  Yes, it did.  Was I good blogger who took awesome pics?  No.  No, I was not.  If I was, you would have sweet shots of yours truly crushing all 3 of my skeets.  Oh yeah!  But alas, I failed.
• I drove my grandfather's golf cart out to shoot...but it died.  I may of had to walk back and just leave it out in the woods.  Yep.  I'm awesome.
• Food, food, food and photo ops with the fam!  Enjoy....

I seriously love my nephew.  He is beyond amazing!

The mister & I with some of my favorite cousins, Nathan & Carleigh.

Couldn't miss getting a shot with my favorite lady.  Love my momma!

Go ahead & tell me how awesome my little nephew is.  This is golden.

I was not a trooper this year.  I did not get up early and shop.  No sir, no ma'am.  The mister and I slept in like the lazy brilliant people we are.  That afternoon, we braved Wal-Mart, but only the Lawn & Garden center for some Christmas decor.  Since this is our first Christmas together, we had to buy everything!  FUN!  Luckily, we were out in a flash and home to decorate.  The tree is up, folks!  I'm pretty proud.

Notice the pickle?  Oh yeah.  Necessity.

And look who celebrated his first Thanksgiving.  Don'tcha just love that little mug?

 

 

Did you and your family do anything extra exciting?  Let me know by leaving a comment.


Happy Thanksgiving to you guys.  Hope your holiday was as rad as mine.  Now on to the Christmas festivities!