Art from the Heart

I just wanted to take a minute to showcase one of my favorite Christmas gifts.

It's a truly unique and very personalized piece of art that my dad (and mom) made for us from all of our Italy photos.

He had it printed on canvas and we took it to Neblett's to have the canvas stretched onto a frame. I just love it!

We also got some prints framed that we bought in Italy, and they turned out great, too. Unfortunately there's too much of a glare on the photos I've taken to show them off.

We've built up quite the collection of art by trying to get something on every trip we take, sometimes even signed by the artist... Our efforts have paid off, but now we just need more walls!

Until then, I think we'll just cover every inch of wall space with art to remind us of memories we've made along the way. After all, every picture is worth a thousand words, right?

New Year, New Look...

I figured with the new year I might as well give the old blog a new look. What do you think?

My new year's resolution to you, blog friends, is to be more active and try to post more than just once a week. Aren't you excited?!?!

I promise to rededicate myself to this blog, even if it's only to share my opinions on frivalous celebrity news. I WILL make it happen, I promise.

In other news, we enjoyed quite the lazy weekend at home this past weekend.

With the exception of spending a few hours cheering on the Blues Marathon runners as they came through our neighborhood, going two streets over to watch the Saints game Saturday night, and a short jaunt to Vicksburg for Ryan Hadley's fifth birthday party on Sunday, we were total homebodies most of the weekend.

We spent a good bit of time hanging some new artwork that I'll share with you in a separate post. I'm quite happy with how it all turned out! (I know the anticipation is killing you... Ha!)

Epic Kitchen Fail

Well, yesterday was just a bad day overall. We had no water at work (meaning no bathrooms, yet they were kind enough to bring in porta-potties), I was just frustrated at everything, and I really failed at dinner.

I made jambalaya, and had just put in the sausage and chicken in with the rice when I put the top on to let it simmer for a while. I used a lid that was slightly too small for the pot and it suctioned shut. The lid would NOT budge. At all.

I tried with all my might. Derek tried. We picked up the whole pot by the lid handle, and the thing was absolutely not moving in the slightest.

After about half an hour of this, we finally gave up and picked up Subway. I tried cooling it in the fridge, putting it in an ice bath, running hot water over the top, everything...

Finally today during my lunch break I reheated the whole pot on the stove and VOILA! It came right off like it was never stuck to begin with. I have now learned yet another valuable kitchen lesson.

I've made some dumb mistakes in my post-college/newlywed kitchen years, and this one probably ranks right up there. But it still doesn't beat when I baked a casserole for an hour with saran wrap still on top of the casserole dish.

Yep... THAT, friends, was an epic kitchen fail. This pot/lid incident? Just a bad end to my bad Wednesday.

The good news is it looks like we'll be having jambalaya tonight that will probably be even tastier now that it's literally had its flavors sealed in for 24 hours.

Hello, 2012!

We celebrated the new year in style this year by going to Hal and Mal's Krystal Ball downtown. What a fun night!
We went with our neighbors like we did the first year we moved to Jackson. That would have been when we rang in 2008 - isn't that crazy?

We started the night off with dinner and drinks at Julep, then a drink at the King Edward Hotel bar downtown, then a shuttle ride over to Hal and Mal's.

It was a blast, and we watched the "catfish drop" at midnight in the parking lot and scarfed down some Krystal burgers with champagne at midnight (hence the name of the party.)

We took a cab home and then cooked up some Southern goodness of fried chicken, black eyed peas, cabbage and corn bread on New Year's Day. Great weekend overall.

2011 was a pretty good year, and I feel like 2012 will be even better. Here's to the new year!

Merry Christmas (almost a week late!)

What a wonderful Christmas! Sorry a week late, but I just haven't been ready to admit it's over. Now, of course, our tree is empty and looking pretty pitiful, the gifts are (for the most part) put away, and it's a little sad. I always get the After-Christmas blues a little, I think. It's kind of like your wedding day... so much excitement and anticipation, and then it's over SO fast!

We went to Hattiesburg Friday afternoon to spend some quality time with my parents and their new pup, Ponji (formerly known as Gypsy), before all the craziness started. We watched old home movies and had a great time reminiscing.

We had a great Christmas Eve morning with my parents opening gifts, drinking mimosas and watching "The Help" after Santa left it in my stocking. Then we were off to Christmas #2 with the rest of my family at Granny's.

Mom got a Forever Lazy! Derek and I got the biggest kick out of this gift from my grandmother. Mom had never seen the commercials, but I think she loves it! :)

We headed back to Jackson Christmas Eve night and got home just in time to watch the second half of the Southern Miss-Nevada bowl game. We walked across the street to help our neighbors prepare for Santa's visit, then sipped some eggnog by the fire like you're supposed to do on Christmas Eve. It was just lovely.

Christmas Day we woke up early to do our own little family Christmas with just the two of us then we walked across the street to have breakfast and coffee with Ben, Tina and Brady. Then it was time to get ready for Christmas #3 in Vicksburg.
Ryan Hadley and Frances are at SUCH a cute age right now. It was so much fun to watch them open all their presents (and trust me, there were A LOT to open.) It was just great! Only one minor melt-down over sharing, but it fine. They were precious.

We slept in until after 11 on Monday morning after the whirlwind of weekend activities. It was a rainy, ugly day after Christmas, and while I felt bad for the kids who couldn't ride their new bikes, I took full advantage of a rainy day at home to rest and relax.

Another wonderful Christmas in the books, folks!

It's not Christmas until...

Derek says his mom always said that it's not Christmas until somebody cries. I love that.

And yes, I can promise you at some point over the next few days (probably Christmas Eve after a few glasses of wine while listening to John Lennon's "So This is Christmas") I will get a little teary-eyed. I always do. It just overwhelms me to think that another year has passed. It's hard to think of the people who aren't with us anymore and how quickly life just passes you by.

Okay, enough of the sadness... let's talk about other things that can fill in "It's not Christmas until ______."

#1. It's not Christmas until I hear Elvis and Willie Nelson sing Christmas carols on my Granny's old record player. By far, one of my FAVORITE Christmas traditions...

#2. It's not Christmas until Derek and I drive home Christmas Eve night from Hattiesburg and get comfy in our pajamas in front of the fire and relax until we ring in Christmas Day at midnight with a stiff cocktail. (This is usually when the tears come along with the John Lennon song, by the way.)

#3. It's not Christmas until we walk over on Christmas morning to have coffee with our neighbors (still in our PJs, too). We've done this since Baby Brady was four months old. It's become a nice little tradition. I think when one of us moves we'll just have to drive over to keep the tradition alive.

#4. It's not Christmas until at some point the real reason for the season hits you and you feel very humbled at the miracle that happened so many years ago.

#5. It's not Christmas until all the presents are gone, the tree and garland look wilted and you realize, once again, that another year has passed.

So, Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve and enjoy ALL the things you love about this holiday and cherish every memory. Make new ones. Remember old ones. It's not Christmas until you fill in your own blanks.

Rockin' Around the Chrimmus Tree

Saturday night we hosted the 4th Annual Tacky Christmas/Dirty Santa party at our house. This party is always SO much fun, and even "scaling back" this year didn't stop our good time.

Some special guests included our friends Cassidy and John home from the holidays from Japan! They flew in at 2 Saturday afternoon, took a power nap, and put on their party hats. What troopers!

Here are a few pics from the evening. I'll save you all the crazy late night photos - I don't want to blackmail anybody. ;)

Now only five days til Christmas (and three more days of work)! I'm so ready.