Mike likes to put Parker in Yoda's kennel. (don't worry....it is only for a few seconds) Parker doesn't seem to mind.
where should I begin? we have been very busy around here.
Friday, December 14th we had our sunday school Christmas party at our house. We had about 30 people here for a potluck dinner, ornament/gift card exchange and Christmas Jeopardy--guys vs girls and the girls got killed! it was sad really.
Saturday, December 15th we went to Andy's work Christmas party. The original plan was chili at Brad's house, but Friday he had told the guys that we would be going out somewhere instead. We arrive at Brad's house and hang out for awhile then he tells us we are going to Boulevard Steakhouse. We had a private room and Andy and I spent most of our time talking to Sus and Chris. We had a great time. Andy went into the bar area with the guys and smoked a cigar---and the smell left over totally grosses me out, so as soon as we got home he had to put all his clothes in the washer and shower and brush/listerine. After that we put on our PJs and I made wassail and we got in the car and went out looking at Christmas lights. I think that will be a new tradition for us.
Sunday, December 16th we went to church and came home and cleaned up the house and began cooking lasagna. We had 55 teenagers and youth sponsors at our house. They were doing a progressive dinner and our house was the stop for the entree. Our house was packed! We borrowed tables from friends and people still were sitting on the floor...but they are teenagers and they dont care. Justin, the youth pastor had originally told me they would be there at 6:15, but at 5:45 I looked out the front door and saw the church bus pull up. Thank the Lord we were mostly ready at that point! After they left, we cleaned up a little and then met up with them at their last stop--a coffee shop in bricktown for hot chocolate and dirty santa. We ended up with some ugle necklace and hair clip.
Monday, December 17th was Andy's birthday. He wanted to race go karts at Pole position, so i thought i would be clever and email some of his guy friends and have them meet us there so he wouldnt have to just race against me, because I suck. So 4 guys show up and as soon as they all get there they announce that a corporate challenge endurance race is about to start and there will be no more public racing that night. so sad! so instead we went and ate at Teds with 2 other couples and had a good time. I bought Andy tickets to three of the OU Men's bball games and the OU coach's polo shirt. I think he had a good time.
Tuesday, Dec 18th, we have a redo of the previous night but we just go with Daniel and Canaan. Canaan hated racing last time so Daniel, andy and I race and canaan took pictures, then andy and daniel raced again. then we went to Old Chicago for some yummmmmmy pizza!
Friday, December 21st. i cooked all day (zucchini bread, cinnamon candy, and cinnamon roasted almonds...oh and i tried your dog treat recipes Liz!--the dogs liked them but i forgot to refrigerate them while we were gone and i came home and they were covered in mold!) that night we went with justin, kelli, marcus and kristin to Bricktown to ice skate or snow tube....we hadnt decided which we were going to do. We ate at coach's and had to wait FOREVER for a table because there was a family that had been in there since 3 that afternoon (we were there at 7) and they were taking up on of the few large tables. We decided we would ice skate but when we got there they didnt have any skates that would fit andy so we went to play laser tag instead. so much fun! the girls TRIED to team up against the boys but we really got stomped.
Saturday Dec 22nd, we delivered bread and candy to a few friends and then went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Ford Center. It was snowing/sleeting and was really windy so the walk from the car to the Ford Center was painful, but the concert was great. It was REALLY loud and we were too close to the speakers. i think i may have damaged my hearing permanently, but it was fun. Then we headed home to pick up with dogs and drive to owasso. We got there about 9:00 and mike, ame and parker were there. Then at about 10:30 cindy and the girls got there. We hung out for awhile and then headed to bed.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday....baking, grocery shopping, wrapping presents, playing with autumn, maya, and parker. andy and dad spent all day Christmas Eve outside chopping up limbs and trees that fell during the ice storm. mom and dad lost a ton of trees and branches.
here are some of the great things that were said over the Christmas weekend
- Maya looking at the games we had..."Oh, we could play scatterhead!" (Meaning scattergories) For some reason this was very amusing, though now that I am typing it it doesnt sound as funny.
- Autumn, apparently repeating what her mom had told her. "I know I am supposed to wait patiently to open presents, but waiting patiently is boring!"
- Cindy, after struggling with the girls over dinner..."I give up. I'm not raising children anymore." Autumn's response: "Alright!!! We're free!!! Let's go!!!"
Andy and I headed home Tuesday evening so we could both work Wednesday. It was hard to get up on Wednesday, but we made it to the weekend :) This weekend has been fairly uneventful. Watched movies, did some shopping to spend Christmas money, napped, cooked lots of soup to freeze and take for lunches, went to doggie obedience class and that is about it.
we had a game where the kids threw fishing bobbers into camping cooking pots. the kids seemed to like it and we had fun. then thursday andy and i went down to the wichita mountains wildlife refuge to hike and camp. as we were driving around andy spotted some buffalo that he wanted to take a picture of so we got out of the car and walked a little into this field. 
andy took some pictures and as we were walking back andy almost stepped on a tarantula. so rather than run away, which is what i wanted to do...andy stopped to take some pictures of the nasty thing. spiders, in general, dont bother me all that much, but when i think about big nasty hairy spiders that can jump, i get a little freaked out. 
so now we have pictures of mr. tarantula. gross. 
we headed to the campsite and set up the tent, etc. we cooked on our propane stove, sat by our campfire and played cards, and then slept in our tent thursday night. it was pretty cold and poor scrawny yoda was freezing his nub of a tail off. tucker was staying warm so we left him in his kennel next to our bed and yoda slept under the covers snuggled up in my armpit. we were nearly the only people in the whole section of campsites. during the night our watchdog yoda started growling and we heard what sounded like hoofsteps?? outside our tent. We had the dog food in a tupperware and i had put the lid on it but forgot to put it in the car. we could hear whatever it was pawing or biting or kicking the tupperware around for awhile, and then it finally left. we got up in the morning--found teethmarks (maybe) on the lid of the tupperware. i think it was probably a deer. it didnt get into the food, but the tupperware was laying under the picnic table instead of on top of it where it had been when we went to bed. 
we made breakfast burritos, then packed the dogs up in the car and drove to the trailhead of elk mountain. i say trailhead of elk mountain like it is a real mountain--it is an oklahoma mountain, which when you look at it really doesnt look all that impressive, but there was still a really pretty view from the top. andy, tucker, yoda and i hiked up to the top. the dogs were amazing--they were more like mountain goats than dogs. 
we finally headed back to our campsite expecting more peace and quiet, but instead drove up and every single campsite was full. there were probably 60 or 70 women from the Texas Outdoor Women's Association. We decided that it would be miserable to try to sleep with that many people around with yoda growling at every little noise, so we packed up and headed home to sleep in our warm comfy bed :) 
