Sdoft and Gen-dle

We had an awesome Turkey day, stuffing our face with lots of good food, compliments of some amazing chef I know. Ahem. We started the prep on Wednesday night and I had full intentions of capturing all the details a la photograph but all I got was this one:

They were damn good deviled eggs too.

The rest of the time off we spent with family, enjoying the change in the holiday season as we are now fully launched into xmas mode. All decorations are up, music is on, and we even have a print out of ABC's 25 days of Christmas because yes, we are that cool.

Brooklyn has been suprisingly good with the Christmas tree, full of bright white lights, sparkling red and silver balls, different ornaments we picked up over the last few years representing us and what we love the most. We got her a stuffed snowman with the word 'Noel' on his tummy, that's her ornament she can take on and off the tree. On and off. On and off. On and off. On and off. On and off. Exhausted yet? SHE's NOT! On and off. On and off......

Brooklyn's ornament

I decided to teach her to be soft with the tree. I took her hand and lightly rubbed her face, then mine, and whispered, soft. We then sat by the tree and did the same thing, and I said soft, gentle. Now, anytime she looks at it, or goes near it she whispers sdoft, gen-dle, and barely touches the branches or other ornaments. My husband is amazed and I tell him it's my mad parenting skills.

It's been really cold here too, which for me, adds to the whole Christmas spirit. I'm talking 40's people which for those of us in Texas is sub zero temperatures. Our "winter" coats are for style, not warmth so there are a bunch of us walking around freezing our asses off. Possible snow flurries tommorow too which if that happens will most likely mean day off at which point I promise to do the Carlton in celebration. It snowed a lot, once, when I was about 5 or 6. It was magical, and all I remember is my dad sending me flying down the neighbors driveway in a beer cooler. That experience was not sdoft, nor gen-dle, but it was fun.

If you need me, I'll be outside.

So I think we can officially say that the warm weather has arrived. As my friend Joanna put it - "getting a bunch of Mason jars in order to can this weather and be able to open it in the middle of July." I absolutely love this time of year, patio weather baby!
We've done our best at taking advantage - last Friday night we met my brother, Rob, at the Oasis and sat outside for about 3 hours (mostly due to wait time, but cold margaritas were available, so whatever.) Every time we drive up to the Oasis it doesn't matter how many cars are in the parking lot Dom always says the following "This place is a gold mine, look at all the cars...printing f***ing money in there, ridiculous." I'm not kidding you - no matter when we have ever gone, he says that at least 10 times. It was gorgeous and the view is stunning even though we are looking at a small pond rather than lake at this point.

Saturday we hit up Stillwood for their 4th annual crawfish boil. On the way there Dom and I were talking about how we would like to throw something 'annual' - like a fish fry, or even crawfish boil. Then we arrived at the party and laughed out loud at ourselves. These folks are for real with their get together. 300 lbs of crawfish, t-shirts for all that donated, 5 kegs, food for kiddos, a jumpy thing in the backyard for the kiddos or possibly drunk adults, and 3 live bands! We had an awesome time and hope to make the sponsor list on the t-shirt in 2010. So yeah, maybe we'll just throw a small xmas party and stay out of their way.

Sunday we worked in the yard all day trimming, planting, and fertilizing. It was a great day to be outside but man yard work is tiring. At least you can see our house now. So, sticking with our theme of annoying little things happening to us (as mentioned in our previous post) - we fertilized and went to turn on the sprinklers when we were done, and ... nothing. It didn't even pretend to try and turn on. Greeeat. If you don't water heavily it kills your yard once you put fertilizer down. So Dom was on the phone with the sprinkler guru's for two days before someone finally came out and fixed it. $700 later they are working. Apparently lightening struck the ground when we were in Mexico and fried everything. Ahhh...life. Our yard better look damn good this spring!

Time to close this one out and go sit on the porch. You all know we've got about 2 more weeks before the heat lamps turn on.

I may go run in the sprinklers too, just cause I can now.