One week left of vacation

Hello to all! Well, I have finally (sorrowfully) approached my last week of Christmas vacation before a new semester begins at the University of Houston. Scott did not have any vacation days, so he does not feel my pain, nor sympathize...

So, I had this long list of projects that I was going to complete over my 4 week break and I will give you a guess as to how many of those I actually completed before today.... anyone..... ZERO. But! I am going to take FULL advantage of my last week and tackle as many of these projects as I can AND you will get to see the results! Aren't you so lucky? I will share the pictures from today's completed project in the next post.
The list includes:
*Make a decorative pillow for the guest bedroom bed
*Finish Scott and I's wedding scrapbook (it's been almost 8 months, it's high time this gets done)
*Finish the "Wall de Photos" in our living room
*Make artwork for the guest bedroom walls using old windows
*Make dust ruffle for bed in guest bedroom
*Paint something for the huge empty wall in the dining room
*Organize the festered nest of miscellaneous cords that is taking over the bottom drawer of our organizing bin

It will get done, just maybe not all this week....

Besides this, Scott and I went to our friends Tim and Sarah's wedding reception at the Haven Center on Saturday night! It was so nice to be able to see Tim and Sarah on their wedding day! I gave Sarah a hard time for changing our of her wedding dress before I got to see it, but I'm sure I will see pictures soon enough :-)

Me with the Bride! She changed out of her dress.... grrr..... at least this one was pretty too!

Friday night, Scott and I decided to hang out with just the two of us. We went out to eat at Little Bigs and had some sliders and fries, then went to Half Price Books where Scott was able to buy 7 books for 12 dollars! And! We found a $1.00 VHS copy of the old Disney movie "Homeward Bound" that neither one us could pass up. We went to Kroger, picked up a bag of Oreos, came home, changed into our PJs, popped in Homeward Bound, and ate Oreos dunked in milk. The perfect ending to our Friday night. Truly glorious!

Saturday morning, I woke up with an Oreos and milk hangover and needed a healthy breakfast to feel good about myself, ha. We ate oatmeal and cut up fruit--just what I needed!

That night we made salami, cheese, and roasted red bell pepper sandwiches with a cream cheese/horseradish dip eaten with cucumbers (both recipes courtesy of Real Simple magazine)! Everything was so tasty!

Scott's ready to eat!

Sunday morning we went to church at 11:00 to help out with communion. Scott and I along with 4 others served communion and I was so touched to be able to do this. Our church does communion by way of "intinction", which simply means that volunteers stand at the front, two holding bread and four holding either wine or grape juice, and the people of the church come up to the front, tear off a piece of bread, and dunk it in the wine. The job of the volunteers is not only to hold the bread/wine, but to say "the body of Christ, broken for you" or "the blood of Christ, shed for you" when each person comes. I was just overwhelmed by how incredible it is that Christ died for ALL of these people and so many more. I must have said "the blood of Christ, shed for you" over 30 times and I started to cry about half-way through. It was beautiful.

Before I go, I want to share with you all that Scott and I will be traveling to CHICAGO this weekend! Yay!! As you may know, the north has been getting some pretty heavy snow and we ask that you pray for our safety as we fly and travel this weekend. No snow is predicted, but you just never know... We are due back on Monday night at 11:00pm, the night before I start classes. I REALLY hope that we don't get delayed!

Blessings and love.

Lots of Catching Up To Do!

Friends and family,

Wow! So much has happened since my birthday! I suppose that's what I get for having a mid-December birthday... Christmas follows 13 days after and New Years a week after that. Busy, busy! But so much fun.

The week after my birthday was the wedding of one of my good college friends, Elizabeth. I was part of the house party and was in charge of helping decorate for the reception and cutting the bride's cake. The wedding was a beautiful winter wonderland! It felt like Narnia. It was magical.

The house party: Hannah Key, Melissa Barnett, and Hannah Anderson

We were blessed with the opportunity to see nearly ALL of our family over the Christmas holiday. It was quite a crew, but Christmas tends to bring out the best in us so we enjoyed every moment. A few of the highlights included (but are not limited to):

1) Our first married Christmas together!

2) Sleeping in every morning! Which, unfortunately for us, means about 8:30am these days...

3) Too much delicious food:

*Apricot French toast casserole goodness from heaven--made by my mother, who else

*Schnitzel and spaetzel with carrots, mushrooms, and parsnips--a German feast hand-crafted by Barbara Key

*Curry!--a MUST at every Huddleston family gathering and it NEVER gets old!

*Pecan pie, sour cream apple pie, cookies, divinity, fudge, and these peanut-butter things covered in chocolate that I cannot remember the name of...all of these made by my grandmother, Mema, who makes my desire to NOT gain 20 lbs over Christmas that much more difficult because each of these treats is cooked to perfection and displayed on a large white counter top just within finger-reach every time you pass through the kitchen

*And an assorted pot-luck dinner at the Key Family Christmas.

4) Somehow managing to come away from all of that deliciousness and temptation without gaining a single pound! WAHOO!

5) A little shopping trip with my #1 cousin--ASHTON REELY!

6) The giving of gifts, but best of all, the faces of the recipients

7) My Papa Huddleston's sense of humor--he gets funnier as the months progress!

8) Stockings--I dare say I enjoy the tiny gems inside my stocking more so than the gifts.... it's a close call

9) Christmas Day trip to the movie theater with the Keys--a long-time tradition of the Key family. This year's flick: Up In the Air with George Clooney (totally worth it just to see him)

10) An evening of four-part harmony singing accompanied by Jim and Levi at the guitar on Christmas night. It was beautiful. A new tradition, I hope.

Jim on the guitar

11) The sense of "home"--family members coming together; my brothers and daddy's laugh; my mom's ability to turn any space into an inviting and warm haven, complete with Lavender Mist Febreeze that she fervently sprays into the atmosphere ;-) ; oh so many dogs that bark at the slightest stir, leave hair clinging to my sweaters, and make my eyes itch, while simultaneously making me laugh at their clumsiness and feel loved by their welcoming tail-wags and kisses; in-laws that are in fact very normal, fun, loving, and hospitable (how did I get so lucky?); and, of course, the reason for the season and who I owe all of my thanks for giving me "home": Jesus Christ.

One of those laughs I was telling you about

New Years was fantastic as well! We drove up to Dallas to visit Scott's sister and her husband and a few friends joined in the mix as well. Stefanie's friend, Kevan, and Kevan's daughter of 4 named Aubrey came up New Years Eve night and stayed through the weekend. Aubrey is quite a little bundle of energy and joy! She developed a crush on Scott and relentlessly clung to him like, well, dog hair to a sweater, the whole weekend. She would hop in his lap at every opportunity, start pillow fights in the middle of his reading, and attempt to kiss him on several occasions.

Aubrey and Scott, after a long attempt at her trying to steal a kiss. (She fell and and got a hole in her pantyhose--her solution: shipping tape.)

I thought she was hilarious (mostly because she was leaving me alone) and could not have been cuter! Stefanie gave us a wonderful New Years Day meal, sure to bring us all kinds of luck this year with the black-eyed peas and sauerkraut, glazed pork, and garlic mashed potatoes--YUM.

Scott's ready to eat some grub!

The feast!

We took a trip to the Dallas Aquarium as well and saw a variety of aquatic as well as land life.

Scott's sister, Stefanie walking with Aubrey to the Aquarium

The scariest part (well, to me anyway) was the shark aquarium. If you know me, you know that not only am I terrified of deep water and its creatures, but sharks in particular give the eebie-geebies.... This tank, though, was very unique in that it felt like you were actually swimming with the sharks. Allow me to explain: you walk into a tunnel that is surround on all sides (including the roof) by very thick clear plexiglass and water. The sharks are free to swim around the entire tunnel, including above your head.

This picture of me is what my face looked like the entire time we were in there; that face was NOT staged.

They had a little sloth climbing on some limbs; the display was not behind glass or a fence! You could walk right up to the sloth! It was really neat. Parrots were flying everywhere and the aquarium had a set-up that was like the layers of the rainforest. It was four stories high and had a walking path that took you through all four levels. The very bottom level was a large pool that held two HUGE manatees! They were SO cute! One of them was playing with a floating log, hugging it and rolling around on it's surface.

The Wyly theater designed by a famous architect: Joshua Prince Ramus

Dallas Art District

So, that was our life for the past 2 1/2 weeks! Now that I am all caught up, there should be a post once a week :-)

Much love and blessings as we start this new year: WELCOME 2010!

A blog with pictures to come!

Friends and family,

Just wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten you! As you know, the holiday season is a busy one, but a wonderfully blessed one.

I will be posting a new blog on Monday after the New Years weekend! We are leaving town again, so it will be easier to post when we return.

We love you all so much and wish you a safe, happy, and reflective New Year!

Blessings.

My Birthday! A Real Treat :-)

Friends and family,

It has been such a good weekend! Despite being away from family, my birthday was very memorable and several remembered me :-) Thank you for your cards, phone calls, texts, Facebook posts, and gifts. You are all so wonderful to think of me!

Scott had a full weekend planned out, which started with his friend from work, Derrick, dropping us off at the Magnolia hotel in downtown Houston on Saturday afternoon.

It was a beautiful hotel, decorated from Lobby to the 23rd floor in ruby red Poinsettias, large Christmas trees, gold and silver ornaments, and big bows!

We dropped off our one suitcase in our room on the 21st floor

and I opened my gift from Scott--as if he hadn't already done enough!

It was a very cute blouse from Tracy Porter (a designer whose blog I follow faithfully).

We then took advantage of the hotel's complimentary town car service by having them drop us off at a shopping center about 4 blocks away.

One of my favorite places to shop is a store called Forever 21 and you would not believe the size of this one!! It took up almost an entire block and had two stories!! Poor Scott... God bless him though, he pushed through telling me what looked cute, holding my coat (putting it on at one point!),

and taking pictures along the way.

After purchasing a very cute, white sweater with a grey print, a large pair of gold earrings, and a bottle of nail polish, we left and went across the street to Books-A-Million. I couldn't be completely selfish with the shopping trip, plus I enjoy a good book, too!

We walked back to the hotel, changed into our fancy clothes,

and enjoyed a DELICIOUS dinner at a place called The Grove. "When they can", the chefs use local, organic ingredients from area farmer's markets and farms. We shared a roasted quail with mustard sauce along with a slice of brie cheese served with handmade pear jam and crusty bread for our appetizer. YUM!

Then Scott had a Glazed Berkshire Pork Belly that was part of the "Small Plate" menu..... it was indeed..... small. But good! It was about the size of a plum served with a smear of smashed parsnip (by that, they took a knife with a bit of parsnip puree and drug it across the plate). I had a wonderful pulled rotisserie chicken sandwich with sauteed mushrooms, white cheese, and french fries! It was a hefty portion, so I gave Scott half of my sandwich and some fries. We ended the night with a Texas Pecan+Brown Butter Cake and a scoop of ice cream! Perfection! Scott told our waiter, Salvador, that it was my birthday and written across the top of our dessert plate in chocolate sauce was "Happy Birthday!" So nice!

We came back to the hotel just in time for the cookies and milk buffet! Wow! I had half of a peanut butter cookie and half of a double chocolate chip cookie with a glass of milk.

Scott had the other halves. We stayed in for the rest of the night, went to bed early around 10:30 and woke up at 8:30. Breakfast was served on the 2nd floor and included hot eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns with fruit, muffins, bagels, coffee, and orange juice. We hopped a taxi back to our apartment and now I am sitting on the couch in UTTER denial that I have two finals this week. I REALLY don't want to study..... in fact I just might be blogging right now just to avoid it.....

Anyway. The moral of the story: my husband is amazing. I in no way expected this but it was very memorable and special.

You all are amazing too! I can't tell you how nice it was to be remembered on my birthday. Your words and gifts were so thoughtful and heartfelt.

Blessings to all to all a good Sabbath Sunday.

We love you.

This will be a long blog post! But a good one.

Friends and Family~

It has been a little while! We had the week off for Thanksgiving and this past week was my last week of classes, so it was a little crazy! Like last time, I will tell you of the week in pictures.

This story begins on the week of Thanksgiving. We packed our bright blue suitcases into the back of our little blue sudan and headed up Hwy 290, through College Station, Hearne, Cameron, Rogers, and, at last, we arrived in Belton, TX to stuff our faces with all things good!

There was lots of cooking...

Eating...

Gathering...

Brothers...

Sisters...

and dogs....

We ended the week by purchasing our first Christmas tree as a married couple! And my first ever LIVE Christmas tree! (No allergies yet....)

And, to continue a multiple generation tradition, we strung popcorn for our tree garland! The house smelled of butter and pine! Quite a lovely combination. Stringing popcorn with needle and thread is a new tradition for Scott (his fingers are proof--poor things were victim to many a needle stab) but he completed it with only a few injuries and minor grumblings....

TADA!

Our parents gave us all of our ornaments that have been collected for us over the last 23 years and we finished the tree off with those.

The rest of the house has been decked with gold and silver Christmas ornaments piled in clear glass bowls, and stockings are currently being sewn with my ammeter sewing skills and pattern purchased for $1.99!

One more thing before we go--it SNOWED in Houston on Friday!! It was REAL snow! It started snowing at about 9am and didn't stop until 6pm. Only about an inch of it stuck and it was all melted by morning, but we were excited none the less! (Can't you tell by my face how happy I was?!)

Well, that is all I have to tell! My birthday is on Saturday and Scott has some festivities planned for the weekend! Hopefully our next post will be sometime next week.

We love you all.

P.S. Here is a sneak-peak of the coming Huddleston Family Christmas Card 2009! You will have to check your mailboxes in the next 2-3, maybe 4 weeks to see what the final result was! (It's a good one.)