New Years Recap (and Roll Tide)

How 'bout them Bammers?!?  I'm am almost positive that at least 50% of the population of the state of Alabama is functioning on very little sleep and lots of coffee today after the incredibly exciting National Championship Game last night.  With it being a come-from-behind overtime victory, I am sure there were very few fans who switched off the game early.  I am glad Bama won, but I am also glad that it was a good game with lots of story lines to it: Coach vs. Former Asst. Coach, brothers going head to head on the field, Bama just barely sneaking in to the game thanks to an Auburn loss in the SEC Championship to make it an all SEC game, and Bama pulling their 25-2 QB at halftime to put in a true freshman to up against Georgia's true freshman QB (so many talented freshman played a huge role in the game!).  You can't make this stuff up. The die hard Bama fans are all wearing smiles today, but they're also not tooting their horns like they have in years past because they know how close they were to not getting this one.

So the real point of this post was to wrap up our holiday season, and the only thing I have left is New Years....Eve and Day because the two combined were quite a doozy, so let's do this.

If you recall from my last post I was headed back to AL on NYE.  I made it home around 2 p.m., and thankfully we were spending NYE at some friends' house so I didn't have to come home and host like I did last year. I managed to unpack the car, walk the pups, make dessert to take with us, and get ready all in a 4 hour span.  *pats self on the back for being Superwoman*

Our New Years Crew

Some good friends of ours were spending their fist holiday season in their new home after living in a rental while the waited on their old house to sell (out of town) for the past 4 years, so needless to say they were thrilled to get to host everyone!  It was an awesome dinner party complete with fancy tables, Moscow Mules, fireworks (jury is still out on whether the kids or the grown men had more fun with those), karaoke, and of course a champagne toast at midnight. 

 Believe it or not, this was a Pictionary drawing of Spongebob Squarepants, and yes someone guessed it correctly.

....and the best part?  I got to go home and not have to pick my house up afterward!!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hosting things at our house but our porch is not built for winter gatherings so it was nice having somewhere else to go!

We made it home in the wee hours of the morning, but were wired from the festivities so I made dips for the football games the next day.....at 2:30 a.m. I think I finally gave in around 3 a.m., only to be roused by the pups around 8 (such is life).  As hard as I tried (ok I didn't try that hard) I was not ready to go 2.5 hours later when Eric wanted to head back out to another friends' house to watch the football games.....12 straight hours of football games to be exact. I think I made it for the second half of the first game, went home to take a nap and try to at least unpack my suitcase from my trip to Memphis and got caught up watching the GA/OK overtime game, and made it back for the second quarter of the Bama/Clemson game.  Thank goodness the game had an uneventful second half so I could say "see ya" and head to the house. 

I think I was still playing catch up from Christmas all week last week, but I think I am finally there.  The house has been de-Christmased (which took me a week....gah!), and I am ready to take on 2018!

Bring it 2018!

I will leave you with one of my favorite puns I've seen this morning about the game last night:
"Thank goodness the QB change at halftime wasn't Tua little Tua late".....I know, I know, super corny, but still good.

Christmas Recap Part 2

A couple of days after Christmas I set off for Christmas #2 or #3 or #4 depending on how you're counting, in Memphis with my parents and brother. There was more food, more relaxing, a puzzle (of course), and even a trip to IKEA! Unfortunately Eric had to coach a wrestling match that weekend so he had to stay behind for practice and the match.

Jones Family Christmas pic 2017

I am pretty sure LG and Maggie had the most fun of any of us while we were there. They played constantly, to the point that they both slept the entire day after we left.

And still shots of them were next to impossible to get (the dogs, not Mom and Dad)

Maggie taught LG how to dig holes and then got mad because 

all LG wanted to do was dig said holes.

Mom got a new cookbook for Christmas so she and Matt made quick work of trying out a few new recipes.  The Banana Roll was the winner....think pumpkin roll but made with banana bread....YUM!

Perfecting the roll

Top: the finished product; Bottom: Cheesecake Factory dessert one day included Vanilla Bean, Godiva Chocolate, Red Velvet, and Tiramisu cheesecake slices. 

Of course no trip to Memphis is complete without a trip to the Three Dog Bakery.  Since Maggie gets to go often, she begrudgingly let us take just Peanut and LG.  They're becoming pros at the bakery.  They jumped out of the car and ran right up to the door like they knew exactly what we were there for. Treats....duh!

 Getting their complementary treats.

LG said we were taking too long so she laid down to start on her bone.

 Side note - I found the winning combination for driving long distances with dogs: new bones + a 45 minute walk prior to leaving.  They didn't get restless until we were about 30 minutes from home.

Another highlight of the trip was our outing to the IKEA store.  I've only been to an IKEA once so I was pretty excited to go back.  We found a few things we could not live without (many we had no idea we needed), but one of my favorites were kitchen drawers that you can open with your hip (or knee if your tall like my family)....they were pretty amazing.

I am ready to schedule my kitchen remodel like yesterday....but we can't do white cabinets. Keeping those suckers clean with 4 dogs in the house??? Ain't nobody got time for that!

Minus Eric not being there, it was the perfect ending to our Christmases.  I packed up the pups on New Years Eve and headed back to Alabama because we had NYE plans that actually didn't involve a large group of people at our house.....(that never happens!)...I promise to have a full recap on that soon!

Mom and Dad's tree is the tree that keeps on giving (yes it's decorated with Lottery Tickets!)

Christmas 2017 Part 1

It's hard to believe that another holiday season has come and gone...no seriously it flew by so fast this year I felt like I hardly had time to enjoy it. I usually spend the weekends leading to to Christmas on the couch watching Christmas movies and admiring our tree but I am pretty sure that happened all of 3 times the entire month of December.  However, I stayed up way too late every night and worked a few extra hours the week before Christmas all so I could say sayonara suckers on December 22 until the New Year.  I really needed some time to recharge my batteries for 2018 and I although I am only a few days in I think it worked.

Our beautiful tree and our 2017 ornament.  We have one for every year since we got engaged and since we did mot of our traveling via our camper this year, I thought this one was perfect!

So what did our Christmas break look like?  Lots of fun, lots of time with family and friends, and waaay too much good food!

We started Christmas weekend with a birthday/Christmas party for one of our friends.  We ended up with a houseful of folks and played Dirty Santa and had a blast!  Great way to start things off!

Our crew....complete with random mutts running through the picture.

Eric checking out the Dirty Santa loot....he insisted on wearing his ugly Christmas sweatshirt I made several years ago even though we said nothing about wearing ugly Christmas attire. I added a little something extra to it this year.  The ornaments have fallen off over the years so I replaced them with beer bottle tops.

The next day was Christmas Eve.  Since Eric is a notorious last minute shopper, we braved Wally World for a few last minute gifts before heading to have Christmas with his family.  Our nephew stole the show this year, and was the most precious little elf handing out everyones gifts and opening his own of course.

 Christmas with our favorite elf!

              We all know who is in charge here....                             What are those? "pliers"

         dad and uncle are putting his toys together           What do you do with them? "squish things"

          while he doesn't have a care in the world!

SILS on Christmas Eve

We had Christmas morning at our house, complete with breakfast casserole and presents for each other that were actually given to each other on Christmas Day (an anomaly for us). Eric got me a robot to clean the house....and it does such a great job! It's perfectly polite, too.  If one of the dogs gets in it's way it will stop and go around it....and it only chased one of the dogs one time. LG was not amused. 

I did your typical Christmas Day hibernation, but Eric was itching to try out his new Go Pro so he braved the cold, windy weather so he could. You can watch their first GoPro Video HERE. I am amazed by the quality of video he was able to get with it all while he had it strapped to his head.  Stay tuned ...There are more videos to come!

Headed to Christmas Lunch at his grandma's house

Christmas in Memphis was up next.  I headed out with LG and Peanut a couple of days after Christmas (Eric had a wrestling match so he stayed behind with Hawk and Beau) to spend a few days with Mom and Dad and Matt while he was in town. But that's a post for another day.

November Recap: Football, Thanksgiving, and Gum Grafts

To say that the month of November was a whirlwind was a complete and total understatement.  I actually realized on Dec 1 that I made it the entire month without working a single Friday, not that I was complaining at all.....but that first 5-day week in more than an month was rough.  Actually having to come back to work on Monday after only 2 days off was probably worse than having to work 5 days last week, just saying.

Coach Cagle getting the boys ready to go.

I have lots to recap, so let start where we left off October.  Football season went out with a bang.  We ended the regular season 9-1, and headed into the playoffs with a 2 seed in the region.  After a thrilling OT win where we got a huge goal line stop (the only time we stopped them all night on 4th and 1) and kicked a field goal to win, we ran into a giant brick wall dressed like high school football players. The team we faced in the second round was the biggest team we had ever seen, and our kids came up short (literally). 

We were so sad to see the season end because it really was a special one, but as all good things do, this season did as well.  This team was only the third team in school history to win 10 games, so this team had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.  They'll go down in the ole THS football history books as one of the best to come through.

The field was stormed my a mob of kids after the 1st round win....BTW he kicked it on the other end of the field and made it to the 30 on the other side before the rest of the team caught up with him and tackled him.

We closed up the season just in time for our Turkey Day Holiday.  Thankfully I was able to partake.  I had 2 gum grafts done the first week in November that seriously hampered my eating abilities (and kicked off my pre-holiday diet), for a few weeks.  It's kind of hard to explain without getting too graphic but basically, they cut 2 pieces of gum from the roof of my mouth and sewed them to my gums that were receding on the outside. I didn't get any good pics of the bottom because I was instructed not to pull on my lip so all you get is the view of the roof of my mouth where the took the pieces of my gums....

The first picture is 10 days post gum removal. I had no idea what it looked like prior to this because they put a layer of connective tissue glue (superglue for your mouth) over it so my tongue would not hit the stitches.  The second picture is 14 days post procedure.  I was completely shocked at the improvement that was made in that short amount of time and was extremely thankful I could not see what it looked like at the beginning.  I have a feeling it would not have been pretty. 

My periodontist told me the graphs on my bottom teeth looked like Franken-mouth due to the mass of stitches involved. I was down for a few days but never had major issues. I'd heard horror stories about recovery from the procedure, but I was never in excruciating pain. I'll chalk it up to 48 straight hours on the couch and a liquid diet that meant minimal movement in my mouth.

My two takeaways from the entire ordeal were 1) I never realized how much my tongue hits the roof of my mouth: talking, swallowing, eating....it's constant, and more importantly 2) It is possible to brush your teeth too hard.  This is why I had to have the procedure done.  However I highly recommend having it done as a preventative measure rather than waiting until you start losing bone and getting infection....I've heard that's part of what can make it so bad.

I went back the Friday before Thanksgiving to get my stitches out and then went immediately to Publix and bought a Thanksgiving Turkey Sub, which I promptly took home and cut up into pieces to eat.  It was soooooo good. I'm basically recovered now.

Turkey Day 2017

Our Thanksgiving was full of turkey and family time with all of Eric's family.  We all headed over to his grandma's house for turkey and every Thanksgiving side you could think of.  I think I cooked less for this Thanksgiving than any other I have as an adult.  When I called Eric's grandma to ask what we could bring I was told buttermilk pie before I could even finish my question.....his grandma LOVES my buttermilk pie.  By the end of the conversation we were in charge of frying the turkeys and I had also volunteered to make Oyster Stuffing....I won't touch the stuff, but Eric loves it.  The things we do for love... 

Somehow we managed to leave with more food than we came with.  I wasn't complaining though because I think thanksgiving leftovers might be my favorite meal.  I ate turkey sandwiches topped with cranberry relish on Sister Schubert's dinner rolls for the next several days.

Obligatory plate pic.....I was just a bit excited to get to eat this. 

I headed out early Friday morning, as usual to check out the Black Friday Deals.  I refuse to go on Thanksgiving Day but I love heading out around 6AM on Friday...the crowds from the night before are gone and everyone else is still sleeping off their turkey comas so the stores are only moderately crowded and the lines are not bad at all.  I made it through one mall before meeting Eric's Mom and the other mall.  We hit up a couple places before she headed back to her house and I stayed around to try to go a few more places, but it was starting to get crowded so I headed home myself.

I'd love to say that was the end of our grand holiday weekend, but it wasn't....not even close, but that's a post for another day....