4 days at the Dahir's during Christmas

We spent 4 days at my parent's house. While there we had the party at Outermarker, saw Erin and Ross, had the December birthday dinner, hung out with Grandma, Aunt Linda and Uncle Lloyd, went to Killeen to have Christmas with my mom's side of the family, saw Kirsten and Amy, and we met Robert and Aiden at Hard 8. I'm so thankful that we were able to see so many of our friends and family even though it was a whirl-wind trip. Here are some pics.

The Dahir family
Robert, Aiden, John and I at Hard 8.


White Christmas
Aunt Carol, Uncle Stan, Kyle, Diana, Melissa and Kevin
Cameron, Mom, Me, Gangan, Torrey
Garrett, Landon, Emmy, Kerri, and Sara
The Tolliver family
Kerri, Brandy and I
Kirsten, Amy, Kerri and I
Erin and I

4 days at the Tarver's during Christmas

We spent 4 days at the Dahir side of the family and 4 days at the Tarver side. The Tarvers consist of John's mom Debbie, sister Amanda, dad Greg, step-mom Deana, brother Adam, and uncle Donald. We went to a Mavericks game, went to Monroy's in Tawakoni, went to Christmas Eve Eve service, exchanged gifts with everyone and got to spend lots of quality time with everyone. Here are some pictures from our trip.

John and Greg


John's dad's side of the family
At the maverick's game



John's mom's side of the family

Quilts

I have always wanted to learn how to quilt. I never knew anyone who could show me how, so one day I decided to teach myself. I started by making one for Mom. Then I got the brillant idea to make Kerri and Brandy one as well and give them for Christmas gifts. This ended up being a much bigger task than I realized, but I was able to get them done in time. Here is what they look like.

Gag Gifts

My mom is from Killeen. We go to Killeen every year to have Xmas with her family. We used to exchange gifts, but many years ago we narrowed this down to Gag gifts only. The last couple years there haven't been as many funny gifts, so we decided to liven things up. We took a pair of my dad's old but clean underwear and melted chocolate in it to make it look like skid marks. Then we wrapped it nicely in a Victoria Secret's package. My cousin-in-law Kevin was the first one to open it!! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, all 19 of us were gasping for air! We play that when you go around again you can steal/switch with someone. Well the undies then went to, more like were thrown at, Brandy. I guess no one believed us when we told them they were clean so it was passed from person to person like a hot potato and no one would make direct contact. Then from Brandy they went to Diana, then John, then TooToo and then at the end Kevin stole them back. We couldn't believe he would want them, but he did. Then he put them on his head, it was hilarious.
Peeking inside

pulling the undies out with tissue paper

Brandy with them

John with them

they even made it on the tree

Kevin putting them on his head

Mysterious Xmas Gift

We opened Xmas gifts at John's families house today. John was in charge of passing out the gifts to Amanda, Debbie, himself and I. The first gift he got to was a Xmas gift with no name on it. We figured Debbie had forgotten to put someones name on it. Debbie swore she hadn't seen it before so John passed it to me to see if I could find a name. I couldn't see one so I passed it to Debbie. She looks, can't find one and then opens it up. She pulls out a frame and her eyes get real big. The rest of us can only see the back so we don't know why she has that look on her face. Then she tells us the inscription on the bottom of the frame. It says "Grandkids are Great". She gives John and I a look like when are you going to say SURPRISE like we were joking this entire time and it was really from us. John and I insist we don't know anything about this and she still thinks we are joking. After a couple minutes of telling her for real I'm not pregnant; we are all the sudden like "Where did this gift come from"????? No one has any clue!! It was so funny. We decided that would have been a great way to tell Debbie she was going to be a Grandma, but we are still wondering who played a piratical joke on all of us.

Birthday Party in Dallas

John and I got to Dallas on Friday. Kerri, Brandy and I had a party for our birthdays on Saturday night at Outermarker in Addison. Its kind of a dive, but was fun because they have karaoke. Erin in Ross were in town all weekend staying with my family. I got to spend most of Saturday hanging out with her, we definitely need to move back. I miss everyone so much.
We get to the party early with Erin and Ross and Katy Grady was there. Brian was there also. Shannon and Nolberto surprised me by showing up. It is such a small world. I went to college with Nolberto and he is dating a guy named Reggie. Reggie works with my sister and was invited to the party. So weird that it turns out I knew Reggie's boyfriend! It has been so long since I have seen them...almost 5 years!! Highlights of the night:
1. "Its really chocolatey!!"
2. karaoke in Dallas is awesome b/c it is all country songs
3. Ross can't take a picture without making a goofy face on purpose
4. John tried literally everything on the menu and said everything was gross
5. Jack in the Box and John telling the person at the window "Feliz Navidad"
6. Ross attacking mailboxes and a traffic cone
7. Ross attacking Brian's car (do you see a pattern here)
8. Ross standing under the Ross sign
9. Driving through the drive thru the wrong way at Jack in the Box
Well all in all it was a GREAT night! I will post pics later.

Erin and Ross
Katy and Shannon
Bert and I


Birthday toast

Tarleton crowd
Mom, dad, Brandy, and I
John and I

Birthday at Benihana

Today we went to Benihana for my birthday. I LOVE Benihana, we used to go every Xmas growing up, but I haven't been in about 5 years. There isn't one in the city, so we drove out to the suburbs to go. My friends Kristal, Sheana, Erik and Erika came.
Since moving to our condo a little over a year ago I have walked past this place called Alliance Bakery many times. Every time I walk past I tell John I want a cake from there for my bday. They have the most AMAZING cakes you have ever seen. John got me one this year for my birthday and it is SO NEAT! I'm so impressed with with it. The cake is chocolate with a fudge filling. It is in the shape of TX, with the colors of the TX flag on top in a quilt pattern. PERFECT for me!! They took so much time on it. John came home with it today and he was going to surprise me with it at the restaurant, but it was so huge we didnt have a box to put it in so I got to see it. I had a GREAT birthday!! Here are some pictures.

John and I

The cake after we've eaten some

Blowing out the candle
The volcano made out of onions

Kristal, Sheana and I
The cake!!