'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there

Some of you may have already opened presents but we'll celebrate tomorrow, at least this year. Tonight there's no children nestled, all snug in their beds. In fact no kids here at all today but we expect Justin in later this evening. The only creature stirring is Sam, who right now is curled up in front of the fire. He's in a Sam's Club-induced coma...he loves raw ground chuck from Sam's Club (and ONLY from Sam's Club) and he just had some. :)

Here's a bit of Christmas at our house.











He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Texas Turnaround

For the 2nd year in a row we made the Kelly Willis-Bruce Robison Holiday Show at The Mucky Duck. It was awesome!!! This year Jennifer came too, I hope Don makes it next year. There is NOTHING like live music. They wouldn't allow flash photos during the show and I wanted to take some video but my card was full. So rather than start deleting shots so I could make room, I shut the camera down and enjoyed the night. But here's a clip of Kelly from CMT (one of my favorites):

http://www.cmt.com/videos/kelly-willis/26395/if-i-left-you.jhtml

We went to the 9:30 pm show and yes, we had oh-so-close to the stage seating, reserved by Lou Ellen, as evidenced by her name on the card. Hey...the people that get the stuff are the people that show up and ASK for the stuff! ;)



After our waiter botched our first picture, a kind person at the next table got a good shot of all of us:





It was just cool. You may not know Kelly & Bruce, but if you don't...you should. If you love music. Or Texas.

Houston. I always complain about the traffic (the pits, mostly) but we managed to get around enough to have fun: a little shopping in Highland Village, went to Justin's new apt, drove in to River Oaks to eat at Chuy's, stayed up late talking after the show. The next day we wanted to head for shopping in Silver Lake but since the stinkin' cold rain continued, we headed for the Baybrook Mall instead. Can you say shop till you drop? OK, we didn't get that far but it was still good. Then Jen and I headed home, and that's where our Texas turnaround ended.

Let It Snow

"Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

OK, so I'm a week late with this post but since I just learned how to make it snow on my blog, here it is. Yes, we had actual snow last week. It didn't last long, just melted into a slush. And now it's warmer here, but sloppy and messy still since we've had so much rain.

I want some clear, cold days where the sun shines!! Big doings this week....Jennifer and I are going to Houston...shopping, going to see Justin...shopping, having fun with Lou Ellen & Charles...shopping, seeing a cool show, Bruce & Kelly at the Mucky Duck...and, oh yeah, shopping. ;)

Pottery Barn, on the cheap

I'm not much into crafts, but when I read a blog about this project, I thought well, if I mess it up, no great loss, what the heck. The inspiration came from Pottery Barn; here's their bigger, nicer, pricey version:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/typewriter-keys/?pkey=cwall-art

And here is the more modest, smaller, MUCH cheaper thing I was going to attempt to make:
Pickles and Cheese

It just looked fun! Before I could back out I bought all the supplies and...and...told people. It's one thing to say you might do something, but after you say you WILL, you just have to. So I did! Lisa made one too. Andrea worked on another project, for Santa.  Here's a few shots, in progress:



We got this far:

Then I did the stenciling and white circles.

Stained it twice and there it is, my Pottery Barn art project! I think it's cool. I may add some more stain...or not. :)