missing you.

i am missing you my dear christmas decorations. even though at times i felt like you were suffocating me, i still miss you.

here's a quick two-fold glimpse of our christmas home. 

fold one is for your viewing pleasure.

fold two is for my memory bank.  i want to always remember how our little house looked during our very first christmas season.

after review, the green monster was a little bit cluttered, lesson learned.

until next year!

goodbye '09.

i cannot believe i have not said anything about the fabulous christmas that we had.  one might think that since i have had nearly two weeks off from kindergarteners that i would have had so much more time on my hands but i have successfully wasted a ton of time crafting and eating cookies and have not thought once about blogging to keep good record of our first "marry"ed christmas.  how about a trusty bullet list?

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  about four years ago my family started this funny tradition of eating at chick-fil-a on christmas eve day and watching all of the paniced chaos of shoppers in the oh-so terrible fabulous mall of abilene.  there was lots of huslte and bustle and lots of crazies finishing their last minutes! it snowed all day on christmas eve, hence the artic gear.  yay for beauitful, white, christmas miracles!
  
  
  
• 
  
  the entire town shut down shop due to the winter wonderland.  they even cancelled christmas eve services at our church.  NEVER have we not been in church on christmas eve, it was really the strangest thing. 
  
• 
  
  so instead, we decided to go see this.  little did we know, that it was the most depressing movie EVER made.  do not waste your time.
  
• 
  
  andy and i did our little married jeffrey christmas that night after we got home from my parents.  it was such a sweet time and uggggg i didn't take one ounce of documentation.  it was however the most perfect first christmas, my heart swells just thinking about it. 
  
• 
  
  we woke up christmas morning and went right back to my parents house.  there is something about being in the exact same living room, surrounded by all of the familiarity of twenty-five past christmas mornings that brings tears to my eyes.  i dearly love my famly. . . and the presents were fantastic!
  
• 
  
  the rest of the day was spent with all of our cousins, aunts, uncles and sweet grandparents.  our christmas day runs like clock-work and i cannot get enough of it.  i can trust that every year we will eat the most delicious breakfast, sing "happy birthday" to baby jesus and tons of christmas carols, play ridiculous card games, eat way too much and have an all around blast.  raise your hand if you love your treasured traditions!
  
• 
  
  so proud of this christmas girl! she's practically the smartest person i know.  she just graduated from PA school and accepted a super smarty job in dallas all in the same week.  so thankful for friendships to cherish.
  

• 
  
  andy and i celebrated being married for six months on sunday and our "first kiss" anniversary on monday.  this picture is so hysterical to me now. . .when andy and i first started dating he took me to his infamous college house where he had built a fire pit in the back field/yard.  we thought we were so sneaky as we sat so cozily, trespassing mind you.  it was that night that we became an official couple and when he kissed me for the first time, december 28th 2007! (sorry dad, i'm sure you are gagging now) when andy dropped me off that night i was a bit paniced because i knew that perfect kiss had just changed my life and as i repeated "this changes everything" about a zillion times, i very freakishly and nervously zipped up and down that brown north face zipper.  what a werido! sure am glad he's still kissing me two year later!
  

• 
  
  my dad gave my mom a new ipod for christmas so she has spent her break eating cookies and using all of her itunes bucks.  she found this treasure and has hooked me too! we may or may not already have a rehearsal dinner slideshow in the works for a little brother we may or may not know, wink wink!
  

may the Lord continue to bless you and yours that you so dearly love during these last seconds of december!

oh holy night.

oh holy night!

the stars are brightly shining

it is the night of the dear Savior's birth!

long lay the world in sin and error pining

til he appeared and the soul felt its worth.

a thrill of hope the weary world rejoices

for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
and in His name all oppression shall cease
sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
let all within us praise His holy name!

oh, how we love the etter family!

we can thank these two papas for becoming besties years and years and years ago. . .

for nights like this!

for the record: these two were such scrooges about taking pictures tonight.  i am sure they will be very disappointed christmas morning.

sup sup supper club.

have a holly jolly christmas,

it's the best time of the year,

i don't know if there'll be snow,

 but have a cup of cheer,

have a holly jolly christmas and when you walk down the street,

say hello to friends you know and everyone you meet!

supper club was at sam and lucy's this month and yahoo it was fabulous! delicious chili with noodles, a jeffrey "must" from here on out and decadent desserts made all of our bellies so happy! time with sweet friends is always special but it was especially perfect because it's christmas!

p.s. we missed you ryan dunagan.  hope you are feeling better!

headbands are so in!

word on the street is that headbands are on thier way "out" but i just won't stand for it.  so we decided to start our protest with a craft night.  what a success! look for us around town sporting the cutest hair duds you've ever seen!

birthday party!

on wednesday night i got this surprise in the mailbox. inside read that basically i was about to have the birthday of all birthdays.  i could hardly sleep the next three nights and andy was so shut-lip about the whole thing it was making me crazy! andy woke me up my birthday morning to the most beautiful pair of tall brown boots my eyes ever did see and then we headed over to my parents house to embark on a "planned months ahead" perfect birthday weekend in san antonio! here's the wrap-up of the fun!

promise me.  the next time you are in san antonio you will try this place out.  hands down, best cheeseburger i have ever had and everyone agreed.

we were so lucky to eat with a dear family freind who brought me a special birthday treat! just too sweet.

the rest of the afternnon was full of the riverwalk, which i love! then we got all ready for our big birthday night out.  ate yummy mexican food, cracked up at the mariachi's (one of my favorite things ever!) and then. . .

cue drumroll please!

oh. my. word. my parents surprised me with tickets to this fabulous thing! i was speechless! the show was so great.  it was amazing to watch how people make themselves look like REAL animals.  so wild! no pun intended.

the perfect night ended with  my traditional funfetti cake that my mom has made for me every single birthday.  i was fearful that  since we were traveling i wouldn't have one but oh no, never doubt my mom.  she thinks of everything. thanks mom!

thank you sweet friends for all of  the birthday wishes and thank you my dear family for a birthday for the books! here's to next year. . . i'd be fine with paris or maybe italy!

celebrate early? why not!

my husband of the year decided that he wanted to celebrate the birth of his wife early with a sweet dinner and a very sweet surprise on saturday.  my real birthday is this coming saturday, december the 12th and i cannot wait for my big day.  andy caught on to my excitment about a month ago and saw it fitting to do it up big and celebrate two weekends in a row! i think it's just pure genius. 

i had run some errands for new crafts on saturday afternoon and when i returned i found this HUGE box waiting for me.  andy is all about being tricky and sneaky when it comes to surprises so i knew that what was in the box was surely not really that big. needless to say, i couldn't wait to find out!

isn't he the best? i love my new uggs!

birthday countdown: 3 days!

it's a holly jolly christmas.

well these crazies here, along with our hubbies decided to ring in the month of wonderful december in downtown abilene at the annual city sidewalks christmas parade.  poor parade.  it was so cold and wet that not many floats showed up to participate.  don't blame them a bit! but we watched the floats pass by while we dined on our dellicious and rather small proportioned food at cypress street followed by gabbing at the vinson's afterwards.  it was the perfect night to pay welcome to december.  so much good goes on in december, i can hardly sleep at night.  my birthday month, christmas cards, new traditions and treasured old traditions, christmas eve & christmas day, cute sweaters, tall boots, coats, gloves and scarfs. there is not a better month!

the christmas parade is a sweet memory for andy and i. this was our 3rd year in a row to be in attendance.  three years ago we went to dinner and the parade just as friends.  we both left the parade that night wanting to be more than just friends and here we are today! the married jeffrey's! i owe alot to that sweet little parade.