change...

Yep....I changed this blog again...and it won't be the last time. I have got to learn how to do more on this computer. I read so many blogs now and they are all so cute......from the header to the sidelines to the actual posts. I know I could do that if I only had a personal computer geek.....wait! I do have a personal computer geek! His name is Chuck.

But Chuck has way better things to do with his time than help me with this blog....not to mention he's not that into "cute." He did help me with the picture above...and while it will do, it is not exactly what I was going for.

I took the Christmas down today and did a little cleaning and dusting. Good times. I love the way the house looks at Christmas...but I also love the way it looks after it is all gone for the next 11 months. And those 11 months will fly by quickly and it will be time to get it all out again.

I am giving serious thought to my resolutions for 2008. I always come up with some, but never keep them. I think it is just a time to think of things that need to be changed.......and maybe sometime soon, those changes will happen. Even if not on Jan. 1.

Chuck and I bought each other a treadmill for Christmas. (Okay, Chuck's money, my idea) It will be delivered on Saturday, Jan. 5. My goal is to walk 30-45 minutes a day. Surely, I can do that. I just read a quote from some Hollywood babe (can't remember who) that said she would rather have 6 hours of sleep and a one hour workout than 7 hours of sleep. That makes sense. I am going to repeat that to myself until I believe it.

I had a great 2007. Lots of good things happened: Jordan graduated from A&M, Cameron got into the Engineering College at A&M, Will survived jumping out of a car with just a few stitches and a chipped elbow, Chuck's project went smoothly, my job was fun. Hopefully 2008 will bring good things, too.

for Jordan.....

Dear Jordan,

Although we know you are happy, we still missed you around the house today....our first Christmas without you. It is now 11:00 p.m. and we are ALL still in our PJ's ...a very relaxing Christmas Day. We slept late, opened gifts, ate a big breakfast at noon, played with our new gifts, hung around, watched some new dvd's, ate some more, watch some more tv....and now it is almost time for bed. The good news is we all have on our pj's. Yipee! I love this lazy family. My kind of day.
You are a great gift giver and we all loved our gifts from you. Here are a few pictures of some of us opening them....I am behind the camera so I didn't make it in any of them. Thank goodness....bed head and all. It would have been a scary site.

It is hard to believe I have a daughter old enough to be away on Christmas day, but I can honestly say, that as long as you are happy, I am happy.





Will studying his gift from you....a season of Friends.



Cameron opening her Harry Potter coffee mug. Double score....Harry Potter and Coffee!



Daddy opening your present....the latest Clive Cussler.



Cameron's gift to Daddy... a replica of the "Lady's Leg Lamp" from the Christmas Story. Look at that laugh!







Christmas Eve at our house with the Ivy's.

Supercalifragilisticexpealadocious....or something like that.

The first weekend in December, my sister-in-law, Beth flew in to Houston to see us. No, not to see us. To see her hero, Julia. No, not Julia. Julie. She had called a few weeks earlier to see if I would go with her to see Julie Andrews who was coming to the Hobby Center. I said yes......and she purchased VIP tickets. With a VIP ticket, you got a signed book by Julie and a photo op. Although it may look like Julie and I are old friends.......in reality it was a split second. But what a wonderful split second. She is beautiful, elegant, gracious, intelligent, funny and real. Very real.

The evening was "a conversation" with Julie. She told her life story and of 3 very lucky breaks in her early career that led to her success. She did not talk about her botched vocal chord surgery in the late 90's that rendered her unable to sing the octaves that made her so famous. She talked about her 38 year marriage, her charities of choice and how she knew she was blessed. It was a wonderful evening. One I may have missed had Beth not found the ad and called me to see if I would tag along.

Thankfully there was a photo op, as Beth told me all she wanted for Christmas was a photo of her with Julie. Checked that one off the list early! And I got one of me with her, too....something I never thought would happen in this lifetime.

His biggest fan...

Dan Fogelberg died on Sunday, December 16, 2007, at 6:00 a.m. He died at his home in Maine...after a long battle with prostate cancer.

I haven't cried but, oh, I am so sad. I woke up several times last night and thought about him. Probably I will cry one day over something as silly as a commercial and then the flood gates will open and I will wail for Dan. That's how it usually happens. Of course I didn't know Dan personally but he was a huge part of my growing up in my 20's......he mended my heart the first time it was broken, got me through many more bad relationships and sang to me and my babies in the middle of the night. When Will was a baby and would get fussy in the carseat, I could play a Fogelberg tape and he would immediately calm down.

I discovered Dan Fogelberg in the summer of 1978...his music was being played at a party and I asked someone who it was. By then he had 4 or 5 albums out and I bought them all and spent countless hours listening to them. I bought albums and played them on a record player....there was no fast forwarding or rewinding or skipping so I listened to every song on every album over and over and over.  I was his back up singer...in my living room or car.

I had had my heart broken in March of 1977 and I don't think I even began to feel again until I started listening to Dan's music. I continued to buy his new records....by then 8 tracks, then tapes, then cd's...but his first 3 or 4 albums are still my favorite. My children allow me to listen to his cd's on long road trips. Chuck took me to his concerts. I even have him listed as a Happy on this site.

I loved him.

CAUTION: Wearing this may cause you to bake.

I received a note on my door yesterday that an attempt was made to deliver a package to me.......and so today I went to pick it up at the post office. I knew it was from Stephanie....my childhood friend from Bryan....and I was so anxious to see what it was that I ripped into it in the car. And I was not disappointed at all....in fact, it could not have been a more perfect gift.

Stephanie is the reason I started blogging....and reading blogs. Once you start reading blogs, that leads you to other blogs, that leads you to even more blogs. And before you know it, you have wasted a good bit of time. But really only time you would have spent loading the dishes or doing a load of laundry, and I have found those things sit back and wait patiently for me.

Anyway, one day on one blog, I saw a very cute apron. Then they began appearing on
many of the blogs. You could order an apron or a pattern. These aprons were made of vintage fabrics and could not have been more adorable. I cannot tell you how many times I almost ordered one. But then I would think, maybe I should try to make one.....I just never got around to it.

Well, Stephanie sent me the cutest (better than any I have seen to date) apron for my birthday! So now I may start cooking again. So Stephanie George Hirschberg, I thank you for the apron....and Chuck and Will thank you for the hot meals in their future.

YOU BETTER NOT POUT

We have almost always had a huge, artificial, but very real looking tree. Mostly because we have gone to Mississippi over the holidays and I hated coming home to a dead tree and carpet full of needles. So after the first 3 or 4 years of our marriage we went to the artificial tree. Several years ago we purchased the biggest pre-lit tree and although it made a great statement.....it was incredibly hard to decorate. It took lots of ribbon, ornaments and ladders to make it look full.

So just a couple of years ago, I decided I wanted a much smaller, skinny tree when our gigantic tree starting losing sections of lights. Much to my family's chagrin, we went out shopping for one. We got in Garden Ridge and Chuck just couldn't do it. He could not buy a little tree. It just wouldn't be Christmas (whatever...)...so I gave in, and we bought a medium tree with lots more lights on it than the one we had. Not as hard to fill up but still larger than I wanted.

But what you see above is the new tree I just purchased on a whim.....a white, tinsel tree.....7 feet tall but still rather small. I love it. I put all cookie and candy ornaments on it. And it is twinkly and sugar plummy. We didn't even get the other tree out of the attic. And the Hackney men are grumbling and pouting. They really want an explosion of Christmas in the house.

But the one who puts the ornaments on and the one who takes them down RULES. And the one who rules just turned 50.