My Husband - Phil Dunphy

I LOVE the new show Modern Family! It is so stinkin hilarious, and Andrew and I love watching it on Wednesday nights. I will even re-watch immediately after if Andrew came in late from flying or something. So hilarious. Anyway, once the show started, I began getting comments from a lot of friends saying, "the Phil guy on Modern Family is SOOOO Andrew." At first I kind of laughed...then I noticed Phil says a LOT of things very similar to my husband. Main one of note...word for word mind you...is one about swim wear. Andrew always maintains it is fine for him to wear boxers around people, he even jumped in the San Marcos river in boxers on the way home from school one day, as they are the same as a swimsuit. Well, in one of the first episodes Phil comes out in boxers, gets scolded, and he says "what's the big deal, the cover the same thing as a swimsuit." Hmmm, definitely similar. Well the other day there was an episode where Phil tried out a mustache for fun...Andrew did this on Halloween. When Andrew had the stache on it changed his whole personality, it was really funny...anyway, Phil's stache had the same effect. I LOVE it. It's like looking into the future...

Apparently here is my husband at 40....ah swoon.

Jewel Charity Ball

That's right, I'm making up for not blogging for an entire month by posting two blogs in one day! This one even has pictures!

One of our friends invited Andrew and I to be her guest at Jewel Charity Ball. Her name is Leanne, she is a FABULOUS graphic designer, and she designed the invitations for the Ball. JCB is a great organization that does fund raising throughout the year for Cooks Children's Hospital here in FW. It all culminates in January at their HUGE gala ball...seriously, there were 2,000 people there. Basically it is like the fun part of a wedding...dinner, dancing, drinking and an all around good time. It was held at the Omni this year, the food was great, the wine was great and the dancing, oh the dancing. I even got to wear a floor length evening gown I bought from Neimans!!! (on HUGE sale mind you)

Andrew made me proud again, he ended up on stage with the band at one point in the evening dancing. I just LOVE that I have a husband who loves to dance and really gets into making a dancing evening a fun time. We ran into our good friends Doug and Julie Renfro as well, and Andrew and Doug found props to wear during the dancing. Leanne and her husband John were out on the floor with us the entire time...just a great time! The band even played Lady Gaga...hilarious.

Leanne and I during dinnerAndrew and I on the dancefloor

Andrew and Doug with their festive props!Andrew on stage with the bandA little decaf at the end of the evening

Christmas

Well, I'm over a month behind, but I have my Christmas update complete with NO pictures. Boring.

This year was an interesting Christmas. It actually made me REALLY hate the Bing Crosby song "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." I will never dream of a white Christmas, in fact, I will only dream of a white Monday morning in January when work might possibly be canceled. Anyway....I digress. This year Andrew and I had a GREAT plan as I blogged about in my last post (yes, I know that was a month ago, no jeering).

To start, Andrew and I had an incredible Christmas just the two of us on Christmas Eve eve...lots of fun, we loved our gifts, and our tradition of watching Christmas Vacation by the fire!!

The morning of Christmas Eve worked out great! It was wonderful having his family over for brunch, and we had a great relaxing time together. However, the snow was starting to fall, and I was getting slightly nervous about the drive to LBK. Anyway, we went to Uncle Julio's for lunch, and that was so fun as well, but decided that we should skip Andrew's grandmother's Christmas Eve night due to the weather, and begin our trek to LBK. We were caught in the horrible snow, it took us 2 and 1/2 hours to go 20 miles and back to our apt. I cried. A lot. First Christmas morning without my parents EVER. Anyway, Andrew had a flight the morning of the 26th, and couldn't come to LBK with me when I left Christmas Day, b/c he would have to turn around and head back. So our second Christmas together was spent apart. Not that fun. However, after my 7 hour drive to LBK (usually a 4 1/2) I got to head straight to my dad's parents house with my parents and just see and love all of that family. Then, my mom's side graciously agreed to move our Christmas with them to the day after, so I got to have that feast with them as well in LBK. Other than my husband missing, it was GREAT!

So you can see why I am not wishing for a white one next year. Clear as a bell pretty please!!

Blog Fail

Oh man, I am totally failing at this whole blog thing. Well, December has been jam packed with fun and exciting things, which is probably why I've fallen behind so badly on the blogging.

Super condensed version: The first weekend in December we had the Werners (Terri, Alan, Scott and Michelle) over for a Christmas feast. Michelle and I cooked our little hearts out, then showered them all with gifts!! Such fun! No pictures to share.

Last weekend we went to Terri and Alan's for their annual Christmas wine party. Let's just say that last year, Andrew and I had to take a cab home...this year, I was cautious with my drinking so I could be a DD. However, the BIGGEST news of the night came when I won not one, but TWO of the competitions for the evening!! They have a blind wine tasting in 3 categories and everyone brings a competition wine, Andrew and I won for our patio white!! We brought Four Vines Naked Chardonnay, it is fantastic, and only 11.49 a bottle, and happened to beat out everyone else's bottles that were WAY more than that!! Then I won the sniffing competition! Basically, you just write down the smells in this one bottle they choose and if you are correct, you win the bottle to take home. SO - we won $60 for the patio white, and a bottle to take home. AWESOME. Andrew of course partook in the hot tub...while no else did mind you...and we had a jolly good time all around. The photos below are ones I yanked from Michelle's facebook.

I'm a big winner!
Andrew - the only one in a swimsuit, and so proudThe ladies who make it so fun!

Also, we are sending out Christmas cards this year (hopefully) and I just love the picture. Our dogs hate this, but don't worry, they get revenge EVERY Saturday morning at 6am when they wake me up to go out. And also when they shred everything I've ever owned. I'm excited about a Christmas schedule. This year, since Andrew's mom is working on Christmas Eve afternoon/night we are having his immediate family over for brunch and present opening on Christmas Eve morning!! So fun! Then we go to Uncle Julio's for a bit to see his extended family, then to Granbury for his grandmother's traditional Mexican food Christmas Eve dinner, then we fly out to Lubbock that night. Wake up Christmas morning in LBK with my family, open those presents, then mom and I become cooking machines prepping for her whole side of the family to come over for Christmas lunch. After that, we head to my other grandparent's house for Christmas dinner. Whew...I'm exhausted and getting fatter just reading that. Yikes. I'll try to be better about blogging and posting pictures this round!!

You Say It's Your Birthday....

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOOOOOOOOOVE a good birthday celebration! I am the person who would love for it to be a birthday month as opposed to one stinkin day. Unfortunately for Andrew, who doesn't believe in even celebrating his birthday, it makes it hard having to constantly celebrate the birthday for a week.

However....this year Andrew wins a GREAT prize! With the help of Michelle and Terri, Andrew threw me a surprise party this year!! It was just so fantastic. Complete with Werner fajitas, fabulous New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, Dancing on the patio, and hot tubbing! What a great night with great friends!

My actual birthday is November 15th...so don't worry, more celebrations to come!!

Andrew pleased with the surprise

Michelle, one of the mastermindsMe with some of the ladies, Brooke, Becca and Jenny
Andrew and I ready to load up on fajitasSeriously dancing a jig (and snapping, yikes)
Andrew's Scary Shorts

Good and Evil Halloween

Well, our friends Tiana and AJ threw a "good and evil" themed Halloween party this year. It was smashing. However, I tend to be slightly cheap at Halloween, when it comes to costumes, and I don't get in to the skanky fill-in-the-blank costumes, so sometimes have a hard time. This year was great though! Michelle and I went as "The Night Before (good)" and "The Morning After (bad)." It will obviously take you one look at the picture below to realize I was the bad. Well, I hope you realize that's a costume anyway.

We had so much fun, and on the way over, Andrew decided he wanted a mustache for the party. So we stopped at Party City - THE DAY BEFORE Halloween, fought ALL of the monstrous crowds and wrangled him a mustache. Turns out all you need is a $4 mustache, and you have the best costume ever! It even turned him into a beer-pong player!! However, the best good and evil costume of the evening had to be Brooke and Jason. Brooke came dressed as a lobster, in a costume she designed herself! Jason was the Lobster Fisherman topped off with the wharf hat. Awesome.

Michelle and I ask "Night Before" and "Morning After"Andrew and his mustache and me and my eye make-up
Scott and Michelle - amazing Scott face
Brooke's amazing costume, Andrew, and Jason's Lobster Fisherman
End of the Night Exhaustion

Pumpkin Carving!

On Wednesday Andrew, Michelle and I tackled the task of carving pumpkins. Well, we had a pumpkin for Michelle that turns out was as hard as wood, and since Michelle gets grossed out by the goop, she turned picture documenter of our carving.

Andrew went the free-hand route, well sharpied on pumpkin route, and designed it all in his head. I cheated for a bit, but it was harder than expected, then did a free-handed mouth...didn't turn out as cute as Andrew's. The dogs loved the smell and were really curious about the new jack's in the house. I really appreciate my fantastic husband that goes with my weird whims, such as carving pumpkins on a Wednesday night!

The beginning, yes dogs are on table, but newspaper is below them

Gus interested in the smellsAndrew Free-handing
My cheat sheetHappy CarvingThe jacks in the light
Jacks in the dark