So Thanksgiving has come and gone and the Christmas season is officially underway.
We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with the De La Portilla family, whom we are truly thankful for, and were overjoyed at having Richard and Brandolyn and their children stay with us Tuesday through Saturday for vacation.
The main event this year wasn't turkey at all but the chaos of Black Friday. Brandolyn and I planned our attack and began at 3:15 am getting ready so we could be to Kolh's in Lewisville just before 4am. From then on we hit Target, Wal-mart (we were out of there just as the sun was rising) then to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Then to JoAnn's, CostCo, Sam's Club, Office Depot, and then Target that is close to home. It was just before noon when we came home laden with our haul and then the next two hours were spent wrapping all Christmas would bring.
It was an exhausting day that still ended with Jeremy and I going to see New Moon together, it was better the second time!, and playing cards with Richard and Brandi till 11:30 am. I love having family over!!!
Yes, I flew myself and my two young children half way across the country to attend a New Moon party, and yes, it was worth it! We all had such a fantastic time! It was a ladies only event that begun at 5pm and lasted till about 3am.
The decorations for the party we spectacular. Vanessa went all out to prepare the way for New Moon. Here are just some of the festivities: These blood bags are filled with either Jelly Bellies or Peanut M&M's and were set as treats for the movie
There were black and red candles all over the living room and on the boom box was the current and original Twilight soundtrack. There were also dozens of white roses set in vases filled with red water. For dinner we had Italiano and I made desert
This Team Jacob cupcake is chocolate with spiked chocolate "fur like" frosting set in a sunshine yellow wrapping for your consideration.
This Team Edward cupcake is a red velvet set in a pale rapper with a white frosting that sparkles with sugar crystals.
Which do you choose?
At the party we laughed and talked vampire v werewolf and then enacted our favorite (or really, least favorite) parts of the Twilight movie. There was even a trivia game that we all apparently won due to the fact that answering questions consisted of yelling at the top your voice what the answer was. I'm not sure who won the golden onion but someone must have taken it home! It was fantastic. The only tragedy of the night was that Van forgot to pull out her life size cut outs of the movie poster bearing Edward in the foreground and then Jacob protecting Bella. We saw it the next night though and took turns drooling at the hunky men.
As the night wore on we talked as the movie Twilight played on the TV and around 9:30 Mom and the nieces went to save our spots in line. I stayed home till the last possible moment because I had changed plans and decided to take Elizabeth with me to the movie. Yep, I did it.
I was too worried being so far from her, the theater was over 20 min away, in the middle of the night. Surprisingly she was fantastic, my little movie junkie! She was awake and watching, sitting on my lap for about half the movie, she even fought me when I covered her eyes at the werewolf parts! Then she quietly went back to sleep in my sling till the movie ended and then went to sleep again at home like it was routine. Amazing.
Well, I loved the movie. I made my own t shirt that has all of the Team Edward and Team Jacob nonsense crossed out on the back and stated Team Carslile on the front. There's no competition with him around. I loved the movie, it was leaps and bounds better than the first. I can't wait till Eclipse comes out in June. When will Breaking Dawn begin to film? I'm sure I'll be back again for those parties as well.
This is the Southwest slogan right now and we sure are feelin’ it. We flew back to California to spend a week with Jeremy’s family. I was a bit nervous to fly with the two kids by myself for such a distance but they did so well!
At one of our stops CJ was allowed to go into the cockpit and get a feel for what flying the plane might be like. Now he wants to be a pilot just like uncle Chewy.
Elizabeth was such a good baby! She was happy to fly and the crew was happy to dote and coo over her. It's so funny but the comment I get the most about Janie is how much she looks like a dolly! I can sure see what they mean.
The crew we had were so fantastic that they insisted we take pictures with them! Here's us with the pilot.
In it's entirety the flight lasted six hours with its two stop offs in El Paso and San Diego. It was a terrific that everything went so well. The flight home six days later however took ten hours and had a few hiccups. Still, the kids were wonderful and it was so good to see Jeremy again.
It was a dream weekend in San Antonio, and not because we went out every night or went shopping at the fabulous outlets, actually we did neither of those. I made cookies and the children slept well,
and on our second night just the adults stayed up way too late playing up and down the river, Brandolyn and I won of course!, and phase 10 eating shrimp cocktails.
We spent time as a family, which is always way over due, and just enjoyed each other.
As a bonus we took a tour of the plane that Richard is training to fly, the C-5, it was ginormous!
Then we spent our last hours together at the spectacular park on base.
For such a fantastic time it went way too fast. We were back in Denton by 8pm, sigh. We love it here though and it was a satisfying feeling to be going "home".
On Tuesday me and the kids fly out to Sacramento to be with the rest of the Hunt clan for a week long New Moon bash! Don't be too jealous, I'll have all the great pictures from the week when we get back Monday.
It's been another exciting week at the Happy Hunt Home. We are getting a little better settled and Christopher is starting to get into trouble as he sees fit. He's always been one of those kids that wants to go and do on his own so when he wanted a snack, that was just what he was amin to do.
Caught right in the act, I had to grab the camera and then scold him. That kid could eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him.
On to Lizzie . . . She loves to eat! She has been cranky for the last week and I thought she was teething again because she wanted to gnaw on everything but it turns out that she just wants to eat! We're full force into baby food and even table food if it's mashed up. She loves whole fruit, strained green beans, and any kind of bread, who doesn't!
I am also very pleased to announce that our Janie has started to sit up. She leans all the way forward to do so but it does last for more than a few seconds. She then goes even further for the toes or looks to the side with her full head and falls over. This is very exciting stuff.
In other events, I cut CJ's hair yesterday and did my own hair for Jeremy's holiday party. I was pretty impressed with both if I do say so.
And lastly I want to dish about this company party. It was a black and white ball so Jeremy and I dressed up for the occasion, I even wore the tiara from my wedding, and why not? It was held in a hotel in Dallas and there were some big names from the company rumored to be there. The founder Herb, among them, was not present, he had the flu, but Colleen Barrett, former CEO of the company and first female CEO of any airline ever, was there so we took a picture with her. That's here in the middle. After the picture we sat back down at our table and she followed us! She sat next to Jeremy through dinner and we all had a lot of laughs at Herb's ex pence because he wasn't present. It was a spectacular evening. This coming week we'll be going to Richard and Brandolyn and the kids in San Antonio so stay tuned!
Wow, it has been way too long since I have updated our family blog, and so much has happened! Of course Lizzy Jane was born and is now a whopping five months old! Also, Jeremy landed a fantastic job with Southwest airlines and we moved to Texas! We love it so far, and surprisingly don't miss California. The locals say, "just wait till the summer". It doesn't make me look forward to the super hot months in the future, but the fall here is fabulous.
So that's the super short update. Here are the recent happenings . . .
Jeremy works for the coolest airline on the planet. To prove it here's a picture of us with the company's founder, Herb, dressed as a biker at the company's Halloween party held this past Friday . . . during normal operating hours. It was fantastic to see where Jeremy works and how Southwest really is as great as it's cracked up to be!
These are the highlights from Halloween. We went to the Trunk-er Treat (come on, that's how everyone says it) and had a fantastic time.
Here is Lizzie the Leopard with Elena the froggie and below are pumpkin Chris and Estevan the Fire Fighter.
These two kids belong to Karolyn and Jose, long time friends of ours that are transplant Californians like ourselves that helped us find our home in Denton.
Our family picture turned out nice I think! We did a lot more trick or treating in the nearby neighborhood and CJ got quite a nice pull that we will all be enjoying for the next few weeks.
So that's the update! I know it's slim but I plan to do it every Sunday at the least so keep checking in to see how we are and how we are doing in Texas!
