Work - aka what a beating

Some weeks you love your job, some weeks you hate it. This is a week of hate. I know, I should be appreciative of having a good job in this economy, yada yada. But right now I would like nothing better than to drop kick my work laptop into our old pool. Or maybe have Phil hold it up like it is one of those boards that karate peeps kick, and go Jackie Chan on it. Not that this is the laptops fault, I really don't hate you poor laptop, you are just the metaphorical conveyor belt of hate that brings an unending heap of crap to me everyday.

P.S. For those of you thinking "oh my gosh, I would never talk about my work that way on my public blog.." well, my coworkers and bosses are all feeling the beat down too. I think my director would have a good laugh if he read it. Right coworkers? Yes, I know you are all shaking your heads in unison right now.

Nature Walks

The past month we've been taking advantage of the nature preserve right by our house. It is full of trails through the woods, and it is a great area for letting the dogs off the leash to get some exercise. It is so nice having it within walking distance from our house, and to have a place like this in the middle of Dallas. We've seen lots of creatures out there on walks. A woodpecker, several hawks, mice, and so on. I decided to take my camera along and see if I could get any of the creatures on film.

First hawk spotting of the day

Dodger prefers the trails
A little bit of color amidst the brown

A boy and his dogs

Not very clear due to mega zoom, but still neat

Hindview of the same bird

Phil and Patton

A Tale of Two Trees

Every Christmas we split time between Phil's parents' house and my dad's house in Arlington. This year instead of going out there on Christmas Eve, we decided that we would stay in Dallas for the night and go to our church for the candlelight service. I am so glad we opted to do that because the service was beautiful and some of the songs from the choir were so amazing they brought tears to my eyes. We both love our church and it was wonderful to spend such a holy night surrounded by people we know and love. After church we went home and opened our presents to each other. I loved watching Phil open his gifts and I have to say that he spoiled me this year!

Christmas day we headed to Arlington and had brunch with Phil's family. Tracy and Blake and Granny and Papaw joined in on the fun. The food was delish, the dogs were given plenty of snacks on the sly, and they had fun zooming around the back yard with their cousin Penny after the festivities. I even managed to sneak in a nap after the feast.

My pet and me

Tracy, very excited about her new presents! Haha, just kidding. Actually the camo suit was Jim's present, and Phil wanted me to model it, but I refused and instead Tracy was conned into it. Then Phil made her take a picture with the gun. I told her they are going on facebook for sure!

We went to my dad's that afternoon and I helped my dad with the cooking. We had beef tenderloin for dinner and it was so good! We spent the day hanging out, watching basketball and cooking. After dinner, we got to the last of the present opening. Some might refer to my dad's tree as a "green tree"...no cutting down a tree for him, but in reality this is what our trees have looked like the last 8 years or so. Kind of funny. It is hard to imagine that tree once fit into my Mustang, but it did. I got it for my dad for his birthday one year when I was in high school. I think Phil had to crush himself into the front seat WITH the tree. If I had pictures of our stockings from years past, I would post them. Dad would use a tube sock for my brother and our tights for my sister and I. It was quite the sight!

Christmas Patton

Dad's Tree

In honor of our new prez

If you have seen lolcats pictures like this before, I'm sure you will find this funny, if not, maybe just weird.

Christmas Cookies

With all of the baking to be had around the holidays, and a cookie exchange going on at work, I thought I would share my favorite cookie recipe. I found this several years ago on allrecipes, and I have made it a number of times, and just made a batch tonight. Target only had Nestle cocoa, but I will say that I prefer the taste of Hershey's in this recipe. These are also really good with andes mint chips in them.

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 10 minutes! Add the eggs one at a time and mix to incorporate. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
In a 1 gallon plastic food bag, place the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Seal the bag and massage the ingredients to combine. The mixture will appear homogenous with no separate ingredients showing.
Add the flour and cocoa mix to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix together until the dough appears completely combined - about 3 minutes. Add all the walnuts and chocolate chips and stir them into the dough. Drop by two teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Or roll into balls, place about two inches apart on the sheet, and flatten slightly with your fingers.
Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). The cookies will appear to be just barely firm with a sheen to their surfaces. Allow to cool on the sheet for about one minute before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

The Christmas Reindeer

Just chilling in the woods...

April's Wedding!

It was a busy wedding weekend for us as Phil's cousin Brian got married in Houston and my dear friend April got married to her beau Greg in Fort Worth! Phil went to Houston with his fam and I stayed up here to be one of April's bridesmaids. April was a beautiful bride and I had a great time catching up with old friends who I rarely get to see these days.

Heather wanted to take a picture of my reflection, funny girl!

April's gorgeous boquet

My bouquet, so pretty!

Ash & Me
College Roomies
Carriage ride to end the evening!