Holiday wrap up

Ok, so I finally uploaded all of my recent photos and here I am to share them with you! I hope everyone is enjoying a very fine 2009!

Christmas Eve was spent with family and friends. For about the past 5 years, we've started a tradition of going to my parents' neighbors house and joining their family for tamales from Luna's. Yum! The Taylor's are really fun people and I used to babysit for their son Drew who is now a Freshman at TCU!!! Oh my, does that make me feel old. I can't believe they left their new born baby with a 12 year old! They must have thought I was very mature. LOL! So, I wish I would have taken a photo of the Taylor family, but we did remember to take a few pics with Austin...of course. After dinner, we all went to church, a new church, as usual. Our tradition is to go to a new church in town and visit the 11:00 service. This year, we all went minus Dad, who volunteered to babysit. I think we might have to go to the early service next year rather than the usual 11:00 service. I was so sleepy!

So then, we decided to do our usual routine and spend the night at Mom and Dad's Christmas Eve...since we don't get out of church until after midnight, they live 30 minutes away, and we didn't want to wake the Little Dude. Hmmmm, don't think we'll do that next year. In addition to Austin sleeping in the same room, we also had our dog Bailey with us, and she was moving around the room all night. Oh, and Austin woke up around 3 am! I was pretty wiped out for the big day. But it was still wonderful. I love Christmas! Austin was napping for most of the unwrapping, but I did get a few shots of him in his new hat, bouncing in his "Johnny Jump up" (notice the dish towel to help with the drool factor) and playing with his uncle Adam.


Mom received some of the glassware she collects.....

Dad got some new tips for his Dremmel.....
And Paige really cleaned up this year! In addition to her new red Lexus parked in front, Adam also got her a new iPhone.....
Next we jump ahead to New Year's Eve. We had dinner with some friends and then we came home, put the kids down, gave the sitter instructions, and hit the parties in the neighborhood. We went to 3 parties with friends and neighbors and apparently I wasn't too interested in taking photos! I only have the one pic of me with a few of my bootcamp friends. And yes, that is a Diego paper cup I'm holding...check the close up. A champagne toast at its finest. Such sophistication!
On New Year's Day, my family always gets together for a few more traditions. I come from a long line of fabulous cooks, so we try to keep up the tradition of making some of those great recipes. In addition to her great swedish rye bread, one of Grandma Lackey's (my swedish grandma) traditions was to make noodles from scratch for chicken noodle soup. Then she made mashed potatoes and some sort of side dish. So, you put the mashed potatoes on your plate first, then laid the soup where the gravy would normally go. Mmmmmm. Carb heaven. Now that's livin'! Ok, so then we move to dessert and join the other side of my family, the Dutch side. My mom's mom (Grandma Franz) always made "New Year's Cookies" each year on January 1. These are basically apple or raisin fritters made from scratch. And again....mmmmmm. So yummy. I should have taken a picture of all of the carbaliciousness. Will Taryn be eating chicken and broccoli for a while? Affirmative.

Here is Austin that day working on his rolling skills at Mom's and then back at home that same day in his exersaucer. So cute.
Finally, we had some friends over this past weekend. I went to high school with each of these lovely ladies and I thought it would be fun to catch up. So, they all came over with their hubbies for "Chalupa Night". (Does food seem to be the theme here? No wonder everyone diets in the new year!) Amy and I (in the solid black shirt) have been friends since 2nd grade and our parents still live in the same neighborhood where we grew up. She just had her 3rd little one in June. Samantha is only a few weeks older than Austin. Amy is also married to her high school sweetheart whom I've know for about the same length of time. Both Jenny (green top) and Amy (the brunette in the sleeveless black top) are pregnant with their 3rd baby. They are 1 week apart and are about 24 weeks along. They each have a boy and a girl already and are both having boys! I felt so far behind with that group...we only have one! But that's OK...all in God's time, right? We had a great time! (Oops....I just noticed I didn't get a pic of Jenny and her man....I'll have to see if I can add one from her pictures from that night.) We'll have to do that again sometime soon!