Christmas 2013

Oh, Christmas.  Once again, you've come and gone like it didn't mean one little thing to you at all.  Seriously though, I know I'm not the only one who felt like the holidays blew by.  Jason said it has something to do with there being one less week between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, which could very well be the reason!

I had the pleasure of using a little vacation time to road trip down to my pretty home city of Houston to see friends and family.  Last last Thursday (the day before I was to leave for Houston) I contracted a horribly awful stomach virus from Jason and spent literally all day on the couch nibbling on saltines and carefully sipping ginger ale.  Luckily, the worst of it was over by the next morning, and all day Friday I just experienced some bad cramping in my stomach that caused me to walk around hunched over like a ninety-year-old grandma.  I got into Houston that night and went straight to my mom's where we picked up some chips, queso and salsa from Iguana Joe's because, oddly enough, that's the only thing that sounded appetizing to me after being sick.  So we spent the evening munching and watching bad reality television.

Saturday morning, we decided to go over to my Aunt Kelley's to bake and decorate some Christmas cookies with her and my cousin, Kirby.  It was a fun few hours of frosting little christmas trees, snowmen, gingerbread men and stars while enjoying each others' company.  That night I drove over to Kingwood to my best friend Sam's apartment for a little Christmas get-together with my best ladies.  We exchanged presents, drank lots of wine and sangria, danced like wild women, took silly pictures, giggled and carried on as we have for many years.  I hope we never change!  It was the most fun I've had in a long time.  I love that no matter how much time passes since our last visit, when we all get together, we can easily just pick up where we left off and have the best time.

Sunday, my mom, my sister, my brother and I all met up with my aunts and cousins at the Galleria.  I'm so excited I got a chance to see it during Christmastime!  It's always decorated so beautifully with the huge Christmas tree in the center of the mall surrounded by the ice skating rink.  I wasn't really shopping for anything, as I'd finished all of my Christmas shopping quite early this year, but it was still fun to window shop and watch my sister and little teenage cousins get their makeup done at Chanel and peruse the glittery glass cases at Tiffany's.  Of course we ate lunch while we were there.  That was practically the first thing we did once we all met up!  And, of course, we chose The Cheesecake Factory.  I had to get my sweet corn tamale cakes on ;).

Monday, I went over to Tomball/Spring to my grandparents' house to celebrate Christmas with my dad's side of the family.  Meme made a traditional Christmas dinner spread, as she always does, and it's always so delicious.  After dinner, we opened presents and chatted for a while before I headed back to my mom's.

On Christmas Eve, we went back to my Aunt Kelley's to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  Uncle Steve made a yummy gumbo with chicken and sausage, and there were treats all over the place for us to snack on before and after lunch.  It's always so wonderful to have all of my maternal cousins all together in the same place.  It was great getting to see my Aunt Kim and Uncle Dale, along with Esther, Sarah and Abigail.  I'm so jealous of Sarah right now because she just left on a 7-day cruise with her boyfriend yesterday!  I know they'll have a blast so I'm really happy for her.

On Christmas Day, we went over to my mom's finace's sister's (woah, that's a jumble) house for brunch and MORE present opening.  Yes, I get a ridiculous amount of gifts, and my family is only growing so it's only getting more obscene, haha.  After hanging out there for a couple of hours, my mom, Randy (her fiance) and I went for a two-mile walk around the park by her apartment, and then Randy made us sour cream chicken enchiladas for dinner, and of course, I made my mom make us some margaritas with her pineapple-vanilla bean infused tequila.  I live for that stuff!  Pretty sure I drank about four of those bad boys and then started passing out while we were playing Sequence and Yahtzee.

The day after Christmas, I hit the road fairly early to get back to Austin for an afternoon of work. Speaking of work, it really hasn't been too bad lately.  We're smack in the middle of our slow season so now is the time to clean everything out, get re-organized and relax a little before March madness begins.  And I'm not talking about basketball.  I'm referring to the madness that ensues in Austin in March - SXSW, among a couple thousand other conferences and events that take over around that time.

Well, my apologies for the lengthy post.  I know Emily will not approve! :)  I just had to tell you all about my fabulous Christmas events, and I hope everyone had a cozy, warm, family-filled holiday like I did.

Happy New Year! 

I Took My Little Sister to a Garage Rock Show

...and it was scary.

As you can see, my sister, at 14 years young, is quite beautiful...and, as I am noticing from this picture, a bit taller than I am.  Over the past few years her taste in music has blossomed a little, from The Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber to Sleeping With Sirens (still not sure who these guys are) and a few other "screamo" bands.  She's been to a handful of live shows, but nothing like what I was ready to introduce her to.  One of my favorite bands that I have mentioned many times, Bass Drum of Death, is a lo-fi, fairly energetic garage rock group from Oxford, Mississippi, and they were scheduled to play at The Parish downtown on Sixth Street last Friday night.  I was planning on going for a while leading up to it, but I got really excited when I found out that my mom and sister were coming to town for my brother's official UT baseball visit that weekend.  Taking my sister to a live show with me is something I had been waiting to do for a long time.  There is an 11-year difference between us, and even when she was a little baby, I would dream about the days when we could be more than just sisters; when we would both be older and could be good friends, and the age gap wouldn't be such a big deal anymore.  Well, the time has finally come and it is frightening.  I did her hair and makeup for the evening, which I suppose made her look a little more mature, but we hadn't been at the venue for more than five minutes before two drunk guys in their 30s came up and started to make conversation with us.  I went through the redundant small talk (which sincerely annoys me to no end) with these guys and managed to not-so-casually mention that this stunning young lady next to me is my little sister who happens to be FOURTEEN.  The least drunk of the two seemed to get the hint and meandered over to the opposite side of the room while his idiotic, stumbling counterpart remained in our faces.  We managed to escape when he finally looked the other way.  After the Bass Drum of Death set, as we were leaving, another guy came up to Micah and started making conversation with her.  Let's just say I was thrilled when we were out of there and back in my car headed home.  I'm sure I sound a little silly, but this was the first time I'd witnessed my sister getting hit on and by GROWN men.  It threw me for quite a little loop, but she really enjoyed the music and, in the end, that was my only hope and intention.  It was fun to be able to experience that with her.  I got to see one of my favorite bands with my little sister/good friend, and, for that, I am nothing but grateful and oh so happy.  Here's to our next adventure!

Jason's 30th

My sweet boyfriend, Jason, is officially 30 years old as of September 30!  I had decided a while back that I wanted to do something special for Jason in celebration of this milestone, and I've always wanted to throw a surprise party, so I figured this would be the perfect occasion.  I, obviously, couldn't blog about any of this before the big day so I'll walk you through the process a little bit.  I knew I wanted to invite as many people as possible - anyone and everyone that has made some kind of an impression on Jason.  I sent out emails and Facebook messages to everyone I knew Jason would want to celebrate with about a month and a half before the date I chose for the party, just to get an idea of how many people would seriously consider attending.  Once I had a rough estimate of the number of attendees, I began my search for a venue.  Originally, I was set on Max's Wine Dive, but their food & beverage minimum was out of my price range.  I checked with a few other restaurants and ended up happily settling with Red's Porch.  Jason and I had eaten there many times and really enjoy the food and drinks.  They have great specialty cocktails and a more than decent variety of local beers on tap.  It ended up being the perfect crowd pleaser, offering something for everyone.  

On the day of the party, I had wonderful assistance from my best friends Emily, Heather and Sarah and from my mom who arrived early in the afternoon to help me de-stress and get ready.  It turns out I was worrying and stressing for nothing because, even with storms rolling in all day and night, the party went on without a hitch, and Jason was absolutely shocked when he showed up and everyone yelled "SURPRISE!"  It was such a fun night, and I am so grateful to everyone that made the effort to come and help us celebrate this exciting birthday for Jason!

**All photographs courtesy of Emily's camera and Emily & Sarah's picture-taking expertise.

Guest Post from Esther of Today Is My Favorite

Happy Friday!  Today I bring you a beautiful little post from one of my lifelong friends and cousin, Esther of Today Is My Favorite.  I've always been a little envious of Esther's constant optimism, supreme organizational habits and charming way with words.  She is the most graceful of artists and rightfully received her degree in Creative Writing at Stephen F. Austin State University in her hometown of Nacogdoches.  She is one of the most uplifting people I have ever encountered, and I feel so lucky to be able to call her family and even more so, a best friend.

Like Kassie, I work in hospitality, and frequently my “Mondays” and “Fridays” are not the same as everyone else’s.  I work at a Summer Camp and Retreat center, and, in the Summer especially, I don’t even pay attention to what day of the week it is, it’s just Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.  I always know when it’s Friday, though, because, every Friday at 9:45 am, my phone sends me a reminder that says “Chickens!”

Just three minutes down the road from Camp Tejas, where I work, is a charming little farm complete with Chickens.  The owner of this farm is only there on weekends and holidays, so he’s asked a few of us at camp to take care of his chickens on the days when he’s not there.  In exhange for cleaning out the coop and feeding the 17 chickens, we get to gather the eggs.

Friday morning is my time to take care of the chickens, my happy time, the one thing in my week that is truly consistent:  I show up, the chickens greet me at one side of their run, follow me along the fenceline, and rush into their coop as I open the door.  I really think they actually miss me when I’m not there.

Okay, maybe they just want their food…

I grew up in the country.  My family moved around a lot, but most of the time, we were at addresses that didn’t even exist according to most GPS systems.  Despite living in the country, though, I don’t have much of the practical knowledge that you would expect someone to gain from country life.  I sure do know the value of garden vegetables that come out of your backyard, and farm fresh eggs, but if you asked me to produce those garden vegetables or take good care of the chickens who produce the eggs, I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to do that.  My parents and little sister were the true country folks.

Stepping out on a limb and offering to take care of the chickens down the road was exactly what I needed .  Just the little actions of gathering the eggs, scraping and washing the coop’s concrete floor, and feeding the chickens have taught me so much about what I am capable of.

When my parents had chickens, I was terrified to go into the coop.

Last Friday, I successfully coaxed a “broody” hen out of her nesting box, and retrieved the 10 or so eggs that were underneath her.

I may have been a little afraid that she would fly in my face in her fury, and she may have, in reality, gone calmly to eat with the other chickens, but, regardless of whether my fear was grounded or not, I conquered it!

I’m a big-picture person - I see things in terms of years, future possibilities, and eventual outcomes.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to sit back and just participate in a moment without analyzing it.  But, when I’m taking care of the chickens, that’s all I’m doing - spending a slice of my Friday morning taking care of the chickens.  There is no big picture for me to look at while I’m adjusting the spray strength on the hose to wash out the coop, or filling the feeders.  There are no far-reaching outcomes of my small actions on Friday morning, and I’ll be performing those same small actions next Friday morning, also with no far-reaching outcome.  The chickens' lives will not develop new future possibilities because I fed them and cleaned their coop on a Friday morning.

I so often fail to see the big picture going on in my own life because I‘m hyper-aware of the one going on all around me.  While I’m performing these seemingly trivial tasks, though, there is a big-picture change happening in me, and I can see it.

For that, I am grateful.

Where I Come From

Blogtember Day 1: Describe where or what you come from.  The people, the places and/or the factors that make up who you are.

I come from a home with open arms, a kitchen that welcomed anyone and everyone, a house that carried sounds of constant chatter, laughter and the aroma of chicken spaghetti baking in the oven.

A place where the dress-up possibilities are endless and historically documented in photo albums.

I come from a family of love, support and exciting games of skill and chance (Yahtzee!)

A home where music was encouraged and celebrated.

Parents that have never let me down, but have always built me up.

A carefree sailor with a heart of gold who just so happened to be my Pop for 11 years before he became one with the sea.

A mother and close friend.

When I think about some of the happiest moments in my life, my mind always wanders back to this magical little house on Nightbird Trail.  This is where I come from.

xoxo

Found Treasures

I was going through pictures on my computer and came across these few snapshots from this past Mothers' Day.  I guess I had forgotten to share them on my post from that day.  This sweet little moment was captured early on in the day when Aunt Kandace (left in the picture) and Mikki (right) were showing Nana the progress of their homegrown backyard vegetable garden.  I feel like it goes without saying how much I love my family.  I mention them quite a bit on my blog because they are such a huge and crucial component in my life.  I know it sounds redundant and cliché, but I honestly don't know what I would do without each and every one of them.  Besides, how precious is my Nana? If you've ever met her, you know how hilarious, honest, strong and absolutely beautiful she is.  I wish I could see her more and that there weren't three hours of highway between us, but that just means, when I do get a chance to see her, it matters that much more to me, and I try to make each and every second count.