Christmas Catch Up

Christmas was crazy with so much to do every week....Christmas programs, parties, shopping, baking. But I would not have it any other way! As long as you remember to enjoy everything you are doing then it doesn't have to be stressful. We did just that and had ourselves a merry little Christmas. I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some highlights of the season with some video clips to come!

Jude's First Christmas Program! His school starts from 18 months-4year olds. He is in the toddler or "freshman" class. They mostly just sat in the front with the teachers and swayed, bobbed, and rang their bells while the big juniors and seniors (3&4 year olds) sang songs in both English and Spanish. Jude loves his new Spanish Immersion school but between the 7 o'clock performance time (his bedtime) and the crowds of people in the gym, he was a bit overwhelmed. At least he didn't cry. He just relaxed in the Ms. Patti's lap (his afternoon teacher) and enjoyed the sights and sounds.

The entire school with the big kids in the back. Jude is in the front right corner with a green shirt and Santa hat.

Papa V is so proud!

Nani is too!

Jude and Nani with Jude's wonderful teachers and assistants!

The follwing pictures are from Chris' crazy big USAA party at the Alamo Dome. This party is so ridiculously huge! It has to be if you have over 15,000 employees in San Antonio and their dates! Really and truley its such a great free date night with so much to do. USAA does not have to do this, but they do and yet another reason we love the company so much. The theme was "Holiday in Hollywood" complete with a red carpet with actual photographers, news crews, and cameras....celebrity look a likes, USAA idol with celebrity host and judges (the girl from ENews Daily 10), lots and lots of food, casinos, flip book photos, a hollywood walk of fame (see below), and rock'n music by The Band from TV (hilarious because every member is from a TV show) and Darius Rucker (Hootie gone Country and I have to say I like both!). Its fun to see everyone dressed from jeans to ball gowns and everything in between. Some people go all out like prom and rent limos and stay on the Riverwalk. Its quite a party to say the least.

Darius on the big screen ( I couldn't get a great up close picture)

Chris discovers his star on the walk of fame as we were heading toward the casinos. Turns out each of the employees who were deployed this past year got a star. Pretty cool.

Our best friends Ana and Ben with Mr. and Mrs. Clause themselves!

Us too!



During the season one of my best friends from college was visiting her family in the Austin area. I haven't seen this girl in years! As an Army wife Myriah has traveled from Texas to Kentucky to Hawaii and now she lives in Colorodo. She is pregnant and expecting a little boy so what a pefect reason to have a Sunday brunch at ZTejas with some of my long time friends from UT. It was a great little celebration in the midst of Christmas caos.

Elizabeth, Hadley, and Julie.

A baby blue winter cake for the couple as they start their family...The Brady Bunch (how cute is that!)

Myriah and Adam

The girls....Elizabeth, Hadley, Julie, Myriah, Me, Rebekah and Angela.....we missed you Laura, Jenna and Meagan!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We had dinner, open gifts, and talked all night. Thanks to Randall for taking these great pictures!

Aunt Anna and Mom....there were never more together sisters

Jude's favorite part was climbinig the gifts and playing with the wrapping paper....the presents inside were pretty cool too.

Uncle Chris is so funny!

Aunt Sonia, Uncle Chris and Jude

We spent Christmas Day with Chris' family. I completly forgot to take any pictures during gift opening and playing with the boys outside in the freezing cold! I guess I was just having to much fun. I did manage to take the following two pictures that summed up the day for both Jude and Noah.

Noah and his trains....never apart!

Pick me up mommy!!!

A Sentimental Weekend

I apologize in advance that pictures and text are out of order. I can not figure out how to copy and paste or move things around in my blog. Please help bloggers!

Groom's Corner.....a baseball station (Ryan has played his entire life and through college). Complete with popcorn, mini corn dogs, Rusty's homemade cracker jacks, baseball cookies and brownie ice cream bowl.
A taste of Cynthia's talent. The entire place glowed at night....candle lights, Christmas lights, snow, garland, Christmas trees, crystal snow flakes.....beautiful!

Chris's Charlie Company Staff.

This weekend Chris and I traveled North on 35 for two very special occasions. The first was a wedding on Saturday evening in Salado Texas (by the way ADORABLE town). It was a wedding for my parent's Godson, Ryan and my mom was the officiant/ordained minister of the ceremony. It was special to see that she was there for Ryan's birth and baptism and now she was marrying him to his wife. My dad was best friends with his Dad, Rusty since they were 7 years old and I have many memories of my childhood with our families....holidays, celebrations, slumber parties, and camping trips. Cynthia, his mom, is a very talented florist/designer/cook who made this wedding look like a beautiful winter wonderland. She did the same for our wedding almost 7 years ago. Although I do not know Ryan as an adult, it was still a sentimental celebration to me. It made me reflect on my own life and how I can't believe how fast time has past in some ways. How am I an almost 30 year old married women with a toddler? When did that happen? It was a beautiful ceremony and I could feel my dad's spirit there as Ryan's Godfather. I know that he is so proud of him.

On Sunday we headed to Chris' unit in Round Rock where he had his change of command ceremony as Commander for C Company in the 321st MI Battalion. The ceremony was a bittersweet end to his Military career. He has served in the military for over 9 years and been on numerous trainings, schools, and 2 overseas Deployments. Now I could go on and on about how hard life was and is for families in the Reserves and the Military in general. As commander he worked 2 full time jobs everyday. But I'll leave it at that. Because for all the hardship we have gone through with the military, it also has allowed us the opportunities to buy our first home and let me be a stay at home mom with Jude. It has allowed Chris to grow as a strong leader and person of character and pride. And most importantly it has allowed us to give and sacrifice for our country and contributed to the freedom we all have. I couldn't be more proud of my husband. I know that although he is ready to leave this chapter in his life, he can't help but miss something that was a part of his life for so long. He will miss the people the most. The people who he lived with and worked with for years. So to his staff and soldiers I say Thank You for all you've done to take care of him and bring him home safely too! The Change of Command Ceremony was like a huge weight lifted from both our shoulders. It was like we could breath again. Emotional to say the least....tears of joy, relief, and sadness all in one. It's hard to say goodbye. But it's time to move on.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Jude bundles up every morning before heading to school

The Christmas Tree lights are aglow

The Nutcracker collection. I've displayed some of them (the rest are on their way). I inherited most of them from my Dad's collection which is really special to me because he took me to the Nutcracker for my birthday for many years.

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Now it's time to get the outside done.....more to come!

Weekend Away

Last year, my battle buddies (Ana and Rikki) got to thinking about planning a trip with our husbands when they returned home. You see it is this kind of long term travel planning that helped get us through much of the deployment. Planning was my happy place where I got to look forward to Chris coming home. So we said New York at Christmas time for Ana and my 30th Birthday.....ice skating at Rockefeller, a carriage ride to see the lights in Central Park, and some Rockettes dressed in Santa hats. But as the deployment was nearing its end we all came to a reality that this would be a difficult trip with leaving small children, and leaving jobs that husbands just came back to (how do you ask off from work when you've been gone over a year?), and of course in our case...the money. You see when originally planned, I also thought I would be working full time. So instead of cancelling a trip all together (and we WILL be coming to NY one day!), we opted for just a smaller scale, more relaxing, closer to home sort of getaway. So we booked this Hill Country Holiday Weekend in Fredericksburg and it was absolutely stress free and perfect!
Friday Chris and I both worked so we missed the Christmas parade downtown and free appetizers at our B&B. But we had our friends come to our suite for some wine, cheese, fruit, chocolate, chips n dip and some great conversation until 2am. The next morning a basket of the most delicious breakfast came warm and ready at our door step. This was so my style....I didn't have to even get dressed or put on make up to go to breakfast! Chris was slow to recover from the night before but we finally made it to Main Street for some shopping. Federicksburg quite possibly has the cutest Main Street shopping that I've ever seen. We didn't even get through half of the stores and let me tell you that this little town banks....the foot traffic alone was ridiculous. For those of you who don't know, Fredericksburg is sort of the center of Texas Wine Country and it has the most B&Bs,vineyards and peach farms in Texas. Charming homes, cottages, and histoical buildings line the streets along with a lot of unique boutiques. The stores can get sort of pricey since its so touristy now, but I love it. Here are some more highlights of the weekend...

Here is the main house at The Hoffman Haus. It was surrounded by quaint cottages like a little village.

Dinner at The Nest was cozy and delicious!

The whole gang...together again!

Me and Chris

Ana and Ben

Rikki and Chris

The wine at the Vineyard made Ben crazy and he started pulling his wife into the mud...boots and all!

Sunset at Torre di Pietra Vineyard

The Holiday Wine Trail was going on in Texas wine country. This Vineyard had a dance floor and some really great live music.

Back on Main Street, the St. Nicholas Market had an outdoor ice skating rink. Not the biggest or smoothest, but pretty good for Texas standards I suppose.

The Wooden German Carousel Tower Thing (I'm sure there is a name for it). I've seen the ones you put on the table with candles, but this was HUGE!

And so was the Christmas tree in the middle of downtown.

Chris, Ben, and Ana hanging out on the porch of The Peach Tree (cafe and shop).

After shopping, wining and dining we had our friends over for some hot chocolate by the fire. The perfect ending to the perfect weekend. Seriously this was one of my favorite trips ever, because it was totally casual, an hour and a half from our home, and I actually felt relaxed...no flights to catch or anywhere to be at a certain time...it was a stress free weekend of leisure. Just my style. I hope this becomes an annual tradition!

Jude's Photo Shoot

Sunday we decided to take some pictures of Jude at the park since he was a sick puppy during school pictures. We are so pleased at how they turned out! The weather was great and he was in a great mood too which made for some super pictures...most likely coming your way in the form of our Christmas cards! Stop the blog music by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and pressing pause and then please check out the slide show!

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