Christmas in Fast Forward

Aaron and I had a wonderful Christmas with our family and friends. It's not worth pretending that I'll post about each event, so here's our Christmas in fast forward snapshots.

We started our celebrating with our family picture in front of the tree then date night for Aaron and I. Dinner at Longhorns and a movie on the couch. We treat our last night at home before Christmas as our Christmas eve.

Our Christmas morning (but not really Christmas) started with letting Newton out of the room to go find his presents. He loved his bone.

Aaron always gets me glass bottle cokes for Christmas. One in the stocking, the rest in the fridge. Lucky for him, I share.

I got some beautiful gold Toms for Christmas.

Aaron got a Nook.

Then we went to my parents house... and played Candy Land. (and other games) (PS. There was no one under the age or 23 playing Candy Land... )

Got this really awesome bowl from my sister (Ashley). Handmade. I'm impressed.

Sisters!


Our Howell family on Christmas day

Ate lots of yummy food.

Got to see this sweet boy. He was a bit distracted by his Barney DVD we got him.

Dirty Santa with part of Aaron's family. Always lots of laughs.

Cousins!

and had dinner with some dear friends.

Even with all that, we still have one more (belated) Christmas gathering. Can't wait to see more family!
We sure were busy, but it was great. Surprisingly with all the busyness, we still got plenty of sleep, lots of food, games, and down time in. Ready for 2011!

A Christmas Wedding

My best friend is finally married. She was absolutely stunning. The decorations were perfect. and we had tons of fun!The happy couple! Maggie and Hunter Mitchell

Best friends! The Mitchells and Howells

Maggie getting ready for the big day.

Alisha and I just killing some time before the wedding.

With Beth and Lydia, some of my Gtown girls. :)

Love her!

Some of the gtown gang!

You can see plenty of more pictures from the weekend here:
Mitchell Prewedding Festivities
Mitchell Wedding Day

Have a Tacky Christmas!

We recently celebrated the holiday season with our class from church - tacky style. I do have to say that I was quite impressed by the level of participation from our group. Almost everyone came decked out in some of the tackiest sweater/sweatshirts I have ever seen. I especially loved one sweatshirt that simply read, "Happy Birthday Jesus". Aaron sported an incredibly awesome-we were so lucky to find it -homemade sweatshirt with puppies and kittens, and glitter glue. Gold. glitter. glue.




After feasting on a de-li-cious meal and socializing with the group... we all bundled up for the coldest night in Atlanta and headed out to our truck-drawn sleigh to spread some cheer via carolling. There we even antlers and santa hats to complete our ensembles, one lucky guy got the elf ears!



We had a wonderful time celebrating the season with our new friends.


Slightly off topic - but still somewhat on topic... the last time I celebrated the season tacky style was in 2007. I had high hopes that multiple people would join me... but alas, it was myself and my sister.




Tacky 2007: Here's one of my favorite pictures from the night. Maggie and I were laughing so hard, it was nearly impossible to saddle up on the cow. Our friend Tony attempted to assist, but was quite awkward in trying to figure out how to best position his hands. We eventually made it... Tomorrow I am heading to Memphis to see Maggie, one of my bestest/oldest friends get married. I can't believe how much things have changed since 07!

Complete Tacky Christmas Album

Showering with Love

My best friend is getting married, so of course we are showering her with love, laughter, fun times, and of course gifts! Recently Aaron and I made our first Atlanta-Memphis trek for a fun-filled shower weekend. It was great to be able to see some of my oldest friends. We share so many wonderful memories of our days in the youth group and college summers. Even though we don't see each other often enough, it's like we've never been apart when we do. I hope we all continue to be close forever. It's great to have a place like Gtown to reconnect. I'm hoping to start a reunion for us soon...

Her 1st shower was a girls only shower filled with all kinds of yummy food, fun games, and lots of presents.

Her 2nd shower was at our home church congregation. There were so many hostesses and gifts. I know she had a great time opening all the gifts and be loved on by so many people.

Complete Shower Album

Happy Wedding!

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Farmer!

Yet another product of the GYG. I've known both Austin and Lydia for a really long time and love them to death! Over the New Year's Holidays they finally tied the knot in Germantown. I am so happy that I was able to attend their wedding. I had such a wonderful time with all of our amazing friends. I miss all you guys so much!