Christmas at Chelsey's parents

We went to my parents house for lunch on Saturday. Mom had made sausage balls and monkey bread for breakfast which we snacked on while Dad was smoking a ham for lunch. We also had more presents to open! We still do the whole Santa and stocking thing at my parents house which is probably my favorite part! Here are all our stockings laid out on the floor after they were stuffed by Santa.


I love celebrating Christmas at my parents house now that Bailey is in our lives because it is so much fun to watch her open gifts and the excitement and joy that a child brings to Christmas! Gregg and I gave Bailey a new Barbi hand held game that makes her think but is a lot of fun!

Last year we started a new tradition with my parents and their gifts. We all get "Something We Want, Something We Need, Something to Wear, and Something to Read". We all have to open the same type of gift together so that everyone can see what we got. We always get Bowl Game t-shirts (or something else Texas Tech related) for our "Something to Wear" gift. I got a new Jodi Picoult book to read (not even going to attempt starting it till after the wedding!) and Gregg got a cool Fire Department Cook Book! I got a copper drink holder off my Southern Living Registry for my "Something we Need" gift and Gregg got a jalapeno roaster that is in the shape of Texas with a "Double T" cut out of the middle (plus we both got $$$ to put towards the wedding!). Our last gift was both of our favorites. Gregg's "Something we Want" gift was a Metal Fire Pit to go out on our patio and mine was a beautiful stained glass piece that my Mom found for me in Colorado this year (Brandi got one also).

I also got a fantastic new charm for my Pandora bracelet from Seth, Brandi, and Bailey plus a wine glass with wedding rings on it and some cool new bath stuff that I am looking forward to trying out! Gregg got the coolest liquor dispenser from Seth, Brandi, and Bailey that is in the shape of a Fire Hydrant plus a set of glasses to go with it. I love all of our new stuff and can't wait to get our house in order so that we can use it all! Thanks so much to everyone for all the thoughtful gifts! Love yall!!!

Christmas at The Groves' house

Saturday was a long and fun day for Gregg and I! We woke up Saturday morning and had breakfast with Gregg's parents, his older sister Wendi, and her boyfriend Sid. I quickly wrapped all the presents that Gregg and I had brought with us so that we could we could take them with us to my families Christmas parties later.

After breakfast Gregg's younger sister Misti and her husband Cody came over to his parents house along with a dear family friend Freeda to open presents and celebrate some more. We drew names at Thanksgiving to decide who we would buy presents for. I drew Misti's name and Gregg drew his Dad's name. For Misti we bough her a Pandora bracelet with the Angel charm and for Gregg's Dad we gave him a new knife and a cute pair of socks that I found in Colorado this summer that said "My Tractor is bigger than your Tractor"! We also gave his Dad a new Salt and Pepper shaker and a book that Gregg read several months ago about the history of the New York Fire Department (we got the same book for my Dad also).


Cody had drawn my name and so I got a cute night lamp that has a letter G on it and a gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond so that I can buy something off of our registry! Freeda had drawn Gregg's name and she got him a great new tool bag with some new tools in it that Gregg was super excited about!

Christmas and the beginning of our time in Lubbock

Gregg and I had a wonderful Christmas and are so thankful that we were able to spend our holiday with so many wonderful friends and family members again this year!

Gregg spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the station working so that we could take the next 5 days off to go to Lubbock. I went up to the station on Christmas Day to enjoy a Family Lunch. Almost all of the guys had their wives and kids their to celebrate with them! We had a good lunch with all the traditional foods plus lots of great desserts that all the wives had brought (I made Sopapilla Cheesecake this year). After lunch I went home to finish packing our bags so that we could head to Lubbock Friday morning.

Friday morning I got up early to pick Gregg up from the station and then we headed to the airport to fly to Lubbock. We had a great flight and when we got to Lubbock my parents were there to see us- making me very happy! (I have to admit that this Christmas was a little hard for me not being at home with my family) I got to hug my Mom and Dad and spend just a few minutes with them before Gregg and I headed to Hale Center with Gregg's sister and brother-in-law.

From Hale Center we all went to Canyon to celebrate with Gregg's Aunt and Uncle and their side of the family. We enjoyed good home made Mexican food and GREAT Margaritas (Thanks Toby!)

The boys making Margaritas

Gregg being quite over dramatic about his brain freeze!

After supper we went into the living room for our "Chinese Christmas Gift Exchange"! Gregg and I ended up with a $25 gift card to Rosa's, a $10 gift card to Bath and Body Works, and a really cool new lunch box that I traded Gregg's Mom a Sonic Gift Card for! The exchange was a lot of fun and I think that everyone liked what they ended up with and had a lot of fun "stealing" gifts from each other! We then sat around and talked and Gregg's family told a lot of stories about Wendi, Gregg and Misti growing up. It was great for me to hear these stories since all but 1 of Gregg's grandparents passed away before Gregg and I started dating. I got quite a laugh out of a couple of the stories that embarrassed Gregg!

Gregg and I taking pictures of ourselves!

Misti (Gregg's younger sister) and her husband Cody with Wendi (Gregg's older sister) and her boyfriend Sid

Merry Christmas!

Hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas Day!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Parkland Christmas Party

My work Christmas party was yesterday evening at the UTSW Faculty Club. We had some good food and played some fun and silly games! We also had a white elephant gift card exchange where I picked up a Home Depot gift card that I will give to Gregg! I love my new job in Nursing Education and all of the wonderful people that I work with! I can truly say that we have the best boss who makes coming to work enjoyable for all of us. This year for Christmas we are all getting to move out of our little cubicles into new offices with awesome new furniture!!! (Hopefully the computer cables got pulled to our office today/ tonight so we will get to move soon later this week.)

After the party we were all to go out for a drink together before heading home but when we got out to our cars it was sleeting and the top of the garage was all iced over so we quickly changed out mind and everyone headed home. It took me close to 2 hours to make it to the house but I finally made it their safely. (I got to drive Gregg's truck yesterday and today so that made me feel a little safer on the roads!)

I had my camera at the party but never took any real pictures so hopefully I will get pictures from one of the other girls soon and be able to post a few others!

me and Jennifer (my partner at work)

FRUSTRATED!!!

Last Sunday morning Gregg had to work and so I decided to head to Southlake for Sunday School and church all alone. I got in my car and backed out of the garage making it as far as the street when my car died. I tried to re-start it but it never started again. I went inside to change clothes and then back out to see if I could push the car off to the side of the street and get it out of the way. One of my neighbors came out to help and she and I got it pushed over a little. Then I went to get my other neighbor to see if he could help. When he and I got back to my car I had locked the doors to the car and locked the key inside! (When it rains it pours around here!!!) I have a friend who lives a couple of doors down and she has a spare key to my car but she was at work that morning also so, one of my neighbors took me to Baylor Garland to meet my friend and get her garage door opener to get my spare key from her house. We finally made it back to my house and got my car pushed over to the side of the street in front of my house. Monday morning after Gregg got off work he came over and took me to the hospital and then went back to my house to work on my car. $300 and a new battery later Gregg had my car running like new! (He got my alignment fixed, changed the fuel filter, filled it up with gas, and even had it washed- sweet boy!!!)

Everything with the car has been fantastic all week- no problems at all until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon I got in my car to head to meet the lady who is doing alterations on my wedding dress and my car wouldn't start again! I called Gregg who was at the station (he has told me before that anytime I will ever need him he will always be on duty and so far that is proving to be true!) Luckily, my friend and neighbor Sherri was at home and she let me borrow her car to take my dress to the lady for alterations! Gregg looked into my car on-line and figured out that the fuel delivery module on my car has been recalled. This morning he came over after work (once again we were unable to go to church because of my car) and spent some more time working on the car. Luckily he was able to get it running again- I have no clue how- and so tomorrow he is going to drive my car to the station and hopefully get to take it to the dealership sometime to get it looked at. Hopefully the recalled fuel pump will fix my car and everything will be back to normal and not cost us an arm and leg!

I am so frustrated right now because I really haven't ever had any big problems with my car and I just don't understand why right now when we are trying to save $$$ for Christmas and the wedding things have to start going wrong! Why couldn't this have happened in February??? So, Gregg and I's Christmas presents to each other this year will be getting my car running again! I do have to say the one blessing in this whole mess is that God is taking care of me and making sure that the only time my car won't run is when it is in front of my house instead of me getting stranded somewhere crazy! I have to pray now that we can get this all taken care of soon and not have to spend too much more money!

Thanksgiving in Lubbock

Gregg had to work on Thanksgiving this year and so we flew to Lubbock Friday morning to have a late Thanksgiving celebration with our families! We had lunch at The Grove's house Friday afternoon and it was yummy!!! Gregg's family fixed all the traditional foods plus a few non-traditional things such as shoe-horn salad. It was so great for me to spend this holiday with Gregg's family and I look forward to eating many more holiday meals with them! I have truly been blessed this year in the most amazing ways!

On Saturday we went and met my parents and some other friends for lunch before going to watch the Tech vs. Baylor football game! I have to say that my Red Raiders did give me a little bit of a scare during the first half but they did prevail to win the game and become Big 12 South Co-Champions!!! I am so proud of this football team and what a great season they have have! Look out other Big 12 teams the Red Raiders are here and we aren't going away!

The football team taking the field after halftime ready to turn the game around!

WE WIN! I love this scoreboard.

After the game was over Gregg and I went to my grandparents house to have dinner with them. My grandmother made roast and all the fixings that go with that, along with homemade biscuits and my favorite chocolate cake!!! We watched more football out at their house and then worked on our Wedding invitations. I am so glad that we got to go spend some quality time at Gramps and Grammy's house!

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Gregg's parents and then worked on the invitations some more. We also went thru pictures at Gregg's parents house and my parents house of Gregg and I growing up to use in our slide show. I brought home some really cute pictures of Gregg to use. Can't wait for Christmas when we will get to go home again!!!