And So This Is Christmas...

Samantha spent the night on Christmas Eve with Travis, so she could open gifts with his family. This left Mike, Bill and me to spend the evening just the three of us. First, we had a rousing game of Clue (Bill won), then we ate some turkey and dressing and all the fixings. Then we opened one gift each. As it turned out, mine was a super-gift! Thanks Bill! Bill opened his leather log book cover gift card and mug from Kathryn but the pictures weren't good and in keeping with my no-bad-pix-if-I-can-help-it policy, I didn't put them up. But thanks Kathryn!!

Mike wanted some plays. Some plays he got!

Next morning it was on!! Here I have opened my 2 (yes, count em - 2!) Amazon.com gift cards from Kathryn. Yay! More and more reading! Thanks Kathryn!!!

 

AND! Also, she gave me rooster napkin rings... Hmmm... I wonder how they're going to look with my new dishes!

 

Bill got a new iPod, which he seemed to absolutely love.

 

Mike got some hats.

 

Here's Chelsea, Mike, and Sam opening presents.

 

Sam wanted some riding boots. Here they are.

 

They gave each other smelly stuff. Mike got Jake from Hollister. Sam got Ralph, by Ralph Lauren. (I got some Lauren by Ralph Lauren, too, by the way...)

 

Mike got a "Things White People Like" calendar. Here are the three of them laughing about it.

 

Bonnaroo ticket!!! Mike loves bonnarroo...

 

Bill gave me a beautiful pair of blue diamond earrings to match the ring he gave me last year. Thanks, Baby!

 

It was the year of the scarf. Sam and I each got several. Here she is wearing one of them.

 

Here are my new dishes modeling my new napkin rings. Love it!

 

That night, Dave and Rene and Brooke came over. Here are the kids. Great Christmas. Thanks everybody!

 

Sam is 24!

Here's my baby blowing out the candles on her Carvel ice cream cake. It was Samantha Day! We ate appetizers all day - we had chicken quesadillas, velveeta cheese dip with chips, chips and dips, jalapeno poppers, crab stuffed mushrooms, my mom's crab salad, hot wings....  It was a great day. We watched Love Actually during the day, too. Happy 24th Birthday Sam!

Mike and Sam

Travis and Sam

 

Jimmy's Birthday Celebration and some SNOW!!

So Jimmy turned 20... Awww. Here he is blowing out the candles on his own individual cheesecake! Happy Birthday, Jimmy! Sniff, sniff... There are no more teenagers running around my house.

 

Mike and Satan - I mean Vardemis. Little devil has become a thorn in poor Ace's side and is really far too active for our household. We're holding onto him for Mike, who is getting a house with 3 other people come June. So Vardemis will move with him. I guess when Mike travels to China, though, Vardemis will return. Maybe he'll be better behaved then??

 

Mike and Phil (his beloved Mac) and Vardemis (his beloved kitty).

 

Let it snow, baby!

 

Ace likes to watch.

 

 

 

 

I neglected to take a single picture of cookie day. This was taken the next day (cookie DECORATING day, of course). Gavin and Sam made this teesy snowman and decorated him with candy-coated chocolate chips. (I like his little mouth - he's sort of going "Hmmmm...")

 

Samantha's 24th Birthday - and a Tattoo

December 12 is Samantha's birthday. December 12, 2008 was also a day of epiphany for Samantha. Ever since, she's been flirting with the idea of getting a tattoo to mark the day. So today, on her 24th birthday, she used Aunt Kathryn's birthday Visa to do it. Here she is - a little nervous - talking to Mike before she goes in to get it done.

She looks cool as a cucumber here.

In the chair. Wrist is bare...

The tattoo artist, Matt, uses a stencil to mark where the ink will go.

And he begins. OUCH!

Samantha doesn't do pain very well!

"Mommy hold my hand!!!"

Since the tattoo was white, he had to go over it a few times.

Here I am holding her hand. Jimmy was walking around taking picture after picture as Sam squirmed and, yes, even wept!

Samantha to Jimmy and Matt (both fairly covered in tattoos): "You people are crazy! Getting these things all over your body! What's the matter with you?!?"

She started doing some Lamaze type breathing, I think!

Finally (about 4-1/2 minutes later) it's done. White ink because that's what she wanted! The guys at the shop really tried to talk her out of that, but Samantha gets what Samantha wants.

Samantha and Matt after the deed is done. Thanks Matt! Thanks Jimmy, for coming along. Hey, that was fun!

Road Trip Over!

This is Marshall, TX high school. You know... Like in the movie?

Charlotte is known as The Queen City. Who knew Texas also had a Queen City?

Arkansas! Never been here before....

Arkansas didn't have anything worth photographing, I guess, because here comes Tennessee. This bridge was really pretty all lit up at night. Non of my pictures came out very good, but there is a big pyramid off to the left of this bridge. Really big. I wonder what it is?

This is an independent truck stop we stayed at. The showers were nothing to write home about, but the shopping selection made up for it. And the people were very friendly.

They had mannequins sitting all over the place. This one has lost his head.

In Nashville, we unloaded a shipment in the pouring rain. It was horribly cold, too. Straight from there, we went to take me to the airport. There was a blizzard coming and Bill was headed up to St. Louis and Minneapolis. I feared I'd get stuck in snow and not be able to make it home for Sam's birthday so I flew home. Tried to go through security with a box cutter in my back pocket. And a bag full of shampoo, lotion, hair gel, etc. Great. I'm lucky I didn't get arrested! I did have a pretty good sandwich at the Nashville airport. It was grilled chicken with brie and roasted red peppers.

Road Trip - Continued

OK. So THIS is where Bill's supposed to pull the truck in and park it??? Sheesh. I now know what "truck parking" really means. So we loaded this very nice guy and his family today.

It was a tight squeeze!

A car went on, too. The kid of the family filmed the whole thing, then Mom, Dad, and kid boarded the truck to check out the sleeper. They were great. Now, back to Texas!

These birds looked far more imposing in person. They were circling. Shivers! Wonder what was dead down there....

FINALLY, we reached a hotel. We were both exhausted. Back in Houston again.

The place we ate, Captain Benny's, made up for the exhaustion. I imagine that this is a super cool place to eat in nice weather (which it most definitely is NOT right now). Here's Bill outside the place.

Oops! I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo of the food till we'd half devoured it! I had stuffed catfish. Mmmmm. It was really good. Bill had raw oysters, then some fried shrimp. If you're nearby (Brad and Maribel I'm talking to you!) you should go.

Next, it's off to load a big shipment then to Nashville.....