The Holiday Season

Hi Everyone! I'm behind per usual, as things have been a little hectic - lots going on and we're excited for 2012, but for now, I must close out 2011...it's the blog rules that I've just made up.

December was a fun and busy month! One of my best friends stopped over for a night with her husband. Although they were just passing through, we had a lovely night visiting and being generally awesome. I love my Doctors Guidry! We decided not to have a tree this year (Christmas with the Kranks?); it just didn't make sense with us beginning to move out of our town home (plus our ornaments are still in Louisiana...whoops) and with us going back to Louisiana for the holidays. We still got into the spirit...and you KNOW we sent Christmas cards! See previous post. 

This is what I come home to - Joey Crocker!

We got "tacky" with new friends

We attended my company's holiday party at The Driskill Hotel, Austin

Love these girls!

Handsome arm candy :)

I mean, somebody has to get the party started...might as well be us!

And we had a lovely, hilarious Christmas filled with the usual craziness - but as my motto surrounding the holidays states, "Tis the Season!" Of course we drove to Louisiana for Christmas, joined by my beautiful sister, who flew into Austin from L.A. We went to a few holiday parties, caught up with as many friends as possible, visited family, had a bonfire, had the slightest car wreck yet again (what is it with going to Louisiana and my car getting hit? Are you trying to tell me something, Louisiana? See here.) played a lot of monopoly ("You should really invest in real estate"... I am quite the heckler when it comes to monopoly fyi) and even had the midnight winnow. My poor mother's house is filled with mine and Maya's "stuff" from yesteryear, and it desperately needed to be sorted and for the most part thrown away!! I think we stayed up until about 3am one night going through all that stuff...so many memories and oh so much crap that is now out of my mom's house - yay!!

Joey and his sweet Mom

Gal pals at a holiday party!
Meredith, Holly, Fleur and Ashley
(totally stole this pic from Ash!)

Fleur, Brenda and Maya

With our littlest sister, Isabella

Love these girls!

The Farm

We stayed on my mom's beautiful farm this time coming home - it was a lot of fun! Polly Browne especially enjoyed getting into all sorts of trouble on the farm. . . oh, that dog.
And of course J-man could walk right out the front door and hunt - dream come true. Although, after a stellar report card and just because we love the guy, Joey got an Xbox 360 from me and a few other family members - so I think it's safe to say that once Christmas day rolled around, he was kinda hooked on the ole boxxy poo. It was great to surprise him this year!!

Joey plays Xbox as the hounds look on...or away rather.

As always, we were sad to leave Louisiana. I hope you all had a wondrous Christmas with your family! Best wishes for 2012!

Much love,

Lord it's like a...card candy Christmas. Or is it?

I heard an ed op piece one year about sending Christmas cards. The writer claimed that sending out cards with photos of kids or pets or of that time the family went to the beach diminishes  the real reason for sending out a Christmas card in the first place. Interesting. The piece obviously affected me because I think of it every year during the holidays.

I personally love getting photo cards from friends and family each year at Christmas. We get so little meaningful mail through the post these days that holiday cards are something I look forward to. And although I appreciate and love every card we get, I have to admit that the photo cards are my favorites. I have some very creative friends, and I enjoy seeing what they'll come up with each year - and I also keep them (they're too pretty to throw away!) I just don't believe it diminishes the meaning of Christmas - it's simply a holiday greeting for the people you love. Here's a few of the cards we've sent over the years...

Now I know that some people find holiday cards a little "icky" as a general rule. Some may view them as a "look at me and how happy I want everyone to think I am" tool, while others think they're just too cheesy to stomach. To each his own. Judging from the images I've just shown you, you can probably guess which way I lean....I'm pro- photo card.

I spend a good amount of time picking out my Christmas card design each year. I've done one every year since we've been married, so it's almost like a little timeline...a holiday timeline! I almost didn't send them out one year just because things were so busy, but  in the end I just couldn't bear it. I decided to send them out at the last minute, so there wouldn't be a year without a card. Call it a compulsion. There have been some years that I've taken a photo especially for the card; other years I've simply used photos that were taken in that particular year. Sometimes I do more than one version. Since we got our dog (aka child) three years ago, she's been part of the card pretty much every year with the exception of last year (and I did get complaints about leaving her out!). I have not yet attempted to hand craft cards just yet, but it is something I plan to do one day.

To avoid offending the holiday with one's photo-infested folly or a photaux pas if you will, the writer of the piece I mentioned suggests inserting a photo inside a Christmas card. I have to say I don't agree with this. It's fine to do of course, but if you're like me, you like to display all the cards you get that year as decor during Christmas - loose photos can make that a little difficult.

Like so!

So as I label and stuff this year's cards, I'm interested to know what you think. Do you believe that photo Christmas cards weaken the meaning of Christmas? What are your general thoughts on sending and receiving them in general? Do you yourself send out cards for the holidays? If you get a card from me every year, do you wish we would take you off the list? :) haha, I hope not, but here's your chance to let me know! No matter what our particular thoughts are on cards, we must not forget (myself included) that our Holy Savior born in a manger is the most important reason for the season.

Sending you and yours Season's Greetings! (sent either with a card or not - your choice!)




For God so loved the world, That He gave His only begotten Son, That whosoever believeth in Him Should not perish but have everlasting life. ~John 3:16

Golden Afternoon

Phee's lovely table at Thanksgiving

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did. This was our first experience "coming home for the holidays" since this is the first time we've lived somewhere else for a long period of time, and it was all I hoped it would be: running around like headless chickens, lots of hugs, puppies, beer, friends, flower beds, CC's coffee stops, vampires, deer stands, with just a hint of a car wreck :)  Tis the season!

Apricot Brie Bites - this is an easy recipe from Louisiana cook and author Holly Clegg that I like to make for parties....they are always a hit and Joey's fav!

We really did have a great time being home - it had been nearly 6 months since my last trip to Louisiana, so it was time! There really is no place like home. But I must say it wasn't quite the same without my sister Maya. She sadly wasn't able to come in for the holiday. Thankfully we'll see her at Christmas. It was wonderful to get together with so many of our friends and family that we haven't seen in so long - it was refreshing to spend time with people who know me best; the people I can laugh, cry and just be myself with. I know it will take some time before we develop close relationships in Austin, but it'll be hard to compare to the ties we have from home. And that's okay! There's a season for everything in life. We enjoyed celebrating the Sabbath at our home church and getting to visit with some of our church family.



Joey got in as much time in the deer stand as possible, perhaps in an effort to avoid my over scheduling him with social appointments :) Just kidding!...but seriously? He didn't get a deer unfortunately, but he did have one in his sight, although she was too small to shoot. Joey is always the valiant hunter!



I helped my mom plants flowers in her beds one golden afternoon - you can learn a lot of things from the flowers! Her new rescue puppy Eleanor looked on. He is too cute and sweet! And yes, Eleanor is a boy...I would explain, but as I've said before, you can't fix crazy.

We had multiple lovely Thanksgiving feasts at our various family gatherings. Between mine and Joey's sides, we always have lots of places to go and delicious food to assist in inducing comas. All in all a wonderful week - let us rejoice and be glad in it! Looking forward to doing it again at Christmas!

The End of 2010 (not the world)

Blogs are interesting in that they don't stay alive if you don't tend to them. For me, I feel this compulsion to keep our blog updated, as I'm sure many bloggers do. Even if no one ever reads it, for whatever reason, you still have to keep it going once you've started. Perhaps more than anything bloggers blog for themselves as a way to make some sort of stamp in the wide open prairie of the cyber...after all, we all have a story to tell.

ALL this to say, it's been longer than I would have liked since my last blog, and for that I apologize. A lot has been going on for us, and now I must jumble it all together in order to catch up! We'll start with the end of 2010.

But first, I just have to say I laugh out loud when people talk about the end of the world occurring. People have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I can recall one particular instance when I was about 8 years old and going through a rough time with my parents' divorce and was pretty sensitive (more than usual, that is) and understandably solemn...I must have been at the check-out line at the grocery store because I remember seeing a lovely edition of The National Enquirer touting the headline, "The End of the World date REVEALED!!"---or something to that effect. I was so afraid to look, but I just had to. I believe the chosen date was August 12, 1993 or thereabouts. Anyway, even at 8, I was aware of the reputation of that particular "news" outlet, and so I quietly dismissed it, yet didn't forget the date until it came and went years later. And of course there was all the hoopla surrounding the new millennium. And now, because of the Mayan calendar ending (I think), the world is supposed to end in 2012. And actually, I saw several bill boards on a recent road trip declaring May 21, 2011 as Judgement Day....this was an actual ad from a church which I found very odd. Incidentally, that is also the date of my 10-year high school reunion, so if the world does indeed end, I guess I'll be surrounded be old friends :) ZHS Class of 2010 goin' out with a bang!

The point being, no one knows the day it will all end. Only God. It says in the Bible that the end will come as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. So every time someone declares an exact date, I discount that date altogether. No one can ever know, so the best thing to do is to get right with the One who actually does know.

So back to the Holidays. I hope you and yours had a lovely Christmas and New Year's! Ours was a little different this year in that we spent Christmas away from home, which I'm pretty sure is a first for our family or at least hasn't happened since we were kids. Wendell, my mom's significant other of several years (I feel weird saying boyfriend for my mom...he's not a boy...but manfriend sounds odd too....what do people of a certain age call their partners?) invited us to spend Christmas in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The Smokies are gorgeous, and we enjoyed hiking, "redneck" sledding as I fondly called what we did in the snow and spending time together, the eight of us there, including my dear grandmother Phyllis Jean. My uncle and his girlfriend got engaged while we were there, and we wish them the best. The only downside was that we didn't see Joey's and my dad's sides of the family on Christmas Day. But we did get snow on Christmas Day! A LOT! So much that we were snowed in completely and had to extend our trip. Luckily the power didn't go out or anything. And it was quite the experience getting our Louisiana cars with our Louisiana drivers down the very icy mountain when it was time to go home. It took awhile, but we all made it. Here are a few photos from our Eyre Family Christmas:

Mom and her two birds



Wendell and Mom



Wendell, Joey, Uncle Billy at the top of a hike



Snow on Christmas Day!



Ah, love.

All we had to sled upon was the lid of a garbage can...redneck sleddin'!

I would be remiss in not including this one last shot. As a time honored tradition, our mom gives us crazy big sunglasses in our stockings...I think it all started because we teased her as kids about her big sunwear, and of course now they are back in fashion and we wear them. I don't know where she finds them, but they never fail to amaze! And of course we have to take our Paris Hilton-esque photos with them. As a bonus, she gave us little Smoky Mountain bears, much like having a little toy chihuahua named Tinkerbelle.
Nothing less.

LoveandLight,