Chrit-mas Recap

I know you're dying to hear about our Christmas vacation and all the Sandi Patty Christmas CD's I made Sarah listen to - YUM!

Ok, so our Christmas celebration started (for me) on the 21st. This was the evening of our church Christmas musical, "All Bow Down." What a fantastic job the choir did. It was unbelievable!!!! I was so, so, so proud of them. We sang to an almost full house, which was very encouraging. I still can't get over it. My dear friend Melanie came over from Pensacola to sing one of the "big" solos and she sang the house down. What an amazing job she did.

On Monday night, we all headed to my parent's house. By all, I mean: my parents, me, Sarah, Celie, Mammaw and Nanny. We had a delicious dinner and then opened presents. Mammaw and Nanny both gave me money for day after Christmas shopping. My mom was very cleaver this year with one of her gifts to me.

In addition to completing my Barefoot Contessa cookbook collection (she gave me the last two I needed. Now I'm on my way to being the size of a side of a barn), she also gave me a Nintendo DS. Now, those of you who know me know that I am not into the "gaming" world. Except for a little Tetris every now and again, I typically do not get excited about gaming. Needless to say, I was a little confused by this gift until I opened the next present. A COOKING GAME!!!!!! Not a cooking game like, "who can beat egg whites to stiff peaks the fastest", but actual instructions. And better yet, it's voice-activated. You just set up the Nintendo on your counter and start cooking. You say, "continue" when you're ready to move to the next step. It's super cool. I was looking on Amazon and saw that there are several different recipe-database-type games for it. Totally cool. She gets the award this year for most creative gift. She also gave me some cologne and a casserole dish made out of bathtub porcelain. It has a guarantee for nothing to stick - we'll see about that.

We left for the in-laws on Tuesday. From my in-laws, I was given a personalized branding iron (so all my chicken, steak and pork loins will have my initials on them), an apron with my name on it, some cupcake accessories (oh, my grandmother also gave me a cake decorating turn-table - it was actually much needed) and a couple of polos. I'm not listing all my gifts because that just looks gratuitous, but you get the picture - I was a good boy this year.

On our annual day after Christmas shopping trip was where all the magic happened. I basically only wear two brands of shirts: Lacoste and Brooks Brothers. You have to be careful with Brooks Brothers because you can easily look like your 65 on a golf course. They love pleated pants with high waists, herringbone, madras, sear sucker and cashmere, but you CANNOT deny the quality of their shirts. WOW. They are made to last a lifetime. I will forever buy them. They are pricey, but worth every penny in my opinion. There is a division of Brooks Brothers called, Brooks Brothers Country Club. If you can imagine, it's even more expensive than the traditional BB store. There's one in Destin and the merch is amazing. Ridiculously priced, but amazing. So on our way out, Sarah spotted a really really nice shirt. She picked it up and was like, "This is really nice, you should get it." I looked at the price tag and thought she was joking because it was $135.00. We knew it was on sale because the entire store was, we just didn't know how much "on sale" it was.

When I took it to the register for them to price check it, guess how much it was????????? $9.08 and that was WITH TAX!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it????? Nine dollars. The cotton alone was more than that. It's so nice. Thanks to Sarah's good eye for seeing that deal!

Celie had fun. Not in the "ooh, it's Christmas" kinda way, but in the "ooh, there's a lot of paper on the floor and I think I'd like to eat it." She was a trooper and did wonderfully the entire time. She had fun getting to know her cousin Lylah (who has the single largest vocabulary of any 18-month old I know). Of course, this is the same cousin who gave everyone in the house the stomach bug. Thank you Lylah. Lylah gave it to Jenny who gave it to Sarah who gave it to Phil who gave it to Glen who gave it to Jonathan. Who even knows if the other siblings will get it. It was a trip.

I wish you could have been on the ride home with us. Me driving. Celie in her car seat in the back. Sarah next to her puking in a garbage can and moaning. What a sight!

Everything seems to be all back to normal now. Well, let's hope so anyway.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

I Love Sugar

I often wonder if you can become diabetic over a single Christmas holiday. If you can, I think I'm headed that way. I feel like I have eaten more sweets in the past few weeks than is legal. One sweet of note that has changed my life completely is the Caramel Pretzel Rod. I typically don't like the word "rod". I'm not sure why. It ranks up there with: "moist", "sop", "ahight" or all right, "amazing" and "fabulous".

Anyway, this pretzel stick - the full size version - was dipped in caramel, then milk chocolate, then white chocolate, then drizzled with more milk chocolate that is colored red and green. The whole time this basket of goodies came in, I was eyeing this pretzel, but I thought it was peppermint because a chocolate blob that looked very similar was peppermint and I thought, "gross, peppermint and pretzel makes me want to kill myself." Well, I bit into it and the rest is history. I called the company that made them to see if they stocked them all the time. As all things that work together for good for those who love the Lord should happen - they do!

December is almost over. I truly cannot believe it. We have been finished Christmas shopping for a while. We still have to pick up a "little something" for a grandmother and mother, but that we can find here locally. I can't believe it's almost 2009 and Celie will be one! Wow.

This Sunday is my Christmas musical, All Bow Down. It's going to be so great. Well, I pray (in Jesus' name) it is. The choir has worked so so so so hard this year. I hope I haven't been too bad of a slave driver.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas if I don't post again, and let's face it, I probably won't.

Some random things I'm thinking about today:

• I hate the smell of tootsie rolls
• I need to get 9-volt batteries
• I wonder what straight corn syrup tastes like
• I want today to be over
• My head hurts
• Chick-fil-a is from Heaven
• I want a smoothie
• and General Tso's Chicken

RIP - Beau. Major Beauregard Everett White

We'll miss you!