My First Christmas in Texas - Photos!

Here's my original plans (in italics) and all of the associated pictures! Warning: picture heavy! But aren't those the best?


December 21: I planned out all of the holiday dishes I am going to make and figured out what I needed to go buy. I also built a massive shoe cabinet!

The two gigantic boxes housing all of the pieces.

This was the hardest part! I was pretty proud to get it together all by myself without anything breaking.

December 22: I hit up Whole Foods, Randalls, and Bed, Bath & Beyond to get all of the things I needed. I decided to make lamb instead of turkey this year, but I didn't realize how expensive it was! When I was younger my family raised sheep, so we had lamb for free all the time. Little did I know that it's $11 per pound!! I also had to go buy a roaster and a few kitchen supplies that I was missing.

I don't have any pictures from my shopping excursions, but here are some pictures of a pretty flower I grew! It just bloomed! It's actually the size of my face!

December 23: I'm going to the beach! I'm really not usually a fan of the ocean/beach/salt water, but it kinda sounds fun right now. The high is supposed to be 78 degrees tomorrow, which is just cool enough that I'll venture out of doors. I've got a massive list of books to read, so I'm packing up my sunscreen, towel, maybe a beach chair, some cucumber lemon infused water I just made, and The Book Thief and heading down to the Bolivar Peninsula tomorrow morning. I have a feeling that there won't be many other people there.

I went to the beach! I planned on going to the Bolivar Peninsula, but I was too lazy to get my car on the ferry. Instead I went to Stewart Beach on Galveston Island. There were more people than I expected.. And it was chillier than I planned! I'm glad I brought a jacket! I read on the beach for a couple hours and then wandered around Old City Graveyard for a while. Most of the graves were from the 1800s, so it was pretty interesting. I took a bunch more pictures, but there's a few!

The view from my lawn chair

Old City Graveyard

December 24: Cooking and cleaning day! I want to get all of the food I'm making prepped and ready so that I can just pop them all in the oven on Christmas day. I also plan on cleaning out my closet. That won't be very fun, but it has to be done. I'll probably watch a few Christmas movies while digging my way through it all.

I didn't get around to the closet bit... That'll be moved back a bit. But I did a lot of cooking!! And I even managed to fix up my nails a little bit! They got a little destroyed with all of the dish-scrubbing.

My very first attempt at making "cheesey tatas!" I'm sure they're not nearly as good as my Grandma's. But they look pretty!

Green bean casserole! I tried a new version... I think I'll be going back to the original.

Garlic rosemary biscuits. Eat your heart out.

KB Shimmer We Three Blings and Essie Scarlett O'Hara

All I have to do tomorrow morning is pop the little lamb into the oven!

December 25: Lazy day! Finish cooking, eat to heart's content, then watch a bazillion Christmas specials! Some movies on my list are: Die Hard, Die Harder, It's A Wonderful Life, White Christmas, The Santa Clause, Christmas with Holly, The Mistle-Tones, Holly's Holiday, Under the Mistletoe, and Finding Mrs. Claus. PLUS there's all that great holiday football to watch!! It's going to be a busy day to say the least.

Check out my movie marathon post to see the ridiculous number of movies I watched on Christmas. I put the lamb in the oven early-ish in the morning and it came out delicious! This is my first attempt at making lamb!

Right after dinner a ridiculous wind storm / cold front blew through. It kept kicking my power off so I just sat on my porch and watched the temperature drop 30 degrees in less than an hour!

December 26-27: These plans aren't totally thought out yet. Maybe go see some movies at the dollar theater? Or Les Miserables!! I think some friends may be in town... If not I'm going to see some movies and then perhaps find some old-timey towns in the area to go stroll through.

I don't have any pictures from this... I had brunch with a couple friends I hadn't seen in a while. And then I played a lot of Lego Batman!

December 28: Hanging out with Laura Tully! We're gonna do a test run of her wedding hair and then shop for wedding shoes!

I DO have pictures from this, but juuuuuuuuuuust in case the groom reads this (he won't lol) I can't post any.

December 29: Family comes back late tonight. Probably do brunch with Laura before she heads back to San Antonio.

December 30: Hang out with the fam-fam.

Also no pictures. I kinda failed towards the end here. But my brother and I beat all of Lego Lord of the Rings in one afternoon!

December 31: New Years Eve party!

I should have taken pictures of the decorations we put up for the party... It was pretty! I made these Samoa cupcakes!

January 1: Recover from New Years Eve party.

This isn't a pretty site. Sorry guys.

January 2: Go back to work.