annoying songs

Christmas songs are playing on the radio these days. I love Christmas songs. Most of them.

I just heard "Where Are You Christmas?" Ugh. It's like the Christmas equivalent to "Where Is Love" from Oliver. It grates on my nerves and then gets stuck in my head. Songs like this should be banned.

thanksgiving!

Is there anything better? Good food, family, no work. I left after work Wednesday. Took a scenic route to I-35. It seemed to take a long time, but I suspect that traffic was much worse on the freeways. And to think last year I missed all the crazy traffic time because I was preparing Doulos for drydock.

It was Rodgers' first major holiday to spend with my family - a very momentous occasion. He and Dad made the green bean casserole together. (I made truffles. They're delicious.)

Yesterday, we had fajitas with all the Atkinsons. The crazy ones did the Black Friday shopping, but those of us who are a little more sensible stayed home. We did, however, check out a new chocolate shop in Bastrop, which has truffles and bonbons made of Belgian chocolate. The strangest sounding one is the Lime Tequila Jalepeno truffle - surprisingly good. But my favorites were the Kahlua and the Espresso Rum.

We were too distracted by turkey to do nice group pictures Thursday, but here's some from yesterday:

me and Mom sitting on Claire's lap


all the cousins: Matt, DJ, Denis, Reagan, me, Claire, and Ashleigh


me, Matt, and Claire

As usual, we pulled out the Christmas decorations today. Don't have a tree right now, but we've got the mantle decorated, and some of the stockings hung (will have to get some more hooks to hang the rest).

This morning, Dad came in the living room, carrying our old Creepy Crawlers box, as if it was the Holy Grail. It still works, but the goopy stuff you use to make the bugs with was mostly dried out. So, he took us to Toys R Us this afternoon! Then, we had barbecue, and went to my favorite resale shop, Savers. I've been looking for boots for a long time. But I have no calves, so boots don't fit my legs right. I had finally decided to just get ankle boots. Then today at Savers, there was a pair of mules that kind of have a western design on them. Didn't look that great, but I tried them on, thinking that they would at least give the same look as boots if I wore them with jeans. They looked AWESOME!! Only problem is they were too small, and, being a resale shop, there was only one pair in the store. So my new mission is to find a pair of affordable western inspired mules in a 7 1/2.