Drawing and Office Party

For the second year in a row, the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce has put on a "Shop Local" campaign.  Many of the local businesses participate.  For every $10 you spend at the participating businesses, you get receive a ticket.  And one lucky person wins $10,000!  I just knew it was going to be me this year.  I made a spreadsheet of all my tickets, and had them all listed in numerical order.  But unfortunately, they didn't call my number.  The winning number was not anywhere close to any of the numbers I had.  Maybe next year....

I talked Michael into going to the drawing with me.  Here we are with the winning number behind us.

Several of my friends from work that came to watch me win.  I sure hated to disappoint them.  Well maybe they came hoping they would win.

Terence & Neta Painter

 Dale and Vicky Gordon (Avery's grandparents)

 Barry and Cissy Diamond with their grandson, Parker

 The Thursday before Christmas we had our office Christmas party.  We all brought finger foods and had an ornament exchange.  I was in charge of decorations.  I put the tissue pom poms to use, again.  It was the 3rd party for some of the pom poms, so they were ready to retire afterwards.  And then I just confiscated different co-workers decorations they had in their office for the table centerpieces.

Jackie was LUCKY and got #1

 And it really didn't matter if we liked the ornament Paul got or not - who is going to "steal" from the boss?

 Laura was not too afraid to steal Jackie's snowman

 Kim got to open several gifts because each one she opened would get stolen

 Wanda (Avery's great grandmother) came to join the fun.  She usually only works with us during tax season, which will be here soon enough.  Speaking of, I had a client come in today (December 30th) asking when his W-2's would be ready.  Really?  Next week the phone will be ringing like CRAZY!

 

Harlon and Jackie

 

Hunter and Britney

The best thing was, when this party was over, no work for four days!

Senior Christmas Dinner

Every year, around the Christmas holidays, the youth help prepare and serve a dinner for the seniors (age 60 and over) in our congregation.  I always look forward to helping with this event.  This year we had 23 that attended.  We served baked ziti, salad, garlic bread and cheesecake for dessert.

Our decorations were pretty simple - scrapbook paper for place mats, ornaments in glass bowls for the centerpieces on the tables and tissue pom poms hanging from the ceilings.  I had several of the pom poms left over from the youth party at my house the night before, so we used those and made a few more.  And Erin and Grace made an ornament with "2011" on it for each guest to take home with them.

For entertainment, we had a mystery game "Who Kidnapped Rudy the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that I found online.  It was a game that the youth had played the year before at their Christmas party and really enjoyed.  It was pretty slow at the start,  but as the game goes on it gets a lot more fun and is easier to figure out what you are suppose to do.  I was worried at first, but I think everyone really enjoyed the game.  It was HILARIOUS watching them act out their characters.

Jan, Becky and Annette

Joyce looking over her first clue card

The cards gave you instructions on what you were suppose to do.  Like go find another character and tell them something about your character.  Sandra was Mrs. Claus and I think Larry was Ebbie Smooge, Mrs. Claus' brother.

Courtney and Hailey

Not sure where Michael was heading with the knife

Courtney and Hailey checking to see if anyone needed more garlic bread

working behind the scenes

It was fun to watch everyone study their clues.  They really played along well!

At the appropriate time, Denis who what the Gingerbread Man, got up and made a statement.  His paper told him to tell everyone he was "gingerlicious" and it was SO funny!

Joyce played "Icey the Snowman" who was a budding rapper.  Her paper told her to do a rap.  I took a video and hope that you can play it.  FUNNY!

Virgie was showing us her reindeer nose

Virgie, James, Frankye and Jim

Joyce, Venita, Robert, Vivian, Arlo and Denis

John Henry, Sandra, Joyce, Bettye and Larry

Lucille, Molly, Jo, Daphine and John

Sandra was the first to get up and announce who she thought the kidnapper was

It was really a fun night and I think all the seniors really enjoyed it! 

After the seniors all left, the youth sat down and ate the same meal they had just served.  And all that hard work had made them very hungry! A big thank you to the youth group for all your hard work!

Happy 17th Birthday Courtney Elizabeth!

I still have several Christmas parties that I need to blog about, but first I want to give my baby girl some birthday love.  I can't believe Courtney is 17 years old today!!  Seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital.  She decided to get here early on that Christmas morning at 4:07 am (about 4 hours after I went into labor).  Courtney was born on the same day as my great-grandmother, Ida Mae (Posey) Deshong.  Mama Deshong died at the age of 93, a year and a half before Courtney was born.  Courtney is named after my grandmother, Virginia Elizabeth (Deshong) Bell.

We normally celebrate Courtney's birthday around the first of December, but the last couple of years we have celebrated after Christmas.  We will probably do something special this week - if she will ever tell me what she wants to do.  And I did something this year that I have NEVER done in all of her years and something I said I would NEVER do....I wrapped her birthday present in Christmas paper!  Oops!  But the paper was red with white polk-a-dots, so it really could have easily been birthday paper too.

Courtney Elizabeth - 2 weeks old

5 months old

 1 year old (and one of my favorite pictures of her) 

 3 years old

 5 years old

 Wonder World in San Marcos

 5 years old

 Disney World - I love this picture :)

 back when I was still sort of cool, and she thought it was fun to hang out with me

 oh the Glamor Shot days...ha

NASA Space Center in Houston, with a very young looking Rod

 7th grade

 the 2007 Cotillion

Carrie Underwood concert when we lived in Arkansas

 Sophomore year

 Snorkeling off the coast in Belize

 Regional Golf tournament last year

 and the MVP girls golf award

And today....

 

per her request: a red velvet cake with chocolate icing

Happy Birthday to sweetest most thoughtful daughter.  I am BLESSED to be your mother.  I love you to the moon and back Courtney Elizabeth!

Youth Christmas Party

We had the youth Christmas party at our house again this year.  Last year we played a mystery "who done it" game which was a HUGE hit with the kids.  I didn't want to let the kids down this year, so I spent weeks racking my brain and searching internet sites to try and find something that would be as fun as last year.  I finally decided to go with an "Ugly" Christmas Sweater theme and a game of Family Feud (Christmas edition).  I was worried about the game, but turns out the kids LOVED it.

 Avery and Courtney in their "ugly" Christmas sweaters.  Courtney wore the same one she wore to Carsen's party.

 I found these Christmas tree brownies on Pinterest (to which I have a small addiction)

 Kelli and Courtney made reindeer donuts that I found on Pinterest

 We had sandwiches, chips and dips to snack on

 Colton, Hannah and Taylor Jo

 Cade and Butler

 We were so HAPPY that Jordan was in town and was able to come.  We miss him!!

 There was a gift exchange

 The kids were pretty nice for the most part, and didn't do much "stealing"

 Court got a Sonic gift card - which is kind of like a gift for me too (It will be a few days before she says "Mom can I have some money to go to Sonic")

 Deanna had all kinds of goodies in her bag

 Avery got both Butler and Benton a little something to open

 And the winners of the Ugly Sweater contest (voted on by those in attendance):  1st Place: Court, 2nd Place: Hailey.  They each got a gift certificate to Weezy's who was kind enough to donate them.  And Courtney and Hailey also got to choose their "families" for Family Feud.

All of the ugly sweaters

 Family #1 - the Kardashians

 Family #2 - the Brady Bunch

 Courtney and Hailey facing off in Round 1

 Amy and Kelli

 Rod took his Richard  Dawson role seriously.

 Lanny and Michael

 Kelli was the first to play fast money

and then Michael

All the kids really seemed to have a good time, and I know we loved having them all in our home!