Mandy and Jace

Last month we decided we needed a vacation before we strangle each other or some other poor unsuspecting citizen. So, on Friday we loaded up the Cadi and headed to Dallas since the Bahamas was out of the question. Bummer, I know! We can never figure out why, but there is just something about Dallas that makes us really happy so, that is where we always head when we need a vacation.

As we pulled into town we stopped by Papasitos, one of my favorite places to eat in Dallas. I could live a very happy and large life on their white wine butter sauce alone. To our surprise and glee our wonderful waitress packed us up some extra food to take to our hotel and munch on.

Saturday we shopped until we dropped. We went to the mall first then Jace talked me to going to Fry’s Electronic Store. My first thought as we walked in was “what did I get myself into? We may never leave here”. This is like the mothership! Jace’s eyes immediately glazed over and we were off. I have to say though, it wasn’t that bad and we didn’t spend too terribly much.

Sunday we managed to find ourselves downtown. We found this AMAZING BBQ place called Sonny Bryans Smokehouse. That was the best meal we had all weekend. The BBQ sauce is so good!
We then had time to kill and the weather was beautiful so we walked around the west end area. We saw where JFK was shot, the old courthouse and I got tons of great photos. We then went and saw Avatar at the 3D IMAX. We arrived, got our tickets that we pre-bought, and stood in line. After being in line for about thirty minutes I realized I bought the tickets for 12:00 and it was 3:30. Crap. I went and begged the little girl behind the counter to please let us in and she thankfully squeezed us in. Literally. Every seat was taken. I really liked the movie but I HATED the stupid glasses you have to wear to see the movie. They don’t fit my little face, so I had to kind of set them on my head. Hour one, they hurt. Hour two, they hurt worse and I was getting agitated. Hour three, I was done, done. The guy beside me was sitting in his seat as well as mine and my head hurt. GET. ME. OUT.! Whoever invents the 3D movie that you don’t have to wear glasses to will be my hero.

All in all we had an amazing weekend. Here are some of my photos and you can see more here.

We had a great Christmas this year! Jace and I take turns every year on who’s family we spend Christmas with and this year was my families turn. So we stayed here in Midland. This was our second Christmas as a married couple and we wanted to have a special day just for ourselves, so on Christmas eve we slept in and had a day to do what we wanted. We got up late and made breakfast burritos for brunch then watched movies and relaxed all day. You know it’s a good day when you don’t get out of your pajamas!
Christmas day we got up and made our tasty turkey. I love our turkey! It is the juiciest, tastiest turkey you have ever tasted.

After the turkey was ready we went to my parents house for lunch and gifts. Lunch was amazing and I ate more starch than I’ve eaten in about 6 months and I think I gained all twelve pounds that I’ve lost back but it was SO good. Next was gifts and there were a mountain of them to open.

My favorite gift was our new macbook pro, in which Jace promply whisked away, opened it up and worked his magic to make it a MEGA MACHINE.

After we opened gifts we all went to see Sherlock Holmes and then Jace and I went home. We had great plans to have a romantic steak dinner that evening but we were so stuffed from lunch and popcorn at the movies that we just had leftovers.

Now all the decorations are put up for the year and I am back on my diet, but I have wonderful memories of this Christmas that will last a lifetime. You can see the rest of our photos here.

Last week Jace and I flew to Athens, Georgia to have Thanksgiving with his family. It was a great reunion because we hadn’t seen Jace’s brother and sister in law in about a year. We also got to meet our niece Mary Elise for the first time. She had me wrapped around her little finger the moment we walked through the door!

I have made a few observations about Georgia. The main one is everyone uses more butter in a meal than I would use in a month. I thought it was just Paula Deen that had the butter obsession, but no. Its everyone in Georgia! My other observation was that everything we ate was amazing! So Georgians, keep shoving butter in everything and I will visit and eat all that I can. However, my arteries can only handle once or twice a year so I’ll have to make it good while I’m there. Needless to say, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing and so much more.

Can you see the heavens shining down on our turkey? It was that good!

I also got to go to my first Christmas tree farm. I was so excited. We have always had fake trees and while they have been great the real ones were so pretty. There were rows and rows of trees in all sizes and shapes. You could even get a Charlie Brown Christmas tree if you wanted. We picked the most perfect one, chopped it down and took it home. You think Griswold’s Christmas Vacation was outrageous? You should see us trying to get the tree home. It was quite entertaining.

It was a great week. I am truly blessed to be a part of this amazing family. I always come home feeling so loved and I couldn’t ask for a better group to be loved by. You guys are amazing. Thank you for letting me be a part of your lives. Justin and Margaret, thank you for opening up your homes and lives to us even if it was just for a week. We appreciate everything you did, from the wonderful meal to your gracious hospitality. We love you so much!

You can see more of my Thanksgiving photos here.

This past weekend we got to attend the 70th annual Gregg Family Reunion with my wonderful father and mother in-law. We had the greatest time catching up with family and doing lots of swimming, shopping and eating (which I am trying to forget about). It was so great to be able to see everyone and create memories we will never forget.

As always you can go here to see all my photos from the reunion.

This weekend we threw my memaw and pop a birthday party. Pop turned 80 and memaw turned 75. So we invited 125 of their closest friends and had a party. The guest list started out small and much like our wedding it grew and grew to where our small party turned into a huge blow out.

We had a great party. We got to see friends that we haven’t seen in a while and friends we see quite regularly. And above all memaw and pop were reminded once again that they are loved very, very much.
I had to throw this photo of my cousin Rani in because I thought it was really funny.