'Twas the Season

We began Christmas festivities this year a little differently. We exchanged gifts with one another before we went over to my (Kristin) parent's house for the annual Christmas Eve party. The party was starting later because one of my sisters had to work until 7, but it was nice to see everyone.
This was our finished tree for 2009.
Mason got Christmas treats!
Gracie did too, although she wasn't so sure about this one.
Phillip's stocking was stuffed.
My favorite present from Phillip.
The mister's favorite present from me, a new sight for his bow.
Trying to open said sight. Obviously, Mason is ready and willing to help with this project.
...and then he got bored.
This is my sister's dog, Rascal. By the end of the night he had toys tied to the end of these ribbons (there were a few more around his collar). Compliments of my dad.
Maw-Maw (Kristin's maternal grandmother) on Christmas Eve. Grandmother and Granddaddy (paternal grandparents) were at home sick. Sad. Prayers for Grandmother are needed. She is having knee replacement surgery today!
Sadly, this is one of the only pictures we have from this Christmas with both of us. Classy.
Dad got presents and chose to play with Rascal and Jackson's dog toys.
Proof that Phillip has looked the same his whole life!
This is what he looked like at his grandma's house after the monsoon followed us to SC. Those are brand new socks that are filthy. Yuck!
Pensive P!
Mason fetching...part of a tree. (Who needs sticks?)
He likes mud. Just like his daddy.
Walking to the pond with corn cobs for Mason.
Teaching him to fetch in order. It worked too!
Gracie decided to play when we got home. If you check the previous post, you can see that didn't last for long.

Thank you to everyone that made our Christmas wonderful! We are truly blessed!

Christmas 2009

As is typical with our Christmases, we saw a lot of family and friends and did a whole lot of traveling, but it was worth it! We had a wonderful time visiting everyone! It's amazing how blessed we truly are in this country. Even our worst is so much better than the best in so many other countries.

We made it home safely tonight. Clemson was playing in a bowl game, so as soon as the bags and boxes were out of the truck I took over the chore of unpacking. Fortunately, I got everything unpacked, organized, out of boxes, and even started some laundry. I will try to post some pictures from this weekend over the next few days. As for now, sweet Gracie is beside my nightstand snoring. All of the members of this family will be much the same in about an hour.

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAD A BLESSED, SAFE CHRISTMAS!

Ornament Time!

This year marks our 5th Christmas together, which also means it marks our 5th Christmas ornament. This was a date we went on about 5 months into our relationship at Dish It Out for some fun. We have returned every year, except the year we painted our ornament in Mont Tremblant on our honeymoon, to continue the tradition.

Phillip said we had to go with a flat ornament because the balls were too complicated. So I got to pick the snowflake, but I wasn't thinking about all of the detail that went into painting those!

Phillip taking a stab at it!
He looks so serious. I buzzed his hair the night before per his request.

Adding the finishing touches!

This is the front side. On the back we always put the year and our names or initials. This year we stuck with "Harris 2009."

Kristin's Dad Turns 50!

My (Kristin) parents are not far apart in age. My mom turned 50 in July. Dad's birthday is today, December 7th. Both turned 50 this year. We threw Mom a surprise party, but Mom threw Dad for a huge loop with his "surprise."

This is a picture of Mom and Gil, Dad's friend, leading him down the stairs in their garage. He's about to get his birthday present a few days early.

I wish my camera would not have been so blurry, but this is his face when Mom took the blindfold off.

Surveying the goods.
The surprise! This truck, now completely renovated with new paint job, bed liner, engine, transmission, upholstery, and anything else you can think of, was Dad's present. He's had this truck since 1989. It was a year old when they bought it, but it has been to hell and back between now and then. He used it as a work truck for their old businesses, my sisters and I all learned how to drive in it (and subsequently ran it into several buildings, mailboxes, etc.), and he would loan it out to anyone that needed it. It had rust holes, chipped paint, torn seats, the whole nine yards! Mom decided to return it to new. I wish I had pictures during the day because the paint job is great! Dad was so excited!
Thanks to the flash this is a little blurry, but they decided to take it out for a spin. Dad now uses the garage. I have never, in my 25 years of living, known my dad to use any of the 4 garage spots they have. Now he does! (He also asked Phillip if he could start using his truck to hail mulch during the Spring! Haha!)

HAPPY 50th DADDY!

Celebrating 2 Years...

of wedded bliss! Sadly, we don't get to spend our anniversary (today) together thanks to our normal weekly schedules. However, we had a great time together celebrating this weekend. A few weeks ago, I approached Phillip and told him that I lacked the the time, energy, and (quite frankly) motivation to plan any "date" for this year's anniversary. I did not expect him to do anything for our anniversary, but I told him to pick a restaurant and make reservations if we needed them. We typically don't even exchange gifts, so anniversaries are low key with us.

Apparently, Phillip was feeling the need to be an over-achiever. He surprised me with tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Charlotte. I didn't even know they were here. He got us amazing seats! We even got "snowed" on during one of their songs. Before the concert we had dinner at New South, a local restaurant we enjoy.

It was so great to see TSO in concert. I love their Christmas music, but when you add the pyrotechnics and the amazing lighting it takes them to a whole new level. Below are a few pictures that Phillip took during the concert. (I think he was most amused by the pyro.)



This was definitely a different take on how we traditionally view Christmas music and performance, but it was so much fun! The second part of the concert consisted on music from their new CD. While it was a good performance, we both enjoyed the first portion the best.



Us waiting with 11,998 other people to get out of the arena. (This is what happens when I don't stand on a step to be remotely close to his height.)


Today, I got a surprise at work. Phillip walked in with these:
He even got 25 roses because I only like numbers that are divisible by 5! He's wins!
What a great anniversary!

The Halls are Decked!

It is an annual goal to have the house completely decorated for Christmas by Thanksgiving night. This year we decided to take Thanksgiving day easy. We enjoyed a lot of time with my (Kristin's) family. My parents cooked for everyone. Daddy even passed out around 6 PM because he went to bed around 1 AM and woke up around 5:30 AM to start cooking again.

Friday we woke up with full intentions of putting up the tree in a timely fashion. That was until Phillip messed his back up again right after putting the tree stand down. That's right! We still had the entire tree to go! He took a muscle relaxer finally and decided to try to work through some of it. Halfway through the process, my parents called to see if we wanted to go to the movies. My cousin, Dani, came in from Georgia where she's a freshman at Wesleyan. Our house was much closer than her parents' in Texas. It was the first time either of us can recall seeing one another. I believe they visited once when she was a baby, but it has been a while (to say the least). We all went to see The Blind Side. We loved it! Typically, we don't even bother with wasting money at the movies, but this was totally worth it!

We came home after dinner and Phillip finally passed out from the muscle relaxer. I finished the tree and wrapped all of the gifts we have already bought. It took until 3 AM that morning, but I finished (for now)! I even got all of Phillip's stocking stuffers all wrapped up! As it turns out, I was completely comfortable wrapping all of his gifts knowing it would take an act of God to wake him.

Here are a few pictures from this year's decor!
This is the first year we have had stockings (it took me this long to find ones that I liked). I was quite excited to find these after Christmas last year, and even more excited to hang them this year! Phillip's stocking is the one on the left. It's definitely stuffed!

This year's tree. Phillip was quite tired of the glitter and ting-ting. I think he believes trees are suppose to be all boring. Mom gives me lots of fun fillers from the florist. I am trying a new tree topper idea that I saw recently. I don't like angels or bows or stars (or have yet to find any that will work with our decor). We'll see how I feel about it at the end of this season.

I love this time of the year!

Daddy's Boy!

Mason is never ever allowed on the furniture, but tonight I was too consumed with a lesson plan to notice his sneaky maneuver. Phillip was amazingly helpful today during all of my catch up homework. He spent the day doing laundry while watching ESPN. Here's how I found my boys this evening when I looked up after submitting my lesson.

I have no idea how that big pup balled himself up to fit in such a small area, but he did! He loves his daddy!

5 Year Old Wisdom

As many of you know, I (Kristin) have been babysitting two little boys a couple of evenings a week for the past two years. Quinn, the youngest, just turned 5 a couple of weeks ago. Tonight he didn't want to eat his vegetables with dinner. This is normal with Quinn. His older brother, Barrett (7), gave him some encouraging words: take a bite and chase it with the chocolate milk. (Where they learned the concept of chasing things is beyond me.)

After sitting at the table alone for a while, Quinn looked at me and said, "Mrs. Kristin, I'm stuffed!" Knowing this would be another battle of wills, I picked up my armor and replied, "Really?! No way! Are you ready for dessert?" Of course his face lit up with delight as he replied, "Yes ma'am!" I laughed, "Tricked ya! If you have room for dessert you have plenty of room for your peas and corn." Quinn, never one to be out-witted, looked and said, "BUT I have 2 stomachs! One for dessert and one for non-dessert stuff. The dessert one is empty!"

I know you aren't suppose to laugh at them, but I died laughing right there.

Lazy SC Weekend

This weekend we decided to head down to Florence for a long overdue visit with Phillip's family. Brandy, my college suite mate was able to meet us there on Saturday morning since Will was on call for the night (we missed you Will). She brought their new puppy, Sydney. Oh poor Sydney had little hands pulling at him all weekend. :-) He's precious.

Logan and Taylor, our nieces, meeting Sydney for the first time.
Obviously, Sydney is teething.
Logan loves animals!
Sydney went for his first swim in the pond. Mason wouldn't get out.
Something Brandy enjoys when she visits Florence. :-)
Sydney looks like he's praying for mercy.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.
I've always asserted that this is, by far, the best way to handle Taylor.
I'm an aunt.
This is going on the fridge soon. Love it!
Cheesing before the festival.
Spider Taylor...blue undies showing and all!
Phillip helping the short one with a little boost.
She wanted a blue flower on her face.
Brandy was trying to show Taylor how to make bubbles...she's an expert aunt.
Brandy and Phillip have a special bond (emphasis on "special").
Typical Taylor
She didn't realize it, but there was no way she was going to win this battle. Mason loves his bottles.
Logan being all goofy.

Uncle Phillip and Taylor with their "necklaces."
Taylor wanted to take a picture, so I gave her something to document.