Community Group Christmas Fun

The Sunday before Christmas our community group was able to all get together for our Christmas party!  We had a Mexican dinner and shared presents "white elephant" style!  It was a fun time.  We got some interesting gifts... but that is why white elephant is so funny.  We kind of left early though because I still had to work the next day... bummer. :(  I was getting so excited about having a few days off of work so that we could spend some extended time with Jay's family!

I got a fun headband with Santas on it.

 An awkward family photo :)

 Millie got in the Christmas spirit, too!  She's sort of a grinch though... 

And the Winners Are...

We have had a great weekend so far.  Starting on Friday we had my quarterly work party.  It was our 2nd Annual Chili Cook-Off and it was really fun!  Jenny and I started planning a long time ago and it was definitely a huge success.  We had seven chili entries and everyone from work brought something to share.  We all invited our families and had a great time!  Everyone voted on their favorite chili and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners won a prize and bragging rights for a year. :) 

We made trophies out of cylinder and mortar molds!

Jay testing out all the chilis :)

The Winners!

Shawn Billinger (PM)- 1st Place

Bobette Puderbaugh (Accounting)- 2nd Place

Jimmie Folse (FSC)- 3rd Place

I only have two more days of work and then we are headed to Little Rock for the holiday weekend!  We can't wait to spend some time with Jay's family and are looking forward to every second!  Tonight is our community group Christmas Party at Mackenzie's so we all sorts of Christmas fun to look forward to.  I will post again as soon as I get a chance.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

The 12 Days of Christmas

Today is December 13 and there are only 12 more days until Christmas!  I am so happy to have all my shopping done and presents wrapped already!  What a great feeling.  Of those 12 remaining days: I work 7, travel 1, and relax 4! Jay and I cannot wait to spend some time with his family over the holidays but we still have a few days until we leave.  There still is a lot to do between now and then, also.  I have one more discipleship group, a work party, baking and cooking and a community group Christmas party!  The holidays are so full but so enjoyable.  I hope you can have some time to reflect on O Magnum Mysterium - the "Great Mystery" of our Lord and Saviour becoming man this season. 

Lazy Weekend for Team Thorpe

This weekend has been especially fun - because we've done nearly nothing! :)  Last night we took a meal over to some friends that just a baby a couple weeks ago and then caught a movie close by their house.  We saw Disney's new movie Tangled and it was so good!  It was so cute, and funny and romantic and we loved it!  Saturday we slept in and went to the Kolache Factory!  Kolache is like dinner-roll-sized bread stuffed with delicious filling like sausage and gravy or egg and cheese or sometimes chocolate cream!  Yummy.  We came back home to get ready and lazy around some more!  I totally took a nap because I could and Jay played a new video game we got a few months ago.  Then we took Dash to get his nails trimmed and ground and his ears cleaned for the winter.  He was such a good boy and we got him some Christmas rawhides for the holiday season!  We tried to let him pick out a new toy but he was totally uninterested and then went beserk when we walked by the rawhides so we figured he wanted those instead.  :)  We came back and since it was getting so cold we decided to have dinner in - one of our favorites, spicy garlic chicken with potstickers! We rented a movie and look forward to another day off tomorrow!  So glad I got to catch up!  Bye for now...

Do I Still Read?

The answer is absolutely!  If you saw my Christmas letter then you know that my book club has been "going strong for over a year now" and I absolutely still have time and very much enjoy reading.  I haven't blogged about in awhile but Thursday we had our big Christmas meeting.  We read Glenn Beck's The Christmas Sweater and it was a pretty good book.  The most fun was that it was a cookie exchange and PJ party!  Everyone came in their Christmas PJs and brought cookies for everyone to share.  We had a really fun time drinking apple cider and hot cocoa and eating tons of Christmas cookies!  Wow.   So fun.

Here is the spread - so delicious.  Thanks everyone!

Cuties in our Christmas PJs!  

Ashley, Shea, Heather, Nicole (baby Rowen), me, Jenny, Maggie and Katherine

Christmas at 2314!

Well this year we are in our new house and decorating for Christmas was so fun!  We can't believe that the Christmas season is already here but we are loving it!  The winter weather is upon us and the house is all garbed in Christmas spirit.  We even put lights on the house!  Our first time ever and I think Jay did a pretty good job!

There is a little bit of the roof that didn't get covered but we ran out of lights!

Presents wrapped and everything!

Giving Thanks (A little late...)

So earlier when I said I would blog Thanksgiving soon I didn't mean ten days later.  Nonetheless, it is a very cold Saturday afternoon in Kansas City and I am finally making some time to update all my followers.  This year Jay and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Norman.  We had Thursday and Friday off so it was a perfect long weekend that of course went by way too fast!  Thursday morning we all drove down to my Grandmother and Papa's in southern Oklahoma and spent a wonderful Thanksgiving day there.  The food was awesome and the company always a joy!  

Chris, Dad and little Stewart

 Sisters

Uncle Jay and Amelia Mae

 Lucy with her presents from Popa :)

Dad and I went Black Friday shopping at 3:30 in the morning to get some good deals!  It was my first time ever to do that and I sure am glad I did it!  Every store we went to was crazy but we got all that we were looking for and more!  Really fun!  Also on Friday we went to see the latest Harry Potter movie with everyone- it was awesome and we all enjoyed it very much!  Saturday morning Mom, Allison and I went to the craft fair and shopped around a little bit.  Both Arkansas and OU were playing one of their biggest games on Saturday so, of course, we rooted on our teams and they both won!  Both games were really good and we were all happy for our teams' wins.  Sunday we left early to head back home so we could decorate for Christmas.  We are definitely thankful for everything in our lives and couldn't be more blessed! 

Good Times, Great Oldies

Hey Everyone!

Lately I feel like time has been especially flying and I'm not sure if it is the change in season, holidays just around the corner or what!?  There have been several fun things the last few weekends including the Thanksgiving holiday.  I will blog Thanksgiving soon.  But first,  a few weekends ago we had the special treat of our good friends Justin and Lauren Davis and their son, Parker, come to visit!  They came into town Friday evening and we joined them and the Rainwaters and The Blue Moose - what a great time!!  We were totally segregated junior high style (girls on one side and guys on the other) and enjoyed drinks, food and lots of laughter!  We also took some pretty funny pictures that I will spare you all... You are welcome, Rachel. ;)  Jay and I had never been to Blue Moose and we thought that was a great suggestion by the Rainwaters.  Saturday we all met up again for lunch at Spin Pizza and then headed over to the Country Club Plaza for some walking around and shopping!  The guys (including little Parker) hit the sports stores and us girls oogled over sparkling diamonds at Helzburg!  Ha ha- so dreamy.  We tried to get some Christmas shopping done but nonetheless, were unlucky.  After the Plaza we headed back over to the Rainwaters for dinner and the Razorback game.  GO HOGS!  Rachel made a wonderful lasagna (from scratch -so good) and I brought some dessert.  We all gathered in the den to watch the hogs play Mississippi State.  It was a great game and too close! We went into overtime and I was biting my nails nearly the whole time!  Being all together with Lauren and Rachel made it feel like we were in college again and it was so fun.  We loved having them up here visiting and all had a great time together!  I will get some pictures up when I post Thanksgiving... coming soon. :)