A week of Christmas festivities

Dave and I had the most wonderful, fun and family filled Christmas week. This year, we decided not to travel to visit family. After all, Dave only gets a limited amount of time off, and so he wanted to try and rest up for the next semester as much as possible. I also was offered many opportunities to work that week, which will help us pay off my last tuition payment, so in the long run, staying home was the best decision. The week started off with a wonderful dinner at Mom and Mike's house in Dallas. My mom always decorates a beautiful house for Christmas, and I wanted to be sure to see it. So, Monday night, on one of the coldest nights of the month yet, we trucked it to Dallas to enjoy their company and mom's comfort food. On Tuesday, we were invited by a friend from church to a tamale dinner. It is a tradition for them to invite family and friends over each year to exchange gifts and eat tamales. I had never had a tamale before, and loved them from the first bite. We felt very special to have been invited to such a tradition as this. Wednesday was Christmas Eve. I worked and early shift at Target, and them Mom and Mike came to Grapevine to celebrate. They joined us for Christmas Eve service at our church, and then came back to our house for dinner and gifts. I made a killer pot roast (it was perfect!!!!!) with scalloped potatoes, salad and rolls, plus a peppermint ice cream cake for dessert. I am truly my mothers daughter and was more excited about planning menus this week then about some of the gifts! After dinner we opened presents. Below is a picture of mom and Mike in front of our tree. Don't they make such a Sweet newlywed couple!


Mom and Mike gave me a gift I had been wanting since last year.....the 12 days of Christmas ornaments from Crate and Barrel! I love these ornaments and when I went to buy them last year, I was informed that the company had sold out of them nation wide in two weeks!!! I was so excited to get a set this year and was even able to enjoy them on our tree for a couple days. Here is a picture of me and my new ornaments.

Christmas day was excellent!!! Dave and I slept in and opened presents with our coffee. Here is Dave with his new ear phones and some new clothes (and his Christmas beard).

After we opened presents, we went to see a movie (a semi-Norvell tradition) and then we came home and I again outdid myself in the food department by making a killer dinner. Roast turkey breast, Cranberry Yam Bake ( a child hod favorite) Broccoli gratin and caramel apple upside down cake for dessert.

(notice the chapstick in this picture)

We had such a great week and felt so blessed to have time to spend together. It had been such a busy and hectic semester that these past two weeks with both of us home have been a much needed blessing. I must also say that Dave totally out-did himself in the gift department this year. He picked out some beautiful clothes, books, and movies, and even a spa package that includes not one, but TWO massages!

I leave you now with a video of Dexter enjoying one of the Christmas gifts we got him. He tends to go a little neurotic with toys that squeak, as you will see in the video.

PS- does anyone else notice how empty the house feels when you take down all the Christmas decor?

lack of blog satisfaction

I'm convinced that until I have a kid or have the money to buy a really nice camera and take awesome photos, I am always going to be dissatisfied with my blog. Cause lets face it....anything I post about is totally trumped by all the immaculate pictures of perfectly cute children my family and friends post. Oh well, guess you guys will have to settle for pictures of the dog in the meantime.

My morning

This is the way my morning started.....

but the frustration of this event was soon overshadowed by excitement when I discovered that I MADE A'S IN MY CLASSES THIS SEMESTER!

A Weekend of Celebration

The Norvell family has had much to celebrate over the past few weekends. Not only did God bless us with a grandchild ( and nephew) on Thanksgiving day, but this past weekend we were able to be together again to celebrate a truly momentous occasion. Jon Norvell, the proud new father, graduated from Southwestern Baptist Seminary on Friday, Jan 12. It was a special day for the whole family, as this was the same seminary that my father-in-law graduated from several years earlier. Here is proud mom and dad with the recent graduate.

And here are the siblings. There were many people there from both families. Jon was blessed to have a whole row of supporters. Let me tell you something interesting about Jon. I feel like in society we toss around the word "smart" too loosely. Jon is one of those people who truly deserves to be called smart. In the few years that I have known him, I don't think there has been an occasion where he didn't know the answer to a question. His family tells a story about him in high school....Jon loves history and is very good at it. In high school, his history teacher gave a wrong fact, and Jon corrected him. His teacher was so surprised (I don't know if they were surprised in a good or bad way!) that he told Jon "if you are so smart, why don't you teach class tomorrow." So...he did! He taught his high school history class for a day, and I am sure was way more interesting than his teacher ever was. So, all that to say and illustrate the knowledge that Jon has been blessed with, and now that he has finished his degree, I am sure he will use it to bless others.
So after the big graduation celebration, Dave and I got to celebrate and early Christmas with Mom and Dad Norvell. Because we won't be traveling for Christmas this year, this will be the last time for us to see Dave's parents for a while. On Saturday I cooked Belgian waffles and we opened our gifts.
Dad loved his gift...we got him an ice cream maker to go with all the dutch oven cobbler he makes!Mom got some help from Dexter opening her gift....a new crock pot!!!

and like a true dog...Dexter loved being with his people while we opened gifts. He also got a kick out of the whole gift opening process, playing with the gift wrap like it was a toy. I took a little video, but it was so dark that I decided to leave it off the blog. Just imagine a little dog shaking wrapping paper like it was a dead animal or something.....quite funny.

I hope whatever you did this past weekend you were as blessed by family as we were.

Introducing...

The Young Blog!

Take a look at my sidebar to check out the newest blog to my roll. My best friend in the entire world and her husband have started a blog, and I am so excited to have them join the community. Take a look at their first post...she recently got her first job after finishing a whirlwind nursing school career. I am so proud of her and all the people that will be served by her will be blessed. Take a minute to comment on her blog too...first time bloggers LOVE comments (and so do long time bloggers like me!).