feliz navidad 2012

Ryan and I were both off the week between Christmas a New Years so we had a lot of time to relax, celebrate and enjoy time together. We spent actual Christmas Eve and Day in Dallas this year with the Kochs and Aimee (an adopted Koch). Our first married Christmas (2010) we started a fun little tradition of spending the night at the Koch's house after Christmas Eve services. It is fun to all wake up on Christmas morning together and open presents. The Kochs have a tradition of quesadillas and mimosas for breakfast - which clearly I love - so we had a fun, relaxed adult Christmas.

BONUS: it snowed!!! Seriously, we had an actual White Christmas. It was beautiful and went away 48 hours later... what more could a girl ask for? I love random Texas weather!

Murph man with his Christmas present

and Kali with her's

And here comes the snow... the puppies weren't quite sure what to do.

Family pic

After a few pics in the snow we were all freezing. It didn't take long for us to all snuggle up in the living room for some Christmas day movies and naps.

This is what our place looked like. It was so cool to see it covered in white!

Murphy is confused here because his water is frozen over. Kali just wants to go back inside.

Kyle wanted to practice as he is about to become a northerner. (I think he decided gloves are a good idea for future snowballs).

Christmas Part 2:
Later on in the week we headed down to Austin to spend some Christmas time with my family. It was wonderful to be home for the holidays. We also got to see Brittany and Alicia (two of my best friends from high school) and go to Kelsey and Stratton's beautiful New Years Eve wedding. It was a jam-packed but super fun Austin trip.

warming by the fire

The Roses do mimosas too! :)

NYE was a blast! My whole family was at the wedding which always makes things fun. They had a great band and so many cute new years eve details!! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures but here are my instagrams of the night.

Greg and Kate were the photographers so we snuck in some fun with them!

After the bride and groom headed off we went down to 6th street for some post ball drop drinks and dancing. We had fun and enjoyed the fact that there is no cover charge if you go to the bars after midnight on NYE! Clearly the night was a success...

brining 2012 to a close

Here is a quick rundown of the end of our 2012. It was a wonderful year and since we survived the Mayan Apocalypse we are excited for more fun with friends and family in 2013!!

November:

Fun times with family and friends! Kochussens for life :)

Greg and Cayce celebrated their birthdays in style!

We went to Tyler to see my precious cousin Kelly perform in her school's performance of The Little Mermaid. 

We voted - hope you did too!

We cut down our tree at the Wall's Family Farm for the second year in a row.
The pups got to come this year and loved it!

She's a goober - I think she wanted something that I had in my
hands, so she just sat and stared at me...

And Murphy napped as usual

Then December rolled around:

Some beautiful, relaxing days off!!

We got a fancy camera for ourselves for Christmas (yes, early again) so I was playing around with it. Check out this precious pic :)

Are you kidding me? Adorable!

Christmas is coming....

Brian turned the big 3-0!!

Hill country, campfires, friends and family.

some of my favorite ladies in the world!!

Alicia & Murphy = love

great way to  bring the year to an end

hook 'em kyle

Can't believe I have a post titled that (just shows how much I love you, brother-in-law)... Anyway, Kyle just graduated from UT with a double major in Finance and Economics!! (And he did this in only 4.5 years... muy impresivo!) Congratulations Kyle!

To celebrate we had a burnt orange and white themed dinner with the whole fam at my parent's house (I think the decor gave my Dad a few grey hairs)! Uncle Bill and Grandma Ducky flew down from St. Louis, Mawmaw came up from San Antonio, Mom came over and Andrea drove down with us and the Kochs for the party.

The pups were excited for Kyle too!

adios

In December I made a much needed life change and accepted a new position at Insider Marketing. It is an exciting new adventure that I am confident will be a blessing in my life!

Adios Maxim

And then it was time to celebrate....

give thanks

We had Thanksgiving in Austin this year with the Roses, Mom, Mawmaw and the Garritys - it was filled with lots of love, food, laughter, (football) and so much to be thankful for!

The football I was referring to above

We tried a new "upside down" turkey cooking method, it is supposed to make the breast meat more moist. The guys were excited to flip it!

We were all a bit nervous to flip a 20 lb. turkey...

But everything worked out and it was delicious!

Tired pups after lots of turkey and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(they didn't really get turkey)