Christmas at the Holloways!

I don't have a lot to say about our decorations, just that I am so excited to share my first Christmas with Lan. It's important to me that we have our own Christmas and start our own Christmas traditions. To me, this is part of establishing our family :)

To that end, we celebrated early (on the 11th). Little did I know that Lan planned it this way because of the nature of my presents-- most of them are Christmas oriented (yay for Christmas tree dishes!) and he wanted me to be able to use them this year (how sweet is that?). This was the Christmas extravaganza weekend - Bible Study party, Christmas, Symphony, Church Christmas Program, and Sunday School party. We were really tired after, but it was a great weekend! Fun was had by all.

On Wednesday, we go back to Mississippi to celebrate with our families. Can't wait! I'll have more to report on this next time.

So, here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations!

Christmas tree area :) We didn't have room for a big tree, so we have this little one. Notice all the MSU ornaments (Hail State!). The frame on the table says "Tis the Season to be Jolly."

Close up on the tree.

My favorite ornament--Lan's mom gave us this ornament and I wanted a close up of it, because it's so darn cute!!

I bought this platter last year at Stewart's Florist and just love it. It says "She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger... He was named Jesus" - Luke 2:7,21

We got this while we were in Clinton for Thanksgiving, and it's so cute! It's a glass platter.

These 2 shots are of a Christmas bowl I painted at my Bible Study Girl's night. I love it! I just wish it was a little bigger- our bananas don't really fit in it very well.

Low budget centerpiece (well, not the bowl part). We keep this bowl on our coffee table all year and I wanted to make it more "Christmasy" so I put these ornaments in it. They came from one of those massive packs of ornaments you can get at Wal Mart (they were leftover from last year, but are so cheap). When you get close, you can tell the ornaments aren't great quality, but from a distance, it looks pretty nice! I've gotten a couple of compliments on it!

Merry Christmas all!

L & J

Thanksgiving and Tales of my Canton Adventure

Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks ago, so I feel obligated to say a bit about it... We traveled back to Mississippi, which wasn't our original plan, seeing as how we only had 2 days of vacation. We left on Wednesday and came back on Sunday. It was a nice trip! Not very long at each house, but it was nice to see everyone. And, it's not that long until we go back for Christmas and get to see even more family!

We have decorated for Christmas (yay!), so be expecting an upcoming Christmas blog with apartment pics.

Ok, now to the main purpose of my post... Canton. I have discovered my new favorite thing about Texas--Canton. Canton is a town a little (under an hour, I think?) outside Dallas. The first weekend of every month, they hold a trade days. It's kind of a big deal.

Basically what happens is this. They have a massive trade days area (and I mean massive- we were there from 10:30 to about 4:30 and didn't see everything there was to see) and vendors come from all over and set up shop. You have some really nice areas, with nice antiques, things for the home, etc, and you have some outdoor areas that are more like a flea market (anything and everything). Oh, and everyone and their mother goes. Like I said, kind of a big deal.

Our friend Emily invited me to go this weekend with one of her other friends and some of her family. It was SO FUN. Emily's family had all been to Canton before, so I was happy to be with people that really knew what they were doing and where they were going! I had a great time, and will definitely be going back.

And, I got some cool things...

I guess you would call this a candle holder. It's silver and glass. The dots you see in the picture are flecks out of the silver lining in the glass container. You put a candle inside and the light shines through and it's really pretty!

Soup and dip mix vendors are pretty popular at events like this, and we visited a really good one while we were there! They had lots of yummy samples, so I selected a dip mix and a soup mix-- Cheesy Chicken Enchilada and Southland Spinach dip. Both were REALLY yummy. For my Chi Omega sisters, the cheesy chicken enchilada soup tasted a lot like the Chicken Enchilada soup at the Chi O house, so I am really exciting about the mix!

This is a sugar mold. They were really popular at Canton, and are really cool! It's a wooden block with 5 holes. Inside the holes are bronze tins. You can use it in a variety of ways. In the holes, you can put candles, flowers, or even silverware (for serving lines or the table). They had all these on display, and I really liked the way it looked. I am really excited about this one!!

So that's Canton... Coming up for us is our big Christmas weekend-- Friday night is our Bible Study Christmas Party, Saturday, we are celebrating Christmas and going to the symphony, and Sunday we have Celebration at Houston's First (their big Christmas production), and our Sunday School Christmas Party. We are going to be Christmas'ed out. And I am excited :)

Love from Houston!

J & L

It's Been a While

Boy oh boy, I have been a slacker. I guess we've been pretty busy and I've let blogging fall by the wayside. But, here's an update on our life.

We've fallen into a pretty steady routine. Sundays, we go to Newlywed Sunday School class and church at First Baptist. Mondays and Tuesdays we either enjoy a night at home or visit with friends (sometimes going places to meet them, sometimes inviting friends over for dinner). Wednesdays, we go to bible study in Katy -- Wednesday is one of our favorite nights a week, because we love spending time with our bible study friends! Thursdays are TV night (Greys, The Office, Outsourced, It's Always Sunny, Big Bang Theory, Community-- we watch lots of TV). And we usually fill our weekends with spending time with friends and running errands.

It's sad, but I can't really tell you specifically what we've been doing the past couple weeks, but I can tell you that we haven't had a lot of free nights at home! We stay busy.

I guess the biggest news in our life this week has been our decision to go to Colorado with some of our friends from bible study!! We are so excited. Neither of us have ever been to Colorado or been snow skiing, so this is a really exciting trip for us! We are going MLK Day weekend (though neither Lan nor I get MLK Day off). We are staying in a really nice looking condo and can't wait to try our hand at skiing (and tubing!) and play in the snow.

I would post a google picture of the place we're going, but I'm afraid of copyright laws. Just search Keystone, Colorado River Run. That's where we're going!

Up for us this week -- back to Mississippi for Thanksgiving (can you believe it's here already??) and shortly after, Harry Potter (wish you were here, Lindsay).

Happy Thanksgiving all!!!

What's New

Ok. After this blog, I will finally be caught up! Here's what we've been up to for the last couple of weeks...

Last weekend, we visited Lan's aunt and uncle in Beaumont, TX. The original purpose of this trip was to see Lan's cousin, Emory, play football. He had a game in Houston earlier this fall that we went to, but we barely got to see him play because he had an infection in his hand. So, we decided to try again. But, alas, he was injured again (this time with a foot injury). We've decided that we must be bad luck...

But, even though we didn't get to see Emory play, we had fun at the game and had a really great weekend! On Saturday, Lan's uncle took Lan and his other cousin, Ethan, hunting. I stayed with Lan's aunt and we went to a tailgate party at their church.

Oh, and we ate. Lots and lots of yummy, yummy food. Bean dip, sausage/blueberry breakfast casserole, grilled chicken.. the list goes on. In summary, the food was awesome.

On Sunday, we went to Lan's uncle's church and heard him preach, which was fun because I have never heard him preach in person before. So, overall, the trip was great, and we look forward to a trip back at some point!

This weekend, Lan returned to Mississippi to see MSU take down KY (7-2!!), and I stayed home. On Friday, our bible study had a Halloween party, which was really fun! Yesterday, I volunteered with my friend Anne Marie at our church's fall festival. We worked one of the many bounce houses. We had a good time. Other than that, my weekend has been pretty low key. Some shopping and lots of TV.

I don't think we have any big plans coming up in the next few weekends, which is actually really great. It's nice just to enjoy being at home!

In other news, I have a recipe I'd like to share. For my MSU Chi Omega sisters, this recipe reminds me of apple crisp (but better!), so you should try it! Some of you know that I was never a big fan of apple crisp. I tried, I really did, but most of the time, I would pass my apple crisp on to a deserving sister, like Laura Ficken. But, I tried this recipe and fell in love! It is SO YUMMY! I made it for our bible study last week, and everyone really liked it, so I think you would to.

The recipe is from the October issue of Southern living (check it out-- it has 5 stars!!):

Fresh Apple Cake Recipe

I made it with browned-butter icing.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but there's one on SL's website. I was a little concerned about making this because of all the "apple work." I've never been as good as my mom or grandma at slicing/peeling apples, so that part was pretty labor intensive, but oh, was it worth it. Try it. As soon as possible. You won't regret it.

Love from Houston!

Assimilation

Last week, I had a revelation. The first sign that I was really adjusting to Texas culture. I decided that I wanted to eat... (wait for it)... a breakfast burrito. My normal thoughts on breakfast burritos go something like this, "That's weird. I'll take my eggs and breakfast sausage on a biscuit, please." But this time, I almost craved it (odd, since I have never eaten a breakfast burrito before).

It's confusing to come to a place with new food that you know nothing about. For instance, what will I eat on my breakfast burrito? I don't know what's good on a breakfast burrito. And what's the difference between a breakfast burrito and a breakfast taco? I've always been a little fuzzy on their distinguishing characteristics.

So I had this revelation while driving home from work. When I got home, I shared it with Lan, who was initially hesitant (thinking I was suggesting trying one from McDonald's-- nope, not what I had in mind), but happily agreed when I told him I wanted to go somewhere local.

Though a shroud of mystery surrounds the breakfast burrito, I look forward to trying it. If it's just egg, meat, cheese, and tortilla, I think I can handle it. Do I think this is a sign that I'm "becoming a Texan?" Not quite, but I am happy to be here. :)

Happy Anniversary SSRC!

Yeah. I'm behind. So sorry. Two weekends ago, I was in Mississippi for the SSRC's 60th anniversary celebration, so that is the theme of this post. First, a little background... May 2008, I started work at the SSRC as the editor of the SSRC's 60th anniversary book. I was given the job by the SSRC's director, Dr. Cosby. I don't normally like to be serious in blog posts, but my experiences at the SSRC are so important to me. Dr. Cosby put me in this position at a time when I was really trying to figure out where God was directing my career, and this position gave me the direction I needed. I will always be so thankful for that opportunity. Anyway, the SSRC was having a big shindig for their anniversary two weeks ago, and Dr. Cosby graciously paid for me to come back and enjoy it (and my current boss graciously gave me the time off!). It was the official "book release" so it was really a cool weekend for me. Here are some pics...

Me with "my book"

Me with my friend Katherine (if you keep up with my blog, this is my friend that introduced me to Pioneer Woman!!)

Some of my work buddies :)

Me and Sangeetha, my SSRC bestie :)

So, I have lots of other updates, but no time to blog about them now! Expect another update this weekend. Lan will be returning to Mississippi for the Kentucky game, so I will have lots of free time :)

Love from Houston!

New Things

Everyone loves getting new things, and this weekend, we got THREE new things. And I have pictures to prove it. That's big news.

1. Curtains

I ordered these wayyyy back in August, and they were on back order until last week. I am glad they are finally here! They definitely make the living room look more homey.

2. Purse

Well, I guess this is more of something I got than something "we" got... I have been needing a new purse for a long time, and I wanted to get a nicer one (the lining of my last purse broke about one month in- I would be happy if that never happened again). So ta da! Thanks, Nine West.

3. Chair 1/2 and Ottoman (I saved the best for last!!!!)

We have been thinking about and saving up for this purchase for some time, so it feels really good to finally have this in our living room! It's pretty and comfy and I love it :) Come visit us and we'll let you sit in it. Oh, and Lan and I can both fit in it!! Score.

So those are our new "things." Other exciting things in the Holloway household include our first houseguest, Lan's brother Brandon! He came for his fall break last weekend. I feel like we didn't do anything really exciting (sorry Brandon!). We sat at home and watched TV a lot. But he got to go to our church and meet some of our friends and eat at our favorite restaurant, so we had fun! Thanks for coming, Brandon!

This weekend, the Bulldogs are coming to Houston!! How perfect!! And I don't just mean the football team. Our friends Anna, Kim and Ben are also coming to visit for the game! It should be an eventful weekend. There's an alumni tailgate before the game (free food=yay!), which I'm sure will be fun. Good times will ensue.

Then, next weekend, I'm heading back to Mississippi for the SSRC's 60th Anniversary celebration. I am really glad that I was able to get off for this and I can't wait to see all my SSRC friends, college friends, and my family! Yay!

Well, that's all for now. Love from Houston!