This is what happens...

... when you put my Winsy and I in a room together. We get super silly and ALWAYS have a great time. I was blessed to have my sister with me for 5 whole days! We did tons of sister stuff like shopping, gossiping, and most importantly, playing the good old game of Sorry. Needless to say, my camera came out and here's what we captured.

We couldn't stop laughing at this. Why are our stockings staring at the wall?

Our sweet Mama was trying to stay awake for the fun but quickly slipped into a deep sleep. Here's Linz pointing out the obvious.

I love my Ravens blanket

She made me do it

Finally, little puppy thing wanted to play too. Much like his mother, he fell fast asleep

And yes... my sister and I are wearing matching pajamas. Thanks Jude.

A small Christmas mircale...

Lindsey and I cooked! Each Christmas Eve is something different in the Thompson household. This year, my grown up sister and I decided to make dinner for our Santa Claus'. After many grocery store drive by's (because on Christmas Eve, many are closed), we finally ended up at Giant and decided on making chicken and shrimp fajitas! Yumm...

Here is Dad, literally drooling on the table. His face was precious!

And now a few shots of everyone enjoying their yummy food.

Cheers! We did it!

Lunch with the Murphy's

Sunday morning I got to spend time with Diana, Ashley, Patti Jane, Josh, LJ and Bryley.

Diana is one of my closest friends from high school. Now she's all grown up and married with the most precious little boy ever, LJ. I love him as if he were my own.

And now Di's twin sister, Ashley, is grown up and married and also has a little boy, Bryley. I was lucky enough to snuggle him too on Sunday.

Because it's a Tradition

Gingerbread night... every year just before Christmas, Mrs. Sue invites Kate (her daughter), myself, my mom, Lindsey, Mrs. Robin, Mrs. Carolyn and Megan to decorate our gingerbread houses. I truly think it's what keeps Mrs. Sue going throughout the year, this one night full of stale Neccos from 1998, hardened gummy rings and plenty of Christmas music and gingerbread attire. Each year we all try to bring a "Secret Weapon". Last year, I found a haunted gingerbread house. It eventually turned into an extremely bright colored "Christmas with the Kranks" house. This year, my plan was to do a Feliz Navidad theme... it took an extreme turn. Instead, I did a school house.


Front



Side #1 (a little blurry but still precious)



Side #2

Here are some of us with our finished products.

Like I said, lots of gingerbread attire. Here we all are, wearing our gingerbread man aprons from Mrs. Sue. (Except Erin because Mrs. Sue called her a "beginner". She was told she had to work her way up to our level. Even though Erin/Mrs. Robin's house was one of the best!)

It was a success!

As noted in the post just before this one, last week was my office's Holiday party. I had a big hand in helping with the day and thankfully, everything went great! There was so much food, it could have been Thanksgiving all over again, plus some. Everyone had a good time and a few laughs here and there. I even put my Charlie Brown tree up in my little bitty office.

My "Secret Santa" was Jackie and she got me a box of my FAVORITE tea from Starbucks.

Here is a shot of everyone talking, eating and being "Merry".

My buddies, Lisa and Bob-o

My Mama would be so proud

I did it! I successfully made two things without burning down the house. Well, neither item used the oven so it wasn't that hard. Tomorrow is my Christmas party at work and I signed up to bring Taco Dip (made by my roommates recipe) and Peppermint Bark (also learned to make from my roommate, she's Martha Stewart in a 23 year olds body).

I forgot to take a picture of step one of the Bark making but here it is pre-breaking into pieces.

And here it is all broken up and ready for the party!

Yummy taco dip. I only put olives on 80% of the dip because I know that there are some people that don't like them, this way the won't have to pick them off.

And finally, my sink. This was after some clean up.

Just two yummy reasons to look forward to the party tomorrow!

Stay Tuned...

I'm baking and cooking tomorrow night with Jackie and Priscilla. This should be interesting. I will definitely post pictures of the final products.

Rudolph was there?

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to spend Saturday evening with the One and Only, Hannah Kirie Nielsen. She is one of my pledge sisters from ZTA (in college) and was my roommate for two years. I love her to pieces but she lives near College Park now and with our work schedules we don't get to see each other that often. So, last Saturday, her boyfriend (and his friends) hosted a Christmas party. It was such a good time, not only celebrating the Holidays but being there with friends. Here are some pictures to commemorate the evening.

ZTA lovin': Kelly, Me and Hannah

Nan, Me and her BF Chad (the host)

This picture says a million words. It really describes each of us perfectly! Ha ha.

And finally, Hannah was taking a picture of me with Rudolph and Chad's brother, Justin, jumped in the picture to make for a perfect Christmas card

The cutest child in the whole world

In case I haven't already said this one million times, our newest family addition, Liberty Rose Jones, holds the title for "Cutest 3 month old" in the whole world. Here is some proof.


LOVE HER!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving in my book. Unfortunately, my roommate and I were both out of town until about a week after. As a result, Old St. Nick looks like he attacked my apartment.

I LOVE my tree. Yes, please be proud, I've already wrapped all of my presents (at least the ones that I have purchased so far).

The reindeer rocks back and forth while signing "Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer". It's the little things that excite me. And Melissa (roommate) is taking great care of her beautiful Pointsettia.

And if you are a woman in the Bennett family, Boyds Bear lovin' runs in your veins. Santa brought me this bear last Christmas and I love it so much, I try to leave it out year round.

Ho ho ho...

Does this mean I'm growing up?

I remember when I was a little girl, asking why anyone would want clothes for Christmas or why people would be excited to get a new recipe book... you couldn't play with those things! Toys.. toys... toys... that's all I ever wanted. A Fisher Price play house for my dolls, a doll house hamper for my collection of Beanie Babies, and of course one of my favorite Christmas presents I ever got was my "Big Girl Vanity". It looked similar to this,


(Please note that the mirror wasn't actually glass, it was more of a very shinny plastic that gave a reflection similar to one that you get when you look into a spoon)

Well now that I've gotten older, my Christmas list has changed. I've found myself asking for the things "you can't play with". One of my number one things on my list this year is a Swiffer Wetjet. Yes, a glorified mop. Another list topper this year is for my stocking to be stuffed with tooth brushes, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, boring, boring, boring, but not for this girl. Those are my new things "to play with". Does this mean I'm growing up?

This one is for the Puppy

...because his feelings were hurt that I didn't include him in the first post. Spanky Ray, I love you!

GO RAVENS!

I'll admit, I was the last person to ever think that I would be a football fan, but how can you not be when your home team is the Baltimore Ravens? Every Sunday (or Monday depending on the schedule) my girlfriends and I meet up to watch the Ravens game. And every time, I get more and more engrossed in the awesomeness that is the Baltimore Ravens.

This year I attended my first ever Ravens tailgate and fell head over heals for the insanity that it involves.

Shannon, Dunny, Alyssa and Me walking to the tailgate.















Then, Alyssa (one of my many blessings) invited me to the Ravens vs. Raiders game. Her boss had given her his "Club Level, 50 yard line" tickets. I happily obliged. See below.















And most recently, sweet Scotty suprised me with what he called my "Happy Thanksgiving" present to the Ravens vs. Eagles game. Yet another highlight of 2008!















So here's to you Baltimore Ravens. May you continue to provide hours of endless entertainment and awesome wins. Superbowl... well keep your fingers crossed :)

Because I am Blessed...

... I decided to start a blog about my amazing life and the family and friends that come along with it. A reminder to myself to be grateful for all that I have instead of dwelling on the bad. I have to start by acknowledging Cousin Carly for inspiring to start a blog. Hopefully, she will begin to stalk mine as often as I stalk hers! (Tee hee) Jumping right into the good stuff, here are just a few pictures of why I love my life.

My best friend... my sister

My amazing parents...

My devoted friends...

...and my humongous family (to which more pictures will be posted at a later date. For now, my favorite little girls)

Liberty Rose

Allison and Sydney (The "Gals")

xoxo