AXO Dinner and Happy New Year!

As often happens, an impromptu AXO dinner was planned for December 29. Marj called, said she was in town and asked if I wanted to join several of my sorority sisters at Surin West. When we were in college, we often would gather here to discuss things of great importance--who was dating whom, how to solve the world's problems, what dresses we were wearing to formal, etc. The food is good, it's never overly crowded and it reminds us all of the "glory days" of college. There were only four of us present, but we still had a great time. I hope that we can get together again soon in the near future!

Marjorie, Jenny, Sandy, and Me at Surin

As we have done for the past three years, we spent New Year's Eve with our FANTASTIC neighbors! After last year's fiasco (the place where we had reservations closed for good the day before New Year's Eve and didn't call to tell us), we decided to stick closer to home. We went right down the street from our house to San Antonio's, a Mexican restaurant, where we ate dinner with the Sherman's and Taylor's. (The Chin's were in Gatlinburg, otherwise I feel sure that they would have been there too!)

Ken and I

(Thanks, Melissa, for taking the picture!)

The Boys

(Jonathan, Ken, and Ryan)

The Girls

(Melissa, Me, and Emily)

After dinner, we went back to the Taylor's and played games until midnight. It was a low-key evening, but a great time was had by all!

Holiday Happenings

So, I'm WAY behind with what's been going on around here. The holiday season has once again come and gone, but I wanted to take a minute and post a couple of pictures of highlights of the season.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were pretty quiet around our house. We usually spend Christmas Eve with my family, but as everyone was out of town, we decided to get together after Christmas. Ken and I opened our presents Christmas morning. Thanks to my mother's influence, I felt compelled to take the obligatory photo in front of the Christmas tree.

Even Lola behaved for this shot

Ken's idea of a what to do when you run out of one type of wrapping paper

Then, about 11:00, we had Christmas Day brunch at our house with Ken, Jane, Melissa and Dave and then pretty much took it easy for the rest of the day.

After Christmas Brunch

In other exciting news, I'm going to have a new sister in law! Steve and Emily got engaged December 23. I'm so excited for these two and I'm so glad that we were able to get together after Steve proposed. We celebrated Christmas with my family December 30. We started out with dinner at Iguana Grill in Hoover and then went to my parents' house for present opening.

Callen thoroughly enjoying the riveting dinner talk

Carter and Bamma playing "Where is Carter?"

(Shortly after this he told me, "STOP THAT, AUNT B!" Apparently, I was taking too many pictures.)

Carter showing off his "dinosaur" puppet to Dad

Uncle Ken and Uncle Steve "playing" with the puppets

(These two like to stir up trouble!)

Carter "helping" Callen open her presents

The newly engaged couple with Baby Callen

I enjoyed spending the holidays in Birmingham, but this was a weird Christmas for me. I am glad I got to see my family, but it was different than in the past. I'm so glad that Sue, Nick, Carter and Callen will be back in Birmingham, for good, soon and I'm excited to have Emily as a part of our family. I look forward to what next Christmas will bring!