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!

Playing Catch Up

Since school started two weeks ago with only 171 days left until summer, I haven't had an opportunity to update this blog. My aim today is to cover the past several weeks in short order.

The last weekend of summer break, Ken and Bogie joined me for a long weekend at LBF for some fun in the sun (among other places). Ken wanted to be sure to show Bogie all the interesting sights of Orange Beach, so we went several places--Tacky Jack's for breakfast, the Flora-Bama for afternoon cocktails (where we met up with friends), and Cosmo's for dinner. Ken and Bogie also went to lunch at Papa Rocco's, but I opted to hang out at the house (more on that later).

Tacky Jack's

Jason, Bogie and Ken on the deck at the Flora-Bama

Jackie and Ken at the Flora-Bama

Ken and me after taking a turn around the dance floor

While Ken and Bogie were at the Papa Rocco's, I chose to hang out at the house with...

Carter and Sue

Since Sue had already started her maternity leave, she and Carter flew to Pensacola and Mom picked them up. They stayed for several days, which was great, since that means that I got another opportunity to see them this summer. It was so much fun to play and swim with Carter. He is SUCH a character!

Ken reading a "Big Al" book to Carter

Last weekend, we had a surprise visit from Angie! We had an impromptu party at my house and several folks were able to join us. It was great to visit with Angie, as always, and I hope that she gets back down this way soon.

Me, Kathy, Angie, and Jason

This past Friday night, Ken and I went to dinner at The View with Cynthia and Brad. The last time we went out with them was in January, so it was WAY past time for us to get together again. We had a long, leisurely dinner and it was wonderful to spend time with them. We laughed and talked and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I don't think we'll wait so long until we get together again.

Ken, Brad, Me and Cynthia at The View

Cynthia and Me in the Gold Room

So, that's what's been going on for the last few weeks. I'll try to do better about updating in the future!