Christmas 2011

So Christmas came and went, quickly and without major event. In fact, I am having a hard time forgiving myself for not even putting up a Christmas tree. Well actually, we put the tree together, started to untangle the light strands, and gave up. We kept glancing at our poor, worn-out faux tree as we tried to figure out what sort of system we thought we had so cleverly developed last year in the way of light storage, and decided it just wasn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I know there are plenty of people who cannot afford any type of tree, and for that I feel truly guilty. However, after four years of looking at gaping holes and a very visible plastic trunk, we knew it was time to send it into retirement. So, to Goodwill it went, in hopes that someone else will breath new life into next year. We intended to find another pre-lit tree more suited to our new home, but as we drew closer to our holiday trip to Tennessee it was decided that we should hold off. So next year, look out! I know for a fact we will be spending the 2012 holiday season in our Texas home (more on this in a future post;)), and to me a treeless Christmas day is simply unforgivable.

We made the 16 hour trek to Tennessee again this year to celebrate Christmas, Nichols family style. Missing were my sister, bro-in law, and the camera! First a disclaimer: I am in no way trying to downplay the degree to which I missed Julie and Seth with my camera ramblings. That being cleared up, I admit my beloved camera stayed behind in Texas and I missed it dearly, and I mean dearly! Maybe it was the 3am wake-up call the day we began the horribly LONG drive or some other recent developments in our life (again, more on that in another post), but my brain must have literally turned off as we rolled our suitcases to the car, set our alarm and locked up our house. That said, I have ZERO pictures of our trip.


I will say we had a good time getting out of Texas and seeing my family, although we missed J.R.'s. 2011 was not an easy year health-wise for the Nichols family, so it was nice to be able to help with what I could while there. We had a lovely Christmas dinner, complete with individual cornish game hens, smoked by my talented dad, and a goat cheese au gratin potato dish, baked by my gourmet chef of an aunt. J.R. was able to go shooting with my dad a couple of times, and Max tasted a little bit of freedom with an off-leash hike around Norris Dam. All in all, it was worth the drive and we loved our Tennessee Christmas.


Don't tell the inside of our house, but the outside did celebrate Christmas...a little. I will leave you with a few pictures of the only decorations we did attempt this year:).

 Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year to everyone! 

We will have some exciting news to share in the next few weeks!!