Merry Christmas!

I love photos too much to not include a million in this Christmas post, so you'll get a movie instead!  Takes less time to post them all that way - plus I get to use my new favorite slideshow service, Animoto.  Merry Christmas to all of you!

Lucky #13

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary!  Can't believe it's been that long - we seem to have only meet each other yesterday!  Some might say we rushed it - after all, Donald proposed to me on our second date - but things seem to have worked out pretty well!  Not to be trite and cliche, but I really did marry my best friend.  Much love to you, Dr. White, on our anniversary!  Thanks for cooking such a delicious dinner - and cleaning it up while I blogged!  Hope you enjoy this blast from the past! Now as I look over these pictures, I realize that there's a smudge on my scanner.  Am I going to rescan all these pictures? Not on your life!  Makes me appreciate digital photography even more!

 One of my favorites

 How old were we all again?

 I think they were getting ready to sing.

This picture (lipstick grin and all) has been on my nightstand for 13 years now.

Christmas at Rhodes Hall

We visited Rhodes Hall in Atlanta again this year to have pictures made with Santa Gus.  What a great place - I highly recommend it if you're looking for a location for Santa pictures.  Such a beautiful location and the staffmembers are wonderful.  Santa is pretty awesome, as well.  Emily always looks forward to going to Rhodes and loves making crafts there.  Our pictures turned out great - no screaming Santa pics!

There's a doctor in the house!

So proud of Donald - he graduated from West Georgia's doctoral program in School Improvement this month!  It was a screaming cold day but well worth the wind chill to get to see him in his funny hat.  Emily was super proud, as well, and has been carrying around his diploma tube ever since.  I love to hear her say that she wants to go to West Georgia just like we have.  We got our first piece of mail addressed to Dr. and Mrs. White this week - lots of fun!  It has a place of prominence on the refrigerator.  I'm hoping that by this time next year, we'll get Christmas cards addressed to Dr. and Dr.  White.  Keep your fingers crossed!

 So sweet - she bought him flowers from a vendor to give him after the ceremony.

 The doctoral students get the best seats up front!

 Donald's on the jumbotron!

 Getting hooded - so impressive!

 Horsing around while the rest of the graduates (and there were a lot of them) were called.

 Check her out with the diploma tube - Good thing it was empty because she's never given it back!

 It's official!

 Wondering at this point why I left my coat in the car....

Jingle Bell Trail 2011

Donald and Emily joined me bright and early to help work the 15th annual Jingle Bell Trail, the 5K run sponsored by my school.  Check out the snazzy shirt design.  It's our first ever black shirt and was super popular with all of the runners - all 830 of them! We had a great turnout.  Emily had a fun time working the crowd and visiting the Secret Santa shop.  Once we finished up, we headed off for our traditional breakfast of pancakes with all of the other runners.  Donald headed off to the SEC game in the afternoon and Emily and I headed home for a long winter's nap.  I don't mind coming up to the school on a Saturday when I have such great helpers with me!

Christmas is for the birds..and squirrels, and raccoons, etc.

Emily had the idea of putting a tree for the birds on our patio this year. After a somewhat nutballs trip to WalMart for supplies, she and Abby worked together to decorate it (in Emily's signature colors), and then created some bagel/peanut butter/birdseed decorations to hang on it. The girls had lots of fun and apparently the animals enjoyed it - all the bagels were gone the next day! We saw a squirrel kicked back and munching on a bagel on the railing when we got home. I think it gives our boys something fun to watch during the day! We keep replenishing the tree with various leftovers from the pantry and are amazed by how quickly everything disappears. One of my friends told me that no good deed goes unnoticed - which means that I'll probably be rewarded for feeding the animals with an infestation of raccoons in my attic!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the White House was a delicious affair!  Donald outdid himself with the turkey and I....wait for it.....cooked a Southern Living cake that was both lovely and delicious.  What is the world coming to?  Emily loves having extra people in the house to play with and enjoyed hijacking her grandparents in the playroom for a while.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of our holiday and hope that yours was equally wonderful!

 Ready to cook in her snazzy apron

 Paula Deen broccoli salad - yum!

 Grinding up graham crackers for the cheesecake crust

 Entertaining shouldn't be this stressful!

 What's a holidy without a little crafting?

 Thanks to my friend Torie for this wonderful recipe!  I can't believe I cooked something that looks like this.

 My roll helper - I've passed this job on to her.

 Ready for lunch!

 Ringo is ready for lunch, as well!

 Emily fixed a Thanksgiving plate especially for the boys. Cat treats weren't on our menu.

 Special craft table - Notice that she labeled it.

Turkey!  Both of them....

Happy Halloween!

We held our annual Halloween get-together at the White House this year but mixed things up a bit by hosting our first Tent Event in the front yard.  We decided that it would be easier to meet trick or treaters in the yard instead of having them trek across our (very uneven) front yard and climb up our (very uneven) front steps.  We had such a great time hanging out around the chimenea and handing out candy!  It was like a Halloween tailgate.  The otter and the genie also had a great time trick or treating up and down our street before heading home to hand out candy.  How do you think the otter costume came out?  I can guarantee you that she was unique - I didn't see another kid dressed as a marine creature.