more xmas fun

My, non-blood, family came over tonight to hang out and see all my Christmas decorations. I enjoyed the time spent with the wonderful Matlock family this evening and only wish that it could've been a longer visit.

As I was awaiting their arrival, I heard some faint singing outside...and when I opened the door, they were caroling at my front door. I've never been caroled to before, it was AWESOME!! I enjoyed their beautiful voices and then asked them to come in. They went through each room and enjoyed the decorations and many trees I had put up, and then we sat around chatting for awhile. Great times!!

Thanks for coming over tonight you guys! Love you bunches!!


Here are some pictures of the decorations around my house...

Christmas Flu

Unfortunatley, this Christmas I had a 24hr flu. What a bummer it was that it was on Christmas Day (why not the day after?). But I lived! lol :) I was laying in bed (of course it was the middle of the night) and felt that if I moved I would throw up! I stayed as still as I could for most of the night, but finally gave up at 7am. Before I got up, I prayed and asked God to please allow me to make it to the bathroom and put my hair up before I threw up. Yes, I prayed about my hair! lol :) Anyway, God totally answered my prayer! I made it to the bathroom, put my hair up, and then had at it. I threw up at least 10 times, getting it all out, with tears streaming down my face. I absolutely HATE throwing up!! Then I headed for the couch, where I laid all day feeling sick. I had a minor fever and an upset stomach the entire day. At 4pm I finally decided to open some presents that my mom and sister had mailed me. It was all I could do to sit up and open them, and then had to lay back down. But I wasn't about to go through Christmas Day and not open presents! The day was a bummer, sick and alone! But through all the sickness and loneliness, I still feel blessed that I have such a wonderful family and friends who thought of me this day with gifts, calls, and cards. I love you all and so wish I could've spent the day with you! Maybe next year!

Christmas Eve Surprise

This year I made a few stops on Christmas Eve.

The day started off with a work-out to an exercise video. I did a bit of sweating off some lbs (or at least I like to think I did! haha). I then headed out to run a few errands at a few stores, and grabbed lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Then I headed out to my first Christmas Eve party stop...
I arrived at the Matlock house around 5pm. I was able to spend some time with their family, exchanged some gifts, and also wish the twins a Happy Birthday...as they were born this day! After a couple hours with this wonderful family, it was time for me to head over to my Gramma's house.
(Me and Annie in front of the Matlock's Christmas tree...I have on reindeer antlers and Annie is Santa. Aren't we cute!)Growing up, we always spent two days with the Vasquez family...we would celebrate Christmas Eve together, and then come back the next day for Christmas Day celebrations (usually we started the day after Christmas for this extravaganza). As we all got older, we stopped having the big two day get-togethers, in fact we rarely all got together after that. Kinda sad! Well this year, we unfortunately had a death in the family. My Grandpa Vasquez died. So we knew that my Gramma would need some family around her this time of year. So all the family members that live local decided to surprise her with a Christmas Eve family get-together. We had a great time! My Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda came out from Pismo and were staying with her. When the three of them arrived back at the house after going to the Christmas Eve service at church, I was the first to knock on the door. When Gramma answered she was so surprised to see me! She opened the door with smiles and welcomed me in. Soon after, more and more family members arrived surprising her with their presence. She was so happy!! We had a great time together, watching her open our presents, singing Christmas carols, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, eating some homemade chili spaghetti, taking pictures, and chatting with each other. Hopefully we will continue to all try to get together for Christmas in the future, as I really enjoyed spending this special time with my special family!The cousins (who could make it out) with our GrammaMy dad's brothers and sister with my grandparents pic in the background

ugly sweater party

I love my friends so much and feel so blessed to have such sweet girls in my life! So I wanted to have a fun special night for us all to get together and celebrate this holiday season. So, what better way then to have an UGLY SWEATER PARTY!!! :) We all dressed in our ugliest Christmas sweaters, and those that didn't had to wear one that I had for them. We ate yummy goodies, had great conversation, and did a fun ornament gift exchange. I got the best ornament...it is a Tampon Angel! Oh my word, so awesome! Of course it was put on the front of my tree for all to see! And then before everyone went home, we took this fabulous group picture with our fun ugly sweaters on! Hopefully cuter sweaters are coming our way for Christmas! lol! :)Even cute little Annie had on an ugly sweater...this picture doesn't show all its uglyness (actually, she looked pretty cute in it! haha)

Hyde Christmas Bake-Off '09

This year, Christmas with the Hyde's had a twist! Instead of just having our Mexican fiesta, we also had a Bake-Off! Only three of us cousins participated this year, hopefully next year the others will join in! But it was fun! I was super excited to bake, because I was making a cupcake cake!! It was awesome! I think it came out pretty good for my first time! The other girls made some yummy desserts too! Julie made a gorgeous cheesecake, and Christy made a perfectly drizzled cocunut bunt-cake. Our Grandpa was the judge and was forced to taste all our yummy baked goods. As he devoured each slice, we hovered over anticipating his vote for winner. Of course he didn't want to choose between the three of us, so he voted it a three-way tie! He's too nice! haha :) So we all left feeling pretty good about our Bake-Off, knowing that everyone enjoyed our creations. But secretly I vote myself the winner! LOL! Why not, right? :)

Young Adults Night of Ice Skating

My Young Adults group from church got together tonight to go ice skating out at the Irvine Spectrum. Only a couple of the girls decided to ice skate, while Cindy and I sat it out. My last experience ice skating was in Central Park in NYC and I went head first on the ice. I really didn't want a repeat! LOL! We had a good time on the sidelines chatting and watching the girls go around in circles on the small rink!
Then we were off to warm up and have a nice dinner at the Yard House. Great Night, with Great Girls!

SD Zoo

Its been a few years since I'd last been to the SD Zoo! My cousin Julie lives down that way and had some free tickets, so I drove down there and we had a great time! Last night I drove to her house, sadly I wasn't paying attention and went WAY out of the way on the fwy, but found my way and got there in time to watch a movie and hang out before heading to bed. I stayed the night in their guest room, and then we got up today and went on our way. We first went to VG's donuts in San Elijo (the best donuts EVER) and had our breakfast, stopped at a thrift store, Julie took me to her favorite Ross, and then we finally made it to the Zoo. We had a great time walking around, seeing all the different animals, taking super fun pictures of each other, getting lost and walking in circles around the park, and just enjoying each other's company. It was a great day!