Archive for December, 2009

In accordance with our holiday family time agreement, the Chaos got Thanksgiving this year and therefore the Trommers had Christmas. Next year, each family will get the opposite holiday. Though not perfect, we think this makes for a fair and equal amount of time spent with each side. We love both our families, but they live just far enough apart to make going to both places fairly difficult. I’m still eagerly awaiting the invention of a safe and travel friendly site to site transporter…though it hasn’t come to fruition yet.

Since this year was a Trommer Christmas year, we headed to Austin on Wednesday night after work. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day enjoying time with Mom and Dad Trommer, Griffin, Aunt Sally, Uncle Bodie, Caitlin, Grandma and Grandpa Trommer, and a various smattering of puppies. And as proof of our holiday cheer, I’ve got some picture to share!

Andy and I in front of the Johnson's Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It was a chilly night for Austin!!

Mom and Dad Trommer enjoying an evening of Christmas plaid!

Andy and Griffin getting ready to open some Christmas presents!

Grandma and Grandpa Trommer keeping each other warm on Christmas Day, which incidentally is also Grandma Trommer's 85th Birthday this year!

Caitlin and Uncle Bodie getting comfy for a nice post-lunch nap. After all, it's a Christmas Day tradition to take a mid-afternoon snooze!

Aunt Sally and me in everyone's favorite meeting spot, the Trommer kitchen!

And as a bonus, we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Cathy this Christmas as she is also living in Austin. However, since she’s not really the holiday feast kind of cook, we decided to venture out to Kerbey Lane‘s for a Christmas dinner. Yum! Their food, as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty tasty. After dinner, we chatted for a little bit at Cathy’s apartment and watched Puffkin attack all the gift wrapping components. That is one fantastically cute kitten!!

Cathy and me with Little Miss Puffy for her first Christmas Day!

Puffykin absolutely adores Andy! She hops up and takes little kitten naps on his lap.

We had a wonderful time and I couldn’t ask for a more love and thought filled Christmas. But as per usual, even if we had a lovely time, there’s nothing quite like coming home to your own bed and a fluffy cat that missed us. (We usually leave Attila on her own for short periods of time. She doesn’t get along with all the other dogs and seems to have a little trouble adjusting to new environments. And though I think she enjoys some degree of solitude, I do believe she misses having us around for feeding and petting purposes) Now we wait in anticipation for the new year to roll around…hope you’ve got your new year’s plans in order! You can click here for more of our Christmas 2009 pictures.

I promise to write more later, but I wanted to wish everyone a safe, warm, and very Merry Christmas!! Here’s a cute little Christmas cartoon to watch if you’ve got a few minutes. Enjoy!!

Prep and Landing on ABC Family

Our friend Rick’s birthday just so happens to be the day after Andy’s (it’s in July, in case you were wondering). Well, this year I came up with the brilliant idea to take Rick to a professional hockey game for his birthday present. And it just so happens that he is a huge Detroit Red Wings fan. It seemed like a perfect fit! That is…until I discovered that the actual game day for Dallas Stars versus the Red Wings wasn’t until December. I couldn’t even buy tickets until September, making me a nervous wreck that we would somehow forget the promise we made to Rick.

Thankfully with our tickets finally safe in our hands, Rick, Andy, Brittany, and I took the TRE train to the American Airlines Center for a fun hockey filled Saturday. Even though the food and drinks were expensive, it was on par with the usual money gouging that occurs at sporting events. Also, the “knife and fork chili dog” may seem like a delicious idea. But as a warning, it may cause intestinal problems later on in the evening…not that I speak from experience. (And actually, I really didn’t have any problems…can’t say the same for the guys though)

Brittany, Rick, and I showing off the magnificent American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas.

So, what do I think of hockey? Even though I’m not at all sports oriented, I do have to admit that it was an enjoyable experience! Partially because of the sport and mostly because of the company! Brittany and I had a lot of fun trying to understand hockey (by pestering Rick with all sorts of silly questions), keep track of the hockey puck (A seriously difficult task when one is in the nosebleed section of the stadium. Perhaps they should look into LED lighted pucks?), and providing our own commentary (and the puck is under his feet, now it’s under that other guy’s feet, and now back under the first guy’s feet, don’t trip on the puck guys! And he just shot the puck to no one, seriously, no one’s over there, run faster, run faster…and stick stick stick stick!!)

Sadly, Rick's beloved Red Wings lost by one point to the Dallas Stars. But if it's any consolation, it was a very close game!

It was a wonderful afternoon and I’m glad I was able to give hockey a chance. In the evening, we all congregated at Ethan, Donald, and Lacretia’s apartment for a relaxing evening. The boys played a card game, while the girls played the cutest video game on the PS3 called Little Big Planet. It’s challenging without being too difficult for us to play (because let’s face it, I’m pretty terrible at most of the new video games), it has a cute storyline, it is a side scrolling game (think old school Mario games…no 3D controlling nonsense), gives you multiple tries and lives to pass any part of the level, and the best part is that you can play alongside a team of your friends.

These are the kinds of games I love! Cathy and I used to play them all the time when we were younger. They’re not all about violence, monsters, or scary tactics. Sadly, we do not have any need for a PS3. So, I’ve added the PSP version of the game to my Amazon wish list. It won’t have the teamwork aspect that I love so much…but unless you’re willing to buy me a PS3 in order for me to play a single game…the PSP will have to work. Please click here for all of our holiday pictures, it’s admittedly not a lot so far!

Because I can’t help myself…I love puppies!!

Isn’t the puppy absolutely adorable? If only I could get one of my animals to do something similarly fascinating and cute! (All they seem to want to do is sleep and beg for food…sigh…)

Okay, I don’t have a lot of time to write this week. In addition to finally getting all of the Christmas presents wrapped, I’m working on finishing up all of the Christmas cards. I have no idea why, but I’m really far behind my time schedule this year! So if you haven’t already, you should be receiving a nice little something in the mail from the Trommers! But in order to do that, I need to get back to work!

In lieu of a detailed post, I thought I would upload a few pictures from our crazy Christmas party last Friday. We had a wonderful time, stayed up till 4 in the morning, and two days later, have finally completed all the necessary clean up from the rowdy get together.

Most of the girls that attended the Trommer Christmas Bash 2009, doesn't everyone look nice?

People simply wouldn't leave the kitchen, but that makes sense, the kitchen was where all the munchies were!

Lacretia, Amber, and Tatjana enjoying a little chat around the kitchen table, and incidentally that was where the delicious Christmas cookies were!

I hope to be done with all my Christmas mayhem by tomorrow. I have other things to do too!! Wish me luck!

We were putting up our Christmas tree last weekend, when we came to the realization that this year is Attila’s first Trommer Christmas!! As we decorated the tree and listened to carols on the Lite FM station, Attila watched very disinterestedly from her favorite armchair. In fact, she soon fell asleep as we bustled about with our stockings and ornaments. Jabber, on the other hand, LOVES it when we’re up and about. She wants to know what you’re doing with each and every candle or piece of tinsel.

However, once we were done and sitting back to admire our hard work, we saw this…

Attila absolutely LOVES sitting under the Christmas tree. She doesn't do anything in particular. She doesn't bat at the hanging ornaments or try to eat the plastic pine needles, she just sits there and enjoys the tree.

Silly cat! (to be fair, our dog is pretty silly too) At least she doesn’t try to destroy anything, thank goodness! And sometimes, if we’re lucky, both Jabber and Attila will sit under the tree together. I’ll try to get a picture, but I make no promises!