Christmas a little late

I love Christmas so very much. I feel like I wait all year long for Christmas to come, then it goes by so fast and I turn around and it's almost the middle of January. At least it's still cold!
Here's some pics from our Christmas.... can I tell you how much I loved that it snowed on Christmas Eve and we woke up to a white Christmas on Christmas Day?!

Our house on Christmas Day


Christmas Day at Mom and Papi's

Cameron and Doobie

Cameron

Max

Carolyn and Kathryn

We had a great Christmas- we spent most of Christmas Eve at my parents' house, getting ready for Mexican Christmas. I loved being able to be with all of my family while getting food ready and watching the snow fall and wind blow. Amazing. We had a great time with my dad's side of the family that night, but missed the Oklahoma side who couldn't get here because of the weather. We braved the icy streets and went to Watermark's 11:00pm Christmas Eve service, which is one of my favorite things about Christmas- truly reminds us what Christmas is about.

Christmas Day we woke up to snow!! We went to Mike's parents' house and had Christmas lunch and presents with his side of the family. We also enjoyed a little competition as we had a game of Monopoly....and his family was then made aware that I don't have mental math skills. :)

That afternoon, we headed back to my parents' house to open family gifts with them. It was fun to watch Cameron try to open presents- Mike even taught him how to head-butt Doobie the dog. After a fabulous, long day, Mike and I went home and had our Christmas....and then went to bed.

Burned

This is what happens when you get 300 degree liquid peanut brittle on your finger....



It hurts!!!!

News...

So I finally got a real job as a nurse practitioner! I will be starting January 4th in the pre-surgical department at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. What this means is that I will be doing histories and physicals, labs, x-rays, etc of the kiddos coming in for day surgery that day. This means that my hours will be 6am-2pm, Monday thru Friday. No holidays, no weekends and no call. Fabulous!! And, I still get to wear scrubs!

And the best news yet, my Starbucks drive thru opens at 5:00am, not 5:30am. I know this sounds lame, but I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to get coffee on my way to work because I thought they opened at 5:30am and that wouldn't work for me to get there by 6am. So when I found out they opened earlier, it literally made my day. I know, it's really sad. But semi-regular Starbucks makes my mornings better, especially when I'm going to be getting up at 4:30am!!

I turned in my 50 page credentialing packet for insurance companies and Medicaid earlier this week, so hopefully the credentialing process will go smoothly!!

So, I am VERY thankful that God has provided this job for me and opened and closed different doors along the way. I am learning again and again that He does have different plans than I originally think. The much-awaited endocrine position still hasn't worked out, but I am thankful to try my hand at pre-surgical and think this will be a great place to start and learn and should be a good fit for me. I am excited about doing something different and learning new things. Also, meeting new docs, seeing who's who in the surgical department, and being mentored by a nurse pracitioner who has worked a long time in this particular department. We shall see what happens....

Emily's Baby Shower

The girls in our community group threw a shower for our sweet friend, Emily! We loved being able to celebrate Emily and little Samuel, who will arrive in January!



Community group girls and Emily



The cake that I dropped on the way out the door-

thankfully Celebrity Bakery was able to fix it before the shower

Papi's Surprise Party!

So, Lane had an idea about 5 months ago- to have a giant surprise 65th birthday party for Papi! Oh, and, let's fly in Marcos, Paige and baby Cameron! So, we did. And it was a BLAST! We had about 60 people in our house and gave Papi the biggest surprise he's had in awhile!

Papi walking in the door as we all yelled, "Happy Birthday!"

Papi seeing Marcos


Blowing out the candles

Opening the picture book Lane made for him

Holding Baby Cameron


Marcos, Paige and Cameron at the Arboretum

Mom and Papi

The Serna girls (minus Liz)

Lane and Alex

Marcos, Paige and Cameron

Happy Boy!

Cameron enjoying Aunt Marisa's pumpkin spice latte

Cameron and Aunt Lane

Cameron and Aunt Liz

Grandmommy and Paige

Cruise!!

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary and both of us graduating, we decided to take our first cruise! We left on Halloween and got back 5 days later. Due to the time of the cruise, we were the few "youngesters", therefore, we deemed this cruise, "The Geriatric Cruise." Perks of the trip included snorkeling in Cozumel, mango margaritas, laying on the deck doing NOTHING, watching druck grandmas trying to dance, and of course, the cheese plate (see pic below).

Carnival's Ecstasy Cruise Ship


Our stateroom- we were glad we payed the
extra bucks for the window



Chilling in Progreso


Inside the cruise ship

The cheese plate- need I say more

My hot husband- this could be a GQ shot :)

Cozumel

Dancers in Cozumel

In Cozumel- I learned to bargain for Mexican pottery

A little sea-sick on the first day

5 Years Ago Today

Just a girl....




who loved a guy...




and walked down the aisle...



and said "I will...."



and kissed....

and became"Mr. and Mrs. Frizzell...."

and kissed again...

and left to face the world as man and wife....

and have loved every minute of it!!

(I know, it's a tear-jerker!)