New Years Festivities

For New Years Eve this year, B and I headed up to Lubbock to spend the night with Grant and Laura before continuing on to Amarillo on New Years Day to see his Grandparents.

While we were driving I was playing with my camera and my new lens (thank dad!). I only took one picture while we were in Lubbock because we were all having so much fun playing games and wii tennis (by the way, my arm was soar for two days)! The one picture I took I'm atually not going to share because I think Laura might kill me if I do! It was taken right before we left and neither her or Grant had showered yet because they were cooking us a wonderful breakfast, so you don't get to see it.. sorry!

Have you ever wondered what it looks like driving to Amarillo?

Well there you go! There's hardly any trees and until you get closer to Palo Duro Canyon, there's not much change in elevation either.

When we got to Amarillo (after I stopped at Dillard's and bought my Christmas China) we all met over at Manga and Paw Paw's house for a little birthday party for Lindsay.

Here's the birthday girl with Manga, Paw Paw, and Granny.

And here she is with everyone else (minus me). When you're the one with the camera, it's not very often that you're in the picture.. but I don't mind!

Mississippi Mud Cake, by request. It's basically like a chocolate sheet cake with marshmallow in between the cake and icing. Very good, but VERY rich!

The next day everyone else from Brent's side of the family came over for lunch and to open Christmas presents. Before everyone got there, I sat on a stool at the island just snapping away pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them... just some!

Kirk was walking around eating things and making faces at me...

Connie was making pistachio pudding and cooking the garlic bread

and I sat on my stool because I was still sick with a cold and didn't feel like doing anything except holding the camera.

Granny is B's Great-Grandmother and is in her mid 90s. She still drives, still lives alone, and still cooks. Everyone in B's family is glad for that for the reason in the next picture.

Her picture perfect lemon pies!

Granny slaves over these pies for hours every holiday or time that the family gets together. She makes everything from scratch and as B says, "makes absolutely perfect meringue." People have tried to figure out how to make Granny's Lemon Pie for years, but even with the recipe have never been successful. I think it's the 70+ years of experience to make something so perfect. Either way, some one is going to have to figure it out.

Here's a shot of the inside. I'm not the hugest fan of lemon pie, but this one's pretty good. Maybe one day I'll try to make it.. but maybe not, we'll see.

It was good to see family, but I will say it was nice to be home and in my own bed on Saturday night. With all the traveling we've done lately, I just love the feeling of coming home to my own bed--especially when I have a cold!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years!