Looking Back : Christmas with Dallas Friends

While in Dallas for Christmas, I got to see many of my friends, which was nice. It can get kind of crazy when I go back trying to balance time between friends and family. For shorter trips, I tend to just plan one dinner or something and hope that all my friends can come, but then it's hard to really talk to anyone and not all my friends are friends with each other, so it's not always the best scenario (not saying that any of them dislike each other...my friends are too nice/mature for that!). It's always fun for me though :) This time, I tried to spread it out a bit more...I probably packed too much in as it made things pretty busy and it made the time go by way too quickly!! I enjoyed seeing so many people though and we did some pretty fun things!!

Michelle, Jennifer, Brooke, and Andi came over the Friday before Christmas week. I was at Beth's baby-sitting so they came over around 8:00 after the boys were in bed. We ordered pizza and salad and then made Christmas sugar cookies. It was really fun and we made A LOT of cookies. Brooke brought some awesome decorating tools and is really good at it....I learned a thing or two and may be a bit more confident now to stray from my normal simplistic decorating. While the girls were over, I also had them assemble their own Christmas gift from me. I made all my NYC and Dallas friends ornaments this year (stole the idea from Kelly's blog). But, I ran out of time that day to finish assembling the ornaments for these 4 girls so I let them make their own. Does that still count as a gift??? (Oh, and Kristen, I had one for you with an "r" for Ray and forgot to give it to you!!! I left it in "my" drawer at my mom's house so I can give it to you some other time I am back).

Brooke, the master cookie creator

These were probably all Brooke's creations

Another Brooke cookie

Um, probably not Brooke's (Andi?)

Random mix of fun cookies!

We forgot to pull out the camera until Michelle left,

but here I am with Brooke, Andi, and Worley

and some of our cookies!

Worley brought us each one of these brownie bites!  I
love how she stuck the candy cane stick in it and I
LOVED how they were brownie bites instead of cake
bites. Y'all know I love cake bites, but I think I
might like brownie bites even better!

On Saturday, I met my old Ernst & Young gang for brunch. It is always fun to see these girls and get caught up. I wish I had the chance to see Kelli a bit more that week, but things were just too busy for us!

This trip to Dallas was the first time I met up with some of my New York friends. Many of my NYC friends are from the Dallas area and now some have started to move back to Texas. So, I had the chance to catch-up with both Sarah and Kristen while I was there. All of us were in Community Group together until Kristen and Sarah moved to Texas in August/September. It was really good to see them and they are both doing so well and enjoying their new lives in Texas. On Sunday I met Sarah for church and then brunch. We went to Watermark so she could try it - she's still on the church hunt. After, we went to Gloria's for brunch - yum! On Wednesday, I met Erin and Kristen for dinner at Taco Diner. Kristen had a small ranch wedding soon after moving back to Austin and she brought her album to share with us which was so fun. It was a really sweet, intimate wedding.  I love my NYC/Texas friends.

On Sunday night, I got to (kind of ) participate in Bunco for the first time since moving away. I used to be a regular with the group. We didn't end up actually playing Bunco, but instead had an ornament exchange and a cookie exchange....two of my favorite things!! I made Gingerbread Chocolate Chunk cookies. My friend Jen made these last year for a NYC exchange and they were amazing. I don't think mine turned out like hers, but they were still good. The cookies Tamara brought were my favorite -- Chocolate Mint cookies, made with Andes Mints (which I love).

I had lunch with both my old Dallas roommates. I went to Deanna's house one day for lunch so I could see her and her boys. We had a good time catching-up and her boys are SO cute. They might be the happiest brothers I've ever seen. Smiling ear to ear the whole time. Another day, I picked up Kristen from work and we went and had a Greek lunch. It was good food and good conversation as always!

Andi and I did the Jingle Bell Run and it was so fun! I used to do it every year in Dallas, but then they quit doing it after Hurricane Katrina (it used to benefit Carter Blood and they were too busy with other things that year).  It's finally back and I want to do it every year! A lot of people came out for it...many decked out in crazy Holiday gear. The run/walk (we did a little of both!) took us through the Design District and there are a lot of new stores popping up down there. It was interesting to see what's there and I may have to go do some shopping down there some time. After the run/walk there was a little party inside The Anatole and we had fun there, too.

My week ended with an amazing mani/pedi date with Michelle at Julie's salon. Julie used to work at Maile Nails...a salon I went to almost every other week for about 5 years. I loved it! I had read that Julie had branched out on her own - she was always one of the best at Maile. So, I wanted to check it out and it was amazing!!! I actually ran out of time for my manicure, but the pedicure may have been the best I've ever had and I cannot wait to go back!! They massage your legs and feet for a very long time and even use hot stones. It was heavenly.

So, as you can see, I was busy, but got to do a lot of fun things with some fun friends! It was great to celebrate Christmas with everyone!!