A Little Holiday Cheer & My Christmas Wish List

Wishing you some holiday cheer for a happy Christmas season this year! Well I guess I too am about to get on the holiday train. To be honest I am very much a follower of tradition. Ever since I was young my family started our Christmas decorating as part of a birthday celebration activity for my mother who's special day just so happens to be on December 1st. While it is the end of November I will have to say that I almost broke with tradition and brought our tree inside for decorating. But I will wait (sadly until Dec 2 as I will be working on the 1st) as I don't want to rush such a fun and exciting tradition. So in a way to still fill a need and after much persuasion this past Thanksgiving weekend... I decided to begin my Christmas list.

Honestly the best gift in the world would truly be to have extra time with those I love. It is so amazing to think that this will be my first year since college that I will be getting a Christmas vacation. In 15 days (3 work weeks)... I will be back on vacation until the new year. Again this year is very special as we will be celebrating our holiday back home as well as sharing it with our family from Alabama including both my brother and sister-in-law and sweet niece Olivia... our first official Christmas together. I could not be more excited for the decorations, baking, Christmas movie watching, tradition making, holiday pj wearing, time spending, serving and giving, as well as any other holiday traditions that can be celebrated, shared, and/or created. Here's to a little bit of holiday cheer. More pictures and posts to follow.

Welcoming the Christmas Season of 2010. From our family to yours!

Family Style Thanksgiving

Welcome to the Zellner 2010 Thanksgiving Family Style Addition. This year we truly have so much to be thankful for! So enjoy our holiday moments... filled with fun family feasts, puppy play dates, an Aggie victory over the Texas Longhorns, a night out with the Zellner kids, and fun family wii tournaments. It was definitely a fun and festive holiday spent giving thanks for all the wonderful blessings God has given us this year and for each year to come.


Wednesday afternoon after Ray had completed his work, we finished packing and left for the holiday. Our typical 4 hour drive quickly turned into five plus as many individuals must have had the same idea of traveling south. But what a gorgeous day for traveling it was as I do have the best travel partner by my side:)

Thanksgiving afternoon we celebrated our holiday with my family. As each year my mother and I get up early to do our Thanksgiving cooking together. It's absolutely one of my favorite traditions.

The Thanksgiving Set Up

We enjoy foods such as turkey, ham with cherries, giblet gravy, my great grandmother's homemade stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, fruit salad, rolls, and of course pumpkin and pecan pie. Thanksgiving night we celebrated Thanksgiving with my Zellner family at aunt Sally's house. She had such a beautiful display of Thanksgiving decor. We enjoyed a delicious family feast, enjoyed fun time with family, puppy play dates, and an excellent aggie victory.

Our cute table markers

The beautiful decor

The boy cousins...

We graduated to the adult table:)
Owen, MJ, me, Ray, Nana, and Sally

Becky, Todd, Stephen, & Will

Enjoying delicious eats

My husband & I giving thanks!

Becky & I

Ray & Becky

Ray & cousin Stephen cheering on the Ags!

Ray, Rory, Rebecca & Lola ... puppy play dates

Molly and her sweet A&M bandana

Rory & I

Zellner Sistas

Ray & Rachel

Tyler & Lola puppy

An Aggie Victory 24/17
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Friday night Ray and I went to spend time with his sisters and Todd at their new house. I am truly so thankful for this family. They are truly a blessing!


The Zellner Ladies

The ladies & Rory

Ray & Todd
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Saturday morning after saying good-bye to my family, we left to visit Ray's mom and dad. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at Dennys. Then we enjoyed a fun family afternoon of games.

Ray & Wally

Ray & Owen

The Zellner Men playing wii

Rhythm Kung Fu... notice the awesome family resemblance...
(Left to Right) Rachel, me, Ray, Owen, and MJ

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful time with family. We truly do have so much to be thankful for. So here's to wonderful holiday cheer and being thankful for everything given!

Teaching Certification Update

I have received many questions in regards to the status of my teaching certification... so I decided that it would be a good time to post an update. To be honest... I will have to claim being busy and lazy has kept me from working on my online lessons. Now I can even add that the holidays are coming up so lack of time and events have also taken away many of the 24 hours that are allotted within the day. When I first started I set September/October as my finish date. It being toward the end of November, I do not feel that I am too far outside my aimed goal; however, if I keep making excuses a full year could go by before I complete the necessary requirements of the program. So with all this in mind, I have now completed a few more additional online lessons leaving me with 1-2 to finish before we leave for Thanksgiving. Once these have been completed I will then be studying for more content exams as they will make me more qualified to teach. Currently I am certified to teach early childhood through fourth grade but think that I could look into a few more options as well. So things are running pretty smoothly. I definitely have to get on the ball but as soon as my online lessons are completed that's another HUGE thing marked off my to do list. More will be posted soon about my status.

Jenn & Brandon's Cupid Shuffle!

Love was definitely in the air this Saturday, November 20, 2010. The hubs and I shared in the sweet wedding of Jennifer and Brandon McLean. Their outdoor wedding was held at 4:30PM at Myer Park and Event Center in McKinney, TX. It had the most beautiful vintage feel as well as incorporated many hand crafted pieces from the talented bride. From picturesque views and elegant decor, to delicious food and great tunes... I couldn't have imagined a more beautiful and fun fall wedding. Enjoy some pictures from the special event as a big congrats goes out to the new Mr. and Mrs!

Dr. Bragg and the beautiful Bride

The beautiful flowers and decor

The delicious cake with feather accents

The Fants & Zellners

The Hubs and I at the McLean Wedding

The beautiful bride and I

Table Fun with Aunt Rebecca and the Little Man

Me with the boys!

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To the bride and groom: May God truly bless your marriage and all the days to come. Remember life is about the journey as compared to the destination. Here's to taking the paths less traveled as you do have the best travel partner by your side.

Gobble Till You Wobble Plans!

We are so ready to Gobble 'till we Wobble! It is that time again. It is time to travel south to the Land of Sugar where we will gather with both families to show thanks for all the blessings with have been given. We of course will enjoy our time together, eat way more food than planned, hopefully watch our Aggies take home a victory over the Texas Longhorns, and will come back with thousands of pictures that will quickly be posted to the blog. It's what we do. This next week will be a short one for us. Ray is still currently working a support week. This means that while he does get to work from home this past week, he has had to switch his schedule to 8PM-8AM. Next week my final day will be Tuesday before the holiday. That morning we will take the pups as they will be staying here for the holiday. Ray will have to work until Wednesday... then it is time for our holiday to start. I am so thankful for our holiday. I am thankful to spend our time with my family and of course my Zellner family.

What are your plans this Thanksgiving holiday? What are fun traditions that you share?

Only days stand between us and I cannot wait to share our moments and memories with you this Thanksgiving season.
Love,
Alicia

A New Do!

Here is a preview of the New Hair Do!

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This Saturday I enjoyed a fun afternoon with Jess that included a trip to Starbucks and an appointment to a local McKinney hair salon. What a fun afternoon!!! I am so thankful for these fun girly outings and so looking forward to many more. In regards to my hair... I'm absolutely loving it. After 6 months without as little as a trim and probably close to a decade of the same long, straight hair do... it was definitely time for a change... and while typically change is not something I do well... I am very thankful for this one.

She's Having a Baby

Little Miss Harley Raider Gathings will be born on December 8, 2010... and I couldn't be more excited. This afternoon after work, I drove to Checkpast to help celebrate Sally's work baby shower. What a special treat! This shower was filled with so much love, precious decor, and pink of course! Here are a few fun pictures from the party.

Sweet pink flower arrangement

Delicious cake to mimic the bedding

Sally at her sweet work baby shower

Sally too is our one of a kind. Congrats again mama:)

We cannot wait for this sweet girl to make her arrival. May God truly bless the Gathings family
for all of their new adventures to come.

Here's to my old Checkpast Ladies... oh how I love and miss you all but wish you luck in your futures! May you all remember our lunches, 4 o'clock emergen-c sessions, Brother's Pizza, Friday breakfasts, theme parties, and so much more! Love you all:)

Happy 26th Birthday to K

Happy 26th Birthday to my girl Kristin!

I hope you had such a wonderful birthday and I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate with you soon! Here's to all the moments we've shared and all those to come!

Happy Birthday lady:)

My Time w/ Mattie Mama!

I absolutely treasure my time with my sweet Mattie Mama. What can I say... I love this little girl! Now she may not always love me picking her up like a baby, but I do know that she loves her mama.... even if she's a daddy's girl. Ha.

So here's to my sweet moment with my Mattie Mama!

ELC Birthday Activities!

Today we celebrated a very special birthday in the ELC. We enjoyed a yummy dessert breakfast, followed by a morning of music motivation, tasty Jason's Deli delivered lunch, and a day filled with laughs. But in preparation for this special birthday suprise... the TA's had to take a few fun pictures for the birthday gal.

Our birthday suprise consisted of a banner that included all of the ELC's favorite sayings, special pictures, and comments... seriously a source of humor all day.

To Shannon, we are so blessed to have someone with your talent and abilities. I am so thankful for this team and the opportunity to work with such amazing women that truly do change the lives of those around them. So enjoy a few pics of our team and the amazing ladies who make each and every day so much fun!

The Lovely Ladies of the ELC: Me, Trout, Wallace, and Garrett. I love my team!

So here's to the ladies that keep things interesting.... to smiling you, calling not it and voting friends off the island, to the Gellner crew, to going on cruises, to not so grammatically correct spanish discussions, to dancing with ribbons and blowing bubbles (or spilling them), to caffeine and sweet tea mornings, to chick-fil-a runs and bags of chocolate candy, to being elfed as well as doing the monster mash, to Miss Libby Thursdays and music motvators, and to polka doties that make you happy.... here's to the ELC!