December Festivities & New Year's

We had such a jam packed December that I am so behind on blogging about it. It started off with a Christmas Feis in Palm Springs and a trip to Disneyland. Followed by 2 weeks in Texas to see all the family. We got to do all the usual traditions and pretty much ate our way through the holidays. The food in TX is sooo good! To wrap up the holidays we spent New Year's Day (well the day after to be exact) at the Rose Parade in Pasadena. Here is our holidays in a short photo recap! (You know me, I took no less than 300 pictures for sure!)

Sarah had a great Christmas Feis! Moved up to Prizewinner for the 1st time!

Lauren preparing for her Santa special!

Christmastime at Disney is magical. Great day at the park seeing princesses and riding our favorite rides. It's A Small World is especially nice a Christmas!

Santa visit at The Grove in L.A.

1st stop in TX was to Sweet N Sassy with all the girlfriends! Fun times!

Dallas Symphony Choir at the Morton Meyerson in Dallas. A Christmas tradition!

Little AXO Legacies cookie party! Look at all those gorgeous Iota Lambda legacies!

Nutcracker at Bass Hall! My favorite of all traditions!

Christmas Eve morning...checking out the tree with Nana.

Christmas Eve!

Santa was here!

Christmas Day at Mary Kay's house.

The very awesome red velvet cake...

Christmas with my family in San Antonio.

New Year's Eve fun at Nana & Papa's. Also celebrating Nana's birthday!

Rose Parade in Pasadena with good friends!

Wanna Go, Gotta Go, A-Chi-O

First off....I finished my post about Where to Eat in Dublin...Because it was a work in progress, when I posted it, it post dated it back to when I started working on it, so it does not show as my last post. Go HERE to read it if you are interested.

Ok...Back to Alpha Chi Omega...

This is Rush week (excuse me...recruitment week) over at TCU. As the FW Alumnae Pres. it is my duty to get the alumnae over there to the campus to help out with parties, and meals, and such. As much as rush is hated in general for its long hours and non-stop singing and smiling, I actually do enjoy going over to the house and being a part of it all. It brings back a lot of memories of all the good times I had at TCU while living in the AXO house. It reminds me of a much simpler time in my life and part of me longs to have that back. However, I wouldn't trade a thing for the life I have now with my husband and kids. Although it might make me feel older to be surrounded by young women just starting their lives, it sort makes me feel younger like I was back in college. I enjoy meeting a lot of the collegians and hanging out with my sisters I may not see very much. It is a fun bonding experience that can be hectic and tiring, but worth it.

Collegians preparing for recruitment

Wonderful Alumnae

3 Little AXO Legacies

I know I will be coming home every night singing all those old songs.
They really do get stuck in your head.

AXO Reunion Weekend

It was 2 years in the making and now it is 2 weeks in the past. My how time flies! So Alpha Chi Omega has been on the TCU campus for 20 years now and we had a big weekend to celebrate that a couple of weeks ago! It was so much fun to see so many of my sisters. Many of whom I have not seen since I graduated! The weekend started off with a Re-creation of Bid Day at Paula's house. Every year in August on Bid Day Paula hosts a dinner at her house to welcome all the new members. So we thought that would be fun to re-create that experience since it is one that is a fond memory to us all! It was complete with the Mexican food, Flash photography, and margaritas! (Margaritas are never present on Bid Day)

AXO Alumnae in attendance

Becky, Me, and Kortney

Me, Ashley, Brandi, Kortney, Becky

Us again...add Alesha

Ryan, LeAnn, Me, Alesha, Kimberly

On Saturday during the day we had a little outing to the zoo. This was a nice way to meet some of the kiddos. They had a blast. It was a great day to be at the zoo and the new exhibit at the Ft. Worth Zoo with the snakes and such is really great!

Sarah was going crazy that she was this close to the tiger!

My girls have no fear of the snakes. I would never have walked into this place when I was their age.

Saturday night we had our big Red Carnation Ball. It was held at Colonial Country Club. The collegians were all there with their dates and we had a nice evening. The weather was perfect and everyone really enjoyed each others company.

Me, Lori, Ginny, Elaine, Carla

Becky (my college roommate), Me, Brandi (my lil sis!)
Love these girls! They were both in my wedding!

First thing First

I am heading into one of my busiest weeks of the year. This weekend is the Iota Lambda chapter of Alpha Chi Omega's 20th reunion. It was 20 years ago this month that our chapter was invited on the campus at TCU.

Check out their website here: Alpha Chi Omega, TCU

Since moving back to Texas I have become involved with that chapter as an advisor and have served as the Ft. Worth Alumnae Club president for the past 3 years. So in the summer of 2008 while at the AXO National Convention it was brought to my attention that our 20th reunion would be coming up in 2010, so we all began brainstorming what we wanted that weekend to be like. I cannot believe it is already here, and I am so glad. We have put together a great team who has really pulled this weekend off. Although my main duties were to keep the group on track and make sure nothing was forgotten, I still am the MC for the Saturday night event at Colonial Country Club and I am running the ceremony that takes place on Sunday for our new graduating seniors.

I am so excited to see old friends and have fun re-living those college years. I am, however, so in vacation mode, it is not even funny. In a little over a month, we will be jetting off to Europe for a little over 3 weeks. We will be spending 2 of those weeks in Ireland. We are pretty much doing a grand tour of the country and it's famous landmarks, as well as, doing a little family history research. We have located some locations of interest in our families past, and we plan to stop for visits. We will end our trip in Northern France and spend the last 4 days in Paris. I cannot wait for Paris. I cannot wait to take my oldest daughter there. She is excited beyond words. Charlie and I will celebrate our 11th anniversary with a dinner at the Jules Verne on the Eiffel Tower. Although I am not a big fan of heights, I cannot think of a more romantic location. So...my mind is in Paris....


but I have a lot of work to do for this reunion this weekend, so first thing is first.

Not to mention I still have a May Day party to throw, soccer games, dance recital, Wicked to go see, just to name a few things here between now and then. So I have to stay focused and take it one week at a time. June will be here before I know it.

Now if only that volcano would simmer down......