26th Birthday

Brittany's birthday was on Friday.

She turned 26 at 5:04PM.

We had a busy weekend and our house was full and noisy, just the way I like it. 

     Brooke and Mr. E left DC at 5:30 in the morning on Friday. Mr. E had to work, and can work from home or anywhere as long as he has his laptop and phone. That was why they had to get on the road early so that they could get to Raleigh early enough for him to get his work day started upstairs in our office. It is a little more than a four hour drive. 

     Brittany was just getting up when Brooke got home. Luckily Brittany didn't have to work on her birthday! I was sitting on my bed drinking coffee waiting for Brooke to get here. When she did, she and Brittany ended up in my room dancing, laughing and finally chasing each other around the house. Brooke was taking snapchats of Brittany and Brittany was protesting because she had just crawled out of bed.  

     After her classes on Friday, Barrett headed home for the weekend. She was so excited to bake Brittany's cake. She misses not being able to bake because of being away at college. She made a chocolate ganache raspberry cake.

     We had reservations for dinner, but they were a little late so we made a charcuterie tray to nibble on while we waited. Well, we went into the dining room because Mr. E wanted to give Brittany his birthday gift to her, a bottle of nice champagne........

when we went back into the kitchen this is what we found!

This is a picture of one of the dogs that had a tummy ache! 

Poor Lola (and Charlie)!

I was a little worried about leaving the dogs at home and inside while we went to eat, but we did and they were okay. 

We went to a little locally owned italian restaurant near our house that we've been going to for more than 15 years.  I love small family owned restaurants.

It was time for cake when we got home!

Then it was present time!

Brittany really liked the gift that Mr. B got her, can't you tell?

Barrett gave Brittany the cutest coffee mug!

It came out backwards in the picture, but you can figure it out. 

Brittany insisted we play a few rounds of  Guesstures and even though we were all really tired and so full that all we wanted to really do was lay around and watch a movie we played.....

it was her birthday after all. 

On Saturday we had tickets to the UNC/Duke game, but since it was raining, Barrett and I opted to stay home and go shopping a little.

 Today, was a lazy day and late this afternoon our house emptied. Art flew to Dan Diego this morning. Brittany took Mr. B to the airport later so he could fly back to Nashville. Brooke and Mr. E left for DC and Barrett loaded up her clean laundry and headed back to school.

I'm not going to lie, I am sitting in a chair in the living room watching TV and am enjoying some quiet time with just Brittany.

I am also very happy knowing that my bathroom no longer looks like this....

Girls will be girls! 

SUMMING UP CHRISTMAS

Christmas has come and gone again. 

The Odom family had a great Christmas. I don't know how to respectfully represent it here in a blog post. Having older children that have to work on the actual day that says "Christmas" on the calendar takes some getting used to. Brooke, who is a flight attendant was scheduled to work days just before and after Christmas. Brittany, who is a NICU nurse, and low on the totum pole was scheduled to work on Christmas Eve night and the day after Christmas. Fortunately, they both had four days off before Christmas Eve.  So we celebrated the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Christmas. 

I had all of my girls home and I loved it. I didn't care what day it was or what the calendar said.  All of the BF's were there too. So it was noisy, messy and so much fun! 

So here is how we celebrated Christmas, and then some:

We had our house decorated early this year and we all enjoyed our nights watching TV with the Christmas tree and fireplace glowing. 

Bubbles loves sleeping under the tree. 

Somehow this year the cat ornaments were on the bottom branches and Bubbles ended up claiming it as his spot. 

I took a few pictures with my iPhone of some of the other decorations in the house, they aren't great pictures...

We have a big southern front porch.

It is a lot of upkeep, but I love decorating it for Christmas. 

This year I stuffed our (decorative) mailbox with greenery and presents. 

This is what the door area looked like. It has looked the same for several years. I wanted to do something different this year, but honestly just got lazy.  

Maybe next year. 

(We had about fifteen minutes of snow - look closely and you can see the snowflakes.)

The snowman's head turns back and forth and I think it bothered the dogs. 

Charlie and Lola spent most nights going in and out........and they were not all that coordinated.

They spent most of days waiting by the front door waiting to be let out. 

Barrett is such a trooper. 

I am so blessed to have her as my daughter. 

Many days after school, she went shopping with me and tried on things for the older girls.

Shopping for three girls is very very hard. 

 A few times, Art would leave work and come by the mall to meet us for dinner at Brio.

(There some benefits to being the only child at home!)

Barrett and I love cooking together and one night, of course while Art was out of town and it was pouring rain and very very cold, she cut the tip of her finger OFF.....

as in a part of her finger was on the counter. 

( I have pictures if you wan to see them!)

We both were in shock.

There was an unbelievable amount of blood for over four hours, a lot of squealing, a lot of debate about going to the ER and I am pretty sure we both saw stars at the same time. 

We rallied and gathered ourselves.

No stitches required, because there was nothing to stitch back together!

Barrett's finger made doing things a little difficult. 

She worked on our "house" the next night. 

I guess technically our house can't be called a gingerbread house because it is not gingerbread. 

Several years ago I found this plastic form and it has been a lot of fun decorating year after year. 

I took a gingerbread house baking/making class many years ago and before finding this house I designed and made houses from scratch.

One day I hope to do it again, but until then this one will do. 

Barrett wanted this year's house to be fun and preppy, because her upcoming cookie exchange

was going to have a preppy theme. 

Love the iced animal crackers as the roof!

Barrett did a great job planning her cookie exchange.

 Twenty friends from her school came on Saturday morning. 

She made cranberry oatmeal cookies.

Saturday afternoon Brooke got home from DC. 

Mr. E came with her.

We had what we called "Odom Eve" on Sunday night.

One of Brooke's oldest and best friends came and spent some time with us. 

She and Brooke went to preschool together. 

She is in the peace corps and we haven't seen her in a long long time.

BF1 also came.

(Brittany got home earlier Sunday after working the night shift Saturday night. 

I loved just hanging back and watching all of my girls catch up with each other and have fun with everyone else. 

Monday morning was our Christmas.

Mr E was up early and even wore his Christmas sweater! 

He was excited about his helicopter Brooke gave him! 

Art made his traditional fresh from the farm sausage and biscuits. 

He has been doing this since the two older girls were toddlers and the girls always insist on this tradition to be carried out every year. 

(we also have punch!)

We stayed in our PJ's for most of the day and played games. 

Tuesday evening we had to stop pretending and had to get back to real life. 

Brittany had to return to her apartment and get ready for working the night shift on Christmas Eve. 

Brooke went on call at midnight and had to go back to DC.

So the real Christmas Eve was quiet. 

I sat on the porch because it was warm - too warm.

There were moths flying around the snowflake lights and the frogs were caroling in the woods. 

We (Art, Barrett and I) went to my dad's house on Christmas Day.

Brittany met us there.

 We took the dogs and cat with us because when we left there we were driving to the beach house. 

Lola was totally rocking her Santa bow! 

She is such a priss pot. 

It was beautiful at the beach! 

Art played golf everyday and Barrett and I walked on the beach and looked for shells. 

We are home in Raleigh now for a few days, but are headed back to the beach for New Year's . 

We are having an oyster roast there with family and friends.

There'll be plenty - so come if you can!