Snow in Tennessee, a Winter Blowout, and rain in the desert

I can not believe that 2009 is almost over, which means we are so close to not just a new year but a new DECADE!! Wowzer! We had some beautiful snow a few weeks ago. It was wonderful. I took some pics of the house because its not often we get a good covering. Alas-it was gone by afternoon.

Scott and I had a "winter blowout" party at his garagement. We decided to throw up some twinkle lights over the tables...it sort of reminded me of a school dance, but in the best way. When we turned the lights out toward the end of the night it was really very pretty!

I could not stand the thought of having a holiday party without a tree. Scott compromised and brought this beauty in. With lights its fairly festive.

Extra lights went into the bathroom.

As the evening progressed we decided a group shot was necessary. Here is most of the crowd around Scott's jeep. I actually think this photo turned out really well.

Last Sunday I headed out to Vegas to celebrate the holidays with mom, dad and Shaun. This always involves three things-SHOPPING, CASINOS and COOKIES. Sometimes we manage to combine a few of these by shopping in a casino or eating cookies on the way to shop. You get the picture. It might not be the same as Ohio but it does have its own excitement;) Vegas has a new gazillion dollar shopping center called City Centre on the strip. We decided to take a look and see what all the fuss was about.

Here are some fancy stairs...this was a mosaic like effect-but I could not figure out what it was made from.

They had these towers of water that you could turn into a water cyclone by rubbing the top. Here is Shaun checking them out.

Close up.

Here is a shot of the flower beds, floating staircases and one of the many high end retail shops.

We frosted cookies, LOTS of cookies.

I was particularly proud of this Santa.

Mom made quite a few matching mittens.

No-your eyes do not deceive you. I can not escape the rain...even when I travel to the desert. Here is proof that it rained while I was there;)

I returned the day after the cookie project to find this in the cookie box. Yes-the gingerbread lost his head. And no-there are not any small children in the house to blame this one.