Happy Thanksmas!

For the past few years we've held a friends Thanksgiving dinner; however, November just flew by and we couldn't find a weekend to have our dinner before the actual Thanksgiving holiday so we met the weekend after. Technically, it was a Thanksmas.

It was a great time of good food, fried turkey, drinks and a friendly game of Catch Phrase. Last year we played girls against boys in Catch Phrase, which did not end well so this year we decided to just play for fun. That approach turned out much better for everyone.

The men and the turkey frying

Chris and Britt with leftovers to eat on for a week

Happy Thanksmas Friends!

Now I've Seen Jerry World

I spent Thanksgiving in Florida this year, which was very strange to be in such a warm climate for the winter holidays, but it was a great time with the family. I hurried back to Dallas though to see Baylor play Texas Tech at Jerry World, which is what most of us in the metroplex affectionately call the new Cowboys Stadium. Ticket prices are insane for an actual Cowboys game and I don't really care that much about them so I knew I would most likely not see the stadium via a Cowboy game.

Lucky for me, many of my closest friends went to Baylor so we gathered a group of us to see the Bears play the Raiders. My observation is that Jerry World is definitely a world in its own. They have many tailgating spots, which we took advantage of beforehand. The stadium is HUGE and it was fun to explore/find the most random route to the bar for drinks at half-time. My next goal is to find a way into one of the suites that sit right on the field. I feel confident in this endeavor.

My good friend Amanda came from Lubbock for the game and she is a TTU alumni

Amanda, Kelan, Kyndel and I tailgating before the game

Texas Tech vs. Baylor

Jerry World - the jumbo screen is insane. I can't even describe how tiny the players were, but when you looked at the screen they became giants.

Happy Halloween Party!

Some friends of mine had a big Halloween party to celebrate the debauchery that usually comes with this holiday. Lucky for everyone actual Halloween was on a Saturday this year so that automatically meant BIG party. The party was a great time full of voodoo punch (and it punched me), your favorite drinking games, jello shots galore, the staple party munchies and the keg that later ended up in the corner of the backyard. Evidently I'm still 21 years old.

I've made three posts because I have lots of pictures to share and the blog limits me on my picture amount or I just haven't figured out how to fool eblogger.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Sarah and Shane came from Abilene for the festivities

Our socks matched, but it looks like we are doing a funny dance

Kelan was missing a stinger so I offered my sword

Step Brothers! They do activities.

Halloween Part Deux

More Halloween party pictures!

Boys of the house - Captain Morgan, Indiana Jones and the Mexican Outlaw

Russell and Tawney - cop vs. pirate!

A pirate and a bee! This was before the drinking games started. The garage is still semi-clean.

Billy Mays and ShamWOW!

Barbie and G.I. Joe

Halloween Part Thrice

The last chapter to the Halloween weekend!

Jack and Jill....after they fell down the hill

Kenny Powers, ShamWOW, Indiana and Jesus Q.

And now I'd like to conclude with a costume comparison. I'm glad I went with the pirate so I could make poses and pirate sounds like in the picture below.

"Arrrrggggg!"

The alternative was the Travelocity Gnome costume and while I do love the mascot of my job the costume is quite large. It does make a funny photo opp on a sunny afternoon though!

"I need a vacation!"

KINGS OF LEON!

I absolutely love Kings of Leon and was uber excited to get the opportunity to go see them when they came to Dallas this month. There are very few bands that sound better live than they do on their albums and to me KOL was amazing live. It was an awesome concert and highly recommend seeing them.

Checking out the crowd gathering for KOL

Open bar in the box, which was enjoyed very much.

And they finally went on. Love them!

Crystal and I enjoying the awesome show!

Lake Weekend!

Before the chill sets in a few friends headed to the lake for one last weekend of fun in the sun.....at least in a swimsuit. My friend Josh and his family have a great house on Lake Athens so the weekend was filled with boat rides, lake activities, drinks, 24 lbs of brisket and of course a great time with friends.

Morning boat ride! The day started out chilly, but quickly warmed up.

Kelan and I enjoying the boat and getting ready for some toobing!

Toobing!

"I'm king of the world!" - Simon, sweetest dog, enjoying the lake views

Dana and Chad's Wedding

My best friend, Kelan, went to Baylor and after college moved to Dallas as well as most of her friends from Baylor. When I graduated a lot of my close friends moved away so I was welcomed into the Baylor clan and we've all become great friends. One of the girls, Dana, got married recently so it was a big caravan to Frisco to celebrate her big day.

The wedding was beautiful and we all enjoyed lots of dancing, drinks, cake and fun times with friends!

Friends before the wedding

Crystal and I striking a pose....and Jeremy

The bride and groom!

Bees wanted some flowers for himself

Group picture of the girls with Dana

Kelan and I

Stock the Bar!

My sweet friend Charlotte is getting married in a few weeks. We've been friends since our days at SMU and since college have been in a book club together. If any of you readers are in a book club I'm sure you're more productive than we are. Our sessions typically spend about 5 minutes on the book and the remaining hour or two talking about our lives with copious amounts of wine.

Charlotte now lives in Fort Worth so our book club wanted to make sure we did something in Dallas to cover the east side of the metrolplex. Therefore, my friend Stephanie and I put together a "Stock the Bar" party for Charlotte and her fiance Thomas. We had a great time of food, drinks, carrot cake and a champagne toast. We also made them play the ever-so-enjoyable "newlywed game" and when they got a question wrong had to eat a piece of bubble gum. Needless to say both of their jaws were pretty sore and their sugar content was through the roof.

We all had a great time celebrating Charlotte and Thomas. Plus, they received quite a bit to stock their bar so we've requested they throw a party after the big one of course where they tie the knot.

Awesome champagne balloon!

Lots of great gifts to stock their bar

Yummy carrot cake!

Playing the newlywed game

Stephanie's sweet dog Ari came out to play

Back To School, Back To School......

I'm seriously behind on blog posts so I've decided to roll the clock back a month or so to make some updates.

My best friend is a teacher in the Dallas area and to commemorate the new school year starting her friends threw a "Back to School" party. You had to come dressed up like you were going "back to school" like when you were a kid and your Mom would take a picture of you with your new backpack and lunchbox in front of the house. I had trouble coming up with what I wanted to wear and after much deliberation (and thanks to my curly hair) I decided to dress up like Jessie Spano from Saved by the Bell. I was rather proud of how my costume turned out and the party was such a blast!

And bonus! A guy dressed as Slater showed up so we were able to capture the perfect photo.

Jessie Spano

Jeremy, Kelan and I

High school friends at the party - doing some Cooper Cougar cheers!

Slater and Jessie

Frank the Fancy Goldfish

Frank the Fancy Goldfish came to live with me from Petsmart yesterday. He's a cute little goldfish and is adjusting nicely to his new home.

I'm going to Florida this weekend to see my parents so Frank will be the man of the house for a few days and hopefully can hold the fort down. No parties!

Julie and Julia

If you know me or read the blog then you know my love of the Food Network (hence the title - Everyday Lauren) and cooking/baking. Therefore, it was just a matter of what day this past weekend I was going to go see Julie and Julia. Also, what made the movie even more fun, was that I was able to see it with my Big Sis from college - Amy!

The movie was really good and not to mention some of the food in the movie. One dish in particular was the brushetta that Julie makes early on in the movie before she starts her quest to conquer Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". We couldn't stop talking about the brushetta so the amazing Amy found a few recipes and sent them over so I decided to make it tonight for dinner. OMG! It was so yummy so if you need a brushetta recipe or want to try out a new one this is definitely a winner.

Brushetta!

Sliced rough textured bread like focaccia or a baguette - cut lengthwise into however many pieces of brushetta you'd like to make.
Assorted tomatoes - chopped; I used a mixture of cherry heirlooms and roma tomatoes
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove - peeled and halved
Chopped fresh basil

1. Toss tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar then salt and pepper to taste.
2. Broil the slices of bread until they are golden then drizzle some olive oil and rub half of the garlic clove over the top side of the bread slice.
3. Spoon tomatoes over bread and top with chopped basil.
4. ENJOY!

Baby Edge Shower

Last weekend we celebrated my friend Tara impending bundle of joy with a baby shower brunch at La Duni Bakery/Restaurant. We had such a great time catching up and enjoying the wonderful eats and drinks that La Duni has to offer. Speaking of the eats several of us had the "Huevos Finos" or eggs benedict on a POPOVER! Sweet heavens it was so good and a meal that required an afternoon nap. Tara got some really cute gifts and one of which, the Sock Monkey, I came inches within it mysteriously disappearing from her hands and staying in mine.

Congrats to Tara, Cody and Baby Edge!

Beautiful flowers my friend Monica put together for shower decor

Tara and the oh so cute Sock Monkey

THE Huevos Finos

We could not get over how creepy and about 12 yrs. old the Baby Bjorn couple looked.