Happy New Year Friends!

So I figured it was about time to post again since it's been over a month. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Oh, and happy new year too! Because we have three families to celebrate with, Christmas is always busy for the McMichael-Eggleston household. But, it is also lots of fun. This year we were at Dad and Lisa's house first. The picture above is taken outside their lakehouse. Yes, I'm wearing a Christmas shirt. Mock me if you will!

This year my family surprised me with a new laptop (talk about knowing your audience!). My laptop died in the fall semester of 2005 so I was definitely in need of one (maybe extreme want - I mean, we still had a desktop). The Christmas laptop was Chad's idea, but he got the fam involved too. And, since we had a joint Christmas lunch at Chad's parents' house (meaning my mom, Jerry, Bobby, and the grandparents joined forces with his mom, dad, brother, and grandma) Chad created a scavenger hunt for me so that I had a maximum audience for the grand unveiling. I went all over the house locating clues - fun times. I think my mom must have those pics because I can't find them. Anyway, in the end I got an awesome new MacBook. I'm still figuring it out though; I've never had a MAC before. The only bad news about getting the fun new laptop is that I didn't get the money for the Prague trip that I had asked for. So, now I'm trying to figure out if we can swing Praha in the spring.

This next pic is a picture of the absolutely GORGEOUS desk that my granddaddy made for us for Christmas. It even has a gold plague on the center part that says "Made with Love by Granddaddy 2006." It is truly priceless and we have already put it to good use. If you can't tell, Granddaddy is quite an amazing carpenter. I really wanted something that he had made just for me, you know? Sure, he could have just bought the one from Pottery Barn cheaper, but it wouldn't have brought the same tears to my eyes.

Okay, so perhaps that is a little overdramatic. To compensate, I'll end my post with this picture. I think it speaks for itself, but I can't let the moment pass without comment. I, Mandy McMichael, am now the proud owner of a pink John Deere hat. Oh, come on, you know that you're jealous! Maybe I should break it out at the next professional conference. It looks good on me, don't ya think?