The one with all the parties

Starting thursday, we had a bunch of partied booked. 

First up, I was invited to a Girls' Night Out with all the American wives.  They had also planned a "favorite thing" gift exchange.  Basically, we all brought our favorite thing to give to the rest of the girls.  Since it would have been hard to pack 5 extra gifts...I waited to find my favorite thing when I got here.  Jaret and I were out one day and stumbled upon a chocolate factory...and what do I love more than chocolate??? The store happened to have some chocolate fondue sets which I thought were perfect!
Here is our group at dinner and ready to start opening gifts!

 

We had a great night out! (and a lot of wine too!) I am very lucky to have these ladies, they have welcomed me with open arms and have no problem letting me tag along on their daily lives so I am not at the hotel by myself while Jaret is at work :)

 

 

On saturday it was time to get all dressed up again for Jaret's company Christmas Party.  Luckily it was at our hotel, so we didn't have to go very far.  Here was the standard pre-party picture.

 

After pre-party drinks outside...they opened the tent for us to be seated.  The theme was 'Color' and every table was labeled by different colors.

 

And here is our group of Houstonians in Australia :)

 

Ok...and random thing...but our hotel room looks out over the back parking lot and the main entrance to the casino. So Jaret and I like to look out to see the craziness that walks in the casino.  But this is the picture of the line for taxis at like midnight...nuts!

 



 

And last but not least...on Sunday morning we all got together again to watch the Army/Navy game.  Rob & Joanne had a party at their house.  Rob is a West Point grad and Jaret is an Army Vet, there was also another West Point Grad...so there was quite the cheering section for Army.  Now while I am married to an Army man, and one Grandfather was in the Army...my other Grandfather was Navy, so I was a little conflicted....but I had the Army shirt, so they got my cheers :)

Joanne had the house all decked out in Army colors.

 

There was a Navy guy there too and Joanne gave him his own little spirit corner :)

Which he ended up getting to celebrate the win.

 

There was a ton of food! Which included boxed brownies I so skillfully mixed together and put in the oven.







We ended out the weekend by going to Carols in the Park....it to happen to be right outside our hotel.  We were pretty tired from a full weekend...but we were curious to see what it was all about.  It was actually really neat.  There was a re-telling of the Christmas story and carols by candlelight.  It was a fun thing to get us in the Christmas Spirit.