Christmas Morning

Grant found the Yule Log Channel on TV. Nice substitute for a fireplace, and it plays Christmas music!

Everything was wrapped under the tree this year. It took me 5 hours one night to wrap gifts.



Here I am with the gift given to me by Tasha. It's a ceremic tile with a table-top easel for display. This is Grant with the gift he received from Denise. He's already started reading it.

Lauren says it's not her favorite gift (she's in love with the Pink and Clear playing cards she got in her stocking!), but she still likes her Big Gift, a personalized Band Letter Jacket. We ordered it in November, but it hasn't come in yet. I'm sure that was a little disappointing, but she's not the only one who has to wait . . .

Here's Grant with his Big Gift. He has to wait until March for his. But he's willing to wait since he wasn't sure there would even be open sales for Conference USA tickets! He and a friend will get to attend all the games of the tournament.

Here I am with my Big Gift. Grant gave me a note about a gold and diamond CTR (choose the right) ring. He was very upset to find out that it's sitting in the UPS service center, undelivered. It should arrive tomorrow.

Holly didn't have to wait for her Big Gift. She got a Crop Station. It's a handy way to store and transport all of her scrapbooking supplies. This one had a few extras . . . a shape cutter, pinking/edging scissors, stamping supplies, rub-on stickers, and paper. This is her favorite gift, but it's a tie with her CSI Fingerprinting Kit.

Christmas Eve Surprise!! We got tickets to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Show at the Grand Ole Opry. It was fun to dress up and see a musical stage show on Christmas Eve. One of our favorite numbers was "I was there." It was a dance production where the Rockettes were all dressed as Santa Claus. There were dozens of dancing Santas! It was like one of those psychadelic kaleidoscope video where one image keeps multiplying over and over.

There was another routine where all the Rockettes were dressed as tin soldiers. They performed a precision marching dance and in the end, they all fell over in slow motion like a row of dominos.

The final scene was the perfect way to end a Christmas show on Christmas Eve. It was a musical reenactment of the nativity, complete with three live camels, half-a-dozen sheep, and a donkey!

Weekend in Alabama

We spent the weekend before Christmas in Alabama with my parents. We traveled on Friday afternoon and arrived Friday evening. Ran into some terrible mall traffic complicated by a wreck. When we got there, Mom had fondue waiting for us! What a treat!

Saturday was spent golfing (the boys) and shopping (the girls, minus Lauren who wanted to sleep late). We had Vel, Roy, and Papaw Peck over for dinner that night. Papaw looks great, by the way. He's gained back some weight and looks much less frail, though he can barely hear anything. He must feel very isolated in groups of people because he can't hear what's going on. After dinner, cash was handed out to the girls. Papaw Peck received a fleece vest from us.

We went to the Alex City branch with Mom on Sunday. They only have a two hour block of meetings (no Sunday School). Lauren and Holly got the scoop on the history of the building . . . it used to be a Baptist Church and then it became a Putt-Putt and a Karate Dojo, then it became our church.

We drove back home on Monday afternoon. The weather was beautiful, traffic was easy, and the Christmas music was blaring. The girls snapped some photos of the colorful sky.

I got the job!!

I got the job with Gresham Smith and Partners!! I went in on Wednesday for another interview. About an hour later, I was called with a job offer. I'll start there on January 14th. I will be an HR Information System Coordinator. I will be responsible to entering confidential employee data, running and analyzing reports, and most likely training end-users of the system.

The company employs about 900 employees in 17 cities. The company's home office is here in downtown Nashville on floors 8-14 of the First Tennessee Bank. It's a privately owned firm that has been in business for 40 years.

I was scheduled for a third interview with Whole Foods yesterday, but I cancelled because of the GSP offer. I was pretty sure Whole Foods would offer me the job as well. I was feeling kind of spunky in my 2nd interview with them. I could tell I wowed them, mostly because they called me right back for a 3rd interview. However, I was not as impressed with that job because it didn't appear to have room for growth. With GSP, the HR office has at least 3 more levels through which I could move.

We got Elfed!

Want to see? Click here to see Elves of Us

Show Your True Blue

If you are a Memphis fan in Nashville, you have to show up representin'. The Denton Family pulled out all the Tiger Blue for our game Saturday night. The MTSU Raiders didn't really have a chance against us . . . it was an easy win for the Tigers. Here we are in the Sommet Center Lobby after the game.

Caught this photo of Grant and the girls enjoying the game. They played a lot of music during the time-outs, including Rap music. So you catch a glimpse of Lauren's gangsta face in this photo!

We went to the game with the our warehouse's supervisor, Al Prado and his family.We were so amused when Al's son, Ethan, started getting jiggy with it! He's only five, and cute and sweet as can be. But when any Rap song started, he would get in the zone with his moves and sing along. Hilarious! Here we can see the whole crowd. That's Holly, Lauren, Me, then Al's wife, Kristen, their son Bryce, Al, and then Ethan.

Sat in the nosebleed section. I was amazed at this action shot taken from up there at 11x zoom. That's #3 Joey Dorsey going up in an exciting slam dunk.

Job Opportunities

I've been looking for a Human Resources position in the Nashville area for quite awhile. Before we moved, I had very little response from my applications. Probably because at my level, companies shy away from "relocation" situations. They had no way of knowing that I would not need relocation assistance, so I would imagine my resume just got passed over.

Once we moved here, I started getting inquiries regularly. I've interviewed for several positions that didn't pan out, got busy with other things, and subsequently put the search on hold for about a month. Then, about three weeks ago, I got busy with my applications again. Fortunately, I've gotten some responses!
I interviewed last week with Gresham Smith & Partners, an architectural/interior design firm. The position is HRIS Coordinator, which is basically the person responsible for entering all of the Human Resources information into a database and then handling all of the subsequent database reporting. I have a follow-up interview with them next Wednesday.

Today, I am interviewing with Whole Foods Market (recently merged with Wild Oats) for a Payroll/Benefits Administrator position. This one is definitely up my alley. However, the location is in Franklin. Yeah, I know, all the country music stars live out that way, but it's a little farther to drive for me. I'm not sure that I'm comfortable working more than a 30 minute drive away from my children. I'll have to see what the traffic is like on my way there this morning. Maybe it won't be too bad!

Christmas Concert

Lauren's Christmas Concert was Tuesday night. Here's a great pic of her with her friend, Leah, also a french hornist.

The concert was good, just a little long. Thank goodness they are building a new highschool with a new auditorium. This one was a bit too small all the way around! The seating was too sparse for the crowd that showed up. The stage was too small for everything they had planned for the concert. And, the air conditioning couldn't keep up with the crowd!

Lauren said that the heat was making her band director shaky during the last piece before intermission. We were discussing the heat and his shaking on the way home from the concert when Holly said, "Lauren, of course he was shaking! He was conducting!!" We all had a good laugh!

Coming Up . . . December 15

vs

And we're going to the game!! It'll be here in Nashville and might be the only Tigers game we can see in person this season. All the home games are sold out!!

Can you believe that the Mt Juliet H.S. band boosters had the nerve to ask us to help with High School Basketball concessions on the same day we are going to see the Tigers?? How thoughtless!!

We've even been planning all of our Christmas shopping around this game. We can't wait!

If you watch the game on ESPN, scan the crowds for us!

Ward Christmas Party

Friday night was the Ward Christmas Party. Dinner was ham, potato casserole, green beans, and rolls. Assorted Christmas cookies for dessert. The cultural hall was packed! On Sunday, a few people commented on the size of the cultural hall (we have a Phase One building), but I guess it's all a matter of perspective. By contrast, a ward gathering in just half of a large cultural hall seems to leave a lot of room for people to sit alone, kids to run a muck, and generally too much area to clean up after!

Lauren and Holly (& Lauren's friend, Aimee) had a picture taken with Santa. In '06, you couldn't get them near Santa Claus! I guess being teenagers makes it kind of fun and cute this year!


Also, Holly's Sunday School class performed "Away in a Manger" as part of the program. That's Jessica Nanto and Tyler Lodwick singing with her. While singing, the primary children acted out a nativity scene. After their song, the ward sang more Christmas songs as shepherds and wise men joined the scene.

Lauren also posed for a photo op that night. She's always ready for the camera!

Tree

Bought the slim tree on Friday evening. Grant and I had to work (inventory time) on Saturday, so it was Saturday evening before we had a chance to work on it. When he opened the box, he discovered the lights were multi-colored. He would have been perfectly happy with it, but I had my heart set on white lights, so we had to schlep it back to Lowes for an exchange. He's really a good guy to indulge me!

We spent Sunday evening decorating. We were kind of missing our fireplace mantles because the decorating options were plentiful. So, Grant bought some of those floating shelves and installed them for me. We still don't have room for all of our Christmas decor, but we could at least display our favorites.

The slim tree turned out pretty nice. I ended up with a lot of leftover beads because there's just not as much diameter. But, we don't even miss the floor room it uses. It blocks the view of the TV from one end of the sofa, but I reckon it's a good trade-off.

There's one gift under the tree so far . . . Tasha (Doug's wife) drew my name for Christmas and she's way ahead of the game -- gave it to me at Thanksgiving. Thanks Tasha! (I haven't peeked -- yet! Hee Hee).

Er...

Okay, so CHRISTMAS is coming and I am super excited.

Yes, we will be visiting our family in Alabama, but we will spend Christmas at home in Nashville.

I wish people would understand honestly how hard it is to be away from family like this. I spent my whole life less than 100 miles away from the nearest family members. It's really, REALLY HARD!

Now I want everyone to know that I'm not perfect and sometimes I say things I don't mean to, so if I've said something recently ( i don't know if I have, but something gives me a feeling I have) to offend anyone, I am really truly sorry. (I have a really big mouth.)

So this is my blog for today, see you guys later.

Today I became an OFFICIAL Young Woman. I got stolen by the Young Women Beehives today during Primary. We are going to finish trimming the tree today. Dont have much more to say... HDenton...OUT!!!

December is the best month of the year! The family is always together. We celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Caroling, families, presents. This year we have a new tree and it is smaller and skinnier. My mom might post a picture of it when it is done being trimmed. I will get my sister the best present.
HDenton OUT!

Love Blogging!

Hey, it's L here! I LOVE BLOGGING! I have a blog on Mileyworld.com, so I am a natural at this sort of thing! Anyways, it has been four or five months since we moved here and I think I should try and wind up the longest story in the history of the world into a few paragraphs...
So the day before my birthday 2006, my parents and my little sister and I were eating dinner. It was probably pork roast or somehing like spaghetti, but how am I supposed to remember something like that when I was crying my eyes out and making a spectacle out of myself? Anyway my mom said that some changes are for good and some changes are for the worse. I said, "Mom, you're not pregnant, are you?" She said no, but that we were going to move to Nashville. I was crying and bawling and I ran to my room and wrote in my diary (there are still teardrop stains on the pages) and cried some more.

A month later we put our house on the market and I was kinda mad at my parents, but I didn't know the blessings that could come out of it at the time. I know now that I needed to experience what every kid had to experience in their life. I had never moved out of town before (unless you count the few months we were in Tupelo before our house burned down) and I didn't know what it felt like to be torn away from friends (uh, I didn't have that many friends in elementary school...) and I needed that heart-wrenching experiance.

Holly's Personality

Hey Yall! Holly here! I am officially a blogger. I live in Mt Juliet, am in Middle School, and I am 12 years old. I LOVE Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus' singing. My favorite song is Life's What You Make It and Nobody's Perfect. We have recently moved from Cordova. I share a room with my sister who leaves the closet light on ALL NIGHT!!!!!! We live in a teensy tinsy apartment with 2 bedrooms. I play the alto saxophone. I am in sixth grade. My subjects (listed from fave to hated) are math, english, history, reading, spanish, band, and science. I collect Stitch things. Until next time Holly.... OUT!!!!!

Putting up the tree today

We'll be putting up the Christmas tree today.

Small apartment + House-size tree = no room for presents!

This is what our tree looked like last year. See? Plenty of room for presents. (I love gift bags, don't you? Though, it seems that they take up more room than just wrapping the gift in a simple box.)

So, we purchased a "slim" tree yesterday. And . . . it's the first pre-lit tree we've ever had. I can't wait to bypass the whole untwist the lights, check the bulbs, wind the strands evenly around the branches, hide the plugs, etc. I'm sure many of you already have a pre-lit tree, but I gotta tell you, I'm even thrilled with the "foot action" light switch so that we don't have to dig around behind the tree to plug in the lights every night.

Hey, you can find small pleasures in just about every situation, right?

First Blog Ever!

I've never "blogged" before, so now I can officially call myself a "blogger." Maybe I'll be cool now? If you've been wanting an easy way to check up on the Dentons in Mt. Juliet, this might be your choice. You could check up on us first thing in the a.m., last thing in the p.m., while you're in your jammies, when you can't reach us any other way, or whenever you're just feeling curious.