Happy Holidays!

Again it seems life has gotten in the way of my blogging. For that, I apologize.

Molly and I are in San Antonio to celebrate Christmas with her family. Due to the fact that we did not want to haul our presents to each other to San Antonio, we decided to do our own little Vega Christmas on the 22nd this year. Molly got lots of gifts from Santa, including a new watch and some fancy perfume (Coco Mademoiselle). I got some really nice gifts too, including a new Saints Jacket, a couple of new ties and a new work shirt. (Yes, I have decided I am a little bit sad that I have now entered the stage of my life where a tie is an acceptable Christmas present).

But by far the best Christmas present was one that Mason got.

That's right. Molly sacrificed one of my old ties to make Mason a set of Shirt/Tie/Suspenders onesies. He is going to be the best dressed baby on the playground, and will definitely draw some attention when he visits daddy at work. I am probably most impressed by the fact that Molly made these herself by actually using the sewing machine. She has typically shied away from "domestic" things like that.

As this year wraps up and I think back on 2010, I can say that this has been just an absolutely wonderful year. Between getting the job I have wanted since I finished college, to flying halfway across the world to visit China, and the most wonderful gift of all, the impending birth of my 1st child, I can say that 2010 has truly been a blessed year for the Vega house.

My wish as this year closes is for two things:

1st: That 2011 can be as wonderful as 2010; the Mason is born a happy, healthy child; that Molly does well through the final stage of the pregnancy; that life continues to remind us of the greatness of God.

2nd: That the coming year can be as wonderful for our friends and family as this past year has been for us. Molly and I truly have been blessed with many gifts, and it is my true wish that many others may enjoy such wonderful blessings in the coming years.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Congrats to Smo!

This weekend was a great one for the League City Crew. Stephanie got married to "Uncle" Chuck in a wonderful ceremony at South Main Baptist Church in Houston. Will and I were both asked to be ushers, and we were honored to do so. Stephanie looked gorgeous in her dress and could not stop smiling both before and after the ceremony. She was so focused that she even missed the fart joke I made to try to lighten the mood just before she walked down the aisle. The ushers and Mr. Smotherman all got a good laugh, while Smo just kind of smiled and said she didn't hear what I had said.


After the ceremony and pictures, we all headed off to the reception at the Hotel Derek. The hotel ballroom was awesome and the reception was a blast. It was good to see all of the old crew there. Joseph & Cynthia, Amanda & Jon, Will & Amber, Lisa, Kelly, Allison, Stephanie Gay, Bobby and Trisha were all in attendance. Alcohol and food were abundant and the photo booth they had was all kinds of fun. Smo admitted she copied our wedding idea with the photo booth, but she made it her own by giving the guests all kinds of fun hats and dress-up clothes to spice up the pictures.

Of course, the night could not end without at least a little bit of drama. As we are all waiting for the valet's to bring us out cars, I notice someone very familiar sitting inside a nice Mercedes at the valet stand. Yep, it was Will, and he had commandeered someone's car by pretending to be a valet. After some unsuccessful attempts to get him out of the car by Amber, I was able to come over and convince him to get out of the car. He was drunk and not thinking clearly. How he got home that night, I am not quite sure. I am a bit disappointed that grown, educated adults are still ok with drinking and driving, and if I could sit Will down and give him a "time-out" like a child, I would. Alas, my car was ready and my sober (pregnant) wife was ready to go home.

All things considered, it was a great night. Good friends, good food, and a reason to celebrate! Congrats to Stephanie on becoming Mrs. Stephanie Jones! I wish you many years of happiness and love!

An announcement!

My boys can swim, Molly is pregnant!

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting...

I can't believe it has been so long since I updated the blog. Well, here is the most important piece of news, during late May and early June Molly and I spent 2 weeks touring China! It was incredible. There was so much history and culture to see. So many awesome pictures that I'll only have space to share a few. I'll try to go in order of where we went.

First up: Shanghai

Walking through the streets near the Yu Gardens.

Inside the Yu Gardens

The Suzhou City gate, built in 514 B.C.

Me at the Suzhou City Gate

Molly and I at The Bund (A waterfront area in Shanghai)

Next: Xi'an

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Molly at the Terracotta Warriors

More terracotta Warriors

Then: Beijing

The Sacred Way near the Ming Tombs

The Sacred Way

Tienanmen Square

Panda at the Beijing Zoo

The Great Wall of China (Badaling Entrance)

Molly and I at the Great Wall

The Forbidden City

Scorpions on a stick at the outdoor local market (No, we didn't eat any)

The Temple of Heaven

Finally: Hong Kong

City Skyline from Victoria Peak

A boat in Aberdeen fishing village

Waterfront skyline at night

Molly and I on our last night in China. Rooftop dining in Hong Kong.

I took almost all of these pictures with my new Canon XS Digital SLR camera. I am not the greatest photographer in the world, but I think some of these came out really well, and the small size on the blog doesn't really do them justice.

All in all, the trip was great. Definitely a once in a lifetime type of trip. I don't think Molly or I plan on going back, but we were happy we went, and glad to get home to better air conditioning and drinkable water from the tap.

Company Golf

During one of my first meetings with my new boss, I was asked "Do I play golf?". The answer, of course, if yes, but I am not very good. Well, he invites me to this Company Sponsored golf tournament which was held on Monday. Oh boy.

First things first, when my 1st meeting with my new boss involves an invitation for golf, I just KNOW it's going to be a great new job for me.

Then, there's the actual golf tourney. Pretty much the entire company was there at the Kingwood Country Club. I saw the founder as I was warming up, I saw Head Ops and Supply Chain Management guys throughout the day, and I even had the CEO of the company make small talk with me just before the cocktail hour. Needless to say, it was a great place to meet the people in power.

As for the golfing, I did a LOT better than I originally had hoped. I was money with my irons, especially the 5 & 6, as well as with my pitching wedge, where I hit a few shots from 100 yards out that got within a few yards of the hole. Even my drives were behaving. I still have a slight slice on my drives off the tee, but they were very manageable and only a couple really got away from me. Where I completely failed was my putting. I was just plain awful on the greens. It's not that I wasn't getting close, but I was missing on 8 foot putts, and 6 foot putts, and 12 foot putts, and pretty much every birdie attempt our team had was thwarted by poor putting.

It wasn't about the score though. With our 5 player, Par is your friend, scramble format, we ended up shooting a 1-under 71. The winner? They shot a 52. Yeah, 20 under par on 18 holes. Frikkin ridiculous. Not a big deal though. I got to hang out with my new boss and co-worker, drink some beer, play some golf and schmooze with the higher ups. All in all, that's pretty darn good for a Monday workday. I am definitely looking forward to more days like that.

Birthday Weekend!

So, this past Saturday I turned 27. And yes, I realize that now puts me one step closer to 30. I am not happy about it. However, I was able to spend the weekend with the old gang from A&M, so it was definitely worth it. We stayed at Tyler's condo on Sam Rayburn Lake, which is near Jasper, Tx. I never knew places like this existed in the middle of East Texas, but apparently they do. There was a beach, and some nice wakeboarding spots. Very fun. Here are a few pictures:

Molly and I chillin' on the beach.

Chris taking the opportunity to eat, drink, and PEE all at the same time.

The group at the beach, preparing to do a birthday shotgun.

And....SHOTGUN!

Chris & Tehina on the Jetski

Willie wakeboarding. He was decent and got a little air.

Molly spent much of the day tearing around on the jetski.

Like I said, it was a fun weekend with sun, boat, friends and beer. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Compounding the celebration were two other major accomplishments for me, all in a couple weeks time.

1st off, I will be graduating from my MBA form the University of Houston on May 14. 2 1/2 years and 48 credit hours completed. Lots of work and time, but I am hoping it will pay off. So glad to be done!

Secondly, I got a raise at work and a new position. When I first joined my company, I came into the Accounting department even though I had never done accounting. I did so to help my new boss, former co-worker, to set up a new department at the company. She knew I didn't like accounting, but promised that if I helped her with this opening, she would help get me to a better position in the company later. And it happened. I was actually offered 2 jobs last week. One in Forecasting and One with the Corporate Development (Acquisitions) group. Anyone who has seen my MBA coursework, or has heard me talk about what I want to do, knows this was an easy decision. I am now the newest, and ONLY manager in the Corporate Development department. I am excited because I'll be involved with buying businesses, deal negotiations, business strategy and tons of other really interesting parts of business and finance.

So, needless to say, it has been a most excellent couple of weeks for me. With our China trip coming up at the end of May, it's looking like May will turn out to be an absolutely incredible month. Here's hoping things continue to look up for The Vega's!

Sigh, we are getting so old...

So, this weekend is the first time that Molly has felt like she is truly turning into an adult. On Saturday, we "slept in" until about 8:30 Am, and then decided to start doing things. Molly went to go work out, and I watched day 3 of the NFL Draft. After Molly got back and got cleaned up, we decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to use the gift card I won in my office Superbowl Pool (I Was the ONLY one who picked the Saints to win!!).Yeah, we didn't eat that much, but we did have a lot of food. 2 Dozen wings, and order of Pulled Pork Slider and Molly's Salad....I was VERY bloated after that.

On our way back, we decided to stop by World Market. We browsed, but nothing jumped out at us, not even in the wine section! Since we have now been to wine tours in both Napa Valley and in Washington, we've become something of a set of wine snobs. We are constantly looking for a certain type of wine that we both fell in love with: Cabernet Franc.
See, there are plenty of places that carry Cabernet Sauvignon, but very few places that carry Cab Franc, so we are always on the lookout.

On Sunday, we decided to finally find a Church in our area. Since Molly is Episcopalian and I am Catholic, we've decided to alternate between hers and mine each week. Since this week was week 1, I decided we would go to her church. We tried out St. Dunstan's near Spring. It was nice, but Molly is looking for a Church with a young community that I do not know if we'll find. Not many church's are stocked with 20 & 30-somethings...
Then we went to PetCo for dog food, and we were at HEB for grocery shopping before 10:30 Am. We were there so early that we couldn't even buy wine yet, since Texas has the Blue Law that states you cannot buy alcohol before noon on Sundays. How sad is that? We were there too early to buy wine...

Then we cleaned house, did the dishes and hung out around the house the rest of the day. Molly made a Paella! But still, THIS was the normal weekend for OLD PEOPLE! We didn't see friends or go out anywhere exciting. We just had a relaxing weekend.

We are getting so old....