Christmas Recap

I know January is almost half over and my decorations have been down for almost a week, but I know me...  I'll be scrapbooking in a month or so and look back here to jog my memory and if it is blank I'll be in trouble!  So if you'll bear with me, here is a recap of our Christmas 2010.

It started off with a Mavericks game with the Lastname family.  That was fun.  I had not ever been to a professional basketball game before.  One observation...as a general rule, basketball fans are tall!  This 5 foot nothing chick felt like a shrimp!  I'm just sayin!  The Mavs won and we had a good time--even with the tall people.  :)

Then we had our Christmas celebration with the Lastnames.  We had a choice for lunch of potato or taco soup.  YUM!  Yes, I had both!  The cousins played and had a great time as usual, then we called them in and we all gathered around.  SweetDoll read the Christmas story and did a really good job.  She only stumbled over Aminidab and said "Aminadibble."  haha  I thought it was cute!

After we exchanged gifts, the kids went on playing and the adults continued to visit.  Later I realized that the kids were not so obsessed about the presents before or after--oh they enjoyed them, but it was the being together that made it a special day.  I loved it!  Other special moments were being with Mamaw and carolling with the church group.  I think that is the first time I have ever carolled with a jam box and song books! 

I wasn't feeling well the last evening we were there and missed out on a hot dog roast at my BIL and SIL's house, but everyone enjoyed that too.  Then it was time to go home to wash and pack again! 

But before we left for my family, we had our "just us" gift exchange.  SweetTate had patiently waited for a really long time to see what was in that big box!

SweetDoll made the boys owls for their gifts.  She said, "I hope they don't open it and say, 'I like the bat.'"  SweetTate opened his and the first words out of his mouth were "Thanks for the bat!"  Oh well.  We tried didn't we SweetDoll.

I got just what I wanted--a Rangers shirt! 

And SweetHeart was too funny playing with the boys and SweetTate's new hotwheels Criss-Cross-Crash.  "It zooms!  It goes fast!  It crashes!  It doesn't get better than that!" 

Moon Dough...have you seen and felt that stuff?  It is weird!  But it is pretty cool!  We had a good time playing! There are perks to having kids!

Then it was off to my family, and this is where it gets interesting.  The original plan was to go on Thursday to Granny and Papa's.  Then we would all go to the aunt and uncles' houses down south on Friday and come home on Sunday.  We arrived at Granny and Papa's on Thursday and all was well until my SIL got sick.  Maybe it is just a little tummy bug, no big deal, we'll leave Friday afternoon instead of Friday morning.  Then my brother got it.  OK, maybe we'll go Saturday.  Then they weren't feeling up to going and it was Christmas and we didn't really want to travel on Christmas...but their flight left from that city.  So we decided to just stay at Granny and Papa's until Sunday.  (Papa and SweetHeart got a touch of it, but the rest of us stayed well. Whew!)  By Saturday they were feeling a little better.  The plan down south was to have enchiladas for Christmas dinner, but we were missing Granny's dressing, so we had planned to have it Thursday before we left, but it wasn't thawed out, so we had it for Christmas dinner--since we were still there.  You can see how we made it to plan Z!  Everyone did feel better in time to exchange gifts and that was fun too.  SweetDoll got an American Girl Doll with a horse big enough for her doll to ride!

SweetBoy got spy gear that he wanted.

Then Granny opened an American Girl Doll too!  Those two were too cute playing dolls together.

(I never liked playing with dolls and Barbies too much.  I don't like doll hair.)  Sunday came and we traveled home and they went south to see the rest of the family and catch their plane.  However, it snowed a bunch and their flight was canceled!  So they got a bonus day with family down south!  Everyone eventually made it home safe and sound after a...quirky...Christmas!  Don't get me wrong, we missed seeing our family that we don't get to see very often.  But all things considered, it was a good Christmas.  God had a plan from the beginning--even to the fact that we had dressing for Christmas!  (It would have been great to have enchiladas with the big family, but I'm just sayin!)  And Granny had already taken off work Monday, so it was no big deal when they stayed south until my brother's plane left a day late.  I just love that about my God!  Even when we think we are off schedule, He works it out.

Merry Christmas 2010!

Thanksgiving pictures

I promised myself that I would go to bed early these three weeks before Christmas so I would be well rested and enjoy the holiday with family.  If my kids could only see that I break promises to myself too.  Oh well,  before it is January, I wanted to put up these pictures of Thanksgiving.  We had such a great time!

My kids

Three generations of Lastname men--blessings!

 All the ladies--precious!

 Surprise birthday party, SweetHeart!

 Cousins jumping on the trampoline.

 Big cousins playing games.

If you missed the happenings of the holiday, you can find them here.  Since we have been home, we have finished decorating for Christmas, hosted the Christmas lunch at SweetHeart's work, and had a stockshow tournament (sort of--two in one day).  But again, the pictures are still on my camera, so there is a little teaser for the next post that might eventually happen.  ;)  Good night!

End of November

It's the end of November, really?!  I see that the last post was Halloween pictures!  November has been busy with the normal ol' stuff and getting ready for the holidays.  Hopefully that preparation will pay off and I will get to enjoy Christmas this year.  I like to have all my shopping done by Thanksgiving, but last year I had barely started, and I felt behind the entire season.  And we were still in the middle of all the "firsts" of a new community and I didn't know what to expect.  This year, before we left for Thanksgiving, the house was decorated, except the ornaments on the tree--I just couldn't get in the mood for that and SweetBoy didn't want to hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  I'll give him that one.  We got it decorated when we got home and it worked great.  The presents were all wrapped even and ready to go under the tree!  OK except for one that I'm making, and I have to get my sewing machine fixed before I can finish it.  And the kids have their shopping or projects for each other, but we can handle that because the bulk of it is done.  So bring on the basketball schedule, SweetHeart's week of training every evening, birthdays, baking, class parties and the calendar surprises--this year I'm more prepared for it...I hope! 

Not to skip over Thanksgiving.  We had a great time with SweetHeart's family.  It was not the typical lastname visit.  Usually it is my family that has the projects going on!  My in-laws have been remodeling the home that SweetHeart grew up in.  We have offered to help before, but for whatever reason, we didn't.  This trip we kind of pressed a little harder.  SweetHeart's two brothers and our nephew came over to work on it with us.  The mission was to put flooring down in two rooms and a hallway.  One of the rooms had to have a subfloor put down first.  I stayed out of the construction zone of building the subfloor, but had a blast laying laminate flooring!  I am so addicted to accomplishing something that stays done!  After working on it for three days--I'm glad to report that we were able to finish the job!  And just in time!  We had planned to go to one of the brother's home for our Thanksgiving celebration, but his son was sick, so plan B was the house we were working on!

We had a great time together!  We had our traditional Mexican pile on for dinner.  (We had turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings Sunday with Mamaw and the rest of the family.)  Then we played spoons!  It had been so long since I played that with my cousins.  What is it about that game that makes you laugh so hard?!  Too fun!

Thanksgiving morning we were ready to veg and watch the parade and football.  But the power went out, so we went to see Mamaw, and then went to the brother's house for lunch.  It probably worked out best that way!

AND while we were in the area with family and friends...I organized a surprise party for SweetHeart's birthday!  It was a little early, which helped with the surprise, and we totally got him!  He was so comepletely surprised!  That was fun!

I have pictures that I haven't even downloaded from my camera yet, but I'll have to share those later.  Gotta run to gymnastics!

Trick-or-treating 2010

SweetTate as Buzz Lightyear.  "To infinity and beyond!"

 "Falling with style!"

 SweetDoll as a flapper girl.

 SweetBoy as a knight.  (Not exactly King Peter like he wanted to be, but it had a sword and shield so we're good!)

 My three characters!

 This is the first year we have gone to houses trick-or-treating.  We have gone to a few houses of family before.  We have gone to Mamaw's to help pass out candy.  And we have gone to the church or school activities, but this year we just did regular ol' trick-or-treating.  It was good!  We still just went to neighbors we knew.  At one house, the ladies were outside and we weren't necessarily going to stop, but they invited us over and it turned out we did know their parents who lived there!  That is the beauty of a small town I guess.  And let me tell you, this town has some good candy!

 We made a short loop around town!  Yes, that is a cotton field in the background!

Then it was back to the house to wait for trick-or-treaters to come see us!  (You know we had to go out early and get back because the Rangers were playing in the World Series!  We saw the pre-game and National Anthem was on in some of the houses we stopped at.  It was recording at home so we didn't miss a thing!)

I've never been real big on Halloween, but I must admit, I will be a little sad when my kids are too big to dress up, so I'll enjoy it now!

Speaking of the Rangers...they lost the World Series in game 5.  But my Rangers played baseball in November...it was a good season!  Hopefully they will make it back to the series again soon.  Even if they didn't play well in the championship series, it was fun getting there!  This year, beating the Yankees in the ALCS was our championship!

Easter 2010

I just finished doing Kelly Minter's Bible study on Ruth.  I learned a lot about the role of a kinsmen redeemer, and it made this Easter special.  Jesus, my Kinsmen Redeemer, fits every requirement in every way.  He is a close relative.  He is able to redeem--more than able!  He is willing to redeem.  Even when I was His enemy, He chose me, and you.  How amazing is that!  And that is why we celebrate Easter.

We went to church with family.

Then it was off to Mamaw's to meet the rest of the family for lunch.  A delicious lunch with ham and fried chicken and all the fixin's...and desserts!  YUM!  The kids were anxious for the fun of the egg hunt and that was next on the agenda.  The big kids hid the eggs this year.  SweetBoy is in that stage where he likes to be one of the big kids, but a cousin he really looks up to said, "When you get to double digits, you can hide them.  This year you still get to hunt."  And that made it ok.  (Thanks, Bud!)

On your marks, get set, GO!

We have three kids and came home with 4 baskets of candy.  How does that happen?!  The confetti eggs are always picked up first.  And always used quickly!

We had a great time with family.

Thanks Mamaw and Meme for a wonderful Easter!

And all too soon it was time to head back home.

Here is the group photo my brother took of us that I mentioned in the last post. My mom's parents and my immediate family.

My brother is really great at taking pictures. He captured this silly one of us and then doctored it a little. I teased that it would be our Christmas card photos. However appropriate it may be, I probably won't.

Thanksgiving

Wow! What a week! We visited 3 different towns, 14 hours of travel. And saw a lot of family including all 5 great-grandparents, all 4 grandparents, all aunts & uncles and 1st cousins, and a lot of great-aunts & uncles, and cousins--some that we don't often get to see!

First we went to SweetHeart's hometown for the weekend. Mamaw always celebrates Thanksgiving on the Sunday before. It was great fun to be with family and cousins again. Here is our last name family. And we are going to be an Aunt and Uncle again! SweetHeart's big brother and his wife are expecting again. That will make the cousins the dirty dozen...or something like that!

The leaves were amazing to play in, and of course, we didn't have to show them how!

YUM! Mamaw's chocolate cookies!

Then Monday was my Granddad's 80th birthday. We met my dad's siblings and some of my cousins and their kids at Grandma and Granddad's house for a birthday party. We don't often get together so it was a lot of fun to visit and play with them for the day.

Here are three generations of my last name men that were here. (My generation is missing.)

Here are four generations of my last name women that were here.

SweetBoy got Papa, and Cousin C got his grandpa to play a game of ping pong in the basement. I think the big boys laughed and enjoyed it more!

SweetDoll and Cousin J had a blast playing together!

There were seven of the 11 great-grandkids here today (and there are two more on the way!)

My kids had school Monday (we took them out early for the party) and Tuesday. Then it was off to Granny and Papa's house for Thanksgiving! My brother and his wife were in from the east coast so it was special to have them home. My cousin and her family came too, so there were cousins for my kids to play with here too!

SweetTate and little Cousin K had too much fun playing football!

And it snowed! A really pretty, HUGE flakes snow! The kids had fun playing in it with Dad.

Uncle J gave the kids some gifts he brought back from his trip to China. Those are really cool! And Uncle J and Aunt E let the kids go on a scavenger hunt for their Christmas presents from them (since we won't see them at Christmas). Those were a hit too! My brother got a picture of the group. I'll have to share that when I get it. Here is a picture of four generations of us girls.

This season of giving thanks I am really thankful for family. We are so blessed to know our extended family and have a good time with them. I know that is not necessarily a given. And through the month, we asked the kids what they were thankful for. They said things like God, warm bed, play set, family, friends, animals...all of which, and more, I am grateful for too. Over at Beth Moore's blog she asked what we were thankful for that surprised us most. At first I couldn't think of anything. But the more I thought about it, I'm thankful for our move. I never thought I would say that. Yes, I miss being close to family and friends. And I miss the familiar and have had to learn a new area. But I have my husband, friend, and my kids' dad back from a stressful situation and I'm thankful we are here.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! Now it is off to decorate for Christmas!