What a wonderful Christmas!

This year was one of the best Christmases we've had in a long time. Not that all the others are bad. But I can't think of anything terrible that happened this year. Not anything important anyway. Everyone seemed in good spirits and we all had a great time.

We went to Jeff's mom's Sunday afternoon. His niece's baby, Braden, reminds me so much of Dylan when he was little. And he is certainly into everything! I don't have any pictures from that occassion because I grabbed my camera on the way out the door but forgot that I had taken out the memory stick to have the photos I'd already taken printed. So when I got there, I had no stick and could not take any pictures!

Later that night, me and the girls went to help my mom clean and get ready for Christmas Eve. All of our extended family comes over for a big feast! LOL And because Kayti loves to cook, Mom invited her to sleep over and help her cook. I think she had a great time. I know she certainly got to cook a lot!

We were late getting to mom's the next day. I'd been trying to download music all day and just couldn't get it together and that pushed me behind schedule a little bit. Oh the things that happen when we don't prioritize!

But we made it, ate a wonderful Christmas dinner and then played our Dirty Santa game. As usual, it was hysterical! I ended up with a gift card to Academy, which I gave to Dylan. Jeff got a new coffee maker and Dylan got a roll of toilet paper!!! But that was good because the toilet paper had money rolled up in it! Poor Nett ended up with hair weave!! We had the biggest laughs with that, though!

After the game, my mom asked some of us what was good in our lives--what we are thankful for. I had to go first!

Of course, I'm thankful first and foremost for God's grace. But I'm also blessed with a wonderful family who gave me a great childhood--one that I hope I'm passing on to my own kids. And I'm extra blessed to have the family I have now with three beautiful children. And my wonderful husband, who stands by me through everything and backs me up no matter what I try to do. Whether it's go to college, travel off to foreign countries leaving him home with the kids or homeschooling, he is always very supportive. And he does it all despite his illness, usually working 50 or more hours each week so that we can do what we do. He is the best!



(I made the girls' outfits, by the way)



After a few more people told what they were thankful for, my mom asked my sister's boyfriend Chris. He got all choked up when he talked about his family and then my sister. He got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and asked her to marry him!!!

A few of us were wise to this plan and that's why mom had invited his family over, too. But some weren't and I don't think my sister was either. A total surprise. (see slideshow). Then we all toasted the newly engaged couple and just enjoyed the rest of the evening. I think Brooke is more excited than anyone--she thinks she is going to get to be a flower girl! LOL I told her she would just have to wait and see what kind of wedding Mia wants to have.

We came home, got ready for bed:



I also made the girls' pajamas!

The next morning, the kids woke up fairly early like they always do on Christmas. We decided years ago that three gifts was good enough for Jesus and therefore, good enough for us. So each took turns opening up gifts one and two. Gift three was a joint gift (sort of)--a scavenger hunt. See Christmas Morning slideshow for pictures. But here are the clues:

Clue #1--

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You're supposed to have three gifts
But here's only two
To find the last gift
You'll have to be smart
The next clue is located
Behind Mom's favorite _______

Of course they had to figure out it was behind my favorite Renoir hanging in the living room!

Clue #2--

How smart ya'll are!
Of course that we knew
The next clue is located
On something Brooke likes to do!

Brooke LOVES to play piano and that's where they found the next clue!

Clue #3--

Yes Brooke plays piano
Now the next place to look
Is in something used by
Kayti the _____________

Everyone knows how Kayti loves to cook and so they found the next clue in the oven!

Clue #4--

You're doing great!
Let's keep up the fun
The next clue is behind the picture
Of our number one son!

Gee, wonder who our number one son is? LOL They found the last clue behind Dylan's football picture!

Last clue--

Are you getting tired?
Well don't give up yet
Next go and look
where we park our corvette!
(or where we would if we had one!)

They went to the garage and Kayti and Brooke each discovered a new bike and Dylan found a new spinning reel. (Have I ever mentioned the kid loves to fish?)

Next, they emptied their stockings and found more little goodies and I began to cook our Christmas breakfast while we waited on my Mom, Dad, sisters and significant others to come over. They always come Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. Jeff's parents came by for a while, too. Then we took our Christmas naps!

The next day, my house looked like a tornado had been through! I spent all day long cleaning, taking down Christmas stuff, reorganizing and throwing stuff out until my back ached! But it was all worth it! We had a fabulous Christmas and hope you did, too!

Blessings!

The Alabama Theatre

Last night, we took our annual trip to the historic Alabama Theatre to see my all-time favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

Yes, I'm a sappy, nostalgic, nut but I laugh and cry every time I see that movie. How wonderful it would have been to have lived in such a time when right was right, wrong was wrong, roles were clearly defined and people genuinely loved and cared about each other.

And the theme of the movie--that friends and family is more important than money and success. Well, it may be a tad naive in today's "real world" but it's still a nice idea. Wish the whole world felt that way and not just a few of us suckers!

Anyway, my sister met us downtown to see it with us. I just LOVE that theatre. I would give anything to work there. Last year, the girls and I got to tour the place with the Clay Seniors. We got to hear interesting pieces of history about the theatre, stories about the restoration process, see parts of the theatre that the public doesn't normally see. It's all so beautiful! I'm glad we made it one of our Christmas traditions. It really puts me in the mood for this time of year!

You can't go home again...

Last weekend, I was driving through Tarrant and saw that my childhood home was up for sale and empty. I've been wanting to go back through it for awhile now. My parents sold it and moved out 11 years ago--two weeks after Kaytibug was born. My girls are now interested in when I was a little girl. I share things that happened, the way things were and memories with them all the time.

So I went to my mom's, collected her and the girls and we went down to see if we could see in the windows or something. Surprisingly, the doors were unlocked. After yelling out to make sure it was indeed empty, we took our tour.

It was dirty and run down which was sad. It was a nice house when my parents left it. And I guess I was expecting it to be like it is in the movies, like when Scrooge steps back into his past or something and it wasn't that way at all. It definitely was not our home anymore. But there were still traces of my childhood left.

When I was a very little girl, I had the middle bedroom and it was painted bright pink with bright pink carpet. There was still some of that carpet in the closet and the wallpaper was the same in the closet, too--very old, very 50's-60's--it was OLD when I was a kid!

The smaller bedroom I had as a teenager was almost exactly the same! The paneling was still up and even the lion lightswitch plate was still there (it had been my little sister's room before it was mine). I once hung some paper up on the wall to paint and the paint bled through onto the paneling. I remember my parents being so mad because we couldn't get it off. Guess what? It's STILL there! LOL

The carpet in the den was the same, architectural details that my dad built himself were still there--the stone tile above the stove in the kitchen, all the cabinets and countertops he made with his bare hands, the custom bar and wineglass rack, the custom closets in certain rooms, sliding glass doors, the corian sinkless counter in the bathroom, the enclosure for the waterheater (however, for some stupid reason, the waterheater had been moved to another room!) in the bathroom...

When my mom got license for her daycare, the DHR made her put decals on the sliding glass doors so the kids would not walk through them (stupid, I know) but they were still there also. The cross ties my dad laid down in the yard to make a play area and sandbox for my sister were still there and even a pole that my biological father had installed in the backyard near the fence to make a dog pin. I don't think I was even born yet when that was done.

It was all so surreal. Neat but sad at the same time. Sad that it wasn't our home anymore because there are so many warm memories from that house. Sad that someone had let it get in that condition. Sad that the neighborhood has gone so downhill when it used to be such a great place to live and raise a family.

I guess I'm naive to think that going back in it would have somehow transported me back in time to a magical moment. And I'm not saying my life is crap now--it's not, it's wonderful. I guess I'm a tad too nostalgic!

Baby get ready, get set, don't go....

That is my favorite song right now--the song by Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter, Miley aka Hannah Montana. My girls are just in love with her and I am crazy about her, too. There are so few positive role models for girls their age these days and she's a pretty good one. And the fact that her dad is someone I like and not hard to look at makes it all the easier! LOL

But this song he wrote for her is about her growing up, having her own dreams and getting ready to be out on her own and him knowing that it's what's best for her but at the same time wanting so badly to hang onto her. I know EXACTLY what he's feeling!

Dylan is driving now and it's yet another reminder of how my baby boy is almost a grownup! And if the next three years fly by like the last fifteen, I don't know how I'll handle it when he is ready to leave the nest. My God, where did the time go? Didn't I just bring him home from the hospital yesterday? I am so not ready for this. What am I going to do with myself when all my babies are gone? My mom is finding this out now as my youngest sister just moved out. How she is functioning daily is another of God's miracles.

I know He has a plan for each of my children and I am so excited to see it unfold in their lives but at the same time, I want to make the most of the time He has given me with them. I wonder every day what kind of job I have done, am doing and will do. Everything we do as parents writes on the slate of who these precious children are going to be. Will they remember when we lost our tempers and spanked them in anger, screamed at them to be quiet so we could watch some stupid show or made a careless comment about how much money they cost us? Or will they remember the countless hours spent at the ball field in the freezing cold, the sleepless nights when they were puking and running a fever, or all the hours spent baking cookies, doing crafts, driving to vacation, playing in the backyard or snuggling under the covers with a book. God I pray I've done more good than harm and that I continue to be mindful of what a blessing it is to be their mom.

I got to see my "baby" boy wrestle this week. He did not win but he is so good. He doesn't go down easily! Not sure how he got to be such a scrapper!

And my girls placed 2nd again in the Gingerbread House competition!



That's about all that's new with us. Have a blessed week!