Christmas 2016

I really thought this had already been published, but see that it hasn't.  Even though it's really late, I want to publish it as part of my family's online scrapbook - for the memories to be saved for myself and the children to read later on if they want to.

On the first Friday of Christmas Break, we went to Oklahoma City. Our daughter was traveling with the college basketball team to broadcast, so couldn't be with us, but our oldest son met us after his classes, then began his Christmas Break by coming back home with us.  We spent time at Bricktown, which was beautiful all lit up.

We ate at Legacy Grill, formerly "KD's". It had the same menu as KD's, so was still delicious.

We played mini-golf at the new-to-us "Brickopolois".  That is such a fun addition to Bricktown! The weather was perfect!  I lost, unfortunately, but not unexpectedly. :)

After Christmas our family went to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for a quick trip. Reading and seeing the history of this area was very interesting.

We toured downtown Ft. Worth, stopping for a Starbucks treat.

We toured the stock yards, which was really interesting.

We went to the "Ice" carvings at the Gaylord Texan.  The theme this year was "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". It was beautiful, as usual!

It was cold, too! VERY cold!

The work these ice carvers do is just amazing!

We slid down the ice slide.

And toured the Gaylord Atrium.  So pretty.

Like everything in Texas, the Christmas decor was bigger than life size.  It was huge!

Special memories of time with family this Christmas of 2016.  It will most likely be the last Christmas we will be together for this amount of time, just because our oldest will be working full-time next year.  It was bittersweet.  So thankful for these special times together and for the photos we have to remember them.

Take Time For What Matters Most

Many years ago I had a friend who was always cleaning her house. If we talked on the phone, she couldn't talk long because she had to clean. If we were volunteering for something at our children's school, she couldn't help long because she had to clean. I would tease and say her house must have been the cleanest house in town! I loved that sweet friend and the times we shared.

One day that sweet friend found out she had cancer. From then on, any phone call we had revolved around spiritual matters, family matters, important matters....not about cleaning the house. That friend passed away after a hard-fought battle of treatments that eventually didn't work. She would say how that clean house she always kept didn't matter any more and that her family and God was was mattered. Oh, I miss that sweet friend! But I remember her attitude. It was always positive.

As I was washing dishes a few days ago (that had been on the counter and in the sink for 24 hours), I was thinking about how for many, that would be horrible. To have dishes sit overnight wouldn't ever happen. I'll admit that it happens quite often in our home. For the most part I wash them in the morning after the younger two leave for school, but sometimes do wash them at night.

I could have washed those dishes during the previous afternoon and missed out on time with my husband's family at our Christmas get-together. I could have washed all of those dishes late that night instead of playing dominos with my family.  I could have gotten up earlier on the last "sleep later" day and washed them. I could have washed them that next morning instead of watching the Rose Parade with a few of my children. But I didn't. I waited until we ate our late lunch and cleaned it all up then.

Here's the deal....dishes will always be there to wash. These children, these family times, the family time we had with extended family members yesterday will not always be there. I've come to realize that there are work-focused people and people-focused people. There's a time to work - absolutely! But when it comes to people, think about the fact that special times won't always be there. This moment when our two college kids and two younger ones are home will not be here much longer. In fact, this was probably the very last one since our daughter will graduate from college in May.

Will that pile of dishes matter to me when I think back on memories of this recent break or will the people who I spent it with matter? It's an easy answer. The dishes can wait a while. People can't. Spend time on what matters....on WHO matters. Be available for people.

When I think of Jesus, he worked. He served. But he took the time to love people. He should be our example in all things.

Christmas Break...Happy New Year!

It was a great Christmas break for our family and we hope that it was for your family, as well!  Our college boy came home a few days earlier than the two youngest got out of school, so that was nice. We met the college girl in Oklahoma City for a surprise planned by my husband.

The first surprise was eating at KD's restaurant at Bricktown in Oklahoma City. All of us had been wanting to try it and we were very pleased with the experience.  The food was delicious! Not healthy, but delicious!

The next surprise was going to see "The Christmas Carol". It was GREAT!  We loved it!

After having Christmas with my side of the family in Texas, we enjoyed spending the whole break being at home this year.  We were gone the entire time last year, so it was a treat (until after Christmas, as you'll see below).  The kids decorated their gingerbread houses.

We even had a Facebook/Instagram contest for them.  #4 won, despite the wreath being upside down!

Buddy the Elf was a nightly visitor again this year.  We enjoy him visiting and figure he'll visit our home every year. The night before Christmas Even, he took lots of selfies!

Joe has so many different vehicles and keys that sometimes it's hard to keep up with them all, so I had planned to get him some sort of key finders.  One night I asked for advice on which one to get on Facebook.  I had narrowed it down to two and couldn't decide.  Not 30 minutes later, Joe said his secretary had sent him an email about of those key finders!  It was so funny because he had no clue I was planning to get him those for Christmas.  I went with the one in the email and hopefully they will be very helpful!  You'll notice how many he got.....That may not even be enough!  He's got lots and lots of keys!

This was only the second time in our family (the first time with all four children being born!) to have Christmas dinner with just the six of us.  It was so nice!!  No one had to get ready...we just wore whatever we wanted to....nothing fancy.

We even ate on paper plates and used the pretty silver plastic cutlery! (You can SEE THROUGH IT, we found out! Ha ha!  Pretty neat!).  I started to use the pretty real plates, but then I thought...WHY?  Why have more dishes to wash???  Joe kept up the dishes for us while Zachary and I did most of the cooking - with some help from the other kids.

Our daughter made us a special thing for Christmas.  It shows our hometowns and where we met, along with our wedding date.  Pretty sweet!  I'll share more homemade gifts (from my husband's side of the family Christmas) on another post this week.

And then just a few days after all of the wonderful Christmastime celebrations, an ice storm came! I had prayed for snow.  Joe had prayed against it!  Tyler wanted a white Christmas and it came a few days late.

What none of us wanted was an ice storm that causes a huge catastrophic problem for the electric companies and resulted in power outages that lasted from a few days to many days (200 people are still without power).  We used some neat ideas we had seen to light up the room - flashlights on top of gallons of water.  It really worked!  We also used little terra cotta pots and candles to make heaters.  They worked and helped, even with the fireplace.  We cooked on the gas grill outside and even on the fireplace fire a few times, but also drove out of town where there was electricity to eat, too.  It also gave us time to recharge our cell phones.

We played LOTS and LOTS of games during the power outage. Our oldest son dug out his old K'Nex sets and made up this amazing basketball coliseum! He even had a hanging scoreboard in the middle!

As soon as the electricity came on, it was back to normal.  Well.....somewhat normal.  The youngest got something for Christmas he never thought we would allow him to have....a first for our family: a game system.  He got a few sports' games to go with it, and it's actually more fun to see the kids playing together like this than to have them wanting to just watch TV, so it was a wise decision to get it for him/them.

And the end of the break was the beginning days of the new year.  We celebrated quietly and with all of us here - something that will end within the next few years, I'm sure.  

These times are special.  Memories were made and will be cherished forever. 

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours...MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I've Been Everywhere, Man!

I'm feeling like I should be singing the Johnny Cash song, "I've Been Everywhere, Man". for sure!

(Christmas Day - 2014...at Magic Kingdom in front of Cinderella's Castle)

 On Friday, December 19th, early, early in the morning, we loaded up our vehicle and began a journey to Kissimmee, Florida.  It rained for all but about 30 minutes of our trip that first day, where we spent the night in Pensacola.  The next day we thought would be an easy trip, but it turned out that EVERYONE on the entire east coast must have been traveling that day, as well!  The traffic was horrible, but we made it to our destination Saturday night....tired and ready to be out of the car.

(Cinderella's Castle from behind)

 Sunday we worshipped with the Main Gate church, which is a part of the Concord St. Church of Christ in Orlando. I've mentioned it before, but it's such a great work that I want to mention it again! The services are held in a hotel which is owned by a Christian couple. Every week, visitors to Disney World and perhaps other entertainment-type places around there, meet together for worship and class.  It's such a blessing to have worship just a few blocks from our rent home! It's a blessing to see so many Christians from all over the place come together to worship Him!  I love it!  And we're very thankful for the good work they do!

(Sorcerer's Hat icon at Disney's Hollywood Studios - Dec. 22, 2014. The hat will be removed from the park tomorrow, January 7, 2015.)

 We spent a week at the Disney World Resort, visiting the four main parks.  We took special time to get a picture in front of the icon hat at Hollywood Studios (HWS). It's coming down tomorrow :(.  It's sad to us, but many of the older days of HWS are glad to see it go.

(Breakfast at Chef Mickey's before heading towards home - December 27, 2014)

We got back home from Florida on Sunday, December 27th, after worshipping on Sunday at Opeloosa, LA, and in the Dallas area that evening. (Can't think of the congregation's name, but the singing was GREAT and so was the lesson!).  We got home at 11:45!

Monday, the 29th was a day at home. We were all excited to have that day at home!  But the unpacking and repacking for the next road trip took up a lot of that day.  The next day we headed to Denver, Colorado, where our niece was getting married on New Year's Day!

For the wedding, our oldest two boys served as parking attendants.  It was COLD, but they were glad to serve.  Wedding guests parked down the street in a school parking lot, and walked to the theater where the wedding was held.

 I love this picture, seeing so many family members working together to get the theater ready for the wedding!  We couldn't get into the theater until a few hours before the actual wedding, so it took lots of help from everyone to get it all done! (I'm not showing much of the wedding because my sister-in-law is blogging about it and leading up to the actual event! If you would like to keep up with her posts, it's at www.wawawaughs.blogspot.com. There's a link on the side of my blog, as well, if you're on a computer.)

Our youngest was in charge of handing out the wedding favors. Here he is stacking them.  They are pears!  I'll post more about that later, as well!

The drive home that New Year's Day was pretty. There was snow, heaving, blowing snow, then just pretty snow on the landscape.  We were expecting really bad roads the closer we got to home, but it turned out not to be too bad.  We arrived home at 12:45 a.m.!  And had another one day at home before the next trip!

(Beautiful iced trees somewhere between Paducah and Matador, TX.)

There were ice warnings all over our area and all around us, so we were thinking we might have some trouble getting to our next destination - Lubbock, Texas.  Thankfully in our area, it stayed a few degrees above freezing, so instead of the dreaded ice, we got the much-needed rain!  However, a few places along our route got the ice.  The roads were clear for most of the time, but eventually even the roads were slick. It wasn't too bad, just had to take it slow.

(Icicles hanging - on the Loop at Lubbock)

Taking the roads slower than usual gave me plenty of opportunities to take pictures!  Such a pretty site to see!

We stayed in Lubbock from lunch until that evening, leaving before the temps got too cold and the roads froze too much.  We got home around 9:30 p.m., and everyone went straight to bed!  

We really haven't been EVERYWHERE....but we sure feel like we have!  We're thankful to be home, for the most part, and in our own beds.

Thank you, God, for the world you've given us.  You created such beautiful things for us to see. Thank you for allowing our family to visit just a few of those places these past few weeks.  May we never forget that it was YOU would created everything. 

In Jesus' name,

Amen