Christmas Eve

Wow, what a busy Christmas time we have had!! I have barely had a chance to breathe, much less update my blog! There is so much to blog about, I hardly know where to start. So I'll do this one day at a time and start with Christmas Eve. GD had the day off, so he stayed home with the kids while I went to work that morning. A little before noon, it started snowing!! Where I work in Plano, it was snowing hard! Big, white, beautiful flakes! I always love it when it snows, but I was just a little worried since my brother was supposed to be landing at DFW at 3:30 that afternoon. He flew from Hong Kong to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Dallas. We were all anxious to see him and I didn't want the weather to mess anything up. I got off work early, around noon. Then I met my mom and Kason and we left Celina around 2pm to drive to the airport to pick up Rob. It was still snowing, but the roads weren't bad on the way there. We got there without any trouble and sat down to wait for Rob to make his appearance. Here is a pic of Kason and Mom at the airport waiting for Rob:
The weather didn't hinder the flight and we finally got to hug Rob's neck around 4pm! We hadn't seen him in a year and 8 months (not counting Skype!) so it was quite a reunion. He looked great!

Alot skinnier then last time we saw him. He said they eat very healthy in HK, none of that red meat and junk food we eat here. So of course that was what he was craving when he got here! On the way home from the airport the snow had continued and the roads had gotten worse. We saw quite a few accidents on the way home and even saw a car spin around on an overpass! It was a little scary! I called GD on the way home and we decided not to go to Pottsboro that evening for his Mom's family's Christmas. We hated to miss it, but the roads were just too dicey to risk it. So Mom, Roby, Kason and I stopped at Macaroni Grill and got food to bring home. We made it back to Celina safely and dug in to our Christmas Eve dinner from Mac Grill! :) Rob had been craving it and scarfed it down. After dinner, we got the kids dressed and went to church for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

I love the candlelight service, it is my favorite service of the year. The snow was really falling at this point!! Our cars were covered when we got out of church. Mom and Rob decided to spend the night since the roads were bad and they were going to come over early in the morning anyway to see the kids open their gifts. When we got home from the service Rob decided he was still hungry and ate 5 (count them 5!!!!) corny dogs!!! Piggy!! :)

We finally got the kids to bed and began wrapping presents. Lo and behold around 11pm or so the electricity went out!!! So we finished wrapping the gifts by candle light and flashlight. We got out lots of blankets and everyone went to bed. Rob slept in Kason's bed so Kason slept with us. Needless to say, between the cold and Kason, I didn't get much sleep that night! But it was so wonderful knowing Rob was home and we were all together. That is what really matters! So that was our Christmas Eve. Christmas Day blog coming soon..... :)

Breakfast with Santa

Last weekend, we took the kids to have Breakfast with Santa. We met our good friends, Chad and Crystal with their kids Jaycee and Koby. The kids had been really looking forward to seeing Santa. Especially Katie, she is so excited about anything Christmas. When we are driving in the evenings, she points out all the houses with Christmas lights and screams "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!" It is so fun to see the excitement in her face! Both of the kids loved Santa this year and neither were afraid of him at all. We ate breakfast, colored pictures and of course had pictures made with Santa. It was a very fun morning! That evening, Gary Don and Chad went to the new Cowboys stadium to watch the Big 12 Championship game between Texas and Nebraska. They had a great time and were so happy that Texas managed to pull out the win. Kason was so happy too as he is a huge UT fan. (Wonder where he got that!??!) :)

It is hard to believe that Christmas is almost here!! We have our tree up and our stockings hung. Now if I could just find some time to finish my Christmas shopping!!! :) Kason has one more week of school and then is out for 2 weeks. We are so excited that my brother is coming home for Christmas!! We all talked to him last night and can barely wait to see him! He moved to Hong Kong in April 2008 and we haven't seen him since then. It has been way too long and we are so excited!! Yay! :)

Here are some pics from Breakfast with Santa. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

I know, I know.... I am getting so behind on my blogging!! It is so busy this time of year, and I just haven't been able to keep up with everything! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We sure did. We went to Gary Don's Aunt Diana's house in Farmersville on Thanksgiving day. We all love "Aunt Nina" and she always outdoes herself during the holidays. I know she must go crazy getting ready for all the festivities and I try to help out as much as she will let me. It is always a lot of fun and A LOT of food!! I ate so much it should have lasted me the whole weekend!! (Which of course it didn't) :) Everything was sooooo good! After we ate, the guys went out back and played a game of touch football. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the football game has started to become a tradition. In fact, Kason had been looking forward to the game all week!! He had such a great time! Katie had lots of fun cheering on the football players with Aunt Nina's cowbell and pom poms! Thanks Aunt Nina for all you did to make Thanksgiving such a fun day!
After we left Diana's, we stopped by Oma's house in Blue Ridge to see my side of the family. The kids had so much fun playing with Aunt Poos and seeing the rest of the family.
Later that evening we came home and Paula, Kyle and Mom came over to visit. What a great day of family and food! We have so much to be thankful for!!
Mom spent the night on Thanksgiving night so that GD and I could get up at 3:30am and go shopping. Black Friday, baby!!! :) GD went to Target while Susanne and I started out at Toys R Us, then on to Walmart and another Target. Sus and I had a fun time and got lots of great deals! We stopped at Chic-fil-A for breakfast and made it home by about 10am. The lack of sleep was worth the sales!
I will end this blog with some pics from Thanksgiving day. Enjoy!