Thanksgiving

My Tennessee family made the trip down Thanksgiving week to help me cook and spend turkey day with us. My sister brought her fiance (they're engaged!!), Drew, and about five of Jason's classmates from OCS came over so we had about 12 people to feed. I love having a big crowd to cook for! This awful picture was my sister's doing. Thanks, Kelly.

Anticipating 15+ people, I picked up a 23 pound turkey. It was practically as big as the boys!

All the kids' fall/Thanksgiving art work.

There was lots to eat and plenty leftover. Everything went really well and it was nice to spend the day with family. It's the first Thanksgiving in four years that we've all gotten to spend together.

There's lots to be thankful for in this house! 2 and a half beautiful children, Jason being home with us, our fabulous extended family, lots of good food, where we live, our many friends, the last week of OCS, and all our many blessings!The next morning, Kelly, Drew, and I ventured out for Black Friday shopping. Several purchases and hours later, we had a 9 o'clock breakfast at Steak and Shake, complete with holiday white chocolate milkshakes!! (per tradition)The folks left late Friday morning, once we'd finished our shopping trip. After a long nap (for me, of course!), we put away all the fall decor and broke out the Christmas boxes!Here are our elves at work!And our thrilled rein-dog.I don't know if you've heard of pinterest--or if you're addicted like I am, but that's where I found the inspiration to make our monogram wreath! It took all of an hour or two one night after the kids were in bed and I'm so proud to see it on our front door :)

We also adopted an Elf on the Shelf and named him "Fred". He's already hidden on the mantle, the jelly cupboard, the microwave stand, and the door hinge in the hallway. Sneaky elf!

I love the holidays and decorating the house puts me in the mood to stir some hot chocolate on the stove, put on some festive music, and snuggle up to "It's a Wonderful Life" with my loves.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Thanks to Skype, we did get to see our family in sweet Tennessee this Christmas! Mom, Dad and "Aunt Gee Gee" were present for Christmas eve story time before bed, and got to see the kids open presents and look through the loot from Santa as soon as they woke up! We even got to have "breakfast at Granny's"! I cooked the traditional grits, sausage, biscuits, eggs, bacon, and red-eye gravy like we have every year at Granny's house and my sis had her computer over there. We got to see all the family and I know it just made Christmas this year. It's amazing how something like that can make such a difference in making the holidays a little less bitter and a little more sweet.

We all got spoiled rotten with gifts and the house is littered with cookie crumbs and wrapping paper and dirty dishes. It's wonderful!

I'm sad that Christmas has come to an end, but it's comforting to know that our blessings have not. Even though the lights will have to come off the porch, and the decorations off the tree, and the family will fly back to Texas, and the glittered snowflakes and bulbs will go back into their respective storage boxes hoping not to shatter or shed before next Christmas--there are three beautiful blue-eyed boys in my life that are not going anywhere, anytime soon. Jason doesn't have to fly back overseas after the new year. We will have opportunities this next year to visit with family and travel. The snow will eventually melt. We will eventually get our new orders and move on to the next big step in our lives together. There is so much to look forward to and plan for and wait for and even to just surprise us.

Merry Christmas ya'll!! Hope ya'll had a good one!

Tis the season

This will be my first Christmas where we won't be travelling back home. It was our decision for many reasons, and though I am happy about it, it's hard not to feel a sense of loss. With the holidays fast approaching (10 days, say what?) it's becoming more and more real that I won't be seeing my Tennessee family, or getting a break from the snow, unwrapping presents on the hardwood floor under a cedar tree cut down from mom's flowerbed, eating deep-fried turkey, Christmas and New Years breakfast at Granny's, taking pictures by Daddy's redneck lit-reindeer, wearing matching pajamas with my thister, eating too many cookies out of a santa cookie jar, wanting to kill my parents' neurotic dog who barks into my window at 2 am because she thought she saw lightning and wants to "chase" the storm, the list goes on and on.

With all that said, I have a lot to be grateful for and excited about. My Texas family (Jason's folks') are travelling up here to spend Christmas with us. I'm super excited about the boys getting to wake up on Christmas morning in their own beds, open presents under their own tree, and just to share all their joy! They will be rotten for sure, when Santa, and Grand-Clause(s) come. We get to start and carry on our own family Christmas traditions. But there will be quite a few old ones that we'll keep, too, like...

1. A REAL tree. But it's not the traditional cedar we've always had. All they have up here is pine. Actually, I just keep calling it pine. I think it's some kind of fir. But you know what I'm talking about.

2. Hot chocolate on the stovetop. No boxed mixes for me. I want hershey's cocoa, milk, vanilla, salt and sugar. I've even whipped the whip cream. By hand. Without a mixer. I'll have a right forearm like Popeye by New Years.

3. Christmas and New Year's breakfast, like Granny's. Complete with grits, sausage, eggs, and biscuits.

4. Waking up at an ungawdly hour before the sun has even come up on Christmas. Well, maybe.

5. Matching pajamas. Somehow, I will make it happen.

6. Listening to "Merry Christmas from the Family" by Robert Earl Keen. And I'm totally going to make champagne punch and homemade eggnog (but for the record, that's not an old family tradition).

7. Swearing while putting up the Christmas decorations, lights, cooking Christmas dinner, decorating the gingerbread house, and assembling toys, etc on Christmas morning. I call it, "Christmas language".

8. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies

9. A Christmas afternoon nap.

10. Watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.

So, we'll be in Tennessee in our hearts, and maybe we can virtually travel to see everyone via skype.