Random November Smiles...

Decking the Hall's

We continued our tradition this year of Decking the Hall's with the movie Elf, hot cocoa, and Christmas music.  The kids are not always crazy about decorating the house, but they do seem to enjoy putting the ornaments on trees and reminiscing.  This year, they each decorated their own tree in their bedroom and also helped with the travel tree, Baylor University tree, and our big tree.  Yes, that means we have 5 Christmas trees up...but we also have a LOT of memories to display!  We needed a new larger tree this year and we were excited to inherit Papa & Nana's large 9ft tree.  It had not been put up since 2013, so it needed lots of love after being in a box for 7 years...but after lots of fluffing, light replacements, and moving of furniture to fit the tree in, we were in business.  I am glad I get to enjoy some time by the lighted trees each night now as the Christmas season starts to set in.  Several ornaments made me cry with memories, but I added a few pictures of the ornaments that made me smile most this year.  Such a joyful time of year celebrating the birth of our Savior and reflecting on our blessings as a family.    

A lot to be THANKful for

Even in the valleys, God says to be thankful.  Sometimes the darkness of the Covid-19 virus can get you down.  Wearing masks all day and never seeing someone's face can be daunting in a world where we are already starting to disconnect with each other.  Going in public can often times have a scary feel to it.  We have not had many "vacations" besides going to friends or family homes since March.  So, when Nana surprised us with a 3 day trip over Thanksgiving, we were SO EXCITED!  It was even more exciting that we got to be one of the first to stay at the new Kalahari Resort in Round Rock, TX.  Since the resort is so large, we got Nana an electric scooter and she just zoomed around the resort...most of the time with Caelin riding on the back and a few mishaps running into things, ha!  Nana was able to get us the Presidential Suite so that we could all be together and the cousins were so excited to move beds and have a "campout" with the fireplace in the living room of the suite.  When we arrived, we spent the entire first day at the indoor water park (lazy river, tube rides, hot tubs, wave pool, etc).  My favorite part was watching Nana in the lazy river having fun and trying to dodge the waterfalls.  After a long day, we showered up for reservations at a steak place where we had a Tomahawk steak.  It was delicious and we were stuffed from all the sides and goodies.  Of course, no night is complete without a late night trip to the candy store, right?!  Ha!  The next day we woke up grateful for time with family and enjoyed the indoor adventure park (Rides, arcade games, laser tag, and lots of tickets) until time for our Thanksgiving meal.  I was so shocked when Nana rode the smaller roller coaster and she even put her hands in the air like a pro! Our Thanksgiving meal was a buffet in the convention center complete with first responder vehicles and 5star dishes.  It was the BEST prime rib and sides that I have eaten in a long time.  We were there for almost 2 hours enjoying the food, desserts, and football games on the big screen tv's.  After dinner, we did a little bit of shopping at the outdoor area before heading back in for more adventure park time, an escape room, ice cream, and then family Bunco in the suite.  It was a LONG...but very BLESSED day of laughs and memories.  Jingle surprised us on Friday morning (she always comes the day after Thanksgiving) with some candy canes and a reminder that she will be with us until Christmas day.  Our last day was spent with more adventure park time (Caelin hit a 1,000 ticket jackpot & Cade hit a 500 ticket win), laser tag, rides, ropes courses, and rock wall.  The kids were all stoked when they started cashing in their thousands of tickets.  Cade walked away with a Jumanji Card game, Eye Know board game, & some candy.  Caelin scored a Llama unicorn stuffed animal, Bear stuffed animal, Taco pillow, Minecraft sword, robot selfie camera, & candy.  Needless to say we were all so sad to leave.  Even though time passed too quickly, we left Round Rock to head home with a full truck load and full hearts.  Thank you Nana for spoiling us, and thank you God for blessing us with family time that filled our hearts.