CHRISTMAS DAY....FINALLY!!

Christmas Eve

And shepherds abided at 490 E Main, Panaca...

Not so great pickup lines...

Christmas Par-tay!

We had a Christmas party on 12-19 that included a ton of great food, funny games, and some very interesting White Elephant gifts. We played a game where you drew the name of a character, person, thing, etc., sat on the couch next to another person who had also drawn, and you had to deliver a witty pickup line to the "character" sitting next to you. You never knew what would be seated side by side on the loveseat, a vampire and a midget or a baker and a gay cowboy. We weren't very good at it, but laughed pretty hard just the same.

Cookies!

Cam and I had a lot of fun making pumpkin cookies. I'm not sure if we ate more dough than baked cookies, though.

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday, Ryan! Poor kid, we made him have a "Cars" birthday party. He was a great sport and we really had fun.

Hey, let me in...

Have you ever seen such sad brown eyes? Boy, Tuck, you're working hard to get in this house!

Caroling through the streets of Panaca

To many, this will sound beyond silly, but to another working mom that misses a lot of the things her kids are involved in, it'll make perfect sense. Cam's class was slated to go caroling through the streets of Panaca. She called me and said, "'K, mom, be ready. We're leaving in five minutes." An hour and several classes later she called again. "'K, mom. It's real this time. We're going. Watch for me, 'k, mom? Promise you'll wave when we go by." With the promise given, I returned to my vigilant watch through the windows. They had two stops to make before they drove past our house(just like all of the classes before), the Panaca Market, then Dr. Klomp's. I saw them pull into the market, then on to the dentist's. To my surprise and utter sadness, they whipped it around right in the middle of the street and went the other way, Cam sitting at the back looking confused and waving at me just the same! I spent the next forty five minutes running to the windows every time I thought I heard the hum of a four wheeler engine. To no avail. With tears of frustration and knowing that I'd once again let one of my kids down, I returned to scrubbing the toilet. Between the tears and the flush of the toilet I thought I heard another engine. I ran to the window. Nope, just another sick-sounding truck. Returning to my duties again, the Spirit whispered to me to grab my camera and run to the door. I couldn't believe it! Just as I got to the door, Mrs. Roden and her entire class rounded the corner opposite our house...and there was my beloved baby sitting in the very back with relief to see that her mom had followed through. For those of you who understand, it won't seem strange to you at all when I tell you that tears of gratitude were streaming down my face as I clicked the shutter. Gratitude that, for once, I could share this moment, really be part of something that was important to her. I was part of her story, not just another listener while she relayed events.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Happy Birthday! Life got so crazy that we weren't able to do anything for Danny's birthday. We wanted to show him how special he is, so a week later we posted signs all over the house that said "November 30th" and rolled back the clock. Our surprise party was really fun. Danny's certainly worth the effort and aren't we lucky to have him?!

Cameron spent a great deal of time practicing for the annual Christmas play.

Check her out...cute or what?!

My very grown up tree decorator. What would I do without her help?

Cameron worked on this gingerbread house for hours. Pretty darn creative! Some of the candy has been eaten, though, and I've just noticed the mailbox is missing. :)