Las Vegas New Years Week

Papa and the princess Pete.



Aud and Weston.



Sam and Weston.



A giraffe named Owen :)

Here are four cute pics. from our trip to LasVegas. I didn't get very many pictures on my camera, but we had about 6 cameras going most of the week. Once they are all collected on drop box, I'll have some more to post. (Plus I will be making small scrapbooks for each family :) When I made our reservation for a family gathering in LasVegas for the week after Christmas, I did not realize that, that week is the gathering for "Americas New Years Party" on the Vegas strip. 300,000 people stood out in freezing cold weather to see 8 minutes of fireworks on LasVegas boulevard. Lucky for us we were able to see the crowd on TV, watch the traffic jam on the street below our room and see the fireworks from our room at the Wyndham. (Much better than being OUT in the crowd) And, yes, somehow I managed to stay up until midnight- amazing. We did get a group photo- thanks to Sam and his camera. That photo is posted on Mike's blog and on Sam's blog. On Wednesday evening, right after dinner, and before some of our group went out to a show, we had a few minutes for pictures. Instead of stressing about what everyone was wearing and spending time getting everyone's hair just right- it was just "meet in the lobby in 5 minutes!" We took the pictures and most of the kids even cooperated. They actually turned out pretty well. Not only did we get a group photo but also individual family photos. Again, kind of spur of the moment, but they turned out okay, too. Check back, I'll post more pictures and tell some of our adventures for the week. It was an amazing week together for our family. Ron and I have actually had about 13 days of no alarm clock (the only exception was Saturday morning to get to the airport to come back to Houston.) Tomorrow will be back to "normal" and back to work for both of us. Sounds like we got out of Vegas just in time to miss the snow! :) At least three of us are glad to be back in "warm" Texas.

Paid My Dues

I guess I have paid my dues and am now officially admitted in the Old Peoples Christmas Organization. I am feeling rather guilty because I know that my children have been going crazy this week, and especially today, getting EVERYTHING ready for Christmas. And what did I do today? Whatever I wanted- haha. Today was a no-alarm-clock-day, just get up whenever we wake up. I tried to stay in my pajamas all day, but about mid day I realized that my skirt, that I want to wear on Sunday, was still at the cleaners and we needed some more eggs and we needed gas in the car. So I got dressed and went out :) Then Ron completely took advantage of the fact that I got dressed and took me out for dinner and a movie. I don't know what today was like where you live, but it seemed like the entire city of Houston was out today at the restaurants, the department stores, and the grocery stores. Traffic jams everywhere, no places to park, long lines to check out etc. What a way to completely ruin the spirit of Christmas :(
Now I just need to convince myself that it will be okay to just sleep in, with no children sneaking around early- only have a couple presents under the tree- have a nice breakfast about mid morning- have a quiet dinner early afternoon. Kind of uneventful huh? ;) That's what an "old people Christmas" is. Have fun with your "little kid Christmas"- I'll be missing it.

I'm Done

I'm done, I'm done, everything is ready for Christmas... well almost :) I still have to work tomorrow, and we still have a couple more people to visit, but the stockings are hung, the last package is going out in the mail tomorrow, the cards went out yesterday, we had guests for dinner tonight (my favorite restaurant cooked the lasagna and Ron picked it up on his way home :), and the house is decorated and cleaned (well at least the downstairs :). Looking forward to a couple of days off, but for now, I think I'm worn out, I'm going to bed :)  

Time Flies...

when you are getting ready for Christmas. Instead of it being the week before Christmas, I was thinking I still had two weeks :) Somehow I lost a week and I missed three birthdays. Happy belated birthday, to three great guys.



Big O is 2!



J dog is 6!




MC is 26 and now has a little MC called DC.





Merry Christmas

Newest Grandson

When a picture is out there, on a public space like Facebook-

                                                  anyone can grab it :)
                         This picture is amazing, he is only a month old.



Christmas Lessons

Besides my two favorite Christmas things (the lights and the music), there are always very meaningful lessons and talks given at Christmas time. Two of the talks given at our church today were about service. I wanted to share a brief story that was given. It is not even really a Christmas story, but just more of a "life story".
The gentleman that was speaking told about when he was a boy he would work for his grandfather, hoeing the corn field. He grandfather always assigned 1 boy to each field. He knew that if he assigned 1 boy to 1 field he would get 1 days work from that boy. If he assigned 2 boys to 1 field he would get half a days work from the 2 boys together. If he assigned 3 boys to 1 field, he wouldn't get any work from the 3 boys :) (I'm sure that A1 is lol about now)
He went on to tell, that one day someone asked the grandfather why he didn't just use his machinery to take care of the field, rather than the boys. The grandfather replied, "I am not trying to grow the best corn in the town. I am trying to grow the best boys in the town." I think his plan worked.
One of his main points here was to teach children to work and to serve others. Include them in your holiday service projects. Let them experience the joy of working and also the joy of giving. A story from another talk about service, was about the impression made on young girl by her father including her in a secret Santa project. At the time the young girl didn't really understand the situation, but she understood the good feelings she had from "giving". We would plan secret Santa outings with our children- they always enjoyed those times and I think it provided them with a desire to continue "giving" even now that they have families of their own.