A Holly Jolly Christmas...

Christmas was wonderful. I trust it was great for your family as well. This entire Holiday Season has been great for me. I have enjoyed the closeness of our family and being able to share extra time with them. We scoped out several local areas to take the kids to enjoy the Christmas lights and we were not disappointed. From the smallest of displays to the largest, they all offered something new at every stop and it turned out to be a source of great fun for all of us. I think we found a different display every night of the week leading into Christmas Day. I found one online called Pensacola Lights that I thought would be nice so off we went. It wasn't very large but the lights were synchronized with some great Christmas music so every beat of the music brought a different light to view. When there was a crescendo, all the lights were in full view. It turned out to be pretty cool and I think it was the kids favorite. And I did get the shopping done but not without Johnny's assistance. He was a huge help even with the gift ideas. Joshua proved to be the hardest to shop for this year. He had one thing on his list so we had to come up with some ideas for him and it wasn't easy. It didn't take us very long to realize he already had too much stuff. OH, somehow we managed to stick to our budget! That in itself was amazing.

Living in the city in Pensacola has its down side when it comes to large open area for the kids to enjoy all their stuff. So the excitement was running pretty high by the time we loaded the van to set out for the farm in Alabama. There are acres and acres for them to run around at the farm and its so peaceful and quiet. I love to be there. Once there, the boys were free to roam and play as much as their imagination would let them. David spent most of his time riding his little motorcycle or jeep. When the batteries died on one vehicle he would get out his plastic tool set and try to fix it until bored with that. Then he would hop on the other vehicle until PaPa could recharge the batteries. Joshua used most of his time finding new targets for his BB gun. Thankfully we left the farm with no injured cows or donkeys, no dead chickens, no mad dogs, and few scared cats. There may be several traumatized fish but we'll never know unless they float to the top! I'd say that was pretty good considering it was his first time. Amber was having a great time until her cell phone and IPod died. I told her to pack everything she would need but...well, you would have thought her world had come to a screeching halt. She was ready to pack up and come home...just for a charger! Teenagers! We did enjoy getting to do something with just the two of us. Amber and I went to the movies to see Seven Pounds. She and I both cried and cried. I think she was still sniffling when we got back in the van. And Michael got two bottom teeth! They broke through the skin like a bright ray of sunshine after a rainy morning. He also started eating table food. I found that he likes eggs, french fries, sucked the juice right out of a pickle, tolerates grits (he makes awful faces), had his first tootsie roll sucker (kept saying umm, ummm), and he would eat fresh peas if he could feed them to himself. Of all the foods he tried I think the grits were the most challenging to clean up. We won't be doing those much until he gets a little older! Oh and paper! He likes to eat paper too. We'll have to watch him about that one.

Johnny and I managed to get in some quality time together as well. We even made it to our old stomping ground (Dothan) to check out the new shops there. Traffic hasn't changed. Its still awful. We had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and also took in a movie, Valkyrie. The entire trip was great. Its nice to be home though and back to my own bed.

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