Wednesday

Well, Mamo just left us. She's on her way home to NC and it's awfully quiet around here. Not that she's so loud, but everyone is kinda melancholy right now. I have a ton of stuff to do including the laundry and dishes, picking up the house, putting away the dog kennel we used for her dog while she was here and some general pick up. Then, after I finish my chores, I am going to pull out my scrapbook stuff! Yippee!!

Nicky and Indy have gone hunting til tomorrow, so we're all on our own. Perfect opportunity to scrapbook!! No cooking (eating leftovers)! Whoo hoo!! Hopefully, my chores and scrapbooking will keep my mind occupied so I won't be so down about my mom leaving. The day she leaves is always kinda a down day for me, but by tomorrow, I'll be fine. She'll call me tonight when she settles into her hotel and we'll talk then when I get up tomorrow, she'll be gone from here for so long and nearing her home that it'll seem like she's been gone awhile and I will feel normal again. But, I must say, it was a very nice visit. I hope she had fun, too. Hey, it's only 10 1/2 weeks til she comes back!! lol

I think tonight the girls have a couple parties to attend, so I think I'll take Levi out since it's just him and me. That will be fun! Dealing with only one kid is so easy!!

Tuesday

Today has been a very hectic day for some reason and I'm not quite sure why. I went and had two tires put on my car since they were nearly bald, so that took awhile. All day long, Nicky was working on his truck, doing an oil change among other things and then he began gathering stuff for his hunting trip tomorrow. The boys were playing with the neighbor boy, Zeke. Mamo was packing. The girls were both sick, thus laying on the couches all day. And the worse news of all was that Savannah's kitten, Tigger, who went missing on Sunday night, was found dead today in our back yard by Levi. The dogs had "played" with him so much he died from internal injuries, I'm sure, as there were no external wounds. Such a shame, too, cuz he was a really sweet cat. And, he constantly played with my mom's dog. They were so cute together! So sad. And, of course, that put a real damper on the day....kinda just hung over my head (and others I think) all day.

Tonight my mom and I went out to dinner at Outback, just the two of us, which is always a nice treat. We also stopped by my friend Sandy's house to get some avocados for mom and then to the Hallmark store to get some cards. It was a nice time we had to visit without the chaos of home. I'm glad we did it on the last night. It gave us something to look forward to and by then we could really savor it.

Though I love my mom visiting, I'm always glad to get my life back to "normal" after she leaves. I don't wish her to leave at all, but I kinda put my life on hold while she's here, doing just the necessities. That gives me more time with her, but it also causes my routines to go out the window, which can be difficult with children and so many different schedules. I'm really glad she was able to be here at Christmas when the kids had no school, sports, clubs, park meetings, etc, so we had the freedom to do other things and not be tied down by our schedules. Now, the next time she comes in March, it will be different. They will be nearing the end of basketball, but still doing school, Scouts, park, enrichment classes, etc. So, that will be a little more hectic, but at least she'll be able to see them participating in these things, which will be nice for her. So, until 10 more weeks, I will be busy with my normal life, savoring memories of her Christmas visit. :-)

Monday

This morning I went to the bank and then went and had my oil changed. After that and on my way to the next bank, I got a flat tire. Thankfully, the wait for the AAA guy wasn't very long. After that, I went home and then Mamo, the boys, and I went over to Fairchild Gardens. That was fun, but MAN, was it COLD!! The wind was attrocious!! Ugh. After that, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch and then on to the Hallmark store. We had tacos for dinner and then after the boys went to bed, we watched The A Team. That was fun. Having seen and known the original tv show, we really enjoyed and critiqued the movie. We decided it was a success and that we liked it. :-)

Tomorrow is Mom's last full day and I think we're going out to dinner tomorrow night. We'll see.

Sunday

Today Mamo went to breakfast and to visit with her cousin Betty Kay. They had a nice visit. I pretty much stayed home and tried to get the house in some semblance of order. Ha! We had leftovers for dinner, which was delicious, of course, and after dinner, Mamo and I played her new board game, NCIS. That was interesting.

Oh, that afternoon, Mamo, Ashton, Nicky, and I went to see True Grit at the theater. Mamo wanted to see it and so did Nicky, so it was fun. It was a pretty good movie. Now she says we have to see the original one with John Wayne. Big surprise she wants us to see that one!! haha Anyway, after the busyness of yesterday, it was a nice relaxing day. Mamo's time is running out and the time for her to go home is fast approaching. So sad. Seems like her visits are so short. Argh. Well, at least she'll be back in March.

Saturday...Merry Christmas!!

It's Christmas!! We woke early, of course, and opened presents first thing...right after coffee!! lol Everyone was happy with their gifts and Nicky gave me a new camera (Thankfully since my old one has been repaired twice and still doesn't work!) and a set of purple golf clubs. Now I'm ready to go play with him!! :-) And, I'm VERY excited about my camera! Having fun experimenting with it!! :-)

After presents were opened, Nicky got to work collecting all the trash and I cooked breakfast. Indy had this tooth that has been hanging by a thread forever, it seems, and we all kept trying to convince him to either pull it out or let one of us do it. He wouldn't, but during breakfast, while he was eating scrambled eggs, out the tooth came all on its own. Whoo hoo! It looked so gross hanging there, ugh! So we were all happy about that tooth coming out, especially Indy!! We ate breakfast about 10 and after the dishes were done, I started working on dinner. We ate dinner about 4 and boy, were we all ready!

After the dinner was all finished being cleaned up, I finally got to relax. Whew!! Am I beat! It's been an exhausting, but wonderfully fun day. So grateful for family, friends, and all the gifts God has given us, especially the gift of His Son, Jesus, who is why we have Christmas in the first place. Merry Christmas, Everyone, and don't forget to celebrate the Birthday Boy, today!!

Friday...Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!! Today I went out to take Savannah to work and then to buy the shrimp for dinner tomorrow and it was pure madness out there!! Ugh. The traffic was horrible and while I was waiting in traffic, I wrote a song...well, sort of. It's sung to "Let it Snow" and says, "Oh the weather outside's delightful, but the traffic's awfully frightful, so since my shopping's done, I'm stayin' home, stayin' home, stayin' home." ha ha I think I've been around Nicky too long! lol

When I finally got home, I cooked dinner, finished up the treat bags for neighbors (then had the kids deliver them), and prepared the shrimp for tomorrow. And all day long, we tracked Santa on the the NORAD website. It was very fun for the boys, especially Indy. He was fascinated by that. And, I was fascinated by the Google Earth view of the tracking!

We exchanged our Love Gifts tonight and everyone did a really good job in gifts. I was very impressed. Nicky got some special cookies Indy baked, I got an ornament Ashton made, Savannah got a turkey feather and tiny turtle shell Nicky found, Ashton got a mini hand sanitizer in her favorite scent that I was saving for myself, Indy got one of Grandfather's hats from Mamo, Levi got a roll of coupons from Savannah for fun stuff like ice cream and playing her guitar, and Mamo got one of Levi's Mickey Mouse golf balls. Everyone really liked their gifts.

After dinner, Mamo, Ashton, the boys, and I went driving around to look at Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun. We just love looking at Christmas lights!! Ashton says that's her favorite part of Christmastime and I think it's right up there for me, too! After we got home, we put out milk and cookies for Santa and oats for his reindeer then we read the Christmas story from the Bible and the boys were off to bed. After everyone else had gone to bed, I sat in the dark with only my inside Christmas lights and tree on and just relaxed and enjoyed them. I could sit there all night....if I didn't have boys who got up at 7am every day!! I wish I could keep them up all year long, but I know I'd get sick of them and Nicky would definitely freak out!! lol SO, sadly, next weekend, down they go until next year. Also, I've been reading my annual read of Two From Galilee, my favorite Christmas book.

Waiting for Christmas....

Thursday

Today was baking day! We baked all...day...long. It was fun, but exhausting!! About 4pm, the dogs escaped and after an hour and a half of driving around looking for them, they came back on their own. Dumb dogs. (I know, not too dumb if they found their way back, but still...) After dinner, me, the boys, Mamo and her dog, Pheeby, went for a walk through the neighborhood looking at everyone's lights. It was a bit nippy, but such Christmasy weather. So nice. :-)

Wednesday

Today we didn't do much except run errands. I had a lot to do like the bank, grocery store, last minute gifts, etc., but mom stayed home and chilled. It was a busy day and tonight I will probably stay up late wrapping gifts. Nicky and Indy come home today!! Yippee!! :-)

Tuesday

Today Mom and I took Levi to a nearby mall where they have a wonderful miniature train display set up at Christmastime. It's a little far for us, but it's well worth it to see this fantastic display. Levi also got to ride on a train they have set up at the mall that goes through this whole Christmas decoration thingy. It's really cool with reindeer and snow and candy house tunnels and they love riding it!! Indy wasn't with us because he left with Nicky yesterday to go hunting for 3 days. They come back tomorrow. So, Levi was the only kid I had with me....too weird. I kept thinking I was missing someone!!

Something cool happened, too. On the way to the mall, the radio station was having a contest where you name the song title and artist to one line of a song that they say (not sing), and I knew one!! I figured I wouldn't get through, but somehow I did and I won two tickets to Santa's Enchanted Forest to see all the Christmas lights!!! That was fun!! So, after the mall, we stopped over at the radio station, which was no more than 15 minutes from the mall, to get my tickets. How convenient that I was already that close!! lol Pretty cool, huh?? Levi is very excited because he thinks he's gonna get to go with me! He probably will. :-)

That's it for today.

Monday

Today we went to Jungle Island, which is the new Parrot Jungle. Personally, I'm not all that impressed with it, but Mom wanted to see it. The boys and I went with Leslie and her boys back in June when they visited. Since we were residents, we got a year pass for the price of the one day ticket, which came in very handy yesterday! I only had to pay for Savannah, who went for the first time yesterday. She really liked it, but then again, that's no big surprise since it's full of animals!! lol But, I think my mom enjoyed going and seeing the new place. I'm pretty sure I won't go again unless I have out of town company again. But, it was a nice day and they had some special performers and stuff for Christmas. We did get a cute picture of all of us with a bunch of parrots. I look so impressed.... :-)

Still wrapping presents. I think I'm almost done!! Whoo hoo! Can start baking soon!! :-)

Sunday

Today we did church all day....or at least it seemed that way!! lol In the morning, we went to our new church for Sunday School and service. Levi and Nicky played golf this morning with one of Nicky's friends from work and his son. Then, we went home, had lunch, and rested. This evening, we went to our new church to watch Ashton and the youth choir perform two numbers with handbells. It was sooo pretty. I just LOVE handbells!! They sound so beautiful! Then, right after that, we went to Wayside to see the WAVE team perform their Christmas concert. They did a fantastic job and we enjoyed watching them so much! I miss being in WAVE..... :-( My mom really liked watching them, too. And, it was great to see so many friends from Wayside who I have missed. But, I'm still glad to be at our new church! :-)

Saturday

This afternoon and evening, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Drury's house for Christmas. We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts. It was nice for my mom to visit with Nicky's parents, as they haven't seen each other in awhile. The kids always love to go to Grandma's house at Christmas, because Grandpa puts up lots of lights in the back yard and they can all play out there. We didn't have a fire this time, but we did have a very nice visit. Grandma and Grandpa are going to Disney World with Connie and Tommy, some cousins from SC over Christmas, so we did our Christmas early. We'll miss Grandma and Grandpa at dinner on Christmas day.

Mamo Visits

My mom arrived last night for a visit over Christmas. We are very excited to have Mamo here! She brought her dog, Pheeby, too, so this house will be very active during the next couple weeks!! :-)

Today we pretty much chilled so Mamo could rest from her trip. In the afternoon, we went to Wal-Mart, which wasn't quite as busy as I had anticipated. Thank goodness!! :-)

Ice!!

Wow! There was ice on the windshield this morning when I took the girls to school at 7. We couldn't believe it. That was really cool, especially since it's only December. IF we get ice at all during a winter, it's usually in late January up to mid-February, so this was pretty neat. The kids were also so excited that they could see their breath outside this morning, too. It was funny because they were all standing out there breathing hard and laughing, while shivering their boots off. I kept saying, "Get in the car, people!" They're crazy! lol But, they were having fun. I think the temp. in the car said 41 degrees. Pretty cool for us. Now, if it will just stay around (or at least come back) til Christmas!! :-)

Indy's First Hunting Trip

Indy went hunting with Nicky for the first time, this past weekend. On the very first morning hunt, Nicky killed a deer! It was a spike and Indy was sooo excited! He was right there when his dad killed it. The only reason Nicky didn't give Indy the shot was because it was waaay too far away and it was behind some trees. Otherwise, Indy might have shot it! Here is a picture of Indy with the deer on the back of the buggy before they took it in.
Indy helped Nicky gut it in the woods and then drag it back to the buggy. When they got to camp, Indy helped Nicky while he skinned it. Indy was so excited that that deer (and shooting a gun) was the only thing he could talk about for days! I think he's hooked. He even wants to skip his choir Christmas program next weekend, even though he's got a solo, just so he can go hunting again!

This is a picture of Indy working with the chains to hold the buggy down on the trailer so they can head back to camp. He had a great time this weekend and I'm soo glad he got to go and spend time with his dad (not to mention the deer!!).