Christmas in Mathis

Uncle Cantrell and Nathan

 At Thanksgiving the sisters decided that we could all get together for family Christmas the weekend of the 15th in Mathis. Evidently that worked for everyone else's schedule too because the whole Houston bunch came too! Nathan and I had recovered from the stomach bug from the weekend before (my birthday weekend) and were looking forward to a nice weekend with family. The timing also saved me from the two Christmas parties the night of the 15th that were conflicting (young families at church and EY WM team in Kingwood). I managed to get all the presents bought in advance but did not actually get them wrapped until the night before we left. That meant I had to pack us up Saturday morning which always puts us running behind.

Joule helping the wrapping process.

We wake up Saturday morning at the crack of dawn as usual and quickly notice that Nathan feels warm. So we take his temperature and sure enough it's above 101. Wooooonderful. I start packing anyway telling myself that 101 isn't that bad and it is probably just an ear infection. He was acting perfectly fine and playing in a good mood. But I called Kimberley and Kelley anyway since they both have little ones that would be sensitive to what Nathan might have had. Oh, I forgot to mention that his daycare had sent home a note earlier that week saying hand-foot-mouth was going around his class. I only got ahold of Kimberley and she helped persuade me it was still okay to come and she would not hold us responsible if Chance or Breydon caught HFM (highly contagious). Of course she had ulterior motives for wanting me to come, but we'll get to that in a little while. I was still in denial and telling myself it was an ear infection so I finished packing us up. I took his temperature again before we left (his mood was deteriorating by then) and sure enough it had climbed to above 102. At this point I felt like the worst mommy in the world but we still dosed Nathan with Tylenol and loaded up the car with presents, luggage and us. Then, because this was a horrible morning already, my car decided not to start.  We had to wake up the neighbor (who does shift work) to borrow jumper cables. Luckily that worked on the first try and we got on the road about an hour and a half late.

The ride down was uneventful. Nathan slept or sat quietly awake for the majority of the trip. We finally got to Mathis around 1:00 or so and ate lunch from the leftovers that hadn't yet been put up from the big meal. We also noticed that Nathan was starting to get faint spots on his cheeks that we figured were just bumps from sleeping up against his carseat strap covers for so long (remember the denial?).

Nathan livened up a little bit around his cousins but was still being super clingy and acted tired. His fever didn't want to stay down so we had to keep dosing him with Tylenol and Advil all day long. We waited for Cynthia and Bill to arrive before opening presents, which was torture on the kids who knew what was going on (mostly Allen and Breydon). I think we finally got around to opening around 4:00 or so. I didn't take very many pictures since I was trying to open Nathan's presents and keep an eye on Mom who had a special present to open from us.

Mom finally got around to picking up the special little box we had for her then proceeded to torture Jimmy, Kim (who also knew what was inside) and I with the slowest gift opening spectacle I've ever seen! Of course she didn't know it was special and didn't know we were all watching her from across the room, so she can be somewhat forgiven. She was also distracted by watching Cantrell and Allen opening their presents since they were the closest to her. After Kim berated me for taping the box closed, and thus prolonging the suspense even longer, Mom fiiiinally got the thing open. She lifted up the size 2T "Big Brother" shirt and held it in front of her for at least 30 seconds, no doubt wondering if I had mislabeled the box. Then the lightbulb turned on and she lowered the shirt slightly to peer over the top at me looking for confirmation. I just said, "Oh, did I put the wrong name on the box?" She just started laughing that half-laugh half-cry thing people do and came over to give us a hug. We then showed off the shirt to the rest of the family who almost universally said, "Really?!"  It made the whole trip worth it, even though I won worst mommy of the year by taking my obviously sick child around all his cousins three and a half hours south of his own home.

So now the trick was keeping the happy news within my family since we planned on surprising Lori on Christmas Eve in a similar fashion. Everyone (mostly Mom and Kelley who live and work in Sinton also) complained that Christmas Eve was soooo far away but nevertheless agreed to keep quiet.

Nathan got more toys this year than last year when it was mostly clothes.  He got a Melissa & Doug puzzle train (Skipper & Dayle); sweaters (Bill & Cynthia); Leapfrog Alphabet tablet and Big Brother book (Aunt Kimberley & Uncle Kevin); a Cowboys tote bag and magnet scribble pad (Aunt Kelley & Uncle Chris); a Hallmark read-along friend Nugget the puppy and accompanying book and glow tent with writing wand (Grammy), superhero cars (Uncle Cantrell) and foam dinosaurs for the bathtub (Gigi).  Again, no pictures...sorry.

Allen building his present fort.

Breydon copying Allen and building his fort.

Grammy, Nathan and Gigi

Aunt Kimberley and Cousin Chance

The rest of the day was spent playing with cousins, puppy dogs and getting asked questions like, "Are you going to have a baby sex party?" (courtesy cousin Tommy) I responded that we already had that party but we would think about doing a gender reveal. We left Grandma's house at around 6:00 and headed back to Lori's house in Sinton. Nathan took a catnap on the way there and was refreshed enough to play with Popo a little while before bedtime.

Pumpkin could hardly hold still long enough for Nathan to "throw" the ball.

This is Nathan looking at the ball with an "ewwww" expression.

He slept horribly that night and ended up coming into bed with us  around midnight because he was otherwise inconsolable. By the next morning there was no more denying it. My baby had more spots on his mouth and was starting to get them on his hands and feet. My precious angel had HFM. Bad mommy! Of course he didn't want to eat because of the sore throat so we had a difficult morning before packing up to head home.

One trick we managed before leaving was to fit Nathan's present from Lolo (a Radio Flyer two-seater wagon) in the trunk with all of our luggage, presents and pack-n-play since she was certain they wouldn't have enough room when they came the next weekend (turns out she was right). We had to put our suitcase in the backseat, but everything else fit perfectly in the trunk, despite the naysayers around me who said it couldn't be done. Doubters. The ride home wasn't as good as the one going down. Nathan slept only a little and was hard to keep entertained the rest of the time. But we finally made it home and thus ended a short but long weekend that was full of the happiness of sharing our news and the concern of taking care of a sick munchkin.

Next up, an update on the pregnancy and Christmas at home (although perhaps not in that order).

Prepping for Christmas

Our first attempt at outdoor Christmas lights.  Daddy did a good job! Nathan and I supervised.

As I was getting ready to post about our Christmas with my family in Mathis, I came across all the pictures of us getting ready for Christmas.  Putting up the tree, putting lights up outside, baking brownies, taking Christmas card pictures, making presents and wrapping gifts. So I wanted to say a few quick words about those activities before moving on to the main events.

This year Nathan helped us decorate the tree, and we realized how small our tree really was.  We remembered that we bought it from Target while still in the apartment at Woodlake on the Bayou and according to the sticker still on it paid a whopping $16.00. Regardless, we decided to go colorful this year and put up colored lights and mostly just colorful balls.  Nathan helped out by handing me hooks and whatever color I asked him to (my smart boy). It took a while, and when the tree was full he didn't really understand that we had to stop putting up ornaments.

After we got the tree up we were able to take pictures for Christmas cards.  We were way behind on getting those taken care of this year.  We originally wanted to do family pictures for the card, but funds dictated that we do at-home pictures of Nathan instead. I loved the reindeer ears but Jimmy preferred the Santa hat (almost too small for Nathan this year) so we compromised and took pictures in both.

We also spent some time making presents for Grammy and Lolo.  We made hand print ornaments (that were supposed to turn into snowmen but mommy dropped the ball) and also hand print wreaths.  Never again will I make TWO of these things. After finally getting a good tracing, I cut out 36 little hands and glued them to some heavy cardboard circles.  My poor hand ached for days. After the wreaths dried, Nathan helped me glue on pom poms and big glitter circles.  He chose what to put on and where to put them and I would put a glob of glue and he would help press them on. We made a bit of a mess but had fun working on them.  I didn't get any pictures of the process since I was at home alone working on them with him, but here are the finished products.

Nathan's class party was the Friday before Christmas weekend.  I took the day off, so Jimmy and I went by and participated in the "pizza party."  As a side note, Nathan will randomly say, "Knock knock." When you respond, "Who's there?" he will say, "Pizza party!!"  We have since learned that they read a book at school where this is the final tag line (which was comforting because we had no idea where he had come up with that on his own).

The last thing we did before Christmas here at home was make brownies.  We washed our hands before starting of course, then set Nathan up on the counter and got to work. Nathan helped pour and stir (and fling) and generally made a mess.  But the brownies tasted yummy so our objective was achieved.

First up - dark chocolate brownies for Daddy.

Next - milk chocolate brownies for Mommy.  Notice I am now covered in brownie mix.

Nathan is not sure what to do about the mess on his hands.

Peppermint bark dark chocolate brownies. Mmmm.

Overall our Christmas prep was a lot more fun this year with our big helper.  I can't wait until next year when he understands even more of the Christmas magic!

Thanksgiving Tour of Texas 2012

Thanksgiving this year was just like every other. We went too many places and ate too much food. Our Thanksgiving journey started on Wednesday when we traveled to Sinton (with a pit stop in Refugio to pick up Jimmy's great aunt) to have our first Thanksgiving lunch with Jimmy's mom and grandparents. Normally the list of attendees also includes Aunt Ashley, but she was not able to break away from her retail internship in California. To commemorate her absence (and the absence of her pies, homemade rolls and cranberry relish) Jimmy spent the day sending her pictures with sad faces. I'm only putting a few below so I don't get in (too much) trouble. But lunch was wonderful and we all willingly had yummy left overs for dinner. The meal consisted of turkey, cranberry dressing, green beans (with bacon and Rotel), sweet potatoes, fruit salad, cranberry sauce (ridges lovingly shaped by Grandpa), dinner rolls and giblet gravy. Dessert was a pumpkin roll made by Lori. The biggest problem of the day was that I took zero pictures of the feast, but I did get some pictures of Nathan (and Bella).

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Where is your cranberry relish!?"

"There are no pies."

Nathan and Popo looking outside for Lucky (Lolo's dog).

Bella supervising Lori washing the dishes.

Such a shock, another picture with Popo.  Those two are attached at the hip!

Christmas preview #1

Christmas preview #2

Hanging out with Popo...again!

Wednesday morning we were treated to a breakfast of bacon and eggs (and tortillas from the Sinton bakery) before we hit the road again for Bishop and my grandmother's house. We were actually the first ones to arrive besides Aunt Connie and Mark (who had arrived the day before). We actually came startlingly close to having the whole family together this year. In attendance we had Uncle Roy and his clan (Brandi, Cody, Trey and Heather), Kelley and the kids, mom, Cantrell and grandma Bryan, Aunt Connie and Mark, Nicole and Gregory. We were missing Chris and Crystal to work schedules, Kim and her crew in Austin and Makayla at her Lala's. We were all making the special effort this year because my cousin Trey (Roy's youngest) joined the Marines and leaves for boot camp in mid December. I haven't spent much time around Trey in several years and our age difference was such that we never really had much to talk about other than the obligatory cousin hug and "how are you?" So much to my surprise he's all grown up and actually seems ready to join our country's armed forces. Fancy that.


Thanksgiving #2 was almost catered by the Bishop Dairy Queen. By about noon we realized that the turkey wasn't fully cooked due to an element being out in my grandma's oven. So we had several extra hours of cooking time before we were able to warm everything back up and actually have lunch. But eventually everything got cooked through and we were all able to sit down and enjoy our meal of turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce (ridges courtesy of Aunt Connie), sausage, broccoli salad, rolls, gravy and sweet potatoes. And because my family is made up of grazers we also had pickles, black olives and chips with pimento cheese (ew) out to snack on before and after. For dessert was pecan pie (made by Memaw), chocolate cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies.

While we were in Bishop the kids enjoyed playing outside with sidewalk chalk, bubbles and a croquet set my grandmother has for some strange reason. Inside there were Legos and other puzzles to take apart and put halfway together again. Most of the group was inside watching the Texans football game while the rest sat out on the back porch watching the munchkins run around. Did I mention that it was over 80 degrees outside? Such nonsense for Thanksgiving day.

We drove straight home late morning on Friday with a stop for lunch at Whataburger in Edna. When we got home we discovered that the cats protested our travel by throwing up everywhere, both upstairs and down. Welcome home! Spot cleaning such a disaster was just too daunting to think about, so Jimmy went to HEB to rent a carpet cleaner. We cleaned the downstairs Friday evening and did the upstairs Saturday morning before leaving for Cynthia and Bill's house (and by "we" I mostly mean Jimmy). And that brings me to Thanksgiving #3!

My dads side of the family (plus some) all got together in Houston this year at my cousins house. Kim, Kevin and the boys, Kelley and the kids (Chris was still working), Cantrell, mom, grandma, Uncle Skipper and Aunt Dayle, Tommy, Shirley, Tyler and Shirley's daughter Heather, her fiancé Jiles, Shirley's mom Dolores and Jiles' mom (I think, I never caught her name but she had an English accent so I made the guess), Travis, Jill and the girls and Cynthia and Bills housekeeper Sam and her son Samuel. That makes 30 people, including the seven kids!! Poor Pumpkin (Bill and Cynthia's dog) was a little overwhelmed by it all.

Lunch was amazing as expected with Skipper and Cynthia cooking. I'll list what I remember but there was So. Much. Food. Here goes: Fried turkey, stuffed pork loin, dressing, fresh fruit salad, green beans, roasted brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (sans ridges), mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, and scratch made rolls. Dessert was pecan pie, strawberry pie, chocolate pie, peppermint bark, and chocolate chip brownies. Also pickled okra and pickles were out for snacking. Soooo good!

The kids enjoyed playing outside and busied themselves going up and down the many steps in Cynthia's house.  I jealously looked on while Chance and Tyley went down for naps.  We tried to get Nathan down with no luck.  But he was being good, so we didn't leave until close to 3:30pm.  As we were leaving we saw one of the wild peacocks wandering around the neighborhood.  He was so beautiful but didn't spread his tail for me. 

Nathan of course fell asleep on the way home and slept like a rock for 2 hours.  He was NOT in a good mood when we woke him up, but warmed up after watching Chance and Breydon run around and play with all his toys for a few minutes.  We took him up for bed a little later than usual that night, but not terribly late.  He went to sleep relatively easy and the grownups settled down to play some serious Phase 10. I had to leave the game early because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, but not before making a comeback in phases.  When I asked who won the next morning they confessed that they didn't continue playing, so I guess that means I won!

 All in all the weekend was filled with family, football and lots and lots of food.  I certainly felt like I needed a vacation after it was all said and done!  Just a few more weeks when we get to do it all again for Christmas.