Well I am finally making time for the conclusion to the Christmas trilogy for those who have been sitting on the edge of their chairs in anxious anticipation for the big finale!! As I said we left Friday, December 28, (Mark's birthday) and headed south to Duncan for a long weekend with my family. It started on a concerning note as my middle sister came down with a stomach bug that very morning so we were conerned about exposing the kids to that. It has happened more than once in the past with my family that we pass those type of bugs around and another person drops every few hours. We didn't think she was going to come until later in the weekend and we were going to delay our gift exchange but she perservered and when we arrived she and her husband were at my parent's house waiting on us. Auntie KK traveled with us and got off to a late start as we got about 10 min away from Piedmont and realized that we forgot to return several movies we had rented, so rather than face a 5 day late fee for 3 movies we went back and returned them. Then we decided to stop at Sonic for Mark's birthday dinner, YUMMY!! Finally we were southbound and left Piedmont in the dust.
As I said we arrived to find the whole family present and accounted for so we had our gift exchange. I think everyone was very happy as we basically provided each other with specifics regarding what we wanted. We do a name draw to each get one nice gift rather than feel like everyone has to buy for everyone. We all buy for the kids so they made out well as usual. The big finale was the big kids (myself, Mark, my sisters, and brother-in-law) gift to the parents which was an awesome collection ( if I do say so myself) of camping goodies and accessories to compliment the new 5th wheel camper. KK and I had spent a good hour wrapping each item individually and placed them all in a big basket as the pics will show. I think Mom and Dad were surprised but not as surprised as we were with what came next. We were all a little bummed about getting older and just getting money (which is great, but not as exciting in the moment) instead of having surprise gifts to open. So mom and dad came up with a dirty santa of their own. They had spent hours searching and selecting a variety of fun and silly gifts to play dirty santa with and that's what we did. I have to mention that dad took extra time and scribed a funny poem on each gift that added to the fun of the whole game. It was a really neat surprise and although I don't think we can top the first time, this might be a new tradition for us.
The rest of our time was spent just hanging out, eating, playing with the kids toys (mostly Mark and KK playing the boys Nintendo DS), watching football, and eating some more. We made a trip to Lawton one day and Mark and Granny Jan took the boys to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie which they absolutely loved. My sisters and I took advantage of the time to do a little shopping and found a few after Christmas bargains. Papa Dave and Uncle Chris were kind enough to lay around and watch football while supervising Addi's nap. Later that day we wolfed down some pizza, piled in the van, and headed to Chickasha to see the lights. It was cold but not unbearable and we rounded out the evening with you guessed it, food! Ice cream to be specific at the Dairy Queen in Chickasha.
One of the adventures was discovering that we accidentally left the lights on overnight in the van, depleting the battery to the point we had to be boosted to get going again. That was a new experience for the kids and Addi was not happy about it. Needless to say we've been more careful about making sure the lights are off now.
We promised the boys we would go bowling on New Year's Eve so we all loaded up and made the 10 min trek to the bowling alley only to find out it was booked up. Now who would have thought that the local bowling alley in Duncan, OK, would be booked until 5:00 am on New Year's? Not me. So the kids were bummed but we ended up going and finding some party hats, etc, and let the kids stay up as late as they wanted.
As you see in the pics we also had a birthday party for Mark complete with a gift wrapped in birthday and not Christmas paper, an important component of a birthday so close to the holidays. Uncle Chris's bd was celebrated as well as it was the first family get-together since his big day. Any excuse to have more cake!
Well we are so blessed and have had an amazing Christmas. It was good to see everyone and the schedule really worked out well. It's always such work to make it all happen but so worth it. We came home late New Year's Day and went right back to work on wed and school on thursday. The following weekend was spent packing away all our Christmas decor and returning our home to normal, whatever that it. I took advantage of the cleaning to rearrange the furniture which is one of my favorite things to do. My next project is to clean out and paint the kids playroom upstairs. I'll let you know how it goes. Until later..........
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