Christmas 2008

What a busy 2 weeks we had!! On Friday the 19th we drove up to Dallas where Paul's brother lives and spent Friday night and most of Saturday with them. It was nice to spend time with them and catch up on what is going on in their lives. Paul's Parents drove down on Saturday and were there as well. It was like a mini Christmas celebration, we missed you Mark and Sharla. We ate a Turcken, stuffed with jambalaya and shrimp. Kind of funny, they bought it at central market in Dallas, but it originated from a store not too far from where we live in Houston, small world. It was OK, too fishy for me, but was a good for a change from the traditional turkey or ham. I guess I should explain for those that do not know a Turcken is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned chicken, it is Cajun... After dinner we opened presents and then packed up and were off to OKC.

We arrived at my folks house around 7PM and stayed there for about 6 days. While we were there we celebrated Christmas, spent time with the family and just tried to stay warm as it was below freezing outside most days. Paul was able to go hunting two days and on Christmas Eve we went ice skating. Nathan had more fun playing in the snow outside of the rink then he did ice skating. There were some games played, we played Hungry, Hungry Hippos, Cinderella, and of course Nathan enjoyed playing the Wii. He was quite good at tennis and bowling. Mom played pirates with Nathan, Kayla and Emily. Kayla liked to help mom in the kitchen cooking anything that was on the menu for the day. Emily's favorite past time was chasing Gizmo around and trying to get him to be her friend, it did not work. Gizmo is my cat that has been living at my parents home since we have been overseas, we may not bring him back, ever, he is pretty happy with the other animals at the house. Mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed being with family.

First of all no one told us Paul had a cross coming out of his head and no one told us Emily was chewing on a pacifier...

We eventually left my parent's house and went over to Paul's mom's house where we stayed for 5 days. It was nice to spend time with Paul's family and saw Paul's other brother and his wife. We celebrated Christmas with them and ate all sorts of wild meat. There was wild pig, duck, deer, pheasant and crappie (the fish). It all sounds worse than it is, once you get over what you are eating, it tastes pretty good. The wild pig was surprisingly good, but I would not eat it again after that evening. Plus the fact that Paul's sister-in-law found a hair from the pig in her meat. She handled it quite well, I would have been sick!! Nathan was able to talk Grandpa into going fishing, there were no fish caught, but I think they had fun trying. The park was visited almost daily, we went bowling one afternoon, and a trip to Harry Bears where the kids had an upside down milkshake (it is so thick that they hold it over your head and it does not spill). We played UNO attack, which is fun for the sole reason that the cards are shot out at you that is funny almost every time it happens, maybe it is just the sound effects that some people make when it happens. We were there for New Year's Eve which was spent playing Pictionary, it was fun and a good way to pass the time.

We left OKC on Thursday evening after dinner and made it back to our home IN Houston around 12:30AM. We made good time and the kids slept 80% of the ride, which was nice. It came at a cost however, once we made it home they were awake until about 2 Am, we were as well so it was not too awful. All in all it was a nice trip home and we had a good time seeing everyone. We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and may 2009 bring you lots of happiness.