Christmas, Round 3: Cabot

Ok, this is my third and FINAL Christmas post for 2010! New Year's weekend Kristin and I headed to Cabot. The day started out with a bang, literally. Early Friday morning a tornado hit the area and really did some damage. It was an EF3 tornado. Kristin and I never heard a thing..no rain, no wind, no sirens!! Around 9 we got a call from my inlaws checking on us...but we had no clue what had happened! A friend and coworker of mine's home was completely destroyed. She has a fractured vertabrae and chipped bone in her leg. Her husband has a broken back, broken ribs and both lungs were collapsed. But thankfully, they are going to be ok. Please keep them in your prayers.

We did make it to Cabot without any problems and had a good weekend. Kristin immediately opened her presents from Mom and was thrilled with her guitar!! She has been wanting one for a long time and I found an awesome deal on Amazon for this one, so I told Mom about it and she got it for her. I guess guitar lessons are in her future!



Lynn and Lindsay got to Cabot Friday night. Then there was more present opening! I'm not sure how it happened but I don't have any pictures of me with my presents! Mom got me my new crock pot (which I actually bought before Thanksgiving), and a WONDERFUL new foam matress for the bed. I LOVE It :) Lynn got me a new purse :) a yearly tradition almost!!!



We rang in the new year and pretty much just hung out visiting all weekend. Johnny and Brandon came back Sunday and we gave Brandon his presents...an itunes card and one of Chris' jackets :)

Here's a pic of Brandon wearing the jacket and looking like a nut :) But we love him!

Lindsay, Brandon and Kristin


Now it's back to reality, and I'm glad. Kristin and I enjoyed our week off, but we both need routine. Kristin missed seeing her friends and I just am not meant to stay at home. And I have to say, I have the best job in the world....getting greeted every morning with hugs and "I love you" is the BEST!

Christmas, Round 2: Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We had a great day! K woke around 8 and we unwrapped presents. She got me an awesome fleece blanket and a necklace and earrings. Before you watch the movie below, you need a little backstory. K is obsessed with the Titanic. A few years ago when we went to the Titanic museum in Branson, Chris got K a Heart of the Ocean necklace. Well, not long after he died the necklace broke and she was devestated. One thing she asked Santa for was a new necklace. After she opened all the gifts from me and from Santa, there was no necklace...so she thought....Santa hid a small present behind the tree :)

Christmas2010

We had our usual Christmas breakfast of biscuits and chocolate gravy. Our lunch was a repeat of Thanksgiving with ham and hashbrown casserole! Yum! We spent the day playing the new games K got and we saw the new Narnia movie. What a great day! Our first Christmas without Chris was sad, but we know he got to experience the most awesome Christmas celebration ever! And if it's possible to get into trouble in Heaven, I'm sure he and my Dad are deep in it!

I have a new toy, thanks to a good friend. I've wanted a Macbook for awhile now, and was given one for pretty much next to nothing! She was upgrading to the Macbook Pro so I'm now the proud owner of a "new to me" Macbook :) I'm already used to it and am thinking that poor old Dell is going to end up for Kristin!

Merry (late) Christmas to me! What did you get for Christmas?

Christmas, Round 1: Joplin

Yesterday Kristin and I celebrated our first round of Christmas. We spent the day in Joplin with Chris' family. We had a fun day of organized chaos! Ok, there was no organization, but it was chaos and it was fun!!! We had a wonderful homemade lasagna thanks to Grandpa, delicious desserts, then the chaotic, but fun, opening of the presents!












I can't believe Christmas is almost here!!! I was planning on going to Mom's for Christmas, but Kristin was adamant that she wanted to be at home Christmas day. She does not like change and I guess the combination of Chris not being here and us not being at home would've been too much for her. So, we will be at home Christmas day, then New Year's weekend we'll go to Cabot for Christmas, Round 3!! I can't wait to be on Christmas break! Usually we just have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, but the way the holidays all fell on the weekend, we would've only been open two days the week after Christmas, so we just decided to close for the week. We barely have any kids that week anyway. Plus, we are open year-round and I think for the sanity of the teachers, we NEED to close that week! But Chris always said that anyone who teaches preschool can't be normal! Anyway, Christmas is quickly approaching and we are ready! Are you?

Happy Holidays????

Copyright © 2000 Dean Galloway

Ok, it seems that there is a big controversy over whether or not one should say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas." I didn't realize it was that big of a deal until a couple of co-workers were addressing the issue and were adamant that you should say "Merry Christmas." I guess I've never really thought about it. I can see both sides of the issue. While I usually say Merry Christmas, I'm not going to be offended if someone tells me "Happy Holidays" or if I get a card that reads "Seasons Greetings." After all, it is the hoildays and people are sending greetings of the season, so to speak. And I see why businesses put up "Happy Holidays" decorations...they can put it out in November and leave it out till January and have all the holidays covered.

But I would be very upset if I was told I could NOT tell someone to have a Merry Christmas. And I do get ticked when someone says "holiday tree" instead of "Christmas Tree." I mean, really. It's a CHRISTMAS tree...it's not like it's for all the holidays in December....it's for Christmas. Is there such a thing as a "Holiday Menorah?" That does bother me a bit. But, just so you know, if you tell me "Happy Holidays" I won't be offended. Ok, I'm done now, but what do y'all think? What's your opinion??

Season's Greetings and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Christmas in Cabot

Last weekend we went to Cabot for our third and final installment of Christmas 2009! We got to Cabot late Friday night, but of course the kids wanted to open presents.

Mom and her presents

Lindsay opening her Paperoni

Brandon and his new clothes

Not sure why I look mad, but I was very happy with my Crock Pot!

Lynn likes her perfume!

While we were opening presents a wrapping paper throwing battle was underway. Here's K hurling a wad of paper at Brandon.

Kristin and Nene. Nene gave Kristin a new Princess Bible and gave me and Lynn two of Dad's Bibles.


Johnny had to drive back to West Memphis, so he was in a hurry. But he had to open his present from us first...it was wrapped in a box, the the present itself was wrapped about 6 times! It was all Kristin's idea! A nice Carrabba's gift card was what he got!


We pretty much just relaxed over the weekend. The girls had a good time, but they always do. Kristin really misses her cousins!




We also celebrated Chris' birthday, complete with chocolate cake, poppers and confetti!


Sunday morning was a little crazy. Northwest Arkansas had gotten snow overnight and I540 was a mess, so we hurriedly threw on some clothes, packed, took family pictures....and ended up staying another night! We decided it wasn't worth trying to get back before Monday, so we spent an extra night. The roads were better the next day, but all up and down 540 you could see where people had gone off the road. Here are some pictures we took when we thought we were leaving!

Kristin loves Brandon!

Sunday night we built a fire and roasted marshmallows!

We've gotten lots of winter weather. The kids have only gone to school two days this week. Yesterday they closed more for the very cold weather, rather than the road conditions. Kristin has had fun going to Sunshine Montessori with me. Here she is with her buddy Jael. They have been friends since they were babies at the Children's Center...now they are 7 and 8!!!

Oh, Chris got me a late Christmas present...a Keurig coffee maker! Everyone was sold out of them at Christmas, but apparently more are in. Kristin loves it as much as I do....we have been drinking coffee nonstop! I'll have to order some of the hot cocoa for Chris since he is the non-coffee drinker!

Christmas in Joplin, Christmas Eve and White Christmas

Well, two out of our three Christmases are complete. The weekend before Christmas, we went to Joplin since Chris has to work Christmas night. Actually Chris and Kristin went...I had a horrible migraine and I stayed home. Here are some pics they got with K's new camera...they aren't great, but I'm just happy they got some pictures!

My sister-in-law Brandy, with Beau

Kristin and cousin, Hunter

A Nintendo DSi!!!!

Christmas Eve Krisitn and I went out to do some last minute shopping for Chris. I knew it would be worse than a normal Christmas Eve since we had snow coming....everyone would be out getting groceries and such, but we went anyway, and had so much fun. We just went to Wal-Mart and managed to not let Chris see us. We did run into the store manager who said it was busier than the day after Thanksgiving...crazy! He was anxiously awaiting a shipment of milk to come in since they were pretty much out. I was thankful I'd done my grocery shopping the night before. Anyway, we got our gifts, and made our way home. It was rainy and cold. Around 5 it started sleeting and then later changed over to snow. Kristin and I made our cookies for Santa while the snow moved in...

The dogs were less than excited about everything going on!

We read the Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas then K FINALLY got to sleep (the last time we'd checked the santa tracker, he was in North America, so she hopped in bed, but got out several times and even told me to sleep on the couch so I could catch Santa!) and Santa got to work.

Kristin and her letter from Santa

Santa's work is done!

Visions of sugarplums???

The next morning K woke us up around 7:30 saying "Santa was here and brought me the doll I wanted!" Here are a few pictures:

Kristin was so excited to get a Touch n Brush!

After K opened her presents, she got dressed to go play in the snow. We got 3-4 inches and this was K's second white Christmas (her first was the year she was born).

Our usual Christmas morning breakfast: biscuits and chocolate gravy.

This year I bought baklava...Chris and K had never had it, and I love it, so I decided they needed to try it. They loved it, of course. Maybe one day I will get brave enough to try to make it. Until then, Wal-Mart bakery works just fine! Oh, Chris and I got presents too, but we can never wait until Christmas to give them! Chris got two gift cards..one to MLB.com and Nascar.com, a couple of Wii games and new pajama pants. I got a spafinder gift card, the 4th season of Criminal Minds, perfume, and Chicago Cutlery knives (Chris gave those to me after Thanksgiving!).

We pretty much just hung around the house the rest of the day. K played outside a lot and we made snow cream. Around 9:30 Chris left for work and K and I watched Titanic. She LOVES that movie and anything about the Titanic (yesterday we went to Calahan's for lunch and they had the tv on the weather channel. Well, they were talking about icebergs and the Titanic. Kristin had to changes seats so she could watch it!) We turned it off though before the ship sank and went to bed.

Yesterday we took K to the movies...we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was cute. We saw a preview for Alice in Wonderland. It looks so crazy, but the story of Alice is pretty freaky...he had to have been on something when he wrote it. Anyway, I'm sure we'll be going to see it. Kristin has a somewhat twisted sense of humor and imagination...it's right up her alley!

Next weekend we are going to Cabot for our third Christmas. On Wednesday morning Kristin is having three teeth pulled. Two on the bottom and one on top. The permanent teeth are coming in behind the baby teeth, so they baby ones have to be pulled. Luckily our dentist does oral sedation, which is great, because Kristin is going to need something other than laughing gas to calm her down. I may need something myself. Hopefully it will all go well and the rest of her teeth come in where they are supposed to! If we keep on like this, the tooth fairy is going to go broke!