Home for Christmas

I just returned from a 10-day trip to Texas for the Christmas holiday. I am so thankful that I was able to be home for such an extended time period. It gave me a chance to see lots of family and friends and to really catch up with everyone (unlike the usual quick, crammed, rushed weekends I spend in Texas). I took the overnight flight to Dallas on the 17th and arrived at 9:00am just in time for Hannah’s 4th birthday party – breakfast with Santa. Hannah has been talking about her party for months and was so excited that it was finally the big day and that Aunt Mary made it all the way from Portland. I’m so glad that I was able to be there to celebrate with her – she’s getting so big!!

I headed to Waco the next day and was there for the rest of my trip. I loved being able to relax at home, go for walks with my mom around the neighborhood, watch old home videos, eat at all of my favorite local spots, enjoy 85 degree sunny weather, go to the 7th & James Christmas Eve Service, see all of my high school friends, run into people I knew all over town, drive to Austin to have lunch with Merrill and Baby Parker, spend lots of time with Hannah (including my very first Zumba class), do workout videos with little cousin Genevieve, go shopping with my mom and Sarah, have dinner with family friends, play the piano whenever I wanted, go with Carter to get his first haircut, and just be with all of my family who came in town for the holiday.

I especially enjoyed having dinner and spending the night at Sarah and Taylor’s house on Christmas Eve so that I could see Carter open his stocking and gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. He literally screamed with excitement when he saw his new train set, and was nearly just as excited about the chapstick and bandaids he got in his stocking.

Emily, Brett and the girls drove to Waco on Christmas Day.  It was great to have the whole family together - a rare occurance now-a-days.  Poor little Alice Anne was sick the whole time and just wanted to lay in her mommy's lap.  But Hannah and I spend lots of quality time together.  We were pretty much attached at the hip.  We played hide-and-seek, colored, played Disney princess songs on the piano, went out to dinner and breakfast with the "big kids" (the older cousins), and had sleepovers every night.  It was a sad morning when she left to go home - you would have thought we were never going to see each other again.  But I loved getting to spend so much time with my favorite four-year-old neice.

Overall, it was a great Christmas in Texas.  It couldn't have been better!