CHRISTMAS 2014

I went to Son and DIL's house for Christmas day.  They wanted to have a relaxing morning and not worry about cooking too early, so we decided that I would get there around 11:00 and we would plan on eating around 2:00.  Santa had brought the kids electric scooters and they were riding them in their cul-de-sac when I arrived.  It was 73 degrees in H-town on Christmas.

Of course the minute I arrived, the kids were ready to open presents from me.  Every grandchild has all their presents wrapped in their own wrapping paper.  Then, I put all the presents out and they have to guess which group of presents is theirs by the wrapping paper.  They try to shake them to figure out if something sounds like something they have asked for.  The only problem is that I have wrapped Boy-child's presents in camo for the past couple of years and I needed to finish up that roll.  He knew right away which group of presents were his. Next year, he won't know.

We open presents where one person opens a gift, everyone watches them open the gift, and then we move to the next person.  We let the kids open all their gifts first and then the adults open their gifts.  We've done it where oldest goes first, youngest goes first, we've drawn names, we've drawn numbers.  This year Girl-child wanted to go first because she said middle children never get to be first at anything.  DIL, having been a middle child, felt her pain.  So, that was settled, Girl-child went first.

Waiting to open her gift

Once we said she could be first, she went for it.  This is about as much excitement as you will get from her.
 

We then moved to youngest.  So, Squeaky went next.  When I arrived that morning, she had on 1 outfit while she was outside riding her scooter.  Notice the outfits in the pictures.  And yes, I said outfits, as in plural.

Outfit number 2 when I sorted out the gifts.

Outfit number 3 while we were deciding who got to go first. I love her excitement. You always know how she feels about anything.
 

Boy-child is very demonstrative, like Squeaky.  He was very pleased with his gifts.

Since Daughter and family could not be here, we Skyped with them.  We did not open our gifts from them and they did not open their gifts from us until we were online together.

Son and DIL planned the menu.  We had ham, broccoli/rice/cheese casserole, macaroni & cheese, fried okra (everyone not from the south, don't turn up your nose if you have never tried it), deviled eggs, and cornbread.  Notice the absence of real vegetables?  Oh well, it is Christmas.  Why not eat all your faves and forget what's good for you for this one day?  All I know is everything was yummy!

I stayed until around 6:00ish and the grandkids wanted to spend the night with me which was OK with me.  We watched a movie and had snacks and played Uno and talked and did all the things we have fun doing together. I love those kids.

So, even though I was feeling kind of bummed this Christmas, it was a very good Christmas. I hope you had a good Christmas too.

Notice her matching necklace and bracelet - She is a girl after my own heart!

Give her money and you get some excitement!

My beautiful DIL with her Minnie Mouse headband. She had wanted one at Disney so I thought this would be a good present.



Son trying to look excited about his shirt. Anyone wonder where Girl-child gets it from?

My beautiful necklace that DIL had made for me.

DIL had gotten Curly and Popcorn nerf type dart guns.  She thought it would be more fun if SIL played with them. He had just opened his dart gun and were telling the girls that they were going down!

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FUN FRIDAY

Yesterday was a fun filled day.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera so I only have 1 photo, which someone else took, of all my fun. :(

First of all Thursday was Son and DIL's 15 year wedding anniversary. WOW! I don't know how she puts up with him but thank you God that she does! (And that's my son I'm talking about!)  Anyway, he planned a surprise for her and took her to a B&B in Round Top, TX.  Round Top is a cool place.  It is a small town surrounded by several other small towns and they all specialize in antiques.  There is "Antique Weekend" twice a year there.  It happens in March and September.  People come from everywhere and it is fun.  Vendors set up for 10 days of selling.  You can find a lot of awesome stuff.

So, they are going to be gone on Friday (the last day of school before Christmas break) and DIL asked if I would like to go to the Christmas parties at the elementary school where Boy-child, Girl-child, and Squeaky attend school.  I would love to! No one seemed overly enthused about this except for Girl-child.  She asked me specifically to please come.  She actually wanted me, Mr. W, and someone else to come and each of us to spend the entire time with one child.  I told her that Mr. W and I would come and we would have to split our time among all 3 classrooms.  It wasn't her ideal outcome but it would do. The parties started at 1:30 and lasted until 2:15.  We had 15 minutes in each classroom.  Each classroom was playing some sort of game with the kids and all the kids in each room was having a blast.

After the party, I headed to Son's house with the kids.  Son had asked me to bake 2 of his favorite Christmas cookies.  As a little kid until he moved out of my house, every Christmas I baked Magic Cookie Bars and Sandies just for him.  When he got to be a teenager, I could not keep enough of those in the house.  I would make a batch of each and it seemed that I was making another batch of each just in a couple of days.  DIL is on a gluten-free diet because she is allergic to gluten.  She does not like to make/bake things that she cannot eat.  I don't blame her, I wouldn't either.  So, sometimes Son doesn't get these cookies unless I make them.  To be honest, I love them too and it gives me an excuse to make some for Son and some for me! So, I spent the afternoon baking. Girl-child helped me for a few minutes which was an added bonus for me.  She rolled the Sandies in powdered sugar and I explained to her that these cookies were her Daddy's favorite Christmas cookies.  I also made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  She may be very picky about her food but that girl has a sweet tooth! Red velvet anything is her favorite.  So, she was all into mixing the batter for me. 

DIL's sister is in town for the holidays and she watched the kids later on that evening and Mr. W and I went to a "progressive" open house yesterday evening.  A couple that I went to high school with has a large, lovely home that they go completely overboard decorating for Christmas!  A lot of us from high school have connected on Facebook and keep in touch.  There is another friend who decorates her house quite extensively also.  Both couples have talked about their decorations and several of us "onlookers" expressed that we would love to see their homes all decorated.  This year, the 2 couples got together and planned a night for this to happen.  So, we all met at Gary and Barbara's home at 7:00, had a light dinner and drinks, admired their beautiful home and decorations, visited together and then around 8:45, we all made the 30 minute drive to Denise and Ken's home.  Why can't people in H-town live closer together? Haha!  Denise had made desserts.  We all had such a great time and kept saying how we needed to do this more often.  It was a little after midnight before we all decided that it was time to head out to our own homes.

A few of us visiting and laughing

I had a great time.  You know, it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. :)

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

It's the most wonderful time of the year.......or is it? I have enjoyed the lifestyle I now lead in almost aspect.  I've gotten to travel and see things that I've always wanted to see.  I don't have the responsibility of a sticks and bricks house.  I've been able to pretty much lead the same lifestyle as I did when Mr. W and I both worked.  But, when it gets to be this time of the year, I wish I had a house.

I miss being "put" and being able to put out Christmas decorations at Thanksgiving and keep them out til after Christmas.  I miss putting the kids' presents under the tree.  I miss having a tree. I miss the kids coming over and having hot chocolate and watching White Christmas.  I miss driving up to my house at night and seeing it all lit up with lights.  I miss the kids coming to my house on Christmas to open gifts and have Christmas dinner.  I miss having room to bake Christmas goodies all day on one day and then taking boxes of goodies to neighbors that I know.  And, Daughter and family moved to South Carolina and won't be home this year.

Last year was my first Christmas without a house. We were "put" last year because I was still doing a few shows with my business so we had made reservations early to finish out November and December in H-town.  I bought a grapevine tree and made 2 wreaths for the 5W (one for inside, one for outside).  I bought 2 stockings that I hung.  It was really a novelty last year and even then it didn't really "feel" right.  This year, we did not make reservations soon enough and because of all the construction/building going on in H-town, there are no vacancies in any of the RV parks for a month's stay.  I am staying 1 week in one place, 2 weeks in another place, and 1 week at another.  With all that moving around, I can't put up my grapevine tree and other things in the 5W because you have to be able to pack things away to move. 

So, I have felt myself feeling pretty melancholy.  I hadn't said anything to Mr. W about this until 2 days ago.  I hadn't said anything because I figured he would tell me how silly I was being and all the reasons that I "shouldn't" feel this way.  Surprisingly, he told me that he really missed having a house during this time too.  We talked about why we felt this way.   We both realize that when long time traditions change, we imagine things to be as we replay them in our minds.  Many times, they are different than we remember.  We also don't know where we want to put down roots. 

We are also in the process of planning a trip this coming spring and neither of us want a house to maintain and worry about while we are gone.  We like having our house with us with our own stuff, sleeping in our own bed, showering in my own shower, relaxing in our own recliners and cooking instead of eating out every meal.  We can also be gone as long as we like because we aren't paying the costs of owning a home and paying hotel costs and food costs.  RV living is pretty economical.

I am not sure what the answer is.  Maybe time is the answer.  Maybe it's not.  I guess I'm just not ready for that part of my life to change.  I had a lot of people tell me last year that I could make new traditions and make them special.  Yeah, maybe so.  But right now, I'm missing the old traditions.  Maybe I need to ask Santa for a new attitude for Christmas!

THE NUTCRACKER

Well, I made it back to H-town last week.  Disney just about did me in! I remember AGAIN why God gives children to young people!

We had to get back to H-town because Girl-child was dancing in her ballet school's production of the Nutcracker.  She is fascinated with dance and if anyone starts dancing on TV or in a movie or in person, she is going to stop whatever she is doing and watch.  She likes the idea of dancing and she likes jazzy dancing but she does not like ballet.  However, in order to take tap or jazz at the studio she goes to, you have to be in ballet.  Whether she realizes it or not, ballet is the foundation for dance.  It teaches you so much more than steps.  It teaches you form, posture, and grace. When her studio put out the news that they would be doing the Nutcracker, she was ready to try out to be in the production.  I don't think she cared what part she got just as long as she got one.  So, sure enough, she got a part. 

Dance studios have recitals at the same time school ends for the summer.  Since we were gone during that time, we did not get to see her dance in her recital.  She was upset that we weren't there so I was not going to miss the Nutcracker.  They had gotten home from Disney on Friday and her dress rehearsal was Saturday.  The performance was Sunday afternoon.  Mr. W had been to his share of recitals because Daughter was in dance for many years.  He was not looking forward to going to this but Son had been to the dress rehearsal and told him that it was pretty good and very different from a recital.  Sure enough it was.

Girl-child was in the first act.  So, there was still quite a bit of the performance left once she finished dancing.  But, they have some very talented ballerinas at their studio.  One of the neat things they did was that the tickets we received for the show had written on them, Featuring - Girl-child W.  Each families' tickets had their child's name as the featured dancer.  A pretty cool keepsake. When it was all said and done, Girl-child said that she wanted to participate in this again next year. It seems ballet isn't such a bad thing after all.  :)

She is on the right on the purple dress.  This is 2 of her friends, also in the show.

The program

No performance is complete without flowers or something.  In this case, I thought a nutcracker was appropriate for dancing in the Nutcracker!

FINAL DAY - EPCOT

I remember when I visited Epcot 25 years ago, I thought it looked so futuristic.  Well, it still looks the same, but now I think it looks like something stuck in the 70's trying to look futuristic.  I will say that there are a lot of really cool educational things for kids to do and participate in at Epcot.  The biggest thing you notice from all around the park is the BIG EARTH!

The very first ride we went to was called Test Track and it is sponsored by Chevrolet.  You start out by designing a car.  Then you get on the ride and you enter your car design in the ride.  It is a form of a roller coaster.  When you get off, you can enter your car design again and see how well your car design did on the "race track".  DIL's car did the best out of all of them.

Here's my car design

This was on display and I think this should be my next car. Don't you agree?

We did a ride that was Mission Space.  When you enter, you choose whether you want to do the "green" experience or the "orange" experience.  The green is less intense than the orange.  So, all of us decided to do the green first.  You enter a simulator and take a "trip to Mars".  Green - no problem.  OK, well let's do the orange.  We enter the simulator and start our trip to Mars.  In the instructions this time, he tells us that we should look straight ahead, especially if we start feeling disoriented.  What?  The spaceship (simulator) starts and this time the G force is REALLY strong and I start getting a headache.  Mr. W starts feeling nauseous and Son starts feeling "funny" like he can't breathe.  You notice the kids are all doing fine.  It's the adults that are having problems. I was glad when I got off the "orange" trip to Mars.

They have this really cool ride, Spaceship Earth.  It is an inside ride. You get on a chair lift that is sort of like a ferris wheel chair.  They tell you if you have on flip flops or loose fitting shoes to take them off and leave them on the floor. When the ride starts, you go up like you are in a ferris wheel.  We could see the people's feet dangling in the lift ahead of us.  Once we were up about 20 ft., we remained at that height and an I-Max type movie began.  You then feel like you are in a hand glider soaring over beautiful scenic places.  The cool thing is you smell your surroundings.  We went through/over an area that had pine tree and you could smell the pine.  We went through/over another area with orange trees and you could smell the orange.  Pretty cool.

Part of Epcot is also the showcase of the nations.  Many countries are showcased and most show a short movie about their country and highlights people, places, and things in their country.  Of course, there are characters here too and this time we saw Donald Duck.  Our day ended pretty early. I'm really glad that Epcot was our last day.  It made it easier to leave Disney.  Son and family went back to Magic Kingdom the next morning for a few hours before they left and it made it so much harder to leave from there. 

I will say that Disney has it going on with the way they do things.  Most of the lines for rides are inside.  There are things to look at or do or watch while you wait.  It occupies your time and keeps you entertained while you wait.  Their whole Fast Pass thing works really well.  They keep the crowds moving as quickly as possible.  We also stayed at Ft. Wilderness.  Mr. W complained the whole time before we went about how much we were paying to stay in a campground.  It is beautiful.  For as many sites as they have, you do feel like you have privacy.  They keep a lot of foliage around each site and the way each loop is designed, you don't feel like you are lined up side by side.  They had walking/running/riding trails throughout the park.  We had an issue with our electricity when we first got there and they sent someone out to fix it. It took them an hour to get there which I wasn't happy about.  But, we did get there on one of the busiest weekends they have so I will give them a break.  The bus transportation throughout the park and from the park to the theme parks was great.  You could literally park you driving vehicle when you got there and not start it again until you were ready to leave.  Good job Disney!

We met Donald in Mexico

I wanted to take this home to put with my other Christmas dishes.

Me with my favorite grandson! (He's my only grandson)

The whole kit and caboodle!  Pretty great looking group even if I do say so myself.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

The third park to visit was Animal Kingdom. 

Pretty much everything is centered around jungles and places that are home to lions, giraffes, and camels. I kept expecting the song The Circle of Life from The Lion King to start playing at any moment.  All of the souvenirs and t-shirts had something to do with wildlife or Yak and Yetti.  It rained quite a bit while we were there so then I started feeling like I was in the rain jungle!

Everything here was built around nature.  They had some beautiful animals and birds and they kept them in habitats that were natural to the animals.  There were a lot of quotes about the environment and the earth on all the walls and bare spaces around the park.  One of the things to do here is to go on a safari.  It is always fascinating to me to see these wild animals in their own environment and running loose as you drive through their home.

 

 

Do you know why hippos are usually seen in water?  They stay in the water a lot because they sunburn easily. Maybe I should work on inventing sunscreen for hippos?

We were on a bridge looking down at this.  This was just one side, there was the same thing on the other side.  I'm just glad we were on a STURDY bridge!

I love giraffes.

I don't think you can tell from the pic, but these birds have a pinkish tint.  They are white naturally but they eat a lot of shrimp which is high in carotene.  Thus, they turn pinkish.

This guy was not happy that we were there.  I was glad when we weren't there anymore!

Can you see the cheetahs?  Did you know that they are the only cats that hunt during the day because they can't see at night?

The stripes on the zebra cause an optical illusion to a lion when they are running.  It confuses the lion and makes it off balance.  That's how they survive sometimes.

After the safari, they suggested you see more animals at the Harambe Wildlife Reserve.  We walked through and did some monkeys and gorillas.  They had had 2 baby gorillas born recently.  One was 2 months old and the other was 5 months old. 

This is the 2 month old baby with its mother.

There was another area that had animals too.  We walked through there and saw tigers, a peacock, a macaw and fruit bats.  Fruit bats are the largest bats in the world.  These were all hanging upside down on tree limbs and vines.  You stood inside a "concrete room" that was off the walkway to look at the bats.  I got close to one of the windows to take a picture and realized that all the windows were open areas.  There was no glass or screen or anything to cover the opening.  I was a little concerned about that but then the man standing there giving information told us that the bats have no ankles so they can only hang upside down or fly.  Because they are so big, their wing span was too big for them to fit through the openings. I thought that was pretty interesting.

I forgot about this guy.  He is some kind of monster.

This tiger kept pacing and roaring because she wanted inside the 2 small doors on the left.  She thought her sister was in there.

Here's her sister.  She's taking a nap on the other side of the compound.

Daughter and SIL lived in India for 3 years.  Thank goodness they are back in the USA.  That's a whole different story.  But, while they were there one of their girls was born so I went over to stay for about 3 weeks.  While I was there I learned what a "wallah" was.  If you were a garbage collector, you were a "trash wallah".  There was a man who lived down from them that took in ironing to earn a living and he was the "press wallah".  So, when I saw the sign in the picture below, I had to take a picture of it for Daughter's sake.

I also thought about the rickshaws so Mr. W had to humor me and take a pic in the rickshaw.

Of course every park has characters and we got to see Daisy and get her autograph.

 

 

Of course it rained some this day too and even characters have to stay out of the rain.

Son had picked the ride Mt. Everest Express and since Squeaky wanted me to ride with her, I gave in.  She and I both were scared to death on this ride.  It was a roller coaster with high drops and it goes backward part of the way and it does some of this in the dark.  Does that sound fun to anyone? Amazingly, Squeaky and I survived! :)  Of course, she went back and rode it 2 more times later that day. Don't let this nice mountain fool you!

We had heard that the show, Finding Nemo, was a good one to go to.  So, during the rain, we went to see it.  It was very colorful.  I'm not sure if it was because everyone was so tired or if it really wasn't one that was a good one to see.  Girl-child took a nap during it and DIL tried to take a nap during it.

It really ended up being a short day in comparison to the first 2.  I left around 4:00 and Son's family left around 5:00.  Animal Kingdom was OK but not one that I would have to go back to.

Disney's version of the tree of life.

Me with 3 precious children!