Christmas and Beyond

Christmas was very low key this year. We did more celebrating on Christmas Eve when the adult kids were here than we did on Christmas Day. We really spent more time playing games together than anything. Here are a few pictures of our time.

Tyler got some sort of game where you get arms and legs bitten off by a shark. It's simple and it goes fast.

I think Rummikub is our official family game. I got several used copies, but they are missing a few pieces, so when I shop for used games for my flea market shop, I keep my eye open for them. We have a complete set, and now Jessica has a complete set for her family. We also played Apples to Apples freestyle a lot. Now that they've played freestyle, they don't want to play the traditional game anymore.

River helped make the birthday cake for Jesus.

Then River had her second birthday December 30th.

 I got her a sleeping bag because they like to go camping.

 Also got her crayons, markers and a coloring book because she's starting "writing" on my papers.

It was a pretty good holiday season, but we are dealing with some issues that I'll share more about once we know what is going to happen.

One of the best things we did was a photo shoot with the girls. I'll share those photos next time. 

In the meantime, please share your family's favorite board game.

Christmas Eve

Traditionally everyone comes over on Christmas Ever to celebrate. That way they can have Christmas mornings with their own families. Only Jeff and Ashley were missing. This was River's second Christmas and Winter's first Christmas. I put pulled pork in the crock pot, and everyone comes over after the Christmas Eve service. Tyler missed service this year because he worked, and the rest of us missed it because the dogs snuck out of the gate, and Travis returned bloody and injured right before we were going to leave.

River, 23 months

Adam and Jasmine

River

Tara with Jessica's baby, Winter, 8 months

Adam, Tara and Kealen

Winter, 8 months, this was a few days before Christmas eve

 Hunter, Jessica, River and Winter

Group photo left to right, Rick (Grandpa), Jessica holding Winter, Hunter, Kayla, 12, Me (Gigi), River barely visible between Adam and me, Jasmine in from of me, Kaleb next to Jasmine, Tara holding Kealen, Tyler in back

 Kayla

 Jessica with River

 Tyler with his gift from Jasmine

Winter with her ball from Jasmine

 River with a Wish and Spin Shine I gave her

Tara, Kealen and Adam

 Kaleb

Uncle Adam gave River a broom and mop set

Kealen with a Thomas play bank I gave him

Winter

Winter and Uncle Adam

Jasmine and Tara

The boys

I will be posting more photos soon.

Adam

Nothing new this week, so thought I'd post some photos of Adam that I took from his Facebook page. He is active reserve now, so he's no longer in town. But hoping he'll join us Christmas eve.

Proud of my Marine.

The Pageant

People are constantly saying that Kayla is "model beautiful." Well, I don't really care about model beautiful unless the heart is model beautiful, too. Kayla successfully finished Teen Court with a sufficiently okay attitude, so I told her she could enter the local Sunburst Pageant, but that I was only going to pay for the basic contest and if she wanted to enter any of the extras, she could earn the money for it. She was not motivated to do that, so she had to stand there not getting any medals while the other three in her age group received best eyes, best hair, best smile and so on. I really think they should have the ones who don't enter the extras exit the stage so it doesn't look like they just didn't get any medals.

Besides Kayla being in the pageant. Winter, River and Jessica were in it. Jasmine has has a bad rash on her neck and around her eyes, so she didn't do it. Thankfully it is healing finally.

Winter was the only one is her category, so she was obviously first. She was not entered in all the extra categories.

Winter wasn't sure she wanted to be a winner.

There was one other little girl in River's group. Since River did not enter the extras, the other little girl got all the medals. Since she was the only child to get all the medals in an age group, she took overall for the whole pageant. She was a very cute light brown toddler with great hair and a great personality, so she would have been my favorite anyway. Since she got overall, River got first.

The next age group up had several little girls. One girl had a much more plain dress than the others. I overheard a conversation between the girl and her mom. The girl was complaining that another girls with a very fancy white dress  that bellowed out like a southern belle dress was going to win because she was prettier and her dress was prettier etc. This 8-year-old was majorly stressed, which was sad. But the mom informed her that the other girl wasn't that pretty and that the dress was very expensive. I just had to shake my head.

I think they all look fine, I hate that this age group was so stressed. And the moms were taking all this very personally.

There were four girls in Kayla's category. Both Kayla's dress and shoes were much less fancy, were used and cost me less than $5 total! No one paid much attention to her since she didn't get any medals. They didn't know it was because we hadn't entered those categories. But they did pay attention when she took first for her age group. The looks on those other moms' faces were priceless. I had the graciousness not to crack up laughing.

There was no one in the next age group up, which would have given it to Jasmine if she had entered. And then Jessica was the oldest, and the oldest in the pageant so she also got first by default. 

So our crew will go on to state Memorial Day weekend. Kayla's attitude and actions have slipped a bit since the pageant so she will need to think carefully about what is most important to her.

I had to leave before the final photos to get back to the shop so Tyler could go to his other job, so I don't have as good of photos as I'd like. I also had people walking into my photos.

But overall it was an interesting experience, and it has given me a great idea for a young adult book.

Anyone else have pageant experience?

Thanksgiving Trip

I haven't been on here in quite a while. Life has been sooooo crazy and busy. But I'll start back with our Thanksgiving trip. 

Four of us went to Indiana to be with my mom and sister. Kaleb, due to behaviors which became actually a threat, stayed home and was babysat by Jessica while Rick worked. She works evenings, so that worked out, and the extra cash helped her out. And she got to witness the behaviors first hand so knows we are not exaggerating. But that's a whole different subject.

It was a quick trip to Indiana, leaving early the Sunday before Thanksgiving and shopping our way to Indiana.

One of the goals was to help a long time friend make a wreath for her daughter's graduation next May. 

We got the basic wreath made, so all she has to do now is add things special to her daughter from her high school years.

We played a lot of yahtzee

And had too much to eat.

My mom was able to get up and around. She seemed in better spirits than usual.

Us with my mom, sister and brother-in-law

Tyler must have been either the first or last to eat, because he's not in the picture

The girls decided to make a gingerbread house, but it didn't go well

It doesn't exactly look like the picture on the box. LOL.

We headed back home early Friday morning. Friday night we stopped at a mall in Nashville. However, it was adjoining the Grand Ole Opry, which had something going on, plus it was Black Friday, so it was beyond crazy. But Ty wanted to get a Build-a-Bear.

Besides that, the trip home was pretty uneventful.

All in all, it was a good week.

Right after I got home, I was down for three days with stomach grunge. But I am good to go now.