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MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS!! We are finally back from our family tour. Let's see...9 DAYS AGO...we drove to Arlington to have Christmas with Ben's family. We spent our time finishing last minute shopping, cooking/eating, and waiting in a huge line to look at Christmas lights. Finally, we ended our time with them with a delicious Mexican meal of enchiladas and tamales (I can't wait to tell my bilingual students! They will be impressed!) for Cooper Christmas night followed by opening presents. Pat (my mother-in-law) made it such a special Christmas with lots of house things and our yearly purse. Sadly I had lost my camera for that trip (it was just under the seat of the car!) so I have no pics from that.

Second, we went to Dallas on Christmas Eve and stayed through Christmas until Sunday. It was a great Christmas day. We got to play games (I love games!) on Christmas night and Christmas afternoon, I watched the Christmas Vacation movie with Chevy Chase for the very first time. It was a great day.

Then finally on Sunday, we drove to Vicksburg for our final stop to see Ben's grandparents Mimi and Pa. We got a wonderful Mimi breakfast, shopping time, and a roaring (and tense at times) game of Phase Ten. Also, no pictures because of the lost camera. We were truly blessed to get to see just about everyone. I missed my kitties while we were gone and I really wish I could get in their heads and know what they were thinking. Like did they think we just weren't coming back or did they forget us altogether?? Such a mystery. Anyways, its so refreshing to be back now in our own bed, our own couch, our own house. I've experienced hunger today for the first time it seems in at least a week and I am slowly trying to remind myself that every meal does not need to be followed by dessert.

Brother Keith, Dad, and Ben
As tradition goes, the men make Pinch Me Coffee Cake on Christmas morning


A White Christmas!!!

O Christmas Tree

My sweet Ben went with me yesterday to pick out a real tree in the rain. What a sweetheart he is. We let it dry out overnight in the garage, and then tonight, I decorated the tree with Pandora Country Christmas station playing. Oh glorious time! I spent most of my night decorating the house and the tree and getting things nice and pretty for...us. Sometimes it seems silly to spend so much time decorating for just Ben and I seeing as we are leaving for the holidays and not hosting any parties...but we will enjoy it and so will our cats in their own mischievous ways so therefore I will still decorate. So far (in the 2 hours we've had the tree up), the cats have not been too much trouble, although I think maybe Carlos is allergic because, poor thing, he keeps sneezing. I have lots of lights left over that I think I will take to school...even though I think they are against fire code. Does it really count during the holidays?! Below are the fruits of my labor :) and a little fun from the snow on Friday.

As I finish this post, the cats have discovered the tree and Carlos was IN it and Polly was climbing up the center. Oh what have I done?!