Weekend Happenings

Good Friday morning!

I think.

It feels like a Saturday morning, but Mikie assured me it was only Friday. Every day from Christmas Day until school starts back feels like a Saturday to me.

Except for Sunday which has a very different feel than Saturday.

Sunday is two days away.

I think.

RANDOMNESS #1 - I want to explain the BIG picture on top of the blog... but I cannot. Mike, Roxie and I were driving home from a Basketball Tournament Thursday afternoon (I think it was Thursday), and this fellow was sitting in the back of a pick-up truck going 65 miles per hour, ears flapping in the breeze.

I think I love him.

If he were mine, I would call him Oscar.

RANDOMNESS #2 - As I told you before, we celebrated Christmas Eve a bit differently this year.

We had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner and the rest of Mike's family in honor of their 60th Anniversary.

Aren't they a good looking couple?

Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner have two kiddos... Mike and Becky.

Mike and I have three kids. We named this one Roxie.

Becky and Guy have two kids. This is Jared (their son) and his pretty, pretty wife, Amber.

And I'll add just one more picture of Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner with our family. (We named the other two Austin and Josh.)

It was a very nice evening, and we were proud to be a part of it.

RANDOMNESS #3 - When we arrived home from the Anniversary Party, I sent Austin (the Elf) and Roxie (the Driver) out of the house to make another "delivery."

Once again, Austin was disturbingly eager to oblige. (I had to pay Roxie $5.)

I think I'm going to retire the Elf Hat. Someone likes it a little too much.

RANDOMNESS #4 - Christmas morning finally arrived, and while there were no remote control cars or bikes or action figures... or dolls or other pink toys, my guys appeared to be very pleased with their "loot."

I know what you're thinking. It looks like it was made just for her, doesn't it?

After opening our gifts, eating breakfast and making an attempt to pick up, we loaded up the car and headed to my Mom's house for Christmas lunch with my side of the family.

Mom's tree is always so pretty...

And people tend to look even prettier when I use it as the background for a picture or two.

Roxie and Katie.

Doesn't Bev look golden?

I'll let you in on a little secret. Mom and I were in this picture, too, but the tree didn't make us look golden or prettier like it did Bev. I'm not sure what happened, but I decided to cut us out.

After we ate and opened our "real" gifts, we brought out our Dollar Stockings.

I've talked about this for the past two years.

My friend, Robin, told me about her family's tradition and I borrowed it.

Everyone in the family has a stocking with their name on it kept at a central location. (In our family, we keep the stockings at Mom's.)

Between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, everyone in the family has to purchase a $1 gift for each member. There are 12 people on my side of the family, so each person has to buy 11 $1 gifts.

While the guys fuss about buying $1 gifts more than anyone else in the group, they have consistently come up with the most creative and fitting stocking stuffers.

Since Josh is taking Criminal Justice courses at Wallace State, Austin bought him a $1 Criminal Processing Kit. I have no idea what it is (or why it only costs a dollar), but you get the general idea.

With dollar gifts, it is definitely the "thought" that counts.

Since all of us are hooked on Duck Dynasty, Austin bought Roxie a duck call. A much cheaper version than they use on that show. (Austin really outdid himself this year.)

When we finished going through our Dollar Stockings (one at a time... we like to savor), it was time to play Catch Phrase and visit for a while.

All in all, even though this particular Christmas Season has had some challenges for me to overcome, we did have a very nice Christmas Day.

RANDOMNESS #5 - Because of massive scheduling conflicts (Josh had to work from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Roxie had basketball practice from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.), our Day After Christmas Movie plans had to be tweaked.

We decided to find the earliest showing of The Hobbit within a 45-mile radius. It turned out The Summit offered a showing at 11:00 a.m.

Okay.

That meant we could see the movie, but because of the length, we would have to HURRY home for Josh and Roxie to make it to work and practice on time. (That meant "no lunch.")

That was unacceptable, so we decided to eat breakfast at 9:00 a.m.

And we also decided that Waffle House would need to be our restaurant of choice this year because we could get in and out without much of a wait.

And we were right!

Taylor and Melia joined us on our outing this year. They were very agreeable to the tweaking which is always a plus.

I LOVE photo ops...

And the movie theaters have these huge 3-D murals all over the place now.

They make me happy.

The kids... not so much.

Taylor and Roxie are hat twins.

After it is all said and done, I think one of the "things" that can be carved on my tombstone will be "She became an expert tweaker."

RANDOMNESS #6 - My official 2012 Christmas Card Total stands at 52!

No. I did not reach this year's goal... but I received 52 really pretty cards in the mail, and that was one of the little things that made me happy this holiday season, too.

Weekend Happenings

This weekend will be filled with fun stuff.

Roxie is going to finish up a basketball tournament on Saturday. She also has some Christmas money burning a hole in her pocket, so I see some shopping in her near future. (I hope she takes me.)

Josh, Austin and Mike are going deer hunting tomorrow afternoon, and I hope they are successful in their attempts to fill our freezer.

I'm going to start some of the un-decorating process over the weekend, with all of the "big" stuff coming down Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

And I think that's pretty much all I have on the agenda.

I hear people say, "It will be good to get back to normal," but I'm afraid with a house of teenagers/young adult people, I no longer know what the heck that means.

I hope you and yours have a great weekend. I'll be back Monday morning with a New Year's Eve update, basketball pictures galore and maybe a quote, a recipe, a link, a tradition, a party... SOMETHING useful my peeps can use in 2013.

Take care, and I'll talk to you Monday.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda