New Christmas

Christmas morning dawned early at Mal's house and things were quietly bustling as everyone was getting ready to depart.  It was new for me. There was no gathering at the top of the stairs at The Bad Farm with my kids to go downstairs to see what Santa brought, but I woke up feeling really content and centered and happy.  No one was more surprised than I was.

I showered, put on the Christmas pajamas my sister bought me and and headed for my parents.  Y'all, we had the most amazing sunrise and it almost took my breath away. I could have wept it was so stunning.  Instead of crying, I cranked up some praise and worship music and sang at the very top of my lungs for the entire drive.  How profoundly grateful I am for the gift of Jesus.  These are terrible pictures, but I had to try to capture that sky somehow.  Rejoice!

Almost everyone was awake when I got to my parents and we grabbed coffee and started in on whipping up some breakfast.  A little breakfast sausage casserole and my first ever attempt at crepes!  They were so easy and delicious!  Well, maybe it wasn't the actual crepe that was delicious, but the Nutella, strawberries, bananas and whipped cream that made them so good!  We had an assembly line going and we were putting those things out like professionals. So good.  Christmas crepes should definitely be a thing! 

Loved ones were trickling in all day.  There was gift opening and homemade roll making and lots of activities buzzing around the rest of the morning.  My boys arrived about lunch time with some of their new favorite Christmas gifts to show me.  Quick photo shoot of me and my kids by our new family photographer!

We had 21 people over for lunch about 1:00 and everything was delicious!  Rolls did their thing and rose like champs.  I wish I would have taken some pictures of them!  We opened more gifts, played Left-Center-Right and chatted and visited for the afternoon. 

We did require the Magnificent Seven to pose for a couple of group photos.  Best group of grandkids in all the world! 

My boys headed back to The Bad Farm about 5:00 to have their Christmas Part III with more food and family and I headed back to Mal's shortly after that.  There I found a quiet house with two happy pups and I got to snuggle on the couch with them and read a book.  I did not hate that one little bit.  

In summary, New Christmas was pretty wonderful.  It was filled with family, fun and food which are all the things I love and cherish.  I had nothing to dread.  Time with my boys was a definitely less than I am used to, but it was enough.  I laughed so much.  I got to cook way more than I normally do.  I got to spend more time with my family.  I just enjoyed myself so much.  I am already looking forward to next Christmas.

In the meantime, let's bring on the New Year and see what kind of joy we can get into in 2018! 

Christmas Eve Shenanigans

My boys showed up at Mal's bright and early on Christmas Eve and we had plans to spend the day together.  New traditions.

First up, we exchanged gifts.  Everyone loved everything and no returns were wanted or required!  Hooray!

Two things I got them as gag gifts were really big hits!  Harry and his obsession with all things Kyrie Iriving.  I got him a basketball face mask like Kyrie wears and he swears he is going to wear it during intramural basketball.  He probably will.

Chip ALWAYS finds one of those color changing pillows when we go to Target or Walmart and so I got him one in Crimson Tide colors.  They were writing mean messages to each other and playing tic-tac-toe on it.  Who knew?

After the gifts were open we headed out to a Japanese Steak House for lunch and a show.  Good food and entertaining.

Then we hit up Walmart to spread a little Christmas cheer with some random acts of kindness.  I gave the kids some money and they hid it in all kinds of inconspicuous places for someone to find.  

It was really fun.  No one had more fun than MM.  She was all over that store. She would hide the money somewhere real elaborate and then change her mind and go back and get it.  We got into a rhythm of her picking up something to hide money in and I would start a dialogue of "MM, you are not getting that the day before Christmas, you are going to have to put it back."  She would go along with it, begging to get the item the whole time trying to find a way to hide her money in it.  Finally, when the money was hidden she would say "Fine, I will put it back but I am going to add it to my Christmas list."  She thought we were so sneaky.  I don't think she ever wanted our afternoon to end.  Great way to spend Christmas Eve and I hope that money blesses lots of people when they least expect it.  Awesome new tradition.

I sent the boys back to The Bad Farm after our fun filled day and headed down to my parents.  We had another delicious shrimp dinner and prepped a couple of items for Christmas dinner the next day.

Then we made an executive decision that cutting into Ms. Ellen's coconut cake on Christmas Eve instead of waiting for Christmas Day would be a great new tradition!  It was delicious!

Finally, we ended the night with a scavenger hunt for The Queen. She was getting a new fancy camera and they wanted her to have it before Christmas morning.  She raced through the scavenger hunt and was soon snapping photos of all the people and all the things. I was a willing subject, but wanted veto power!  I kept saying ewww, ack, delete, delete, delete!  She did get this shot which I kinda loved.  Not sure it really looks like me, but maybe that is why I like it!  The happy in this picture....that is real. 

At one point over the weekend when I was lamenting about who that old lady was in a picture with my kids, Harry said "Mom, I think at some point you are going to have to come to grips with the fact that is actually how you really look."  Cracked me up!   Damn you, Harry!  Hold that camera out there with your long arms and aim it downward with a slight angle and don't even think we are only taking one!  Momma needs a reality check.

Another, busy, wonderful, laughter filled, heart full day with the people I love and who love me right back.  All the while I was in Alabama, I was getting the kindest, sweetest texts from my people in Texas.  They knew I was worried about how the weekend would go and they were praying for me.  It worked.  Man, did it work.  Prayers were answered ten fold.  I would get teary eyed reading the texts they were sending and my heart would hurt a little. The good hurt.  Where you just don't know you got so lucky to have such beautiful people in your life and your heart maybe can't hold that kind of blessing.  I love that kind of hurt.  Definitely another night where I laid my head on my pillow and sincerely thanked God for giving me so much! 

Christmas Eve Eve

Christmas Eve Eve was a busy whirlwind of a day!  The Tennessee crew drove down to my folks house and Lana had a big pot of shrimp soup on the stove for us.  Quick lunch and then it was time for Wrapapalooza 2017!  All the gifts I had purchased and shipped were waiting in the closet to be wrapped and it took about two and half hours to put the pretty on them with ribbons and bows. It was glorious!  

Next up, was a trip to the grocery store to get our supplies for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I don't know how shopping for groceries can be entertaining, but when you take Bob with you there are always going to be some laughs.  Once the groceries were unloaded, I snapped this selfie with my crew and then headed out to Mal's where I would be staying for the next couple of nights.

Can you even stand this darling room Mal had waiting for me?  It was adorable!  It was actually their daughter MM's room, but she had moved out to make room for Bebo to stay for a couple of days.

I did not get a picture of the basket of goodies they had waiting for me, but it had magazines, snacks and some signature Blowpops!

This cute water bottle was so handy and I used it just about every day of my stay.  I also hit that Vanilla Crown pretty hard too!  So thoughtful!  

I know this picture doesn't look like it, but Brett was thrilled with the combination padlock and chain challenge!  Really, he was! 

We got to open some presents with MM!  How fun it is to have a ten year old in the family that keeps the magic of Christmas alive!  

Brett got a pad of paper and started working combinations. 

Only took him 26 tries!  I thought that was pretty quick.  He is kind of a smarty pants. 

Then Bebo pulled out the rocks and paint she had drug all the way from Texas in her suitcase.  MM loves doing crafts so I always try to have a little craft for us to do together.  I have been picking up rocks on my walks in Texas for weeks and was looking forward to getting them painted. 

MM had a cute little paint palette and we squirted all our paint choices out and did some mixing and blending like real artists.  Dirtied all the paint brushes. 

Look at this darling sleigh this kid whipped out!  My rock was having problems and would NOT dry!  MM painted three to my one.  On mine I wrote "2018 - Make it Rock!"  Get it?  It is a rock and I said make it rock.  So clever.   Meg and Brett were also rock painters and I think we can definitely call this craft project a success.  I will be hiding the rocks around the neighborhood for people to find so no picture of the finished products. 

When the rocks were all painted, MM still had some energy so we broke out Disney monopoly!  By midnight, we were all getting delirious and were talking exclusively in British accents.  It was quite confusing and entertaining!  

A great day all around! 

I think I told you in a previous post that I was mostly dreading this trip home for Christmas.  I knew it was going to be so different from all the previous years during my marriage and I was afraid I would be sad for what no longer was.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.  I laughed so much.  Felt so much love.  Got to spend good quality time with my people.  It was good. It was so, so good.  I wasn't sad at all and fell into bed this night with a giant smile on my face.  So blessed.  I know not everyone has this kind of family.  I know it is a gift.  I am so grateful.

Busiest (Best) Travel Day of the Year

On the news yesterday they said it would be the busiest day of travel of the year.  My flight was leaving late afternoon so I decided to push my original plans back about an hour just to give myself plenty of time to deal with any unexpected hiccups.

First, I dropped the worst dog in the world off at the kennel and skipped joyfully out to my car.  Not really.  I actually bumped into the darling soul who has been helping me train Cooper in the parking lot before I started skipping.  I hugged her hard, told her she was free to tranquilize him, muzzle him, leave him outside all day, whatever she needed to do to deal with him was fine by me.  She just laughed and said he would be fine, they would take good care of him.  Then I went home and ordered some cookies to be delivered to them today.  They deserve it.

I ran home and got showered and all packed up!  I lugged my giant suitcase out to the car (Mental Note:  Pack that thing downstairs!) and when I opened the trunk of my car the suitcase rolled down the driveway into the middle of my cul-de-sac.  That was embarrassing.

No traffic on the toll road...drive was smooth.  Tried a new off site parking situation called Fast Park (thanks for the recommendation Ansleys!) and it was AMAZING.  Pulled up, scanned my reservation code, parked my Suburban and the shuttle bus pulled up right behind me.  The driver hopped out and grabbed my luggage and within one minute we were on our way to the airport. The shuttle dropped me off right at the Southwest terminal where I walked straight to the SkyHop counter, they printed my boarding pass and took the big suitcase off my hands.  I buzzed right through security and planted myself at my gate with a magazine and coffee with two hours to spare.  Ahhh, what a great start!

Isn't that they way it goes, you make plans for a hiccup and everything runs like clockwork.  We boarded on time, I got an aisle seat and my free adult beverage (thanks Mal!) finished my book and outside of flying through some bumpy air on our decent into Nashville it was a great flight.  

My sister and her family were there to pick me up and we headed to their favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Now, this restaurant is one they go to nearly every Friday night and have for the last several years.  I had heard lots about it and was looking forward to a great meal.  Well, we walked in and it was like we were on the set of the old show Cheers.  People were calling out to them.  My sister was hugging waiters and waitresses.  They introduced me to everyone.  The owner came out and greeted them like they were family.  It was  really something!  Everyone there was so friendly.  Place is called Amigos if you are ever in SpringHill, TN and need a terrific place to eat. 

I ordered one of their CoronaRitas that I had heard so much about and it was a spectacle to behold. 

Look at that thing!  It was surprisingly delicious! Everyone ordered something different to eat and I tried a bite off of everyone's plate.  Delicious food. And the Queso was FANTASTIC!  Kryptonite. 

We took pictures.  And laughed.  We laughed so much.  It was wonderful.  The waitress they love is named Alessandra and she proudly brought over her two teenage sons to meet me and we visited with them.  Such polite young men doing good work in the family business.  

I haven't ever done a toast with a waitress before, but Alessandra is family now.  

I think we were there for two and half a hours and had the best time.  They had to roll me out to the car and I was in bed within 10 minutes of walking through the door.  

Fantastic start to Christmas vacation!  

Joy, Love, Peace....and Bourbon

It is quiet in my house this morning.  The boys hit the road yesterday with their Dad headed to Alabama.  I will be headed that way soon myself.  I am struggling a little bit (maybe a lotta bit).  This Christmas will be the first after the divorce and I will be searching for new traditions to create with my boys. I have some ideas in mind that I think will be good, but there is definitely a part of me that desperately longs for what was. Change is hard.  I am just going to walk through it one day at a time with lots of prayer and gratitude for all I have to be thankful for in my life...and maybe a tiny bit of bourbon.

Speaking of bourbon, my sweet niece sent me these in the mail yesterday so I could have a cocktail during my flight.  So thoughtful and proves she knows me well!  

 

I used to have a pretty hard core fear of flying and had to take medication to even make my legs walk down the tunnel to get on a plane.  I have flown so much in the last ten years that I no longer require medication and am honestly feel pretty relaxed about the whole thing.  HOWEVER, I did just watch a plane wreck movie with Harry this week and in hindsight that was pretty stupid!  If you haven't seen Denzel Washington in the movie Flight, don't watch it before a trip.  Pilots drunk and on drugs flying airplanes upside down!  If my plane is ever flying inverted, I can assure you I will die of a heart attack long before we hit the ground! 

Lots to do today, so I must get to it.  I will find some time today to just be still.  To savor this day and this beautiful life I have been given.  To thank God for the people that fill my life with so much goodness and kindness and laughter and love. He has blessed me abundantly.

I have big plans to post during the holidays, but if that falls to the wayside please let me wish you JOY, LOVE and PEACE for Christmas.  May it be in my heart, your heart and all the hearts around the world.   

Celebrations

We have some things to celebrate around here! 

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you might recall the Summer of 2015 when my then 19 year old Harry tried a banana for the first time.  Yes, it took him 19 years to willingly eat a piece of fruit.  It was an exciting time.  His palate has expanded in amazing ways since he he has been away at college and I frequently ask him what new and exciting food he has tried and am often floored at what he tells me.  

His favorite pizza has mushrooms on it.  He has tried sushi.  He has eaten clam chowder.  He orders a Philly cheesesteak with onions and peppers? 

WHO IS THIS GUY? 

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon.  December 2017.  Harry is now 21.  He had just returned home from the dentist and was feeling a little hungry.  I asked him if he wanted me to make him a grilled cheese. He said yes, then followed up with "It would be lit if we had some tomato soup to go with it."  (NOTE:  Bob and Lana..."lit" in this context means it would be great)  I replied that I thought I did have some tomato soup and he immediately looked panicked and said "Do I even like tomato soup?"

Cracked me up!  

As far as I know, tomato soup has never crossed his lips.  He agreed to try it. 

Drumroll, please!   He liked it!  Putting an entry in the baby book!  He's getting so big.

In other news......

Chip kicked butt on that Pre-AP Chemistry Final! And by kicked butt, I mean he passed!   Woo Hoo!  Two more finals today and then a nice long break! 

I had a darling surprise delivery from my sweet friend, Sandy yesterday.  She was a long time reader of Simply Writing Out Loud and wrote me the nicest card about how happy she is that I am writing again.  Heart Melted.  And this candle....there could not be a more perfect scent to celebrate the launching of Bourbon and Blowpops!  So thoughtful!

Also in the celebration column was some AMAZING homemade caramels my friend Debi made.  I sent her this message "Those caramels must be laced with something.  I ate one at Beth's the minute they were in my hand.  Ate a second one in Beth's driveway as a reward for not eating them all in her kitchen.  Promised myself I would save the rest to share.  Two more were gone before I got back to my driveway.  Sugar high on the way.  They are amazing!" 

Beth also gave me a dozen tamales she had ordered for me.  I had some at her house over Thanksgiving and they were so dang good!  They are in the freezer and I cannot wait to eat them!  

Finally, I got to walk with Martha in the wee hours of the morning yesterday for the first time in months!  It was so wonderful to catch up with her and fall back into our comfortable, walking and talking under the cover of darkness routine.  Loved it.  When I turned the corner to come home I saw our star shining brightly in the dark and it just made my morning.  

  

I am trying to dwell on the little things in life that bring me peace, put a smile on my face or a laugh in my heart.  Hope you find lots of little moments to celebrate today!  

Cooper Goes to the Vet

Cooper has a raw spot on his right leg that he has been biting and chewing at for a few days. Since I am planning to board him over the holidays I thought it would be smart to get him in with the vet to make sure the sore didn't require antibiotics.  Also, he has been doing some weird phantom pooping thing over the last couple of days where he tries to poop but nothing happens.  After I made the appointment I started parenting Cooper over the next 24 hours reminding him that vets are for healing and good health and told him to get his act together and behave like a dog instead of a psycho.

You see, the last time he went to the vet, they offered to trim his nails.  Big mistake.  Huge.  It was a fiasco.  They had him in the back and I could hear him howling and barking in agony and found myself covering my ears in the little waiting room pacing back and forth.  It literally sounded like they were torturing him with hot branding irons or ripping his nails out with a set of pliers.  When the vet brought him back to me she was a little disheveled and sweaty and said "Man, he's kind of dramatic."  I just laughed and said "You have no idea."

I put his leash on yesterday and he was bouncing with happiness!  I know he was thinking...dog park, dog park, dog park, I LOVE the dog park!   He leapt into the car with an abundance of joy and started his celebration barking routine.  When we left the neighborhood and turned right toward the vet and not left toward the dog park, his demeanor immediately changed.  No more barking, but lots of worried whining and pacing.  This was going to be fun.

We got there and his whining and pacing continued in the waiting room and he ramped it up when they called us back to the treatment room.  He was happy to see the vet and technician until they started trying to look at the raw place on his leg.  He snapped and snarled and made it painfully clear he was not interested in them touching him AT ALL.  I had a little baggie of leftover steak with me and his soft muzzle because I was worried he would refuse treatment.  I tried to distract him with the steak but he was having no part of her touching him.  We decided to muzzle him so she could examine him.  He put on the muzzle like a champ. Yum!  Steak. Thanks, Mom.  He thought it was over.

It was only just beginning.

So, once the muzzle was on, the technician was holding his head so the vet could listen to his heartbeat.  She put the stethoscope on his chest and he lost his mind.  Not touching his leg, not pushing on his boo boo.  She only put the stethoscope on his chest.  He sounded like a dog in a fight for his life.  The sounds coming out of his body were feral and panicked and horrible.

I was talking to him, the tech and vet were reassuring him in calm voices, but I assure you he couldn't hear us over his own violent protests.

The vet examined his leg and did not think it was infected although she could tell he had been working on it.  Then she suspected his anal glands might be compacted so she needed to examine his hind end.  If you thought the stethoscope response was bad, the sticking things in his bum sent him into orbit.  She expressed his glands (gag me with a pitchfork) and fur and spit and hate were flying all over that room.

Then they removed the muzzle and he was happy as a clam.  She says "He definitely has some issues.  We do think some dogs have their wires crossed, because his response is definitely over the top.  We might need to consider some anxiety medication or sedatives before he comes in again."  I don't think he is her favorite patient.

Also, he weighed in at 81.9 pounds.  Holy Moly!  She thought it was time to move him to the adult dog portion of food and not the puppy portion and can a recommendation that he needed to lose about five pounds to get his waist a bit more defined.

So in summary, Cooper had his anal glands expressed, was deemed mentally unbalanced and overweight.  Leg is fine.  It was not a good visit for Coop.

Then he came home and destroyed a snowman.  He is a treasure.

Blog Post Titles are Hard - #1

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  After writing this post, I could not come up with a title to save my life.  In the interest of time, I am starting a new series called "Blog Post Titles are Hard" and when I can't think of a title I will just use this series and add a new number. Problem solved. Carry on.

When you wake up at 3:25 a.m. do you just get out of bed and start the coffee or do you toss and turn and try to go back to sleep?  I am 50/50.  Sometimes I get up and sometimes I fight to go back to sleep.  Today, I just got up. Now it is 5:00 a.m. and I am two cups of coffee in AND feeling sleepy.  Rut Roh!  Going to make for a long day.

I find the older I get, the more I struggle with getting good solid sleep. Sometimes, the struggle is to get to sleep.  Sometimes, it is to stay asleep.  And sleeping past 6:30 a.m. is a novelty that only happens about four times a year.

---Long Pause----

As soon as I finished that last paragraph I crawled into the chair in my office and slept for an hour!  Hooray!  Maybe the day won't be so long. 

Chip wants to make a change and has committed to ten days of clean eating to try to get off the carb and sugar train.  It is so hard and what a terrible time of year to be starting that!  But I will do what I can to support his lofty goal.  In fact, I will be doing everything for the kid because he doesn't drive, go to the grocery store or cook, so basically he may as well be locked in a room and only I have the power to feed him.  So much pressure.   

Last night, we all cooked dinner together.  A yummy chicken stir fry with gobs of veggies and brown rice.  It was shockingly delicious and the boys and I ate it and liked it!  Big win!  Tonight, it will be burrito bowls with flank steak.  Hopefully, those will be as successful. 

The worst dog in the world got a new toy yesterday.  He loves a new baby and was so proud to toss it in the air a couple times and then start chewing body parts off.  The ears will go first on this little monkey. Then the nose and eyes.  Stuffing will be out in two or three days.  After that, it won't be recognizable.  Merry Christmas, Cooper! 

Let's close this post today with this ADORABLE picture of my boys at Christmas in 2002.  Lord, it seems like yesterday and a hundred years ago at exactly the same time.  Someone time warp me back there right this instant!   

In the spirit of being authentic, let's include some of the outtakes from that same Christmas card photo shoot.  

Funny, how these terrible ones are now my favorites.  That is life right there!  Sweaty, angry baby and chipmunk teeth and big ears on that six year old that is damn near outweighed by his seven month old brother.  I can't stop laughing at these.  Look at the hair on that baby!  Curls for days.  

I hope you have a blessed and beautiful day on the inside...even if the outside looks like a hot mess!