Sunday, January 10, 2010

A change of Christmas pace

I know it's a little late to be posting about Christmas, but in an effort to keep my new years goals (see previous post) I thought this would be a good way to start. And really, Christmas was a lot different this year then it had been in years past. I guess, at this point in our lives, Christmas is going to continue to be different each year until we extend our own family and develop our own traditions. Last year, Dave and I stayed home and had a Christmas just the two of us. The year before, we went to Branson with the Norvell family, and the year before that, we celebrated with the Norvells in Fort Worth. This year, for the first year since Dave and I have been married, we spent Christmas Day with my mom. I don't know why we haven't celebrated on Christmas day with my mom before, but this year we did, and it was really delightful. Not only was that different, but I was no longer working retail and Dave and I were both able to enjoy two whole weeks off from work together.
Christmas Even started out wonderfully....sleeping in. We had an extremely lazy day not doing much of anything until we left for church that evening. As many of you know, while we were lazing about around our house, the weather in Texas decided to dump heaps of snow and ice on our streets and, to add to it, the wind just felt like blowing at the speed of light that day also. By the time we left for the 5o'clock service at church, the weather was completely miserable (not the snow, dad, the weather. I loved the snow, hated the wind and ice). We made it to church, driving 20 mph the whole time. Afterwards, we packed up and went out to mom's in Dallas. I was so thankful that Dave had experience driving in the ice. It took us over an hour to go 25 miles, and we must have seen at least 10 cars that had slid off the road or stalled out because of careless driving. By the time we made it to Dallas, we were both on edge from the crazy drive and beyond ourselves with hunger. Enter my wonderful mother. Not only was her house warm and carefree to ease our crumpled nerves, but there was a huge turkey dinner waiting for us when we arrived. And, she had even made me, by request, a small serving of my all time favorite holiday food....Cranberry Yam Bake. We ate and ate, and then mom surprised us all with an activity!



She said that it was kind of a last minute idea. She had some dough mix left over from a Christmas party she went to, but it was so much fun and made me feel like I was on a Christmas Eve TV special. I do think this will have to become a Breard family tradition,whether we are there on Christmas day this year or not. But next time, we have to go all out.....different colored icing, bigger cookies, more candy to decorate with. I'm already excited.

This is Dave's angry gingerbread man. He said it represented
how Mr. Norvell looked when his 5th graders were misbehaving.


Mom eating her gingerbread candy cane. Like she would ever do that in real life....it's totally staged. In real life, she'd pick off little bits throughout the entire evening (which is what eventually happened)



And my candy cane cookie. By far the best and most artistic!

After cookies and a rousing game of UNO (in which Mike smoked us all) we headed off to bed. I was so thankful not to have to drive home that night and instead could just fall asleep with visions of sugarplums in my head. The next morning, mom once again out-did herself in the kitchen with Christmas breakfast.
And then the present opening began.
Mom surprised Mike with this lego set of the Empire State Building. Apparently Mike has been wanting it for some time. I hear that he has made some pretty good progress since that morning.

Dave and I got mom a mandolin so she can make us some of her sweet potato chips!


Ah. The Nerf Gun. This was not a Christmas present for Dave. Mom and Mike's grand kids had bought it for Mike when they were down visiting them a few weekends before. But, like any big kid, Dave loved it. He shot at things (mostly me) the entire morning. And, with some of his Christmas money, he eventually bought one for himself. Now, every night before we go to bed, Dave has target practice with the mirror in our room. Needless to say, I don't love so much.

And once again, my husband picked out some super cute clothes for me. I had a wardrobe Christmas this year...my favorite kind.



A few days earlier, Dave and I got together with Jon, Lydia, and our nephew Caleb to celebrate Christmas with siblings. Neither of us were going to see each other on the actual day, so we had our own Christmas on the morning of the 23rd. To make it authentic, we all wore our pj's and ate breakfast together. But first things first. Lets all take a few minutes to coo at my nephew who really was the star of the whole morning. Seriously, presents didn't hold a candle next to him.

Caleb says "ho ho ho"


Dave loved helping Caleb with his stocking.

And of course, Dexter was captivated by this little human in his house.

My favorite pic of the morning.

Our breakfast spread. Monkey bread and fried bananas.
After breakfast we all opened presents and visited for a while. We had a fun morning, but it was bitter sweet knowing that in just a few short weeks, this branch of the Norvells would be moving to Arkansas to follow the Lord's call. Jon has just accepted a ministry position at First Baptist Church Norflet (sp??), and while every time I think about it I start to tear up, I know that nothing makes all of our family happier then pleasing the Lord and following His Will.
My Christmas gift from Lydia. She made this purse! Seriously, it's too wonderful for words.

Some new Pyres for Lydia.

Ending the morning with some steaming hot cocoa!


The day after Christmas, Dave and I trucked it out to Arkansas to see his parents. As always,we had a wonderful relaxing time full of rest and family. I'm really bad about taking pictures whenever we are there...with my new years goal I'm sure it will change the next time we go.
Whatever you did and wherever you were, we both hope you had a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!!!



















4 comments:

Angela said...

Great Post! Loved the photos. BUT....it's the Eiffel Tower, not the Empire State Building! Hee hee! I'm sure that's what you meant to say, right?!!!

Lydia said...

Great post! I'm sure I'll get my Christmas post up by St. Patty's Day or so.... :)

Rachel V said...

Lovely post -- I enjoyed seeing all your pictures! It's so funny you bought mom a mandolin; I had had the same idea and actually still have a mandolin for her in my Amazon shopping cart. I am glad to know she has one! Those gingerbread cookies looked like fun. :) Caleb is a cutie.

Sarah said...

Loved reading this post, albeit a bit late! Thanks for sharing! Can't wait until I can celebrate Christmas with you both. Lots of love to you!