Christmas Vacation

We had such a great time in San Antonio. Quick Rundown - if I can still remember - Got in Thursday night around 6:30 and met family at La Fonda (their favorite Mexican food restaurant), then went back to the house and the kids played together for awhile. They are SO ADORABLE together! It really is sad that it can't happen more often. Brooke is such a young lady; she is also very beautiful and very smart. She didn't want to sit still long enough to really show me her reading skills, but I grabbed a few minutes here and there and was quite impressed. Becca is a little fireball! She has such a strong personality at such a young age. She's a pretty easy going kid, but she's definitely her own person, standing apart from her older sister, which is so neat to see! But it's obvious those two girls are the best of friends! I think Randy and Jason came over Thursday night and we hung out in the 'big room' just chatting. Friday was a slow start for everyone (I think partially because it's so fun to watch the kids play together), but we headed out to Freebirds around noon for lunch. Then Melissa and I went grocery shopping for Christmas dinner. If I remember correctly, we spent some time 'frolicking' around in the front yard and then went to visit Susie (Chris and Melissa's cousin) around 6pm in the hospital. She was diagnosed with cancer in May (pancreatic, I believe) and has been undergoing very aggressive treatment ever since. She had two surgeries the days before we went to see her (one to relieve fluid building around her heart and another to relieve fluid building around her digestive system). She was very weak and plugged in to all sorts of machines when we visited, but after talking with her right-hand man and fiance, Andrew, we came to understand that the two surgeries, although very hard on her body, should increase her quality of life and really help her after she recovers from the surgeries. I am so glad we made it to visit her since she had to spend Christmas in the hospital. Saturday was Christmas at Bob's house! Melissa and I spent from about 9am to 2pm in the kitchen cooking (she made the absolutely delicious casseroles - green bean, corn, broccoli/rice/cheese and I made Texas Caviar, ham & cheese ball and devilled eggs!). It's not easy cooking holiday meals (especially in that kitchen!), but it is so worth it when you see your spread on that table and hear all the 'mmmms', 'oooohhhs' and 'aaaaaahhhhs' while everyone is eating! After lunch we opened gifts, which with 3 kids was SO MUCH FUN! Sadly, Melissa, Ben and the girls left on Sunday afternoon, but we still had the morning for visiting and playtime, which was very nice. Sunday was Christmas Eve and after Melissa and Fam left we visited with Bob, Scott and Patricia, even went to look at Christmas lights with Scott & Patricia around 7pm (including Incarnate Word of course). Riley fell asleep on the way home, which was good because we had to head over to C's grandparents for their celebration after Midnight Mass. We visited with S, P and Bob and just tried to keep ourselves awake until it was finally time to leave around 12:30am. We had some great tamales and strawberry atule, exchanged gifts, visited with family, and left around 2:30am to go home and go to bed. Monday, Christmas morning, we woke up to a ton of toys left by Santa around Bob's Cmas tree; we had breakfast; packed up and had to go. We stopped by Spicewood (near Austin) to see C's mom on our way home. It was a long drive home, but completely worth it because we had a wonderful Christmas in San Antonio.

I ended up writing A LOT more than I expected, so I'm going to go ahead and continue putting the pictures on my 'video blog'. Be sure to check it out!