Oh the Mall...

Now I know that you were on the edge of your seat just waiting to learn about Icelandic Santa Clauses, but we're going to save that until tomorrow (my favorite of the Icelandic Santas comes tonight). Instead, I have a video and fun pic to share from my shopping trip to the mall tonight. We all know that I just love going to the mall and praying everytime that my children don't turn out to be freaks... because there are always a few running around in there. For some CRAZY reason, we had a couple of old guys that decided to play "Dueling Banjos" in the middle of the mall. Quite possibly the oddest attraction of the holiday season... that is until we walked to the end of the mall and saw the following sign with a group of rednecks in front of it that had walked in with their BOXER dog. A huge thing that obviously wasn't a seeing eye dog. His name was Rocky and he was there to get his pic made with Santa. Nothing says "Christmas Spirit" like a big RED sign that tells you you WILL be prosecuted for shoplifiting if you take a picture of their Christmas Decorations or Santa instead of paying the $50 for a package. Morons. So I took a pic of thier sign. And I hope if any little kids want to see Santa, they aren't scared off by the unspirited elves either. :0)

2 Extremely Random Posts...

I couldn't find any old pics on Dec. 9th, but I was rummaging through some stuff and found this one. Dec. 9th was Papa's birthday, so in honor of him, there's a pic of Me, Sister, and Him. I'd kill to have that figure again... that's me on the left... no hips! I'm totally rocking a leotard from dance class.

The other is of course, me and Chef. Since Bowz is out of town, it's just been us at the end of the hall together for about a week. He's the best roomie ever. Last night was also the first night of the Icelandic Christmas. They have 13 Santa Claus's. That may be the next few posts... I'll learn you all some Icelandic Christmas traditions. :0)

The Kids!!!

Here are the kiddies! Story for the day... we are attempting to study Jesus telling Peter to cast his net on the other side of the boat.

Me: OK. Put on your imagination hat and everybody pretend we are out by the river. Jesus has been preaching and now Peter's going out to catch some fish. We're all watching. Dressed up and wearing sandals.

Anna: I'm wearing a Hannah Montana robe!

Me: Ok. You're wearing a Hannah Montana robe.

Aubrey: I AM Hannah Montana.

Me: Ok. You can be Hannah Montana. Now can we get back to the boat?

Jonah: I'm John Cena!

Mallie: Who are we?

Me: What?

Mallie: Well Aubrey is Hannah Montana and Jonah's John Cena... who are we?

Me: We're just us.

Then, we decided to try and make those darn ornaments from Hobby Lobby. It would've been easier to construct a life size replica of the Great Wall of China with toothpics. No more of that business. The bazillion little pieces involved coupled with the fact that I had to work until midnight and only had about 5 hours of sleep and I'm so sore I could barely move...we're not going to try that again.

I'm not confident they learned a thing this morning, but we had fun. :0)

Those Crazy Dodd Sisters...

Oh was yesterday morning FUN. I was very surprised to see evidence of the Dodd sisters. Gran's sisters had come up to decorate Mama Dodd's grave for Christmas and spend a little time with my Gran.

They weren't there when I got there, but had left Gran's Christmas present with instructions for her not to open it. They didn't say anything about me. And being my grandmother's grandchild, I got into that thing without them even noticing and we discovered a beautiful purple gown. I even got it put back together before they got there. I snapped a pic of Gran trying to look into another of her gifts. She was smooth as well, after all... I learned my skills from the very best. And then the crazy arrived. They even brought Aunt Flora over as a surprise. We weren't expecting to see her. They were awesome. We sat around talking and eating and they told old stories. Such fun times. Best part of the holiday season. :0)
Helen is the sister with very dark hair and glasses. Aunt Flora is the one with beautiful white hair and glasses. Mary, the one that I constantly fight with all in good fun, is the one with the white shirt and red stripes and Faye is the one that looks like she's flipping me off. They truly are funnier than the Golden Girls. Such fun. :0)

The BIG moment...

Had a revelation this weekend... bear with me, this one's deep. Went and saw my favorite curly headed tenor Friday night. At a Gaither Christmas Concert, lots of artists are there. So... for about the whole first hour and a half, you get to all these other artists. I caught myself, as I do every time, waiting and anticipating David's songs. I completely miss the blessing of everything before it because I am so wrapped up in waiting for the BIG moment. So as I sat there thinking about this, it hit me. I do that with a lot of life. I think everybody does to some extent. We can't WAIT until we are 16 and able to drive... and then 18... and then 21... and then married... and then kids... and then grandkids... and then retirement. Why be in such a rush to die that we miss out on all the good stuff in between? Don't get me wrong, when we finally got to David, it was TOTALLY worth it as I'm confident Heaven will be. I just don't want to miss all of the other stuff I get before then. :0)

Peace!

Found the coolest ring the other day. It's a peace sign... obviously. Love this ring. IT really looks cooler in person than in the pic. Coach Holladay laughed. He said he always knew I was a flower child. I can't say that I disagree. If I'd been a child of the 60s, I would've totally embraced it. I think I'd have fit right in. LOVE the tye-dye. I'm all about some peace and free love. And the music... LOVE IT. Good stuff. :0)

Pearl Harbor + 3 Birthdays

Today's the day that will live in infamy. Pearl Harbor Day. I have been blessed enough to see the memorial twice in my life. Kinda Awesome. It's a breathtakingly, beautiful, peacfully sad place to be. Definitely makes you want to be a better patriot. Today is also the birthday of 3 fabulous guys I know. The first of which, and the one in yellow in the picture, is actually called Mr. Fabulous. Stevie Miller is the GM of Ross Bridge and he is the coolest. Such a nice guy. Two others I couldn't find pics of are Drew Haley and Ben Jones. Drew is Jacob's brother. Jay was my very first friend in the entire world. Drew was in Sister's class, Jay was in mine. We all grew up together. He's one of the sweetest guys I know and has always had fire red hair. Love that guy. And Benny Hinn Jones is the other. His name's not really Benny Hinn, but that's what I always called him. He's a sweetheart as well. Fun times. :0)