Christmas 2013

I'm back dating this because yes it is January 2nd and I am just now getting around to posting about Christmas.

So, Christmas this year was so much fun! I know every year will continue to get better and better with Beckham. I have a lot of family so the holidays are always a crazy but fun time of year. Christmas Eve was crazy because Butch was supposed to be home at 11:00. He ended up getting a little delayed and wasn't supposed to be in until 4:00, and then around 2:45 Beckham and I were getting ready to leave a little early because I needed to run by Brookshire's and possibly get the car washed before we picked up Daddy. I was literally pulling out of the driveway and Butch calls me, freaking out saying he is already in Shreveport. It turned out he had his time zones a little off and he was in Shreveport at 3:00 instead of 4:00. We were already on the road so he had to sit and wait for us for a little bit. Then, Christmas Eve evening we went over to Maymay and Daddy Mac to do a super fast Christmas because we had to be at Butch's parents at 6:00. We didn't end up getting there until 6:30 and guess what? I got zero pictures at Maymay's....ugh

Anyways we opened presents and did a light supper at Grami & Pop's Christmas Eve night. Beckham was somewhat over the whole 'opening presents thing' he loved the presents once they were out of the box and working but he didn't care much to open the actual presents. Then, Christmas Eve night Santa came and I was so excited for Beckham to wake up and see all of his presents! He ended up sleeping until 9:30! Whoop whoop! When he woke up he walked into the living room kind of in shock. All of his new toys covered most of our living room and it was like he didn't know what to play with first. It was so hilarious!! We stayed home and played with all of his new toys for a few hours, then we got ready to go to Grami's house for a traditional Christmas lunch. Everything was so delicious and we were all in food comas afterwards. Beckham ended up taking about a 2.5 hour nap. Then, when he woke up Beckham and I went over to my Dad's parents house to do Christmas with them. We just opened presents and visited for a few hours. Butch wasn't feeling good so he stayed home.

Then, the morning of the 26th Beckham and I headed over to my Mom and step Dad's house in Homer. We had Christmas with them and opened presents and all of that fun stuff and then around 11:00 we all headed over to my Uncle Jon's house in Monroe. We had what we called 'Gimber Christmas' which was all of my Mom's side of the family. (Her Dad, Aunt and her kids, her brothers, their wives and kids...etc) It was so good to see everyone. The last time I saw most of them was at my Uncles funeral a few months ago and we said then that we were sick of only seeing each other when someone died. So, I hope we keep the tradition alive of seeing each other more. My Mamaw was truly the glue to our family. She held everyone together and made sure we saw each other often. It is at her house in Arcadia that I have some of the fondest childhood memories, especially around the holidays. Mamaw never hesitated from hosting huge get togethers at her house. I can still remember 2 or 3 huge pans of dressing, rows and rows of pies & cakes, and Mamaw always made a huge fruit salad which was her favorite. There would be ham, turkey, every side dish imaginable and her house would always be full of people. I cherish those memories when our family was much closer and I hope that one day we can be that close again, especially now that I have Beckham I want him to know all of his family and be close with cousins like I used to be. Hopefully, one day I will also have a house that I can host big gathering in like my Mamaw did. Okay, anyways I kind of got off subject but back to Christmas. We ate and ate and then ate some more at Jon's and all of the kids (and some adults) played outside most of the day. It was a great day- I wish Butch would have been able to enjoy it with us.

 Christmas Eve

 Christmas morning

Compare to last year.

Merry Christmas!

I passed..........

First I have to say I passed the GRE yesterday and am OFFICIALLY a graduate student...whoop whoop!! I am registered for my first class and just purchased the required book! After the test I was thinking, "I'm glad that's over", but honestly it is just the beginning. But, I am excited, motivated and ready to get it going. However, I plan to thoroughly enjoy the next two weeks off from work before work and then graduate school starts. I brought home four books that I hope to read before I start grad school. Three of which are Harry Potter- don't judge me. I am amazed that I haven't read the Harry Potter series yet, granted the whole magic/wizardry theme is not really up my alley, but I have recently become more into sci fi so I'm thinking I will like them. I bought the entire set for me my classroom at my school's book fair this year.  A friend of mine is currently obsessed, so I've got to at least see what all of the fuss is about.

Anyways, we've been having a ball around here lately. I finally got all of Butch's Christmas ready for him to come home. I am so excited about it I could scream!! I can't wait for Christmas Eve, he will be home and I can finally give him all of the goodies I have been stressing over lately. I'll share everything later but just in case he's reading this- I can't give it away!!

I am planning on getting some stuff to make Christmas candy/cookies tomorrow or Monday. I will post on how all of that goes later; because, with my little helper, there is honestly no telling.

Cue photos:

early Christmas from family in Baton Rouge

I told him if he sat there and smiled then I'd give him my keys, promise kept.

December happenings

December has been so much fun so far! Here's a bunch of random things we've been doing. Beckham had late fall/Christmas pictures that turned out so stinkin cute! I've got a picture of a picture of our Christmas card, I'll have to scan some others to post here. I absolutely love them!! He is such a little baby model. Our tree is decorated, we have the cutest Santa Mickey in the front yard (didn't get any actual lights on our house this year since Butch had to leave for work). I have some cute Christmas decor around the house and back porch; I had a poinsettia for about 4 days but somehow I managed to kill it. I swear I can not keep any kind of plant alive-it drives me insane! I have been wrapping presents like crazy and our tree is seriously overflowing and I'm not even done yet! I mean, I'm about 90% done but not completely. We are having Santa pictures taken tomorrow, which I'm hoping goes well. He's around so many men with beards it should be fine. We will see. We attempted to see the Christmas train a last weekend but he was a little sick (just snotty with a cough) and when we got there the line was around the parking lot so we knew it would be a while before we got on the train so we decided to skip it this year and try next year. :( Beckham's friend, Jake turned one on the 6th so we went to his Saints theme Birthday party. Beckham was so cute and sweet to the other kids. He shared so well and we had a great time. Unfortunately, we had to take Butch to the airport that same day because he had to go back to work. But, he will be home in time for Christmas....or that's the plan! Hopefully there isn't any delays or bad weather!

Here's a photo dump.

Thankful part four

It has been a hot minute since I posted here so I thought it was more than due time. The past couple of weeks have been so much fun around here! First, the hubs was home for Thanksgiving (he wasn't last year), I was out of school for a WHOLE week, my Mom and step-Dad, Johnnie came over for Thanksgiving and Mom stayed the weekend, andddd I did some major Black Friday shopping. Fun stuff for sure!

Thanksgiving was filled with food, family, and football of course. I ate more than my fair share but that's nothing new. Beckham napped right after we ate so we didn't get a family pic but I did get a few good ones.

So, my Mom made the comment -something to the effect of- that there's nothing like being thankful for what you have on Thanksgiving, only to leave at 4:00 to start shopping for more things.... and if I'm being honest that is SO not what Thanksgiving should be about. Stores are slowly but surely opening earlier and staying open later. Did I save a ton Thursday night/Friday morning? Yes. But, in general am I spending less money because I hit the deals on Black Friday? No! I've got my budget in my head and that's what I spend. Period. I just love shopping and especially buying presents for people. Don't get me wrong I bought myself a few things too that I totally didn't need but, I got 90% of my shopping done in one day! Plus- when I'm able to get good sales I can buy more for my friends and family and still spend the same amount. At least that's how I look at it so just leave me alone! :) The bottom line is while I am still (and probably will always be) trying to find contentment with my life, I just really love to shop and any reason I can go shopping then I am ready to roll!

While it is really cold here in Louisiana right now like, ice storm/freezing rain cold.Yeah. I'm not loving it but I really do love this time of year. Saturday after Thanksgiving Butch put the Christmas tree up and then headed out to go hunting, Mom was packing up to leave and Beckham laid down for a nap, so I decorated the Christmas tree. I did it while Beckham was asleep because he is so super busy right now I was dreading him tearing the tree a part, so I thought if I did it while he was asleep he wouldn't see me 'touching' the tree so maybe he wouldn't either. Long story short our Christmas tree is up as well as most of the decorations. Grami ended up letting Beckham put some ornaments on her tree so I got an Elmo and Mickey ornament and let him put them on our tree and he has done so well with it. He literally has no messed with one thing. He points to different ornaments and says what they are but he's not terrorizing like I thought he would! And I don't mean to make it sound like he's a terror, because he is not at all. He is just so smart and mobile; I honestly didn't know how he would react to a giant tree in our living room. He hasn't even messed with any presents! Proud Mama moment.

Anyways, I kind of got off subject there with the Christmas happenings. Today I took Butch back to the airport. But I am so excited he will be home for Christmas! He literally comes home on Christmas Eve so I am praying that he has safe travels home with no flight delays. Today was a mess because his flight was delayed three hours so we were literally just sitting in the car waiting, he was starting to worry because he would miss his next flight so he'd probably have to sleep in the airport and the stress was just building; and then he got an email that the cancelled the flight before him so his flight was moved up an hour and half so he had about thirty minutes until he could board. Which meant he would make his next flight and be back to work on time.  Hopefully that was a sign that he will have a smoother time getting home on Christmas Eve. I sure hope so.

So, as the last post in my Thankful series I truly just want to acknowledge this time of my life. I read somewhere something about if you spend time thinking about what is going to happen next you miss what is happening right now. It really hit me hard that while I do have this 'to do list' in my head I need to just stop and savor this moment that I am in. I have a wonderful relationship with my husband, I have the most precious son in the whole entire world, the best family and friends anyone could ask for, a roof over my head, food on the table, and more blessings than I deserve. I am sincerely grateful, thankful, and appreciative of all that I have, even when I forget to acknowledge all of my blessings.