Grand We Two: December 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

Anyone who knows us is well aware how important Thanksgiving is for our family and 2008 was no exception! John has a brother and two sisters with whom we've celebrated Thanksgiving almost continually since our marriage in 1969. With only a couple of exceptions we have met somewhere and celebrated as a family together. In the beginning (and for many years) we would meet at someones house and have "giant" spend the night(s) party! Frank, Barbara, and Kathy have 3 kids apiece and John two for total of 15 kids...fast forward to now and most of those kids have their own kids so we are now a family of about 40! Therefore, now we have to rent a very large house where we can sleep all of us!

This year we were able to rent a retreat house at a Methodist Camp and Conference Center in Northern Alabama, which was perfect even if we did have to sleep in bunk beds in a room with at lease two other couples and shared a bath room with about 15 other adults and multitude of little people! There were a couple of lakes with canoes and paddle boats and lots of woods and wide open spaces! The weather was just great! Kids (old and young) could get out and play and have lots of fun with their cousins.

We left Pearland Monday, November 24th after work and spent the night on the road and made it to Cindy's (Madison, AL) mid afternoon and were able to spend some "just our family" time with our daughters, their husbands and 7 of our grandchildren - poor Sean - he was only boy! We all left next morning for the retreat house and met up with the rest of our family! Nana & Dandy (sometimes known as "The Grand We Two") had decided that our primary responsibilities were being connected to at least one, but sometimes, more than one, grandchild at all times. Dandy certainly got a lot of exercise on the front porch swing with a baby or two in his lap and in walking around the lake or kicking leaves with the kids....Nana, is still walking with a lean after spending most of her time doing her normal cooking and looking after everyone with a baby on her hip!! There is nothing sweeter than having a sweet little baby taking a nap on your shoulder, even sweeter when one of the older girls curls up beside you or in your lap, just to sit awhile!!

After each Thanksgiving, we all say that it just can't get any better...well they do and this was no exception: Almost everyone was able to attend and everyone got along...the food was fantastic...and except for the little incident where Kyla was practicing her skydiving landing techniques, no one got hurt! It seems this was the only time anyone can recall that "only one" trip to the emergency room was required!

Even though it was great trip, ever thing must end and on Saturday morning everyone started packing up and ---- it hit us ---- this is the first time we are going back to Texas --- alone! Kathy and her group went back to their home in Utah and Cindy was staying in Alabama! And now that Thanksgiving is "over" for this year Christmas was right behind and we knew that this would be our first Christmas since 1970 (Kathy was 4 months old), that we would not have any kids around!! Not trying to turn this into a "downer" but this is tough on us, being out here all alone! Now don't get me wrong, we are active and we have friends and our church family, but it is different not having any "blood" around! So we were not looking forward to this Christmas at all, but as it turns out we have a very good one!

We did finally put up a tree (but not all three) and after doing most of our shopping on line and getting each other a few things, we did get into the spirit. We had several Christmas parties with our Motorcycle Gang and our Church Small Group, and even put lights and decorations on the Goldwing and rode in the Pearland Christmas parade. Then on Christmas morning we had brunch at the home of one of our favorite families, the Embertons and a bunch of other church friends. We had a fantastic Christmas Super with an "almost" family...I say almost because my sister has a daughter, Jenny, who lives in Florida and is married to Paul who has a brother, Mark who lives about one half a mile from us with his wife Barb and three children! They knew we were alone and invited us over for Prime Rib and Maine Lobster --- turns out Mark was professional chef and ran his own restaurant for many years! The boy can cook!! Anyway we had a great time with them, her parents, the two boys 7 & 5 and a precious little girl about 4 months old. We had to leave from there and headed to the church were we had some time with our Celebrate Recovery group, singing Christmas songs and eating treats...! So we spent the day with great people and eating (all day long)!!

So we had good holiday after all even though we did miss our own kids, we were with people we love and love us! OH!!! We did get some time with Kathy and her girls via WEB CAM!!!! We had bought Nana new computer with built in web cam and Kathy has one as well, so she figured out how to work it and we were able to visit for almost an hour in the afternoon, just talking and seeing some of the things they got from Santa...and we got to hear Kyla play the piano! So we got to see and hear four of our girls (5 counting Kathy)! So it was a good day after all....a very good day...our God is so good to us!!!

Here are a few more pictures from Thanksgiving....enjoy!

Lexie & Lauren