You Know You're In Texas If...

10. It takes longer to drive from the airport to the house than it does to fly across six states.

9. Your five year old asks, "Everyone talks so slow. Why don't we talk like that?"

8. Your seven year old says, "Mom, what happens when two people have different skin colors and they get married?" and you are afraid to answer the question because of what might happen when you give your liberal (I use that loosely and you must be reminded "liberal" through the eyes of a Texan) based response among much more conservative and biased people.

7. One of your niece's first words is "TOUCHDOWN!" and it is complete with the hands up in the air.

6. The preacher's Sunday morning sermon includes stories with parallels to pick up trucks, creek beds, and loyal dogs.

5. The A&M school song resonates through the house.

4. You have deer meat for dinner.

3. Your kids hunt for deer in the back yard so as to secure the next meal.

2. Your children disregard anyone speaking Spanish and don't think for a moment that it might be "strange" and instead cause a scene with their screeches of laughter when they hear Japanese spoken.

1. The kids receive camoflauge bibs and coveralls as Christmas gifts....and like it!

We are spending the week in Texas and lovin' every minute of it!

With Love, Evan and Keagan

You might recall that last year Evan purchased a flashing lights ring for me for Christmas from the school’s Holiday Gift Shop. It was the most precious gift! This year I fully expected something similar, and if not another ring, I assumed it would be the lipstick case proudly displayed at the entrance of the holiday shop.

Imagine my surprise when I opened this....

A test tube of gel with a furry spider included!

When I asked Evan what I was supposed to do with it, he replied, "Play tricks on people with it, Mom!" I started laughing so hard that he then said, "See, Mom? You already like it. You are going to have lots of fun with it!"

And Keagan? He was allowed to attend the Holiday Gift Shop this year and he bought gifts with his allowance as well. In addition to purchasing a gift for himself (the monster truck was calling his name!), he purchased a robotic reading lamp for me.

He was so proud of the gift because he knows that I read almost every night. He told me he bought it so that I could "read stories in bed." So very thoughtful!

Christmas Get-a-Way

Instead of going over the top with big name toys that the boys will spend a day (or a week if we are lucky) playing with, we try to take a short family vacation prior to the Christmas holiday. This year our family experience took place at Great Wolf Lodge. Two years ago we made the same trip, but it was an entirely new experience now that both boys can swim and feel so comfortable in the water.

While I sat under the heater with a book, Wes took the boys through the water park. Keagan tried to surf for the first time, and in true form, he was able to to stay on the board after only one try. The kid can do anything requiring any type of athletic ability. Evan entered the water park and went straight for the big slides. He was looking for the excitement of big falls and dark slides.

The morning we checked out of the resort and dropped by the arcade room to play a few games. It was like Chuck E Cheese in the dark, and because I do not like Chuck E Cheese, this was not my idea of fun. Without hesitation, Keagan ran to the car rides, and I was left monitoring him as he raced and crashed into everything. But it was all worth it for him when he saw the girls in bikinis cheering for him. Evan, on the other hand, played every sports related game he could find. If it had a ball, he was playing; he was looking to compete and win.

Remind me to never, ever play the Magic Quest game at GWL ever again because if I have to search for a pixie hidden in a tree, decipher clues in a rule book, or listen to the instructions of the old-man wizard, I might just come to blows with Evan. Keagan randomly hit every piece in the Magic game with his magic wand and somehow became a Junior Magi. I have no idea how he did this because he never captured one rune. Evan, however, wanted to battle the dragon without capturing any runes. When I tried to explain this to him, I was immediately dismissed because as a female, I must know nothing of the ways of make-believe wizards. At 9:00 last night, I thought that we would return with one-less child. However, after a good night's rest, I persuaded Evan he needed to capture a rune or two and we did that this morning before leaving the resort.

We left the resort with an experience or two, some better than others, but we are so very thankful to be together again this Christmas season.

Blizzard Day 3

The snowman, with eyes made of croutons and a pipe made of string cheese, is the most beautiful of all.

Until Keagan killed him with a karate chop to the head.

Evan continues to mourn the loss.

Blizzard day 2

We are loving all of this snow!

Let It Snow!

I am having a hard time envisioning twenty inches of snow. I saw one deep snow when we lived in Ansbach, but it was more like ten inches. I am not sure how anyone prepares for that much snow, and because no one here in the city really believed that the storm would be this big, not many people did much to prepare. So after work today I joined the millions of other people who were out in full force trying to take care of last minute errands, fully expecting to be snowed in for the next three days. And because the meteorologists add another inch or two of snow to the expected total about every three hours, I am now really worried that I didn't do enough to prepare. Here was our plan as of 7:25 this morning when I left for work:

- Purchase salt for the sidewalks and driveway. I am not really sure why we did this because a fine dusting of salt will not do much with twenty inches of snow sitting on top of it. At 7:00 this morning it seemed to make a lot more sense.

- Does anyone send Christmas cards anymore? After debating this for weeks, I decided to just skip it this year. I couldn't find a good picture of the boys to put on the card (really, Evan, can you just smile once???). It's just plain expensive at 44 cents a pop for postage. After deciding to just forget it, I found myself at the post office today buying two books of holiday stamps so the cards will arrive before Santa does.

- Purchase sleds. For the past two years, the boys have used the sled of our 19 year old neighbor. She is a girl. The sled is pink. Wes decided he wasn't going to spend the entire week photo-shopping the pink sled in our wonderful snow pictures (the picture that should probably be on our Christmas card), and he didn't want anyone to know his boys were sitting on anything dainty and feminine like a pink sled. Never mind it moves like a bullet down the golf course hills and offers hours of pure enjoyment for the boys. Our new sleds are red and blue - very manly choices.

- I made the late night run to Target to score a few supplies. You would assume this would include milk or eggs. Staples that any family would need during a major snowstorm. However, I was in dire need of marsh mellow creme and semi-sweet chocolate chips because with all the time I expect to have, I thought it would be nice to make a batch of fudge. Can you believe that Target does not sell marsh mellow creme? The horror. The bigger horror, though, was the parking lot of Shoppers on 234. There was no way I was entering that mayhem. I decided against fudge and decided to make sugar cookies instead. We will re-emerge from this storm with a few extra pounds because I have some grand baking plans.

- When I heard snow, I knew I wanted a fire. It was too late to call McGyver, the affectionate name we give the LADY that re-lights the antiquated gas stove every year in our house. That meant the job was left to Wes. He took the entire stove apart yesterday morning, and we now sit in front of a warm fire. I owe him big.

We are now armed with salt, sleds, sugar cookies, and a warm fire.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!

Winter Wonderland

The first of the snow has arrived and it is absolutely beautiful! We spent an hour this morning sledding, throwing snowballs, and making snow angels in about fourteen inches of perfect, powder snow. 

I am assuming our Christmas vacation has been extended three days!

Parade of the Magi

Keagan's pre-school performed the annual Parade of the Magi Christmas program today. It was quite refreshing to hear songs with direct references to Jesus and the celebration of His birth as opposed to "winter themed holiday songs."

Santa Train

On the day that tickets went on sale for the local Santa train, I was convinced that I was the only person in NoVA who knew that they were available for the first time on-line. So I expected no problems purchasing the tickets. I timed my lesson plan on that Monday so my students would be in the middle of independent seat work while I made my secret purchase. I had no idea I was fighting thousands of other crazed moms for the twenty tickets available on-line. I was horrified when within five minutes of logging on the site, SOLD OUT flashed before my eyes in big bold Christmas colors.

Assuming that I would have to explain to my sweet boys that the holiday train ride planned with the Big Guy in Red was a no-go, I made one last ditch effort to find tickets. I was told I could get them if I drove to the Manassas train station. I did and I got them. Praise, Jesus! Because the look of relief on Evan's face when I finally held the precious things in my hands, told me that he wanted this more than I ever imagined.

Today was the big day and we were lucky enough to ride in a car with only one other family. It was a quiet ride and fairly relaxing. When Santa finally arrived, he was less than jolly and acted like it was a real nuisance to take a picture with two very well behaved and cooperating boys, but that didn't keep Evan and Keagan from whispering their wish lists to Mrs. Clause. Would you believe that they whispered the exact toys stowed away under my bed? 

We had much better luck later in the afternoon with the Santa at Party City. Just as last year, he gave the kids goodie bags and allowed the kids to sit on his lap for a full five minutes. Keagan couldn't have been happier.

St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas Day - We brought this holiday tradition with us from Germany, and although we haven't been in Germany for several years now, it is now a permanent fixture in our holiday routine. At school on Friday, Keagan's teacher presented a lesson on St. Nicholas, and he was the only kid in the class that could honestly say he celebrated "the boot holiday." This week Evan was responsible for producing a poster that outlined a family holiday tradition. He chose St. Nicholas Day. With all of this reinforcement, we definitely couldn't ignore the day.

On December 5, the boys place Wes's black Army boots by the door and St. Nicholas fills them with candy and sticks (reminders that you must be on your best behavior if you want Santa to visit on the 24th). This year was no exception. We were awakened at a very early hour to see what St. Nick left this year. Pop Rocks were a huge hit!

Camper of the Week

There is no debating that Evan and his first grade teacher got off to a rocky start this school year. It might have had something to do with his very pushy and assertive mother who questioned the teacher from the get-go, but that was only once.or twice. Anyway, after mornings of hiding behind the toilet, after countless pleas to be like Noah and to be home-schooled, and after screaming matches of "GET DRESSED ALREADY!!!", I didn't think that we would survive the first quarter. Here we are, though, in the middle of the second quarter, and things seem to be going a little better. Evan gets up and dressed with no more tears and the teacher has seemed to take a greater interest in Evan and my opinions of how Evan learns best.:)

On Friday he was chosen as Camper of the Week. Never mind that we are in week fourteen of the school year and half the class has already been chosen. Never mind that the only kids that have not been chosen are the kids with severe behavior problems. As I write this, I am only slightly worried with the above observations. More than anything I am thankful that he was not the last one to be chosen. It is still Evan's week in the spotlight and so we begin the week of celebration.

His first reward...Complete the Me Poster.

UGH!

Another artsy, fartsy, draw, sketch, and color project. Evan was thrilled, but not nearly as much as I.

When we put the last piece together on Sunday afternoon, Evan said, "I don't know, Mom. It doesn't look like any Me Poster that I have seen before!"

Let's hope the teacher gives points for being unique!

Snow Day

We got our first snow today. The boys took the sled down the hill on the golf course and then came in for mugs of hot chocolate. I was content in knowing I could enjoy it from my window. However, the excitement and anticipation of getting snow was not lost on me. I realize this could be the last time we will see snow for quite some time; as much as I look forward to year around warm weather and the beach, I will miss the occasional snow day.