"Sir, do you know how fast you were going?"

Despite being displaced from our home, Santa found Josh and rewarded him greatly for being a good boy the past 11 months.

Last week, Josh and I loaded up the car a few days earlier than expected when one morning our contractor called and told me they were coming to rip out my floors in 10 minutes. AHH!!! I hauled as much stuff as I could into my car and hit the road. We spent a few days in Houston and then headed to meet Chris and the rest of the family in Jacksonville to celebrate with Chris' family.

As always, we had a great time singing Christmas songs and relaxing by the fire.

Here is a picture of Josh diving into his stocking Gayle hung for him. Funny how he knew exactly where the good stuff was. He was spoiled by his "Granee and Pa." They got him the great tricycle/rocker/push bike pictured above. He took to it instantly and can now swing his little leg over the seat as if he has been riding Harleys when we think he is asleep at night. He is also now stocked with a plethora of Josh Deere toys to teach him about geometric shapes ( Gayle is a Geometry teacher) and farm animals.












Gayle ( a.k.a. Santa's Helper) always does a great job wrapping her presents so they look beautiful under the tree. However, a kayak for Roland was a bit of a challenge to wrap so Chris and Tim came up with a unique presentation- see above photo. The next morning, we convinced Roland to take Josh outside and look on the roof for reindeer tracks and instead he found Santa in a kayak. It was a perfect surprise.

There were many memorable times in Jacksonville this Christmas. It is so hard to decide which stands out as the best. Hummm, I'm trying to think.... Oh yeah- Roland getting a thong for Christmas. That one was really good. I know you are thinking,

"Al, you mentioned in a previous post how lucky you are to have NORMAL in-laws." That all changed this Christmas. No, not really. It wasn't his fault he got the "gift of thong" from Santa. You see, every Christmas Eve, we have dinner at Chris' grandparents house and have a White Elephant exchange consisting of highly coveted items from the local Dollar Store. This year, the winning moment was Roland opening the green thong with "SMILE" written across the narrow piece of fabric.

One Candy Cane: $1
One Christmas Tree: $60
One Hard to find Wii : $250
Roland receiving a thong in front of his entire family: Priceless

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They kind of look alike, with those chubby cheeks and bright eyes.

Christmas morning, we packed up again and headed to Kingwood. The drive was nice and Josh slept almost the entire ride. Phil and Anna greeted us at the door and almost immediately Phil started picking on me, like any self-respecting big brother should do. Ahhh, life never changes. We opened presents while enjoying some relaxing music and a glass of wine. A perfect Christmas moment.

Josh received another stock of presents to enjoy and slobber all over. He got his first Thomas the Train toy, some books, clothes, and a bunch of things that make a lot of noise. Yeah!

That evening, we enjoyed another wonderfully prepared holiday meal. Josh loved the sweet potatoes and I learned he prefers cranberry sauce to gravy. That's my boy. As tradition, we opened Christmas Crackers and had Plum Pudding for dessert. Chris and Anna were good sports and had a serving of our unusual Christmas dessert. After a game of speed Scrabble and probably way too much wine and whiskey, it was off to bed.

The dogs were having fun while we were away as well. They are staying in Jacksonville at the farm and loving every minute of it. Today, they went to the lake with Roland to help him break in his kayak. Here is a picture of Murphy making sure Roland doesn't fall into the water. Actually, I am extremely surprised Murphy didn't try to jump into the boat with him and lick him to death. She has a "thing" for Roland. Jackson was there too. I hear he decided to chase some cows. Wish I could have seen that.


We hope you all had a joyful and festive Christmas!