Christmas Morning

The kids slept in on Christmas morning.  Who does that?  Once they finally woke up they enjoyed the presents.  Here's how it looked.

They absolutely loved their gifts!  In fact, they didn't even notice the wrapped gifts under the tree until the afternoon.  We spent most of Christmas day playing in the fort, coloring, and pushing those wheeled toys around.

They got to stay in their pajamas most of the day, until they decided to play in the mud outside that afternoon.  Then of course they had to change because their clothes were wet and filthy.

It was a wonderful Christmas day!

On Thursday after Christmas, we all drove to Texas to celebrate Christmas with my family.  It was a wonderful visit!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it.  Shame shame.  :-(

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas in Mississippi was peaceful, fun, and so special.  We spent Christmas with just our family of four.  The Wieds and the O'Neals both spent it with their inlaws, so Mom and Dad instructed us to stay put and they took their own staycation over Christmas.  I understand that they saw a movie every day on Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.  They also spent a night at the Gaylord Texas and had Christmas dinner with their friends.  But, this post is about Christmas Even with my little family of four, so I'll get to that.

Forrest planned a big Christmas dinner, which included turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.  Actually, that's what I planned.  He found that to be too spare so he also made green beans, fresh cranberry salad, rolls, and two pies (one pumpkin and one pecan).  We shopped for the goods on Sunday and couldn't wait until Christmas Day to enjoy it.

In fact, we really couldn't wait, so we moved our Christmas feast up to Christmas Eve.  You can be flexible like that when you're only trying to suit four people (two of whom don't get a vote yet).  So, Forrest labored most of the day in the kitchen and we enjoyed a late lunch fit for a king.

We also really looked forward to our church's "family" Christmas Eve service.  It was a wonderful time and I think the kids really enjoyed it.  They even had a photo booth set up for us to take pictures.  So fun!

I took these pics right before the service started.  I love the twins' Christmas outfits!  Also, you will notice that they each have tiny finger flashlights.  That's the "candle" part of the Candlelight Christmas Eve Service.

Jackson Hole

Our trip to Jackson Hole was just what the doctor ordered.  We picked Jackson Hole because it was the option that best allowed us to use our frequent flier miles and hotel points.  I needed a place where American Airlines flew directly to from DFW and I also needed a town that had a Hilton property, as I had Hilton points I wanted to use.  Forrest then used our American Express credit card points to buy the lift tickets and ski rentals, and we ended up with one very cheap vacation!

Although our flight didn't leave until the evening, we drove in to Arlington that Thursday morning and ate lunch at Pappasitos and then got massages at Daired's.  Then we caught a 5:30pm flight to Jackson Hole.

I really loved Wyoming.  It had more of a western feel than Colorado and the people were extremely friendly. 

I took these pics on the way to the mountain on Friday morning.

This is what the base of the resort looked like.

We skied on Friday and Saturday.  I snowboarded and had a hard time.  I got the hang of it after a while, but my first couple of runs were no fun at all.  I started wondering if I'm too old for that sport!  I think I'll stick with it, but hopefully the next few mountains I ski have more beginner terrain than Jackson Hole.  It was too hard for me.

Anyways, we were told to take the gondola up on our first run, as it led to some easy (ha!) intermediate terrain.  We mistakenly got on the Sky Tram which only accesses difficult terrain.  I ended up having to ride the Tram back down while Forrest skied down.  However, one of the resort workers advised me to hike up to the peak (just a few yards past the top of the tram) to see the views off the back side of the mountain.  They were excellent views of the Grand Tetons, which are posted below.

I took this pic some time on Friday right before I went down a slope.  You can see my board in the bottom of the pic.

We skied the entire day on Friday, then went home and showered and got ready for dinner.  We ate at a restaurant ironically named Gun Barrel Steak and Chop.  It was in an old taxidermist shop that had been converted to a restaurant.  The ambiance was fantastic.  We ate right in front of a fireplace, which had a very warm (too warm by the end of dinner!) fire crackling the entire dinner.

This was hung directly over my head (above the fireplace).

By lunch on Saturday, Forrest and I were both pooped.  We turned in our skies a couple hours early and headed in to town for some shopping.  Jackson Hole has a wonderful downtown area with all kinds of shops (leather, jewelry, western wear, sheepskin, regular tourist shops), restaurants, and bars.  We shopped for a couple hours then found a bar and enjoyed happy hour. 

Do you know I don't take the time very often to really talk to and enjoy my husband?  Sometimes, you just have to sit us down in a bar and put a couple of cold beers in front of us to get us to really talk to each other.  We are just so busy with life, and it's a good life, but still it makes us so busy that we don't take the time to really enjoy each other.  Drinking beers with Forrest that afternoon was the best part of vacation for me.  I sure do love that sweetie!

These are pics of the town.  In the center square, at each corner is an arch made of antlers.  At Christmas they cover the arches with Christmas lights.

This is the view walking down the "jetbridge" (NOT) at the Jackson airport. 



Weekend away

December has kind of flown by.  I did a lot of travelling this month, including a trip up to Omaha for my company's annual Christmas party.  I would have enjoyed Forrest attending with me, but that would have required finding someone to take care of our kids.  We had a vacation planned for the following weekend for which Grandmommie had agreed to take care of the kids, so Forrest stayed behind for the Omaha trip.

Our vacation was a trip to Jackson Hole for two days of skiing.  We drove to Texas on Wednesday night and then started our vacation Thursday morning.  This post isn't about Jackson Hole.  That's the next post.  This post is titled "Weekend away" because that's exactly what it was for our twins.  It was a weekend away from home and Mom and Dad!
My mother and father had a wonderful time with our kids.  From the sounds of it, I don't think Carter and Olivia missed us at all!  They are so lucky to have grandparents they love so much.  My mom took care of them all by herself on Thursday and Friday, as my dad was working.  I worried she'd get overworked or feel a little stir crazy being out at the lake with only the twins, but it sounds like she managed just fine.

Our backyard is just full of leaves.  Somehow Olivia found this cesspool of old (and cold!) water and leaves, and Grandmommie let her climb right on in.  It looks like she enjoyed it! 

Grandmommie sent me these pics to show me their snack time.  They snacked on thin mints.  Another first for my twinnies!

She sent this pic after bathtime one night.  The pajamas I sent for Carter were getting a little snug, so they dug through Morgan's old clothes and found these pajamas in size 18 months for him.  They aren't that much roomier than his 12 month ones (maybe I just have a big boy!).

Thanks so much for the great care Grandmommie and Pops!

Helms Family Christmas Card

On Sunday after Thanksgiving, all the kids got dressed in their Christmas best and we attempted to take a picture for them for Grandmommie and Pops Christmas card.  We were technically successful (a picture was indeed used from this bunch for the card) but.....wow......is it hard to get four kids to sit still for a picture?!?

And this was the winning picture: