God Bless Texas

So...you already know that we went to Texas to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. We boarded a plane at 6am on Thanksgiving day and arrived in Dallas less than 2 hours later. We were at Grandma's house by breakfast time. Flying was the best idea Earl and I have had in a long time. No more 10 hour car drive, no more wailing from the backseat "Are we there yet!?", no more stopping for bathroom breaks every 30 miles...yep, flying was fantabulous. And oh so easy with two parents to juggle kids and luggage and sippy cups. I would totally recommend flying...hands down.



The weather in Texas was beautiful, the food was plentiful, and we had three relaxing days with Earl's parents, big brother, and niece. Like I said in a previous post and as you can see from the pictures above, Grace and Sam had some SERIOUS Grandma/Paw-paw quality time (except for the small bump in the holiday "road" when Earl flushed a baby wipe down the potty and the plumber had to come...but it was fixed fairly quickly and we were back to free flushing for one and all. Potty's are an important fixture in the life of a 4 year old, esp. the day after Thanksgiving! I've never been so thankful for indoor plumbing and Grandma and Paw-paw's second working bathroom!) We didn't take many pictures...we just played and chatted and ate...mostly ate. You never starve at Grandma's house...and there is never lack of fritos and bean dip and yummy chocolate treats (including the chocolate cream pie that I think I ate 3/4's of...but that's beside the point). We did manage to whip out the camera and snap a few pics though, including pictures of these:

Singing and dancing Santa's...LOUD, obnoxious singing and dancing Santa's. You see Grandma has a problem. And it's not a small problem either. Grandma loves singing and dancing stuffed anything--dogs, cats, Santa's, gorillas...add sunglasses and it makes the experience that much better...if it has an "on/off" button attached to it, and it has the ability to drive a person mad in less than 2 minutes, Grandma loves it...and she buys one for her collection and one to send to each beloved grandchild. The three Santa's you see above are just the tippy top of the iceburg in her singing/dancing stuffed figurine choir. And Sam adores them. He esp. adores them when all three are singing and dancing at. the. same. time. Did I mention how LOUD these things are?? He played with them all weekend...endlessly...he never grew tired of their Christmas cheer. Which is very uncharacteristic of Sam...he's an on the go sort of kid, moving here and there from one minute to the next. He doesn't sit still for anything...well anything except three very LOUD singing Santa's
Grandma said she'd be more than happy to send them to us...you know, since the boy loved them so very much. I told her that was an oh so nice offer...but I wouldn't want them to get mishandled during shipping, and you know...get broken or something awful like that....
Thanks for such a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving Grandma and Paw-paw! We will see you very soon!