All Things Must Come to an End

Sadly today was our final Christmas celebration. Tobe, Isaac, and I are fortunate enough to not simply celebrate Christmas one time each year, but four times (sometimes five on the years we are actually in Searcy for Christmas day). Today was our final Christmas celebration as we opened gifts and drank hot chocolate (despite the 70+ degree weather) with Tobe's parents. We have been traveling for over a week now and just arrived back at the Phillips' Manor yesterday. Here are some highlights for us during the past week:

1. We drove to Lubbock on the 23rd with Tobe's parents and sister. Isaac did wonderful in the car, only becoming fussy during the last thirty minutes. We quickly resolved this problem by turning on Baby Einstein (which I refer to as "Baby Crack" because of the reaction it invokes out of children) on the laptop and peace resumed.

2. We ate at the lovely Taco Villa in Lubbock.

3. Isaac was able to meet his great-grandfather on Tobe's dad side, the last relative he had yet to meet.

4. I was able to enjoy some quality "girl time" with all of Tobe's female relatives out at his grandparents farm. Girl time involves sitting around the kitchen table sharing a bit of gossip, lots of laughter, and eating Uncle Lamar's fudge straight from the pan. Poor Isaac had to join in on a lot of this girl time as one of us was usually holding him. Hopefully he took notes and can put such wisdom to good use one day as a married man.

5. Tobe preached a wonderful sermon Christmas morning as we all worshipped together as a family. His words brought forth tears and laughter. We also had a great time teasing Tobe about his sermon leading up to Sunday morning. I personally wanted to create a church bulletin to pass out. Do you think Mr. Gatti's gives you the 10% off on the Sunday buffet if you bring in a homemade bulletin?

6. Tobe and I managed to get good gifts in the gift exchange at his paternal grandparents celebration. This is very important to me each year as I was robbed of the Eurosealer the first Christmas I spent with Tobe's family (those persons who stole such Eurosealer will remain nameless).

7. Isaac was awake during the opening of stockings on Christmas morning, but snoozed right through the opening of the presents. Tobe and I opened his gifts for him and then remembered a few days later that we never showed him what he had received that morning. Oops.

8. Santa left Isaac the Snicky Snack Hippo, which was a huge hit. Isaac LOVES this stuffed hippo which is also a book. It is on my list of recommended toys.

9.Isaac did wonderful on all the plane rides--we flew from Lubbock to Dallas to Little Rock on Tuesday of last week and then flew from Little Rock to Dallas yesterday. He was the perfect little traveler, not fussing once during the flights. He was also incredibly tolerant of constantly changing environments and of various people playing with him throughout the week.

10. Isaac witnessed his first West Texas dust storm as we headed out of Lubbock on our way to Searcy. Can't say that I miss that aspect of West Texas. My allergies still aren't the same.

11. Tobe and I were able to see King Kong at the Searcy Cinema 5 while Nana J and Pop-Pop baby-sat. Those readers familiar with the Searcy Cinema 5 know this was a less than thrilling experience. Supposedly we saw the movie in the theater with stadium seating. Apparently if you elevate a row slightly, this is considered to be stadium seating. Also, this cinema requires you to buy tickets at the concession stand and pay only in cash. We had to wait as bubba and his twelve kids ordered every possible combination of popcorn and coke before we could get our measly movie tickets. Perhaps one day someone will build a real movie theater in the lovely town of Searcy and Cinema 5 will go out of business. One can dream....

12. I was able to visit with some friends from DC and finally meet their precious baby girl. Sometimes it seems surreal that I actually have a child and then for that child to be "playing" with the child of one of my childhood playmates (could you follow that thought despite the numerous times I used the word "child"?). Weird.

13. Our house was not consumed by the fires that apparently were sweeping across the DFW area. Last night I did hear the charming (I use that term loosely) neighborhood boys shooting off fireworks and hoped that a fellow neighbor had more energy than I did and called the police to report such behavior. I was only able to briefly think of how horrible it would be for our new fence to catch fire before I drifted back off to sleep.

14. We finally were able to get medicine to treat Isaac's poor constipation after things became really bad on Monday of last week. I know this is not a particularly holiday-esque highlight, but it was a very big deal for us. Things are going just fine now for sweet Isaac and his intestines.

15. Everyone loved the gifts that we gave them. The Christmas craft from hell was well received and nothing broke in all of our travels. (By the way, the Christmas craft was sets of coasters with various family pictures on them)

16. I now own Rachel Ray's cookbook "365 Meals: No Repeats" and will no longer wonder what to do for supper this year. Amongst other things, Tobe gave me a gift certificate to take cooking lessons, something I have been dying to do. My husband was very creative in his gift giving this year and really tried to make things special for me.

17. Tobe and I took my grandmother on a scenic drive of Arkansas and saw such places as Step Rock, Bald Knob, and Boldingville. We heard some great stories and drove past the house where Grandmother grew up. Then it was off to dinner at the famous Huckleberry's Catfish House. Such establishment is a great lesson for Tobe in Arkansas 101. I believe he stopped counting men in overalls when he got to seven....

18. My family was able to have a quiet, enjoyable holiday even though it has been a difficult month since the passing of my grandfather. I believe it helped things this year with Christmas falling on a Sunday and Tobe and I arriving on the 27th. Our normal family holiday traditions were put aside for the year and we were able to enjoy being with each other and honor the memory of Pawpaw.

19. Tobe discovered that there is a new version of the soft drink Big Red (his family's favorite beverage--I believe it to be an acquired taste). This new version is called Big Red Float and is supposed to taste like Big Red and vanilla ice cream blended together. He said it was not that tasty and prefers to stick to the regular version.

20. Isaac has found his voice and his feet, both of which are providing him with hours of entertainment. He has been talking for months now (by talking, I mean the basic cooing and babbling--however I swear he sometimes says, "Momma"), but he just learned how to talk very loudly. This can entertain him for extended periods of time, especially when ten people are all huddled around him laughing at every cute move he makes. He found his feet about a month ago, but really did not show a lot of interest. All of the sudden these appendages hold great interest to him. He especially likes his feet when they are sockless and shoeless (which doesn't happen very often because I have a thing about always wearing socks) and ends up tickling himself when he grabs at them. Too cute.

That is our holiday in its condensed version ( I know you are wondering how long the extended version would have been). Tomorrow we officially close the book on Christmas 2005 as the tree and all the decorations come down. I am now off to finish cleaning up the last of Isaac's latest throw-up episode and then crawl into bed in my snazzy new red jammies (thanks, Santa Baker!). Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas season as well!

Here are some pictures from the past week. My favorite is the picture of Isaac covering his face with his giraffe blanket while he slept.