Christmas At Home

For the past four years we have celebrated Christmas overseas.  There were two years in Holland and two years in Dubai.  We loved our Christmas celebrations and kept many of our old traditions with us while also creating new ones.  Wherever we were, we always had a wonderful Christmas because we were together.

This year we are back at home in Texas.   Unpacking our Christmas decorations was so much fun.  We had not brought ANY decorations with us overseas, so the ornaments, village, Santas, snowmen, and stockings had all been packed away in storage all this time.   It seemed as if every box we opened brought another round of smiles and laughs.  When we opened Kevin's boxes, there were actually reminder notes of "what to do in 2008!".  Little did we know that we wouldn't see those notes until 2012!  Just too funny.

One of the things we have enjoyed the most about being 'home' is the Christmas lights.  I really don't know if there are more lights this year than there were five years ago and the neighbors have just all decided to do it up big, bigger, and biggest, or if I just plain and simple took the decorations for granted.   In any case, the drive through Friendswood is just wonderful.  I have tried very hard to take pictures to share.  Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, the pictures just do not do the home decorations justice.  I hope you are still able to look at the pictures, close your eyes, and imagine just how truly beautiful (or weird), they are.

This is how Santa comes to Friendswood!  On a fire truck and giving away treats to kids and dogs alike!

Beautiful house.  Every door and window outlined in lights. 

This house is a little overdone.  Don't quite understand why the reindeer have to stand in the trees!

Biggest Santa I have ever seen!

This house is MASSIVE and has all of their trees outlined in blue lights.  Words can't describe....

We kept looking at this.  Just don't get it!  How does people dancing in front of a board celebrate Chrismas?

This is the Griswolds house.  All to music and WAY overdone.  Could not get a picture of all the stuff!

I love the "light" tree.  My dad did this in our yard when I was little.

The school mascot is the mustang.  The blue mustangs bring Santa into town here! 

Not many nativity scenes in town, but this one would win my vote for best.

True Reindeer games! 

My dog, Shadow, loves this! She stops on her walk and just stares at all the movements.

I found in our "elf" box the Christmas lists the kids had left for Santa.  When they were little, they just had to cut out pictures from ads of their 'wants".  Made it SO easy!

This is tree #1 in my house.  Only nine feet tall this year.  It holds all of our very special ornaments.

This is my international tree.  Only one US ornament, one of the Texas flag.  All the other ornaments were bought on our travels overseas.

Finally put a tree in my room.  Just snowflakes and ornaments to match the colors of the room.

This is the game room tree.  All homemade ornaments and favorite disney and special event ornaments picked out by the kids. 

There are two more big trees in Sarah and Brian's rooms which hold their very special ornaments.  Kevin's room and the guest room only have 4 1/2 foot trees due to space limitations.

Christmas in Texas has been wonderful.  I have loved the crazy hustle and bustle.  I have enjoyed hearing the kids in the mall laugh, cry, and plead "please tell me what I did wrong!".  I enjoyed seeing a man shopping in his one piece footy pajamas yesterday.  I had tears in my eyes when I was finally singing the solo "O Holy Night" at church again.

Being away was wonderful, but being home is pretty incredible too.  I think I did not know how very much I missed it until I had to miss it no more.   Being home takes away nothing from the wonderful memories of our Christmas' abroad. We cherish every one of those moments equally as much as we do our little "to do in 2008" notes.

I wish all of my friends a wonderful, blessed Christmas.  May your new year be filled with everything your heart desires, but especially friends, family, good health and happiness.  

With love...
Carol

Cookies and Lemonade

We all know the phrase "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade".  For the person that makes great lemonade we say "she is a tough cookie".   As 2012 is drawing to a close, I have to say that my family has had enough lemonade and cookies - come on 2013!

Our year started out great.  We were finishing up our expat assignment in Dubai.  The family had made a list of the things we had to see and do before we moved back home.  We didn't miss a beat!  We shopped, we traveled, and we had checked all of the boxes.   Kevin was graduating from our wonderful American School of Dubai and his final year had been so much fun!  There were a flurry of activities and a great group of "senior moms" who were on a mission to make this final year the BEST EVER!   I still smile when I think about it.

We headed back to the States at the end of June.  About the time we were packing up the house, I became aware that my mom was having some health issues.  My sister kept me informed daily as to the happenings back at home, but by the time I landed on June 20th, it became apparent I was needed at mom's place in Florida.  I headed out five days later.  This seems to be when things turned sour.

Over the next few weeks my sister and I took my mom to many doctor visits and decided (told) she needed to live near one of us.  My mom was diagnosed with Lewy Body Disease.  If you have not heard of it, go ahead and google!   It is the 2nd most common form of a dementia illness, just behind Alzheimers.  After living in Florida for 34 years, it was decided mom would become a Texan.  I returned back to Texas and started looking for an assisted living facility for mom.  I found a wonderful place.  It was so much more like an apartment complex than a "facility" that mom should truly be happy there.  The story of the actual move is quite long and detailed, but in summary, she came, she saw, she conquered!  She handled the move with true grace and strength.  Toughest cookie around! 

Within the next month, my brother-in-law had a stroke and Kevin had a bike accident at school.  In October Sarah was diagnosed with epilepsy and my nephew required major surgery on his shoulder.   All of this was happening while we were working on settling back into our house and trying to turn it into the loved home it once was, instead of the rental house it had become.

I feel my family has had their fair share of lemonade this year.  There have been a few other challenges along the way, my sister got shingles, my dog got attacked by another dog, and a few challenges at mom's place that will remain unspoken.  Through it all I have become so proud of my family and so thankful for what we have.  Every time we have been faced with another challenge, we have all pulled together.  We have been supportive of one another.  We have demonstrated that we are a family of tough cookies.  Now I do realize how incredibly blessed we are.  Our challenges have been minor compared to those faced by others, but these are ours.  Since we are never given more than we can handle, these challenges fit us just right!

I did not write this for pity or sadness.  I put this down in writing as a reminder to myself that my family can and will handle "it"....whatever "it" may be.   We are always there for each other and always will be.  As for 2013.....come on cake and ice cream - I am ready for a change!