The day after Owen's birthday, we headed off to OK - a long 2 day drive. All went smoothly the first day. We got up on Sunday morning, drove an hour, and planned on going to a nearby congregation for sacrament meeting. We found the Laguna Acoma Branch, between Grants and Albuquerque, NM. There were only about 10 people there, but the amazing thing was we knew 2 of those people! Our bishop and his wife from our college ward back in Oklahoma were serving in that branch. They live in Albuquerque but drive there to help with the ward. The congregation is so small that they ask people from Albuquerque to come speak. We ended up waiting that morning about 20 extra minutes for the meeting to start because they were waiting on a family to give the talks and sing the musical number. That allowed us a few minutes to chat with our friends who we hadn't seen in many years. It was good to see them. We stayed through sacrament meeting and then had to get back on the road. We didn't get to Alex's parents until about 12:30am.
I got the chance to visit with another friend that I hadn't seen in at least 25 years. Chele and I were in the same ward growing up in OK. I remember some fun times at girls camp and hanging out at her house. She went to a different High School than me, so I didn't see her much and after she stopped coming to church, I lost track of her. I had tried to find her on Facebook, but I didn't know her married name (she didn't have her maiden name on there). Anyway, she recently found me, and we discovered that she doesn't live too far from Alex's parents. We were able to meet up for dinner one evening, and I also got to meet her daughters. So fun to see her again!
We made a few visits to Braum's for ice cream while in OK - good stuff!
We met the new dog, Buster, who was a hoot! He likes to howl and crawl up on your lap. Kai and Buster got along well.
We celebrated Savannah's birthday while there. She got her requested meals - bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast, and she wanted hot dogs for lunch and Braum's chicken strips and fries for dinner. I didn't make the cake this time - just got one from Wal-mart. We popped popcorn and watched a movie. Alex's dad has a large popcorn maker that makes popcorn that tastes like it's from the movie theater. Savannah's holding up a bag of popcorn in one of the photos, but that was just the beginning. I never took a picture of the BAGS full of popcorn.
Besides watching movies, we just hung out, made sugar cookies, played Monopoly Junior several times, and the boys got to shoot guns. Alex, Jared, and I braved the cold a few mornings to go running. It snowed while we were there, but it was bitter cold and not enough to make a snowman. We went out there for a little bit but didn't stay out long. Alex and the boys went for a little walk. It was funny to see how fast Kai ran in when I opened the door - it looked like she was flying!
On Christmas Eve, we went with Alex's parents to the Presbyterian Church Christmas Eve service, which was nice. We got to sing several Christmas hymns and listen to the Christmas story. That's essentially what we usually do as a family, so we didn't do the candlelight singing at home. I made some cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning. We planned to go to our church service on Sunday morning at the local ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so we got up and got ready for church. However, when we got there the parking lot was empty. We thought maybe they changed to a later time. After about 20 minutes we were able to get ahold of the Bishop and he said church had been cancelled due to the weather and several older folks having to travel distances to get there. We headed back to open Christmas presents.
Weston had the best reactions this year in opening presents, so most of the videos included are of him. He also got a special gift, a hat that belonged to his great grandpa. I thought it was funny that when he realized who it was from, he pulled off the hat, looked at it and commented on what good condition it was in! Weston really wears out his hats, so his great grandkids might not get a hat handed down in good shape... Anyway, he also got Charmin toilet paper again. He got a 6-pack from Papa John, and we also gave him a small pack. It's pretty much a tradition now. Such a funny kid!
I think the other kids were happy with their presents too. Savannah got a sloth that talks really slowly from Papa John. It records what you say, but repeats it back really slowly, so it was quite annoying! We made sure to pack that away on the car ride home... we joked that we might accidentally leave it there at Grandma's house. My parents send money and then we buy some presents and wrap them up on behalf of them. Baba and Papa don't really know what shows up for the kids, but since Baba reads this, I thought she'd be happy to know that Jared got a Calvin & Hobbes book and running socks, Owen and Weston got Lego sets (a given), and Savannah got a Calico Critter bunk bed and a Friends Lego set. With presents from Santa, us, Papa John and Grandma, Baba and Papa, and Aunt Jane, they are very spoiled! They were very happy with all their presents though - too much in my opinion... we want to figure out how to scale it back next Christmas. 😊 Somehow we were able to fit everything back in the car to take home with us. Lots of Legos again this year - Alex even got a Lego set.
I was excited to watch Alex's parents open a gift that I had spent many hours on - a book about Jim. It's been 5 years since he passed away. I finally got a book put together with photos from his life. I also gave them a copy of a Spiritual Experiences book that I made earlier in the year. I made one to give Nathan for graduation and then thought that other family members might enjoy a copy as well.
We got to chat with Nathan for a couple of hours on Christmas and the next day, since Monday was his P-Day. It had been a much different Christmas for him. They went to 2 ward meetings. Then the people who were supposed to feed them lunch forgot, but another person planned to make food for them around 3:00pm. However, Nathan and his companion thought the people were bringing the food to them. It turns out they called and left a message for the other elders to come and pick up the food. They finally got that message from the other set of elders around 7:00pm. They may have had cereal for dinner. We were amused at seeing the Spanish Frosted Flakes - Zucaritas. Nathan was in good spirits.
We had a nice dinner - rolls, green beans, turkey, mashed potatoes, and Martinelli's, along with mini pies and ice cream for dessert.
After Christmas we got to try out a new waffle maker - Papa John and Grandma made everyone waffles. We got to chat with Monica (Jim's girlfriend) for a while. We also made a visit to Papa John and Grandma's neighbor, Beth. Her husband passed away in early December, so we wanted to take some treats over and sing a couple of Christmas carols. She invited us in, and we got a tour of her husband's "Cowboy Workshop", filled with all things cowboy. Pretty interesting collection! We were glad to brighten up her day a little bit (and Alex and the boys also shoveled snow off her driveway), so we got a little service in which also made us feel good as well.
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On Wednesday December 28th, we packed up and headed to visit Aunt Jane in Kansas City. Alex and I went to the Kansas City Temple that evening - there was only one time slot available to do Endowments, and it was a session in Spanish (had to reserve that a few weeks earlier). However, we were really eager to visit the Kansas City Temple, since we hadn't been there before (it was our 49th new temple together) and we wanted to take Alex's grandparents names and do work on behalf of them. It would have been their temple, so we thought it was special to take their names there. It was a cold and windy night, but it was nice and warm inside. I hope they were there with us in spirit.
We only had one full day with Aunt Jane, on Thursday, so we need to pack a lot of fun in that day. We had lunch out at Culver's, followed by the mall. Alex and the boys really wanted to visit the Lego Store, so we headed there. Then we went to Union Station to see the lights and train displays. We had dinner back at home, followed by driving around to see lights at the Plaza. Then we came back and watched a movie. Fun day!
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