A White Christmas!

It's been 17 years since we've had a White Christmas. No real accumulation, but enough to make everything white. It was really pretty, but cold. Considering we were having our family picture taken----OUTSIDE----it was really cold! The kids decided that it would be fun to re-create the photo we did 9 years ago when Victoria was a baby. That's how long it's been since we've all been together long enough to schedule the photographer. It's about time that Elizabeth---age 5---gets in the picture. It was so cold, the gas froze in the Corvette and wouldn't start. The guys had to push it around front. Each of us did the same pose we did the last time---except we're all in red sweaters and the house is decorated for Christmas. I brought the photographer inside to show him the picture we were trying to re-create. He said that he had seen that picture hanging in the mall! I'd forgotten that the photographer we used the last time had a place in the mall. The photo was up for about 5 years until the mall closed. I don't think we had ever told Sandy and family that we were on the wall in the mall. Mitchell said he was glad that no one he knew saw it.

We had to be ready by 7:30 a.m. so the teens weren't in the best mood. Even though I suggested that they go to bed early, they stayed up until 1 a.m. I told the kids that if they didn't like how they looked in the picture, it would be their fault---or possibly their parents!! The photographer got some really good shots. He probably took a hundred---some were taken inside too.

As far as our holidays went, they were fun, crazy, busy, game-filled, and went by far too fast. The amount of food and drink this family consumes is unbelievable. The unloading of the dishwasher---twice a day and taking out the re-cycling seems constant. I think I'm ready for a rest---but that won't happen quite yet as I plan to "un-decorate" tomorrow. I want to have it finished by the time we leave for St. Louis on Wednesday.

Our family trivia night was at the Broussard's this year. It's one of our family's favorite activities. In order to intimidate our opponents, Team Eads arrived in our red sweaters. It worked! We came in first!!! Then I demanded a re-count because I felt certain that there was another team that had more points than us. After the re-count, it was determined that we "tied" with another team. We split the first prize cash winnings. On the way home we realized that the re-count was wrong and we did indeed come in first all by ourselves. We're fine with the satisfaction that we won and do not plan to mention the mistake. I shouldn't have said anything in the first place, but a victory in the shadow of uncertainty---in my mind---isn't a victory at all.

This year, I had to institute some new rules to assure that our holiday went smoothly:
1. No boyfriends may attend family activities or meals during the holidays unless they've been around for the past 6 months. We're not feeding a bunch of random boys.

2. Games will not begin until there is some semblance of order in the kitchen.

3. Leaving the tv viewing area without calling "placeback" constitutes not only the loss of your chair, but the tv remote and the program you were watching as well.

4. Hanging around the kitchen will result in additional jobs being assigned. Even a "walk-through" is risky.

5. If you leave the gift unwrapping area outside of designated break times, you do not get to see what was opened while you were out of the room and lose your turn in the rotation of gift opening. We don't care if you have to go to the bathroom, get food or drink---that's what the designated break times are for. Exception: Grammy and Grandpa can call a halt to the proceedings at any time to check food, make a trash run, or retrieve the camera.

6. The food rotation may not be held up. If you're not ready for what has been passed to you (i.e. gravy, salt, pepper, butter, etc.) you have to move the item on and wait for the second pass to come around to you again.

7. Removing leftovers from the refrigerator may result in you having to heat up stuff for many others. You're better off hanging around the kitchen until someone else goes for the leftovers. Then you can tag on to their "leftover heat up." Of course, by doing this, you run the risk of violating rule #4.

8. During games, you are not allowed to "egg on" other players---especially in Liar's Poker. We have too many sore losers in the family for that.

9. You may not use the kitchen chairs as your own personal coat rack.

10. You can only use the Bombay Sapphire for your first gin and tonic. After that, you have to use the cheap stuff. This rule was mostly ignored until the entire bottle was gone. I was kind of freaking out, so Butch says he'll buy me a new one.

Guess which rule was the most ignored? #9---I guess it's pretty hard to enforce a rule that I can't even get Butch to abide by!!!

I hope your holidays were as merry as ours!

An All Around Great Day!

Yesterday was one fun-filled, socially packed day---or at least most of it.  


Butch and I started the day with an appointment at the Harpeth Hills Cemetery. I told Butch that we were definitely going to buy our funeral plots as they were running a special on them---2 for $3000---only until 12/31/10. Bruce and Karolyn have purchased theirs and wanted us to take the spots next to them so we could party on into eternity. I was definitely going to do this. 


When we got there and looked at the spot, I didn't like it. The entire cemetery is completely flat bordered by main roads and completely too modern for my taste. We spent about and hour and a half there before we could get away. I'm just going to have to "shop" for the perfect place to rest eternally. I want an older cemetery with some character. There were a couple of times that I got a little worked up and thought maybe I wasn't doing this at the right time yet---too soon and too close to my experience with mom. I'm grateful that this was one thing we didn't have to deal with---thus my motivation to get it done.


After that, the day was nothing but complete fun. I picked Connie up at 11:15. We met Pam and her mom, Clara and Karolyn for a great lunch. We went to the show and saw The Tourist. It was FABULOUS! I love Johnny Depp and he didn't disappoint. I'm not a huge Angelina Jolie fan, but liked her in this. It didn't get good reviews, but that just goes to show that I usually don't agree with them anyway.


From there, we went back to Connie's house to meet up with Butch and Jack to head downtown to the Garth Brooks concert. The country music icon did 9 benefit concerts for the flood victims here. The stars were aligned just right for us. We went downtown the "back way", parked 2 blocks away and even walked right in and got a table for dinner at Rippy's---a bar across the street from the Bridgestone Arena. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. The concert was unbelievable---he played everything. Then, his wife, Trisha Yearwood came out and sang with him. She then did a few of her songs. Garth did 2 encores and brought the house down. Just plain fun. We were so glad to get this once in a lifetime experience.


We dropped the Potters off about 8:45 (we went to the 6 p.m. concert). We weren't home 20 minutes when the Lapps family arrived. Now the non-stop, crazy, chaotic, frenetic, cram everything into the next couple days, fun begins. Can you spell W-O-R-N----O-U-T! I just might have to go to St. Louis next week to rest!


Merry Christmas to one and all!

Morgan Provides Comic Relief!

Family baking day was fun after all. Sorry the video is sideways. I'm just learning how to post them, but still can't figure out how to turn it around.

Family Baking Day and a Birthday

Let me start off by saying that since Mindy's been back in town, ALL of our family days actually start the night before! 

The plan was that Saturday would be our family baking day. I will admit, I wasn't looking forward to it as I remember when we used to do it when the girls were little. I just don't have the patience for the mess. Messes are supposed to be outside. Anyway, in order to keep my sanity, when the girls were young, I made the cookies in advance. When I reached my limit with the mess, Butch handled the decorating with the girls. When it comes to chaos, I have a good memory. Somehow, I did hold out hope that this family baking day might be different from what I remember. It wasn't.

We'll back up to Friday night. MIndy had planned to come over after work and spend the night since our baking day was starting at 8:30 a.m. Steph came by after work too---and actually arrived a half hour before Mindy, despite the fact that they work the same hours. Steph just feels free to leave work early now and then. Mindy says she wants her hours. Mindy said that Steph counts her lunch hour differently too. Her hour begins and ends in the restaurant where Mindy's begins and ends when she leaves and returns to her desk.

Steph said that she was meeting Jordan at our house to take her to get her belly button pierced. When she told us where she was taking her, we weren't too thrilled---not exactly located in the best part of town. As Steph said, you don't exactly find tattoo/piercing parlors on our side of town. One thing led to another and we decided to make a family event out of it. Armed with my camera, we all piled in Steph's car and took off. They had a 6 p.m. appointment, but when we got there, a sign on the door said they'd be back in 45 minutes. Steph called---we heard the phone inside. We were getting back in the car when she got a call from the owner saying that they had their wires crossed. Jordan was pretty disappointed and wanted to stop at another place. We didn't think that was such a good idea---the place we were at was supposed to have a good reputation for being clean. You want that in your tattoo parlor!

We came back home. Steph found a place to take Jordan in the Vanderbilt area---safe enough. We stayed home to start our "mindy planned evening." We watched a movie called Inception that turned out to be pretty good.

Saturday morning, I was up at 5:30 to start making cookie dough. I had visions of how smoothly this would go with my advance preparations---mistake #1. I told Steph to bring her cookie sheets and cooling racks---mistake #2. I emptied the lower/storage oven. I figured that using 2 ovens, we'd whip through 7 varieties of cookies in no time flat---mistake #3.

Steph has a reputation for---well, how should I put this nicely---she doesn't have much in the way of cooking skills. But who doesn't have cookie sheets? She arrived with her cooling racks and Pampered Chef 25lb. "stone." These stones are guaranteed NOT to burn cookies, so I get why she has it---she needs ALL the guarantees she can get. But first of all, one doesn't cut it. Secondly, it's so darn heavy and doesn't cool in any kind of quick time, thus making it pretty useless for an entire day of cookie baking. I have 3 cookie sheets, but that's not enough for the number of cookies we were baking. Not off to a good start.

I assigned Mindy the snickerdoodles and Steph the pecan balls---mistake #4. Neither of them know the size of a one-inch ball---and I even gave them a one-inch scoop. By the time they loaded their cookie sheets, we got about a dozen ping pong ball sized cookies. I started the girls and Butch rolling out sugar cookies---mistake #5. Flour was everywhere. 

When the first batch of cookies were on the cooling racks, I assigned Butch the task of rolling the pecan balls in powdered sugar---mistake #6. I turned around to find that he was putting the cookies back on the cookie sheets when he finished rolling them. What the??? He knew we needed those for baking. Now the press cookies wouldn't stick because of the powdered sugar. My edginess was starting to show.

This is getting way too long, so I'm going to cut it shorter. We ended up only making 6 of the types of cookies I had planned. In the middle of all the baking, we let Jordan open presents. Then we got a call from an old friend of Sandy's who was in town for the Garth Brooks charity concert. She had 4 FREE tickets for Tuesday night. We couldn't pass those up. I had to leave the mess to meet her and get the tickets. She wound up in the wrong place, so that ordeal took way longer than we expected. We finally met at the club for Jordan's birthday lunch at 1 p.m. We got back home at 2:30 to the mess you see below. I was too tired to deal with it, so told Mindy to go ahead and leave---I was taking a nap. When I woke up, the cookie fairy had cleaned up the whole kitchen! The least I could do for him was go to the liquor store!

16 Presents for a 16 year old---old idea that I copied from Janet when Jackie and Mindy turned 16. I suggested that Steph do this for Jordan.

The "sketchy" piercing parlor.

Showin' off the goods.

If I was 40 years younger (even 10), I'd do it.

Everything becomes a contest. Butch offered $5.00 to the winner of the best decorated cookie.

Part of the aftermath.

These didn't pass quality control. Butch says he's going to eat them. Yeah, right.

I'm Genius!

Okay, I'm getting pretty darn good at this computer stuff.

I found out that nobody could open "The Celebrity" in my post below. I thought about it and thought about it. I finally just changed the image from a pdf file to a jpeg. Voila' it works. Scroll down to "Proud Graduates" and see the picture. You can click on it to see it larger and read the article.

Gus (and Janice) aren't the only smart ones in THIS family!!! Yay me!

The Reason for the Season

This was too good not to share. My sister-in-law, Sharon sent this to me. Here's the story:

About the Song

While at the mall a couple of years ago, my then four year old nephew, Spencer, saw kids lined up to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, he asked his mom, "where's the line to see Jesus"? My sister mentioned this to my dad, who immediately became inspired and jotted words down to a song in just a few minutes.

After putting music to the words, and doing a quick recording at home, he received a great response from friends. He sent the song off to Nashville without much response, except for a Christian song writer who suggested adding a bridge at the end of the first chorus. My dad then asked if I wanted to record the song to see what we could do with it. I listened to the song, made a few changes to the words to make it flow better, and we headed to Shock City Studios.

It was at the studio where Chris, owner and producer, rewrote the 2nd verse and part of the chorus... with goosebumps and emotions high, we were all hopeful and felt like we had something special. The demo was recorded in just under 2 hours and sent off again to Nashville... still no response.

Then 2 weeks before Christmas last year, my cousins Greg and Robbie decided to do a video to see what we could accomplish on YouTube. The first day we had 3000 hits and it soared from there. We received e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages from people all over asking for the music, CD's, iTunes, anything... we had nothin'.

After a couple of meetings with Chris following the amazing response, we got serious. We headed back into the studio this past spring... this time with guitars, drums, bass, pianos, choirs... the real deal.... and here we are today. Getting iTunes set up, a website put together, and loving that thousands upon thousands of Christians have come together... remembering the true meaning of Christmas.

Out of the mouths of babes come profound truths that many adults cannot understand. Hopefully Spencer's observation will cause people all over to reflect on the love of Jesus, and that one day we will all stand in line to see Him. We are most thankful to our Heavenly Father to have this chance to share our music with you.

---

There's Not a Thing This Man Wouldn't Do For One of His Girls!

Okay, so we were really having a cold spell in Nashville. It started snowing last Sunday after pouring down rain all day Saturday. We barely got enough snow to cover the grass. It was the ice that caused all the problems here. Mindy called Sunday evening to ask us what time she should plan to leave for the airport in the morning---in order to allow enough time due to the weather and "iffy" roads. We told her that the only roads she'd have to worry about would be in her apartment complex and the short road to the highway. Once she got there, the highways would be clear. Butch called her back to remind her to allow an extra 15 minutes for de-icing and scraping her car. After all, she's been in New Orleans for the last 7 years and has no snow experience. It's really pretty funny how these southerners are about snow. I have a friend that I had to pick up Monday because she was afraid to drive. I guarantee you that regardless of the temperature, our roads are clear by 10 a.m.---and they were. Still ALL of the schools were out---too bad since this is exam week. For the girls, that means that they had to go to school on Friday. 

Anyway, back to Mindy's story. We told her to call us when she got to the airport. I woke up at 6:15 and yelled out to Butch to see if Mindy had called (he had gotten up at 4 this morning). He said "no", so I called her and asked where she was (have you ever noticed that when you call people on their cell phones, the first thing you ask is "where are you?"). She said that she was at the airport---"didn't dad tell you? He came and picked me up at 5:30 a.m.!" He was worried about her and didn't sleep well. All he could think about was that she would be trying to scrape her windows in her business attire and patent leather heels! I'm glad he takes care of us. I don't know what we'd do without him. It just concerns me that I had no idea that he left the house. That means I never even heard the alarm sound. Plus, the time he left would be about my gettin' up time. What's gotten into me---sleepin' in 'til 6:15?

Don't let the table fool you. The snow barely covered the ground.

You could still see through the snow to the patio.

It does look like a winter wonderland out my front door.