Merry Christmas, A Little Late

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year! Ours was great; we had a quiet little family Christmas at home. Our kids were awesome and slept in til 9:30. After we opened presents we made Cracker Barrel pancakes (someone gave us a basket with the mix) and we enjoyed watching all the DVDs Will received for Christmas including WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, and The Polar Express. I even got a nap! It was great!

Claire amid the mess!


Claire playing with her dollhouse


The mess in full view...Will and I are talking to my parents via Skype on the laptop.


Will and Claire playing with his new pirate ship in his room.

Will and Claire eating their pancake brunch while watching WALL-E.

We had "Christmas" with our families back on the weekend of the 12th & 13th when Scott had his graduation. It was nice to have everyone here then and get to visit. In the interim between our Christmases, we went to Lubbock to give presents to the kids at the Children's Home twice (we found a rouge present in Scott's office after returning from the first trip), hosted the LCU Praise Choir students for their Christmas Tour, and had a Christmas party for the Youth Group kids. Scott's 31st birthday was also last Monday; as his "present" to Scott, Will slept til 11:30 that morning!

Scott and Claire both have sore throats right now, but other than that, we are well. Since we were home for Christmas this year, I have been working at the shop as designer the past couple of days as our lead designer is on vacation. It's been really fun and I have done a lot of funeral work which I haven't been able to do yet. I have really enjoyed it.

I guess that's about it for now; Scott has to preach this weekend, so I'd better let him work on his sermon! If I don't post again in the next few days, I wish you all a happy New Year as well!

Commencement

Scott is the second person on the second row.

I think they are conferring the masters candidates' degrees upon them here.

Scott being hooded.

Receiving his "diploma" (an empty tube).

Afterward, at the reception, we met up with Scott's professor, Dr. Doug Foster.


The whole family

Will loved Scott's graduation cap and wanted to wear it all weekend. We let him wear it in Cracker Barrel and Target (without the tassel) and we got lots of comments on it :)

Congratulations, Scott. I am so very very proud of you. I love you!!

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas-time!

We had a busy but fun Saturday. In the morning, our friend Amber came to photograph us for our Christmas cards. She is a professional photographer that attends our church and if you live in or around Big Spring, you should check her out. She does amazing work. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot:
If you are interested in seeing the rest of the pictures, you can follow this link: http://www.staceyphotography.com/prather/

That afternoon, I took Will to our local museum where Santa and Mrs. Claus just happened to be spending the afternoon (*wink, wink*). He had his picture taken with them, too, and we decorated gingerbread men cookies and looked around the exhibits at the museum. I then took him for a late lunch at his favorite place, of course--McDonald's. A grand time was had by all. We had a great "date." (The Santa picures won't be ready until Dec. 16th, so I will post it then).

Then that evening was the big Christmas parade. We ended up in the same spot as last year next to the same family. We had a good time chatting with them, waiting for the parade to begin. The kids soaked up the parade, crying, "LOOK!!!!" at every single thing that went by. We saw horses, monster trucks, motorcycles, classic cars, low riders, fire trucks, tiny cars, a boat, semis, and of course lots of people riding on the back of trailers. I think this year's parade was better that last year's. Some of the floats were really awesome.

The Steer mascot dressed as an elf led the parade.

Here comes the band!

I thought this guy was funny.

This one doesn't really need a caption...

Western Container's float (they make Coke product bottles--I think).

I guess this horse is a Clydesdale. It was enormous!


The boat full of cheerleaders.


That's the Grinch in jail! (Sheriff's Office float)

And last but not least, Santa and Mrs. Claus end the parade!

Since then, I have been trying to get my house decent for visitors. The first of the visitors come tomorrow; Scott's parents and grandmother. The first of his finals is tomorrow also and his second final will be Wednesday. Then we are home free! Graduation is this weekend and we are so excited. My parents will be meeting us in Abilene on Friday and then coming back to Big Spring with us for the rest of the weekend. I usually work on Mondays, but Scott needed extra time to himself to study and write today (he has a paper due tomorrow, too) so I stayed home today and it was probably a good thing because the house needs constant attention with my two running around taking apart everthing I've just done!

Claire is really starting to spout off the words now. She picks up a lot from her brother. You can really tell by the fact that she has started growling, much to my chagrin! Anywho, there's a little update on her.

As for Will, he just cracks us up all the time. Today he told Scott (albeit quoting from a movie), "Dad, sometimes I just think I'm a genius." Really?

Until next time (hopefully with graduation pictures!).

Aww, Nuts!

With Fall comes harvest. We've had a bit of a harvest of our own lately. We are the proud owners of three pecan trees, two in the front yard and one in the back. While our dogs regularly snack on the backyard pecans, our front yard is brimming full of ripe, ready to shell and eat nuts. And boy, are they tasty this year! We've spent a bit of time collecting them and have shelled quite a few.

I'm sorry I've been so lacsidasical in posting lately...I know I always say this, but we've really been quite busy. I was sick a couple of weeks ago and on top of that was my shop's open house and a meal the youth hosted for the senior adults all on the same weekend. Whew...I'm tired just writing that. Then of course, Scott promptly turned up sick, too. Thanksgiving was the next week and we enjoyed seeing my family and Scott's brother's family. We spent a little time relaxing and my mom and I went shopping on Black Friday. It was a good time. We returned on Sunday night and I have been trying to get my home decorated and in order in time for our families to arrive for Scott's graduation next week (whoot woo!).

Of course things aren't complete around here without a few glitches. Scott began itching all over his body severely last night and began to notice hives. He took some Benadryl and went to bed, but when he woke up this morning they were still there and now his upper lip is all swollen. Oh, and did I mention we're supposed to have our Christmas card pictures made on Saturday morning? I just have to laugh, you know?

I am just so excited that Christmas is almost here. I guess I am really in the Christmas spirit this year because I know my kids, especially Will, will really enjoy it this year. He is already amazed by every Christmas light display he sees, no matter how pitiful or extravagant, he yells, "LOOK!" It's quite cute. So, merry Christmas, even though it's still early! I will leave you with a few pictures of the Christmas decorations I have done and some others.

If y'all remember from last year, I'm a bit of a Christmas tree-aholic. I have them in almost every room. This year, however, I am lightening up a bit. Instead of a big tree in both my "formal" living room and the den/family room, I am just doing one in the formal living room. So, I have combined my ornaments for both those trees this year. I did this for the simple reason that I can sort-of cordon off this room from little hands. Claire is very interested in the tree and wants to pull all the ornaments off of it. And she's not that gentle about it. I did hang all my breakable ones up high, so I can at least rest a little knowing that she can't really break any of them :)

A mini tree on top of the desk in the family room. I put all my really "folk-sy" ones on it.

Just Will :)

Claire having fun with a piece of cardboard that came with a mixer I got.