SOME DAYS TRY THEIR BEST TO STEAL YOUR JOY

Stay with me, this post may be too long…to wordy and to random…but maybe you have been here.  If you haven’t you will not have a clue what I am talking about.  But there are GREAT pictures at the end.
Yesterday was our last day of our mini vacation.  You have to understand I am a planner which can easily translate into a controller.  It all began Monday night.  Amanda and Micah went on a date while the kids stayed with us at the hotel.  I still had not finished stuffing and writing a note in my Christmas letters and the Post Office was telling me that time was running out.  I have written a Christmas letter for at least the last 25 years….some good ones, some terrible ones, some that I read today and laugh, some that I read and still cry, but before blogging it was my way to record life.  Ok, already off on a trail.  So for five hours I worked on the holiday mail..while doing that I also was watching my favorite football  player play on Monday night Football and probably his very last game EVER. Like Christmas letters, he had been a part of my life for 20 years.  (Please don’t send me any hate mail about what you think he did…I don’t know what happened and neither do you) So I am believing him.  He left the game with a concussion and I think his football days are over.. One point no one will ever dispute, HE IS the toughest player to play the game.  If you do not love football, I hope you skipped this rabbit trail.  After the game, after I finished the Christmas letter, I opened my email and I had an email from someone I love very much, telling me I had really let them down.  Holiday feelings are always raw.  I read the letter, reread it, thought about responding, part of it was true, part of it I could explain and part of it was just a breakdown in communication about holiday dates.  Still I was sorry they were hurt.  After the last 12 weeks since Jack’s stroke and tree season, I really felt like I had little left to give.  Fast forward to morning, the schedule got totally messed up…Everything I had planned and looked forward to was not going to work out…so I went to plan B and before I could work that out, Amanda, Micah and the boys had left to come home. She felt bad and just did not feel like shopping.  So guess what…This Mom, the planner of all fun things,  that was still hurt over the email from the night before got mad.  I am just trying to keep this blog real.  We are not the Brady Bunch.  AND THE HOLIDAYS BRING OUT THE BEST IN EVERYONE…NOT.  Now add to this, it was almost 80 degrees in Dallas and for a gal that loves cold weather and especially at Christmas, it was MISERABLE.  Then out of the mouths of our children…I open FB and Amanda had posted this..she knew what I was dealing with
I love this time of year and I refuse to let other people steal my joy. I wish people would look beyond the disappointments in life and be thankful for what they have. Christmas is the celebration of a baby that changed EVERYTHING! Let's not lose sight of what's important!
Then we get home and or house has been vandalized.  Someone broke the front door lock, did not get in, but the straw that broke the camels back was they had destroyed my Vintage Mickey Christmas blowup.  I have lots of stuff, as the police made mention of as he sat in the den he could see four or five loaded trees kind of like a store. Ha
Most of my stuff I have little attachment to and would give you anything you wanted .  BUT I WAS attached to this MICKEY.  I had looked long and hard to find it and doubt that its replaceable.  Some kids had just cut a hole in it…plus damaged another Mickey and Minnie, plus keyed my car to the tune of 2,ooo worth of damage.  So we spent 3 hours with a policeman at our house…I actually think I know who did it and if I can catch them, they will wish the police had caught them.  So my day just kept on giving and by the time I went to bed there was not one ounce of Christmas spirit anywhere near our  house.   
Then came TODAY.  Today is my birthday (which is not something I think much about…I mean its 3 days before Christmas, who has time?)    I was still asleep at 10 AM and I could hear this little voice coming up the sidewalk talking about Grammys birthday and in came Parker and Jack with flowers, doughnuts, cards, gift certificates for massages, and  kisses.    
What a difference a day can make.   One of my tree customers sent me this wonderful cookie basket.  I got over 120 Birthday wishes from FB friends….talk about making a girl feel loved.  What I realized today is that  families will never be perfect, friends will let you down,  we all say and do things that we wish we hadn’t, relationships are tough  but this HOLIDAY SEASON I choose JOY. I have so much to be thankful for.  Jack survived a major stoke…. our family is OK, and even after a BAD DAY, there comes a GOOD ONE.  So we celebrate the MIRACLE and we CELEBRATE the BABY THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING. 
Now if you survived reading all that,  here are some fun parts of our trip.
    SWEET BOYS
 Parker loves his little man                      

                 
The Gingerbread Decorating                              POP HELPING JACK

 Jack LOVING  THE ICING
   POOPED  JACK
  PARKER LOVES HIS CHEESECAKE

    BEAUTIFUL HOTEL

       BOYS HAVING FUN                             ICE…VERY COLD

 BABY ITS COLD IN HERHEADED TO THE SLIDE

  When a Man Loves a Woman  TIME FOR BED
Saturday night it was just us and the boys…AKA  INDULGED…Almost anything goes.  Such as pillow fights, jumping on the bed, making pallets on the floor of a great hotel….renting movies, staying up until they want to go to bed…….Micah and Amanda went to the Cowboys game on Sunday and then met us at the Gaylord.  We spent Monday in Frisco shopping, eating at La Madeline’s, making some GAME STOP, stops!
For a laugh from tonight…one of Amanda and Micah's good friends is the city marshall.  He was at their house tonight .  These were Jack’s words ,  Charlie showed Jack his badge and he said, "Uncle Charlie, u are a weal cowboy!"