No Control

 So were kids.

 And snow...

Schools are shut down for two days, which means I get a four day weekend.

This picture shows the difference in my children.  One will bundle up and stay inside to watch the other.  Love, love my kids.

Christmas Catchup

This is just one of those random posts to get caught up from our stay in Mississippi.

Christmas was small and according to the Dude, "This is the best Christmas ever!".  I think we are on to something.  It was so enjoyable and the children played all day with the few things they got.

We bought a 4 1/2 foot tree pre-lit tree from Walgreens and it was perfect for the "short" house we were living in.  Had to hang the stockings on the wall.

 This was the extent of our Christmas and I have to say it really felt good.

 A remote control helicopter was the "big" gift from Santa for our little man.  He was so excited.  Was worth waiting up until midnight on Black Friday for.

 Aunt Erika came before Christmas to visit us in the south and left them presents.

 He instantly fell in love with his "wookie".  Seriously, who wouldn't?

I want one!

 His Grandma Lois and Great Grandma gave them what they have been asking for almost all year.

 They are lucky kids.

 Santa didn't bother to ask Mommy whether Silly String was an appropriate gift in their stockings.  What a mess, but they did have fun!

They also got money from their other Grandparents, which is always a kid favorite.  They made sure they spent that on just the right gift.

Thanks to everyone that helped make our Christmas so wonderful.

It was a nice, quiet Christmas.  So grateful for our family and the blessing they are to us.

Reasons to be grateful

I left for Mississippi a week ago on Friday morning.  After ten hours on the road with a U-Haul trailer following me, I arrived in Oxford around 4:00 p.m.  We then loaded the trailer and cleaned the rental all before 7 p.m.  We were completely exhausted at this point and decided to drag our tired and not so clean buns into Appleby's for dinner.

We were for the very last time rewarded with that famous slow service in the south, but were able to finally get to the hotel around 8:30.

The next morning we met the landlord (she's a whole other story, not necessarily pleasant) and did a walk through and then headed out of that town for the last time!  I will not miss it one single bit.

As we were approaching the Tennessee border, Mr. Finn goes speeding past me and gets in front of me.  Not sure what was going on, he calls to let me know that he was not going to be the last person out of Mississippi.  Totally made me laugh.  I feel the same way about the south.

We are cured of our desire to see the south.  Happy to be midwesterners.

We arrived home around 9 p.m. and unloaded that trailer in the freezing cold because the next day was the Sabbath and we had to return the trailer in the morning.  As Mr. Finn was pulling out of the driveway, the trailer popped off the hitch.  As he got out and looked at it, he realized that the nut that held the ball of the hitch in place was missing.  It was there when I left for Mississippi and when we left for home.  Somewhere over the miles, we received an answer to our prayer for safety of ourselves and vehicles.

It is a miracle that the trailer did not pop off on that ten hour drive.  I am grateful that we were protected and can spend more days with those two children above.

We took those when we went to Tupelo, MS right before we left in December.  It is Elvis' birthplace and you can find these cool guitar photo opportunities all the way to his museum.  So glad we took the time to make a few memories.