Christmas in Arkansas

26 degrees..... no snow -- this sums up an Arkansas Christmas (well, at least this Arkansas Christmas). One day was 26, the next 68 -- crazy! We had such a great year. The Randall's (my parents) came to stay with us adding to our holiday fun. Rock Band, Food, Guitar Hero, Hot Wheels, Movies, more Rock Band, more food and more movies -- pretty much sums up our week. I am looking forward to more jamming music coming from the bonus room, another installment of "The Work and the Glory", and more turkey leftovers this week (really, what beats the holidays??) Of course, there will be football games and possibly some kind of New Year's Eve party this week too. The traditional New Year's Day "gaming" (aka "gambling") event will be observed here as well as UT and NC. It always seems to deliver memories worthy of a chuckle many years down the road. Maybe I'll let the winners here in Arkansas post a "mosey" when they win. That ought to be interesting. For all of you who have never seen the "mosey", it is a sight not to miss in this lifetime. It's part strut, part shimmy, part dirty dancing done at different times and in varying degrees of difficulty (depending upon the moseyer and their finesse) - all while gloating over winning the bet on whichever game just ended. The mosey ends with the moseyer collecting their winnings from the "pot" - quite a sight. We will miss all the UT moseys this year, but wait..... there won't be any, since all the winning will be out here in AR!! Have a great NEW YEAR!

Thanksgiving in Orlando

Sitting here now in 27 degrees, I have to ask myself if that was really just two weeks ago. Good thing there is a picure to prove it.....

Mine and Mike's desire for an enjoyable vacation outweighed our desire to give Zach his one go around at Disneyworld-alas.... The upside is that I'm sure Disneyworld will still be there as busy as ever when we do muster the courage to pony up the $$$$$$ for a full day of enjoying Disney's line mangement system. Don't get me wrong, we love Disney, we just opted for a "different" (i.e. relaxing) trip this time.

So we spent time at the beach, Universal Studios, the pool, golfing, movies, and we even had our own Iron Chef competition on Thanksgiving day (note to self... must do that again - the kids had a blast and actually helped cook and clean up).

Lest you think it was all cotton candy and bubble gum, there were a couple of pot holes. Zach and Josh both went the rounds with a bug that wanted all of their food OUT of their bodies -- not very fun, but pretty quick. They were back up and running after they gave in and just didn't eat. The drive unfortunately was no shorter than the drive to UT (good news for all of our friends and family in UT wondering if all of our vacation time will now be spend in Orlando).

All in all, it was great! We will do it again when we can no longer ignore the fact that Zach is the only child in North America who hasn't been to Disneyworld!

My first blog

2 seconds later I got dunked!! Nothing like good friends to curb your vanity.