in snow.
This is from last March, but how cute are they?

The spouselet put this video together for me to share on my blog.
Isn’t he the best!

(This was the first Christmas that my family decided to scale back and that is part of what this post is about, but it is also about my popaw.  This was the first Christmas with out him.  People always say that the first holiday after a death is the hardest, but it gets easier over time.       God, I hope so.)

"Arvis of the Popaws"

That is my Popaw.  When I was a kid I dubbed him “Arvis of the Popaws” like he was The King of England.  In my book, he was the the coolest popaw of them all.  He would go to a farm auction and take orders.  Asking my sister and I what we wanted.  We would say “baby chicks” or a horse or “Popaw bring us home a baby cow”  and he would.  Two things he never bought us, a baby goat (not sure why) or a baby pig.  Now the pig he said would grow up mean and they are only cute for like a week.

He was right.

Pigs are gross!
But the goat.  Popaw was very much tied to goats to us, not just the kids, but all of us.  You see, he used to sing “Bill Grogan’s Goat” when he was younger it was only after much partaking in the Kentucky state beverage, Bourbon!  Because my popaw’s version was a bit more adult.  About a week before he died, he sang it for us, one last time.  I wish we had video’d it.

But the best, that I had forgotten was when he was in his early 60’s my sister and I were at their house and my little sister said she needed a coat (from the front closet) and he mis-heard her.  He needed a hearing aid badly but kept putting it off.

“What?! You bought a goat???!”
We all laughed for years about it.  Every time anyone mis-heard anything we said “What? You bought a goat.”
It has been a huge family joke.

This year in honor of my popaw, my family bought a goat to send to a family in Africa from Food for the Poor.

When I showed my dad, he said “What, you bought a goat?”
“Yes, I did popaw, yes I did.”

Last night, the 14 yr old, the spouselet and I were in the kitchen talking about the impending snow disaster and hoping school would be cancelled today.  While we were doing all of that the 14 yr old and I were kicking a rubber ball around the kitchen-soccer style.

I was feeling pretty confident with my mad soccer skills.
In my house slippers.

Until I fell.
Ok.  I didn’t fall, I did a Home alone hit the iced steps fall!

The look on the 14 yr olds face was priceless.  He wanted to laugh, but he didn’t know if I was going to die or not, so he held it in with all the strength he had.

Until I said, its OK, I am fine-you now may laugh!

I laid on the floor for a good five minutes and the first thing I did when I got up….
Tweeted it!

The best line of the night:  “Mom, they are called slippers for a reason.”

My favorite Holiday Meal!

Thanksgiving Day at my mom’s house was awesome.  Everyone brought a dish-I already blogged about mine and can I just tell you that there was not ONE stick of celery left.  I had nothing to clean up-I love it when that happens.

Our family has a tradition of writing down one thing (I know the pressure-only one thing) we are thankful for-and before we pray and eat we pass around a bowl and everyone picks out one slip…so we have to read what someone else wrote.  That’s cool because it is really fun to try to figure out who wrote what.  Sometimes it is easy if you recognize the handwritting. 

My cousin’s always say something about UK (university of KY) athletics.  And even this year they found something good to say!

After we all ate entirely to much, my spouselet put in the DVD of home movies that my grandparents took while we were all growing up.  As it played he recorded what everyone said and is going to over lay our comments.  How cool of a present!

My sister and I are the biggest goober-butts ever.  Neither one of us made it through the day with out missing our popaw.  One thing about my sister and I-we are NOT pretty when we cry and we make noise.  just so you know, there isn’t any of that quietly dabbing your eyes and being misty with maybe a quiet sniffle.  Oh no!  We are the full blown red nose, splashing tears, suckin’ our lower lip, wailing kinda criers and when we TRY to stiffle them-much snot is produced and hyperventalation is highly possible.  However, we very very rarely cry at the same time, to minimize the global impact.

Oh and then my son and one of my sister’s neices (her brother in law’s kid-so no relation to me and mine) were born on the same day, 2 years apart…they have this special connection.  They haven’t seen each other in about 6 years and there was some serious eyeball batting going on.  He will be 14 this week, she will be 12.  Her mama said she wanted to wear mascara and spent alot of time on her hair.  The 13 yr old put on a bit of the cologne and took a shower.  They were so very cute.

When we got home I told him that she thought he was the cat’s pajamas and he said “Gross mom, that is like my cousin.”  Yeah, LIKE your cousin, but NOT.  No relation baby. “Really? (trying not to bounce out of his skin) But she is a 6th grader!”  Which, apparently is WORSE than being related. 

Yeah, we will see about that when he is 17 and she is 15 won’t we!

It was a great day all around, I think even the 13 yr old would agree.

What was your favorite part about your Thanksgiving day?

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Tomorrow at my mother’s Thanksgiving Day table, I won’t have my popaw or my son.

Popaw died this past April and this will be the first Thanksgiving with out him. It is going to be incredibly hard. He was a lot of the glue that held this clan together. We all miss him very much-Thanksgiving was one of his most favorite holidays because the focus is on family and food! It is going to be a difficult day indeed.

The 13 year old has decided to spend the day with his father and my former in-laws. I am very proud of him for making that choice, on his own. Usually there isn’t the opportunity for him to visit with them for a ton of reasons. He will be missed as well, but I know he will be coming back to my mom’s house later in the day to visit with extended family he hasn’t seen in about 7 years.

I am so thankful about so many things and I am going to focus on those great blessings from God throughout the day and in the weeks to come.

I wish you and yours a most abundant day filled with lots of love and laughter…
and football, if you must!

Last weekend spouselet and I went to Kansas City for a wedding. We left Friday morning and were back home just after dark Sunday evening. 4 states (5 if you count the 10 minutes we were in Kansas) and 60 hours-mooshed down to 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Enjoy.

I was already to get home and upload all these pictures that spouselet and I took while we were gone…I have almost ALL of them on the laptop, which died this afternoon…we are going to try to salvage them-but RATS.

This should teach me to NOT delete images from my memory card.

More later when I am not blinded by tears.

We are heading out of town for a friend’s wedding. Over the next 72 hours, at least 20 of it will be on the road. I am hoping to update while we are gone. But, this is a frugal trip and internet at the hotel might not make the cut.

IF NOT-do not dispair, I will have plenty to talk about when I return.
and pictures too!

I could totally keep this theme going for a full year now!

Today my family got together to celebrate my birthday. The picture above is of my presents and they were all awesome.

It is a tradition in our family to go around the circle before we bless our food and say one word about the person we are celebrating. No birthday person ever gets through it with out crying. Everything they said was totally cool, but the best was the 13 yr old calling me “The Best” (damn, can’t beat that) and the spouselet calling me “Gorge-a-licious”.

My grandmother also said (and I never really thought about it like this) I was the one who made her “Momaw” because I was (still am) the first grandchild. THAT was huge-my sister joked that she has been trying to catch up ever since.

Ok, enough of that, because I know you all are just dyin’ to know exactly WHAT those gifts could be!

First, I got a gift certificate to a local spa, Diva. I have been waxing my own legs for a while and got out of the habit so, I wanted a professional job to get me back on the right foot (or leg so to speak-heh.) I might also have enough to get a manicure as well-and since I quit getting my fake nails-woo doggie, I could use that too!

Then, I got the second most awesome thing-a sweetgrass basket. I love a sweet grass basket. There is so much history wrapped up into one and they are made in one of my favorite places on earth, by some of the coolest women. But, that is only part of the story. Last time the family was in Kiawah, I read a book called The Spirit of Sweetgrass by Nicole Seitz. And it is a fantastic story about a woman who makes sweetgrass baskets. She makes this one basket with bullrush and love knots and a lid-and that is what my aunt and uncle gave me for my birthday.

I cried.
I even made a bit of noise.
“It even {sob}has{sob}love knots{wail} on it!”
Perfect!

Now, if that wasn’t enough, first with all the awesome “name callin”-then the lex waxin’ and THEN the sweetgrass basket {sob} with the love knots…

It was time for the present from my sister and her family. Now let me just tell you, my sister is good at many a thing…teaching, leading women, doing TONS of service to the church and our community, but her claim to fame (second only to her famous laugh-which is a lot like mine) is her ability to make people cry (usually in a happy/good way).

Today, was no exception.

Her gift was that big clear paint bucket with all the slips of paper inside. She had my parents, and sunny and her kids write all the things that were cool about me and she put them on glittery paper and made them into scrolly confetti things…now that is just awesome. I didn’t read them when I was there because honestly-I done cried enough for one day thankyouverymuch. She said that when I am having a bad day and feeling “old” (because 40 IS ancient you know) I can pull my bucket out and read all those cool things.

I am kinda lookin’ forward to it.

What is the coolest gift you have ever gotten on your birthday?