Our Christmas and New Year

Our Christmas was a little different than most we have had since joining the military. We usually go to AZ and spend it there with both my family and Tracy's family. We decided, for the second time in our married life, to stay put for the holidays. It seems like an easy decision, but it wasn't. We love going home and being with family! I love seeing my siblings and parents. When I'm home, I love tinkering around on my Jeep and then taking it behind town and shooting my neglected guns. I also very much enjoy being with Tracy's family and I know the kids love it, too.

That being said, we stayed in TX because it is getting harder to travel and take Christmas with us. Packing Christmas to AZ and then bringing all that stuff back plus more is very difficult. We contemplated how we could make it work right up to the last minute. Staying in TX wasn't a bad thing. We have made lots of new friends that made the stay nice. We also had terrific weather - I think we had to turn our AC on the day after Christmas because it was 80 degrees in our room when we went to bed that night!

The girls made a big haul this year. Each got a video/MP3 player. Nora's MP3 player has already come in handy as she had to make a trip to the ER on New Years Day. The girls also got a battery powered scooter, which they all enjoy riding, including me. The girls have had alot of fun on the scooter and have been good about sharing it with the neighbor kids. So far, we have only had one accident when one of the friends fell off the scooter and scraped her leg.

New Years Eve was pretty low-key. We spent the evening at a pizza joint followed by board games at our house.

How we spent a Christmas gift

Last week, Tracy and I were talking about how we needed to have the missionaries over more often. Then on Sunday, while I was sitting in church (Tracy wasn't with me since she stayed home with Nora), the missionaries' meal schedule happened to end-up in my hands. I noticed that there was an opening on Thursday night. I knew this was more than a coincidence since we were just talking about feeding these guys and I happened to have that day off of work.

I promptly signed up for the day. When I got home, proud of my accomplishments, I told Tracy what I had done. She then, gently, reminded me that she and the other two girls had a previous engagement and that we would have to cancel the missionaries meal. I told her not to worry, and that Nora and I would go ahead and entertain.

When Tracy was leaving on Thursday night, I still hadn't formulated a meal plan (go figure). I told her not to worry, that I would take them out for some fast Mexican food at Taco Cabana. She then reminded me of a gift certificate I had gotten for Christmas from my youngest sister, Valayne (that would be sister #8, or child #12, however you want to look at it). So, Nora and I took the missionaries out for dinner. We had a great time with them. What's cool is that one of the missionaries is from Vallejo, CA - close to where we lived at Travis AFB. One of the waiters told us he had just received his mission call and would be leaving in January.

We had some good ol' Mormon style fun. I know the missionaries appreciated the meal since both told me they hadn't been to Olive Garden for a few years.

Our night of caroling at the River Walk

Tonight was an awesome FHE event. We went down to the River Walk, in down town San Antonio. We started the evening by taking a picture of our family in front of the Alamo, followed by a great dinner to include homemade rootbeer at a German deli called Schilo's. Later, we joined some friends down at the river boats and rode along and carolled the night away. The girls all agreed that this will have to be our family tradition while we are here in TX. It was a fantastic night for everything since the weather was nice and warm. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get the Christmas spirit going!

Dancing Queen(s)

December is such a busy and fun month! I expect we'll make a few more posts before the end of the year. The other night, we were treated to a dance recital for Halee and Nora. Our girls really love to dance! Our girls have been taking dance class from someone in our ward, out of the garage of someone else in our ward. Sounds weird but they really enjoyed the classes. It was great how the whole thing came together in the end since the dance space in the garage was very limited. Both of them participated in 3 dances.

Halee loves trying to be graceful - and while she's at it she makes some pretty funny faces and moves. Its fun watching her grow-up.

Nora is pretty good at dancing and practices pointing her toes and keeping her lines straight. She's progressing well with her dance.

I have uploaded a couple of videos of thier recital for your viewing pleasure!

Nora dances to "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"

Halee dances to music from Anastasia

Our Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was spent here in San Antonio. Tracy told me that this year, she was not going to cook so we had better think of something to do. She wasn't snotty aobut it, just that she wanted to do something different. At first, we had discussed going and breaking bread with the military members down at the USO - since they were putting on a free turkey meal that day. Sounded fun, but impersonal.

We then had some friends invite us over for the day. We spent the day at the home of Rick and Rochelle Williamson and shared company with them and with a 3 0r 4 other families. There was tons of food, lots of kids and plenty of good conversations to break into. The kids got to do some arts-n-crafts, creating pilgrim or indian attire, thanks to Cassie White. We had a great time eating outdoors and roasting marshmellows (despite the total burn-ban for the area - keep that a secret).

Overall, Thanksgiving day 2008 turned out to be a great success! We went home that night with our bellies full and with plenty of leftovers to carry us over a few more days!

Halloween - a little late

A was looking through the pictures on the camera today and realized that I never put anything on here about the girl's Halloween costumes this year. I suppose that since Thanksgiving hasn't past yet, I am still in the clear for putting a post about Halloween up.

This year the girls were dressed in poodle skirts that Grandma McEuen made. We were able to find some vintage looking shoes for McKayela at the thrift store but didn't have such luck for Halee. Nora really wasn't participating too well (if you couldn't tell by the pictures). I guess we should give her a little latitude since this was 2 days before she was admitted to the hospital and I know she didn't feel very good.

Nora actually spent Halloween in the hospital but the girls were dressed here for the Halloween party down at the church that happened on Saturday, before Halloween. I wasn't around for it but Tracy said they all had a good time at the party and that Nora actually perked up a bit once she was at the church.

If you would like to see some of Nora's pictures from Halloween in the hospital, click on the link for "Dustin and Amanda" that is Tracy's sister's page. Amanda and cousin Sophie came out to help Tracy with the kids while Nora was in the hospital.

I recently got to participate in a teaching assignment aimed at building better relationships with military members from other countries. The mission was called "Operation Southern Partner" and included teams sent to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile over a 2 week span. I volunteered for the assignment and asked to be sent to Paraguay - since that is where I served my mission. At first, I was on the Paraguay tail of the assignment but was later removed from that mission and placed in the Argentina portion of the project. I was disappointed at first and still am a bit since I really wanted to see some of my old stomps but Buenos Aires was beautiful!

I did get to stop, very briefly, in Paraguay. I was able to get off the plane, get a picture with one of the Paraguayan military members there. Speak some Guarani with a Paraguayan Colonel.

Then I got back on the plane to finish a 22 hour trip to Chile (where we stayed for 8 hours before going to Argentina.

Before I left, Tracy had warned me that Nora would probably end up in the hospital at the same time that I was gone. Unfortunately, that prophecy came true, which didn't make it easy for me to be gone.

The trip was good although I will think twice about taking a trip when Tracy has some form of prophecy or when I find out it includes a long flight on a military aircraft (not comfortable).