I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas...And I Might Get It This Year!

I am so excited for Christmas this year! We are going to Albuquerque to visit my brother and his family this year. My brother has 3 kids so add Rylan to the bunch and that will make 4 excited, anxious kids together on Christmas morning...how fun! As a bonus I might actually get to have a white Christmas after so many years away from New Mexico. Don't get my wrong, I love living here in Texas, but I dearly miss the years of living near the mountains and waking up to a white Christmas. We are planning on going sledding at least a day or two while we're there. Cody is 32 years old and he's never been sledding!! I'm sure him and Rylan will both have a blast! Plus, we are going to put out luminarias on Christmas Eve which has always been a big tradition in my family since we grew up in New Mexico. Luminarias are part of the New Mexican culture. They are put out on Christmas Eve as a symbol to light the way for Christ. Even though I was born and raised in Farmington, New Mexico and not Albuquerque, it still kinda feels like I get to go "home" for Christmas.

We will be in Albuquerque for a full week and then we'll come back to Abilene to have our Christmas with Cody's family. Basically, we leave this Saturday and we won't return until December 30th or 31st. So now I am needing to scramble to get laundry done, pack our clothes (and presents) and make sure we all have enough warm clothes to take. I don't know if I'll be posting again before we leave so here are a few random pictures of what we've been up to this week. We hope everyone has a great CHRISTmas! Most of all we hope you all take time to remember that our lives are forever changed because of the savior that was born on this day.

I could stand by Rylan's crib for hours and watch him sleep. I feel like I am witnessing pure innocence when I watch him sleep.

This was taken Monday night at our front office Christmas party (a.k.a. girl's night out). Every year our front office staff goes out for a Christmas dinner. This year we went to The Cheesecake Factory. Right side of the table starting with the closest: Christa (Assistant Principal), Barb (Principal), Betty (Registrar) and Stacey (Secretary). Left side starting with the closest: Beth (Instructional Specialist), Liz (Receptionist), Me and Ann Marie (Counselor). We all have so much fun together and I love my job because of these ladies!

This hat has become a big hit with Rylan. If he sees it sitting around he wants to put it on even when we aren't going anywhere. Apparently, this night he had to have it on to eat.