Christmas

Lucky for us our kids have yet to wake up at 5am asking to open presents on Christmas morning. They still slept in until their normal times and Brian and I think that was a great present.

Our Christmas morning tradition starts with the kids looking to see what toys Santa brought them. Santa's gifts aren't wrapped and there are usually only 1 or 2 gifts per child. This year Jamison got a race track with the cars that you shake to get them to race. When they first walked into the room Lily thought it was for her. So odd since she never has asked for a race car.

She then turned around and saw her doll with lots of clothes. Don't ask what she is wearing. She got the skirt as a Christmas Eve gift from my parents and wanted to sleep in it. If it helps her go to bed at night it works for me.

I am sooooo glad the track came with two cars. Now we just have to make the track smaller so it actually fits in their playroom.

After we inspect Santa's gifts we move to the fireplace to look in our stockings.

Santa left Lily a flower ring from Avon. Who knew Santa shopped Avon?

Jamison got a bag o' dinosaurs...which he has done nothing with but left on the floor and we all step/trip over them.

Then we head back to the Christmas tree and everyone opens presents one at a time. Lily is very good at this, Jamison is not. It was torture for him to have to wait his turn.

Thank goodness she got the bathtub swimming mermaid. I was so tired of hearing about this mermaid. She better play with this doll each and every time her bum gets in that bath for all the talking she did about it.

And then came the gift that rocked Jamie's world. It started with the airport shuttle bus that he keeps calling a school bus. It looks nothing like a school bus.

Next followed the 737 Superfly airplane. I love how Lily was so excited for Jamison when he opened the plane. She said - "Jamison! That's just what you wanted!" Jamie: "I know yiwe!" (He pronounces Lily with a "y" and not a "l" for the first syllable and a "w" for the "l" in the second syllable. So cute.)

Notice Brian holding Lily back. He had to physically restrain her since she really wanted to play with the airplane too.

Lily got a fairy making design kit. She did not want to appear pleased with this gift.

Nana and Poppa gave Jamison a frog puppet that ribbit-ed. He decided to take a nap with it that day and I heard ribbits throughout his nap as he moved around in his sleep.

Brian and I exchanged a few gifts and I received a zoom lens for my camera!! I can't wait to use it! Overall it was a good day despite the kids being completely drained by 10am. We had my parents and grandparents over for a nice brunch and went to their place for a ham dinner. Good food and good memories!

Oklahoma Part 6 - Return Flight

This post has very little to do with our Oklahoma trip except that it is about our return flight home. Normally, our flights run smoothly and despite a delay or two we arrive at our destination. And then there are experiences like the one we went through on the way home from Oklahoma.

We decided to choose a return flight on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving for two reasons:
1. Mid-week flights are cheaper.
2. Not many people would be traveling the week after Thanksgiving.

The morning of our departure we check online to see if we were on time. Our 10:30am flight to Atlanta was delayed until 11:30 due to weather in Atlanta. Anyone who flies often knows that Atlanta is delayed with a raindrop. Similar to Newark with a snowflake. No big deal. We wait a little more in the hotel room and then drag kids and suitcases to car.

After returning the rental car we arrive to check in to be told that our flight is now delayed until 1:00. Let's do a little math. Our two hour flight to ATL arrives the same minute that our flight to Albany departs. That's a bad sign. Another bad sign - while every other flight in and out of Atlanta is delayed our flight to Albany is still on time.

At this point Brian let's me take over since I love this stuff. He takes the kids very far away from me so I can get down to work. The following is the typical conversation that I go through with any airline (I'm not picking on Delta) but this agent seemed particularly dense.

Katie: Ok, we're going to miss our connection, is there another flight to Albany from Atlanta tonight?

Agent: No, it looks like the next flight to Albany we can get you on is tomorrow at 10:30am. Another option is you can fly to Atlanta today, spend the night, and we can get you on the first flight out to Albany tomorrow morning.

Katie: Well that's an option (ABSOLUTELY NOT! IN NO WAY AM I GOING TO ACCEPT THAT) but can you look for any flights to Albany tonight from Oklahoma City? We don't have to go through Atlanta.

Agent: Oh? You don't want Atlanta? Let me see...

Sidebar - This poor man is going to be destroyed by me. He obviously will need to have his hand held for this whole process since he didn't even bother to look for other airports. Yet - there is a delicate balance here. I cannot lose my temper or show irritation. This man has the power to get my family home.

Agent: Well, the flight through Cincinnati is booked so it looks like we'll have to put you on the flight for tomorrow.

Katie: Haven't you just merged with Northwest? Why don't you check their flights. Anything to Detroit, for example. (I love the Detroit airport. Yes, they also get delays due to snow but it's a nice airport)

Agent: ....blank stare....I might be able to do that.

Sidebar - He can so do that as they just did it for me in Dallas last month. No wonder they have this man working in the Oklahoma City airport. He would be torn to bits in one of the hubs.

Agent: Ok, this is what we have. The only flight to Detroit today leaves at 2:30. You would then have a 4 hour layover in Detroit with an Albany arrival of midnight.

Katie: As long as I get home tonight I'll take it.

We then waiting in the OKC airport for three hours, flew 3 1/2 hours to Detroit, and waited four hours for our 10:20pm departure. So what to do in Detroit with all that time? We road the train for about an hour, walked through the underground tunnel three times (maybe four, that tunnel makes me forget where I am and what I'm doing), watched a water fountain for 30 minutes, and walked the terminals for at least an hour, if not more. And of course, this is the time that I am tackled with morning sickness. All I want to do is curl in bed and I'm walking around an airport. All I can say is - thank goodness Brian was there to manage the kids.

By the time we were ready to board Jamison was so silly tired. He found a work station and made himself at home. Thankfully, we had blah blah (his blanket) with us so he was able to self-soothe.

We even arrived into Albany 20 minutes early! That was still 6 hours later than what we had planned but the point was that we made it home!

This post is dedicated to our friend Lisi who, after 5 days of flight cancellations and numerous hours on hold, was finally able to make it home to Austria for Christmas. Never have I experienced the drama she went through with Delta, USAirways, United, and Lufthansa. and I'm thankful I never will. Unless someone wants me to fly to Austria for Christmas. I'm open for invitations.

If you have any travel drama stories I'd love to hear them!

Oklahoma Part 5 - Hollis

Another reason I was looking forward to our Oklahoma Adventure was that my two college roommates live in Oklahoma. Rachel is a native of Atlanta (Newnan), GA and Misty is a native of Maryland. So the fact that they live in a place like Hollis is a huge stretch for them. Each of them live with their families on separate farms and are house parents for teenage boys for Westview Boys Home.

This is Rachel's house. You think you've seen the middle of no where? You haven't been to Hollis. Their house is 6 miles north of Texas and 3 miles east of Texas (or something like that). Go take a look at a map of the US and put your finger on the most southwestern part of Oklahoma. Yes, that area with no names of towns. There aren't that many.


Barren. Very long shadows.



But there are a few trees. And telephone lines. So there is some breaks in all the flatness.

Since they live on working farms each of them have animals of some sort. I only met the horses. And they were very polite and well mannered.

This horse became my new BFF. I forget it's name. But it loved me.

And while the land around Rachel and Misty is lonely and empty their homes are full of so much love, fun, laughter, and activity. They each have three children of their own plus the teen boys that live with them.

Misty and I were roommates for a short time but we were friends for a while before that. In 1998 Misty, Rachel, and I went to Scotland for six weeks with Harding's International Campaigns. We have enough old jokes and stories to last us a while.

Remember how I said she already has three kids? She recently found out she was pregnant with her fourth!! Go Misty and Jason! But wait! Uh oh.....two days after I left Hollis I got a call from her. She just had her thirteen week appointment to find out that indeed, she would be having her fourth child. AND HER FIFTH. Surprise!

And then there is Rachel. Rachel and I have been friends since our freshman year of college and roommates since we were sophomores. We watched a million episodes of A Wedding Story on TLC together. As she got up at 5am (or earlier!) for her nursing rotations I turned over in my warm bed and went back to sleep.

Group shot! I love these girls so much and I am so glad I was able to see their kids and talk with them about their lives. We were in each other's weddings and have still been able to keep close after being apart for so long. It would have been so much fun to see all our kids playing together since they're all the same age but that's for another trip.

What's nice is that we all have blogs and are on facebook so it's easier to stay in touch. It would help if Rachel would get her rear in gear and make a post since her last post was in OCTOBER.

So after two short days I drove back to Okmulgee to pack up my family and head to Oklahoma City for our flight home. As I drove home I had my camera ready. Driving through Hollis, it looks like there is a dusting of snow on the side. Anyone want to guess what it is? (excuse the dashboard of the car in the picture)

It's cotton! I've never seen cotton collect on the side of the road. That's how much cotton is around that area. I am sure there is a technical name of the facility below but I'll call it - the Cotton Processing Plant. That's a huge pile of cotton!! Part of me wanted to jump in it and wallow around and then another part of me felt like suffocating.

Note to self: when taking pictures from inside a car ROLL THE WINDOW ALL THE WAY DOWN.

About 45 minutes east of Hollis you start to come upon these odd hills. After looking them up apparently they're the Wichita Mountains (sorry I called you hills).

They look like they are just rocks piled on top of each other. Wikipedia explains some geological mumbo jumbo if you want to know how they came to be.

Something I didn't get a chance to photograph were the many casinos I passed. There are Indian reservations all over Oklahoma but I'm not sure if the casinos are on their land or not. Something I am sure of is that there are more casinos in Oklahoma then there are in Las Vegas. (ok, I'm not so sure. It's just a guess).

It was interesting to pass through the Indian reservations. If it weren't for the signs I'd have no idea but some of the ones I drove through were: Comanche, Apache (weren't they warrior nations?), Kickapoo (I don't think they named themselves), Citizen Band of Potawatomi (that's a mouthful but I guess it works for them), Creek, Chickasaw, and Wichita. Demeree and I saw New Moon when we were in Okmulgee and we figured that most people in these areas are Team Jacob.

Rachel & Misty-Thank you so much for inviting me into your homes, feeding me, answering my stupid questions, and letting me sleep in. I miss you guys and there is always an open invite to upstate NY if you can pile your bagillion kids in a large vehicle and drive up here.

Oklahoma Part 4 - Random Activities

One of the nice things (and let's face it there aren't many) about sharing a hotel room with the kids was that the kids could just crawl into our bed in the morning and I didn't have to move.

For weeks, or possible months, (I started to tune her out after a while) Lily was preparing to learn how to sew at Grandma's. Lily would ask my mother to teach her and my mother's stand-by response was "you've got the wrong grandma, talk to your Nana." So Nana was prepared to teach and a bunch of us women settled in Grandma's sewing room to watch.

Yes, she's wearing a Snoopy shirt over a dress that's over a long sleeve t-shirt. It was her own creation. Eric and Rene gave her the shirt for Christmas and I'm pretty sure she wore it for two days and slept in it the night in between.

After more patience than Lily could muster she finished one side of a pillow. I could tell that she was disappointed that sewing was not something that could be learned in 20 minutes. The next day she sat down with Nana again and they finished it. Two of her dolls are now sharing the pillow in a baby bed.

Later Grandpa got out his riding lawn mower and trailer and gave the kids a ride. Apparently Brian received the same tractor ride when he was the kids age.

While it was a little loud for Jamie that did not stop him from trying to walk around the trailer while Grandpa was driving it. At one point I actually closed my eyes because I thought he was going to fall out and crack his head open. Grandpa turned around and gave him a talk that made an impact and he sat down the rest of the way.

Oklahoma Part 3 - Thankmas

Very similar to what we did last year we again celebrated Thankmas while in Oklahoma. Luckily our hotel had an empty breakfast room that we were able to use as a private living room. The only thing we were missing was a Christmas tree.

I only took pictures of the gifts that the kids received - but don't think this was one sided! We all had previously been assigned another relative to buy a gift for. Happily, Eric had me so I received a Louisiana cookbook (looking forward to the Turtle Soup...if only I could find Turtle meat).

I did get one shot of a gift that Aunt Rene got, I'm sure she's perfectly fine with me posting it.

Eric and Rene also gave Jamison Superman shirts. Obviously, Jamie was thrilled that his muscles returned after mysteriously disappearing November 1 when his Halloween costume went in the wash.

He was thrilled to get a puzzle that made noises - I love the look on his face and I'm so glad I caught it.

Here he is happy again for getting a Little People airplane. What's funny is that we already have this airplane, so you wouldn't think there would be much excitement for getting a gift you already have. But he was and ever since we've had two there has been ZERO arguing between them over who gets the airplane.

And then there was Lily. Lily is a serious kid as it is but she took it to another level for Thankmas. You would think that her huge imagination would make her a little more lighthearted but that's a big no. So her happiness after receiving each gift was buried deep (way deep. as in, almost absent) in her heart. It gets to the point of being rude and I'm hoping that it's a phase that she snaps out of.

Uh oh. You're almost smiling Lily. Keep. It. Inside. Do not show your love of your new stroller that you've been begging me for.

Oh good, you have it under control. Absolutely no emotion is showing. What a lovely Christmas!

That's right! Show your complete apathy in your eyes as well as your facial expression! Way to bring it all together.

Wait a minute. What is this? I think I saw this at the end of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. A SMILE! A cheek-bursting smile! Later that week she proceeded to practically finish all that glitter glue on one project. Grandma's dining room table was almost sacrificed in the name of Lily's art but luckily it was saved.

Karan and Jim gave Lily a beautiful locket that she loved. Sometimes she doesn't doesn't show her excitement over something because she is completely overwhelmed by the situation. Most of the time I can discern if she is being rude or if she is just overwhelmed and when she received the locket, she was just overwhelmed.

True happiness!

Oklahoma Part 2 - Grandma!

Part of the reason we all flocked down to Okmulgee was to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday. Her birthday was actually earlier in November but it was easier for all 34 of us to get together the week of Thanksgiving.

While their house would certainly fit us all it was decided that we would have more room in the fellowship hall of their church building. Plus, it had a kitchen so that would help make the Thanksgiving meal easier to prepare.

Thanksgiving morning we all gathered together and celebrated Grandma's 80 years. Since she has four children each of them took 20 years and talked about the world at that time and Grandma's life. Family stories are so important and let me tell you - the Reeves have plenty! I am very thankful to be married into a family like this.

Grandpa gave Grandma a little tiara to wear during the celebration. Lily wished she had brought one of hers.
There were two pictures that were shown during her first 20 years. I missed taking a picture of three year old Aline wearing a replica of a dress that Grandma wore when she wasn't much older than that. I was either making sure that Jamison was busy watching a Diego dvd or that Lily was sharing with the other great-grandchildren (she was).

Here is Audra wearing the replica dress. (I know, I'm not a photographer. I used the wrong setting of some sort and the picture does not do the dress justice.)

Here is the picture that they based the dress on. Those are chickens behind her in the picture. A lot of chickens. I missed the reason as to why there was a herd (gaggle? colony? pack?) of chickens around.

Grandma relaxed and basked in the attention.

My mother in law, Karan, made this pillow that has everyone's name on it. All the children are in yellow, the grandchildren in blue, spouses in green and purple, and great-grandchildren in red.

Brian's Aunt Linda made the cakes. Among many things, Grandma is an expert quilter. She made quilts for each grandchild when they graduated from high school. Four of the quilts were screened onto cakes.

The cake in the middle was a pin cushion cake. Adorable!

All the great-children helped Grandma blow out the candles. In the foreground you can see all the red roses. Each of us gave her a rose when we either came into the family or was born into the family. Due to my reluctant children I got to give three roses to Grandma.

Here are all the grandchildren minus Philip who had to work Black Friday and lived too far away to get to Oklahoma and back in time.

And here is where I would have put the picture of all 34 of us if Brian hadn't left the cd in the office. Of course, if I had asked him to bring it home that would have worked too.

Oklahoma Part 1

We're back! It has taken me forever to recover from being out of town for so many days and the unpacking and re-organizing of everything. On top of that, I was now behind on setting up the house for Christmas. So blogging took the backseat to all of that. I'm sure you all were suffering.

Our flight down to Tulsa was happily uneventful. We arrived early and got to Grandma and Grandpa's house earlier than we thought. We made up for that on the return flight.

The day after we arrived Lily and Auntie Demeree decided to make Thanksgiving cookies. Demeree was not prepared for Lily's love of frosting and attention to detail while decorating. This was very intense.

If any of you have met my sister in law (and friend!) Demeree you know she is beautiful inside and out. And I have so many fantastic pictures of her. As I was going through all the shots I took while in Oklahoma (over 200) I found two that showed a different side of Demeree.

This one cracks me up. She is giving the snake eye to something and I suspect it was that blue cup sitting on the table. Either that or someone else out-decorated her in a cookie decorating competition. You'll get them next time Dem!

While Jamison is the focus of this picture I noticed Demeree snorting at something in the background. She is so lovely.

And back to the cookies. Lily and Demeree did a great job and I'm thankful for Demeree keeping Lily busy for an hour! Their festive cookies were gone by the end of the day. But then again, there were almost 30 people in the house looking for sustenance.

More Oklahoma pics coming up!