Two Videos for you...One is of Madelynn Giggling (please ignore how annoying I am)...the other is when I go into her room to get her out of bed. I just love how big her smile gets. BUT today when I went in there with a video camera...her eyes got really big instead.

Christmas--a little late

We had a wonderful Christmas...it was eventful and crazy...but great. First we had a modern day Christmas story. As we left for a 3 hour drive to Abilene to visit with my Mema and Pepa it was starting to snow. We had no idea it would turn into a Texas blizzard in the next few hours. As we sat and sat and sat and sat in traffic we contemplating turning around...nah we would get there eventually and we would just sit in traffic the other way too. We contemplated getting a hotel room...nah we dont want to pay for that when we could just keep going. About 7 hours later we finally get moving pretty good and see the light at the end of the tunnel. This light turned out to be a flashing sign that said "Highway closed- turn around and seek lodging". By this time it is around 8:00pm and we know that there are no hotels in the area...but we do remember an Inn. So Jeff, Me and Madelynn turn around and go to the Longhorn Inn. But of course this is the only place to stay for miles and it is full. Yes...thats right...there is no room at the Inn. They were nice enough to let us come in out of the cold and feed Madelynn. They offered to let us sleep on the floor of the lobby area, and since we didn't want to battle the back roads in the weather with Madelynn we decided that we would. Us and about 30 others slept on the floor of the Inn. We spend the evening talking with the perfect strangers about the situation, what we would do the next morning, what they did for a living, where they were from, and where they were going. Madelynn slept the whole night in her carseat. She was a perfect Angel. The ladies at the Inn were incredibly sweet. They kept the little country store open late and we bought our dinner and midnight snacks. I had a cup of Ramen soup, and a candy bar. One lady stayed up the whole night and made coffee. They handed out every extra pillow, blanket, and linen that they had. I got a fairly decent amount of sleep thanks to a comfy blanket my mom left with us when they left to go brave the back roads. The next morning we sat and listened to everyone discuss their plans and try to figure out the condition of the roads. Everyone was calling their relatives trying to figure out if it was safe. We left about 9:30 and went across the street to a truck stop to eat breakfast. What other place would be open for breakfast on Christmas day. It was pretty yummy though. About 10:30 we decided to go try. The roads were really good in some spots and really bad in others. It took us a long time to get there, but at about 3:00 we arrived in Abilene. We spent the evening playing in the snow with my sisters kids and lying around talking with the family. Mema made a delicious dinner and then we opened all of the presents afterwards. The next day Jeff stayed at the house with Madelynn and played with the kids in the snow. The girls went out for our annual After Christmas shopping trip which we all look forward to and is always fun. Jeff and I left that evening so we could be back home on Sunday to get things prepared for the next week. I wish we could have stayed longer, and we are going to try to go back soon. Sleeping on the floor in an old Inn may not sound like fun...but we enjoyed ourselves and looked at the positive. We were safe and warm. We made the most out of it and it made for a good Madelynn's first Christmas story. Hope you enjoy the pictures--