Is it over yet?

Is it bad to say that I am ready to go back to work? We've had a lot of fun over the Christmas break but I'm ready to see the kids I teach and get back into a normal routine. We've been doing stuff constantly since school let out. Here's just some of the fun we have been having. We started out the Christmas festivities last Sunday at my mom's house. My brother's kids were there, too, and they all had fun opening the gifts from Grandma.

The next night was Christmas Eve and we took the kids to the family church service where they got to help act out the nativity. The boys were all shepherds and Lauren was an angel. We could see Austin on the monitors putting rabbit ears on the shepherd in front of him but what can you do? They thought the candlelight part of the service was cool. Luckily no one burned anyone! After church we took the kids to Prairie Lights at a park by us. They claim to have 3 million lights and it's pretty cool. About half way through driving on the paths, they have a place to stop and ride a couple of rides. Here are the kids on the carousel.

And here are a few of the 3 million lights. This was taken while driving through the final tunnel of lights.

Christmas morning is always interesting at our house but we were more organized this year and had the kids open their gifts one at a time. In the past it has been a free-for-all and Christmas is over in about 5 minutes. Here is Mackenzie with his favorite present. He loves stuffed animals ... the bigger, the better! Lauren loved her roller skates and black knee boots. Austin's favorite gift was Heely's. And Nick finally got the Nintendo DS he wanted. However, Santa is a last-minute shopper and they were all sold out so he had to leave a note for Nick and we'll buy it as soon as they re-stock. Silly Santa!

Right after we opened presents, we loaded up and headed to Arkansas. On the way, we stopped at the Gaylord Texan Hotel to see their Christmas decorations. They were pretty cool ... trains, a huge gingerbread house, a sleigh. The kids thought it was really neat. This is me and them at the hotel.

And here they are in the sleigh. Once we got to Arkansas, we went straight to Marty's mom's house. She fed us a delicious meal and we visited for a while before heading to the hotel. The picture on the right is Marty's grandpa and Lauren.

We spent two nights at the hotel in Fort Smith and had a chance to visit with Marty's Dad as well. He decided that we all needed to have a sausage biscuit from Hardee's (he says they are the best anywhere!) and treated us to breakfast on our last day there.

Then we headed to Mount Magazine for the third evening. It is the highest point in Arkansas. We got a special surprise on the mountain ... SNOW!!! The lodge was really neat and the view would have been incredible ... if we could have seen it. Unfortunately, it was so foggy that we could only see about 10 feet in front of us. But we had a really good time. The kids especially loved the game room and pool.

Our last leg of the trip was to Little Rock. The kids stayed at Marty's sister's house and played with their cousins while we took our Little Rock staff out for a Christmas dinner. We spent the night at Marty's sister's and then drove by the gym this morning to meet with the contractors who are renovating our gym. It is going to look really nice when they get done. I'll tell you more about that later. It's just time for a facelift as we opened that gym 5 and a half years ago. It's all getting painted and we added a glass wall and are knocking down a wall and getting all new graphics.

That's about it. We drove home this afternoon and we are beat. I'm off to bed now. But before I go, I wanted to say goodbye to a friend of mine. A man I have known all of my life was buried today. Pete Abbott, the father of a girl I have known forever passed away a couple of days ago. He was such a fun guy and I am so glad to have known him. He would have been 90 years old next month and lived a long and wonderful life. The Abbotts own a cottage right by my grandparent's cottage and I spent many summers on Lake Huron in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with them. Good night Peter Rabbit!

The van we took to Arkansas had satellite radio and Marty was in heaven with the 90's Alternative station (Lithium 24). So here's some 90's grunge for you. Stone Temple Pilots: Plush