Couple more Christmas stories!

 Couple more Christmas stories...

Once when we were kids, we woke up Christmas morning to find 2 strings beside our bed.  We followed those strings around the whole house!  Under couches, under beds, through the backyard, under bushes, around trees, back into the house, down the hall, under doors, when we finally made it to the end.. there were 2 nice presents!  I think I got a stereo and my sister got a bike or vice versa...can't remember.  But I remember following that string around the house!  

Here's a fun one:

When we lived in Colorado one Christmas, my parents mailed the kid's gifts up to us.  We stuck them under the tree and waited for Christmas.  Larry came home that week and said, I have good news and I have bad news.  What you want first?  Me-bad news of course.  He said, I lost my job!  Yikes!  What's the good news (he's a glass full kinda guy)  We get to go to Texas for Christmas!   

So we packed up the car, and the unopened gifts that my parents had sent and made the 14+ hour drive down to Dallas for Christmas.  While we were here, we got to talking about what to do next since Larry was out of a job.  We decided, hey let's just move back to Texas!  We talked about it all the way home (put the presents that my parents had sent back in the car!)  By the time we got back to Colorado, we had decided! Yes we'd move back!  

FIVE days later we were packed up in a moving truck (along with those presents!  which at this point had gone from Texas to Colorado to Texas to Colorado and now back to Texas)  and off we went!  

It was the year of Y2K so, we waited till that morning to see if the world had ended and since it didn't, we drove down to Texas. :)

The Slim Christmas

 Another Christmas story....

Larry works contract a lot and it seems like in the past, right around Christmas, he'd get laid off.  So one Christmas, he lost his job and money was kinda tight.  I didn't know how I was going to get Christmas gifts for the kids.  They were big enough that they'd realize if I chinzed on Christmas... so what to do, what to do??

Well, I scoured the house for anything I could sell and had a huge garage sale!  I thought, whatever I made, I would use that for the kids' presents.

So after all the smoke cleared from the garage sale, I had a whopping $150.  

That was going to be tough to spread between 3 kids!

Somehow, I managed to find sales, bargains, and other such treasures and got things wrapped.

It seemed like a skimpy Christmas and I needed something to make it more fun.

So I made a Scavenger Hunt for Christmas Day!  

I hid the presents all around the house and made clues for each and every gift.

Christmas morning came and we had the most fun!  The kids loved finding all their presents (almost more than the actual presents!)

It was a wonderful Christmas after all!

Reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas movies:

"He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!"

Christmas time is here

Christmas is one of my all time favorite holidays.  I have so many wonderful memories as a kid with my grandparents at Christmas.  

I'm going to share a few stories the next few blog posts about some of my favorite times.

We used to go to my grandparents for our Christmas break.  They lived about 2 hours away.  We would drive an hour and they would drive an hour.  We'd meet halfway at the Dairy Queen, grab some burgers and a dilly bar and load up in Mamaw and Pop's car and head to their house.

When we got there, the Christmas spirit would begin!  My mamaw would have several small wrapped presents for us to open each day heading towards Christmas.  Now, they weren't wealthy by any means.  But she would find the simplest little things and wrap them up.  I remember we'd always get a tiny Hallmark calendar (that you'd get for free at the store), and some pens, and just little trinkets that we thought were just divine.  My love language is gifts so it was especially nice for me!

Then Pop would say, let's go get a tree!  🎄We'd go in his back woods and us girls would want the biggest tree.  Pop would say, "How about this one (kind of a small sgraggly thing that he could actually drag back to the house)."  We'd get excited and bring it in.  Mamaw would put it in a nice pot and put it up on a table.

When we'd get to decorating!  We didn't have store bought decorations.  So we'd pop corn and string cranberries, make paper chains, and cut pictures out of magazines! It was the most beautiful tree!!

Christmas morning we'd wake up before the sun was even thinking of coming up! We wanted to  go open our presents so bad!  After several, "Go back to bed girls-it's too early!!", they'd finally relent and let us get up!

                                        

Paper and boxes would be flying as we opened all kinds of goodies!  My pop would put on a roaring fire in the fireplace (no matter if it was 80 degrees!) to burn all the paper and boxes.  We would always lose our instructions to the new games or pieces to stuff because Pop was cleaning up and throwing stuff in the fire just as fast as we could open it!  (hmmm, wonder where I get that cleaning bug from!)

Meanwhile, Mamaw was in the kitchen making everything yummy!  Little mini pecan pies, ham, fresh veggies, those rolls! Yummmy!!  

We'd all enjoy a nice meal, and play with our new stuff and enjoy each other's company. 

Lots of laughter and good times.

Happy 31 baby!!

 Next week, Larry and I celebrate 31 years of marriage!! In this day and age, that's kind of a shocker.  

We had a whirlwind romance,  our first date was on my 18th birthday.  We went to Reunion Tower in Dallas and had a big fancy dinner and I was impressed!  We were engaged 3 months later and married 3 months after that.  Larry asked me to marry him on the top of a mountain in Colorado!!  

Larry took me to Lake Louise, Canada for our honeymoon!  Growing up in Dallas, I had never really seen snow before.  Well, in Canada in November, there is a LOT of snow!  We even went skiing!  We stayed at the fancy Chateau Lake Louise, right on the frozen lake.  It was an amazing adventure!  That started my love for travel!!  I was like, there is a giant world out there and I want to see it!

A lot has changed in the last 31 years!  3 grown kids, new son and daughter in law, 4 grandkids!  We moved maybe 14-15 times.  We've gotten to travel everywhere!  Come see our push pin map sometime!

But the thing that's changed the most is my love and devotion to Larry.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into (in general with marriage, but also being married to LARRY KILGORE!😜)

It's been a fun ride and I can't wait to see all the new adventures we take.  It's just the best with you, Larry!!

Happy 31 years!!!  💕🤟  Here's to many many more!

The Holidays are here!!!

The Holidays are upon us already!!!  I haven't even thought about what to get everyone for Christmas or what to fix for Thanksgiving.  

Some of my most favorite memories from childhood are of the holidays.  

Thanksgiving was always at my grandparents house.  She would go overboard cooking and baking for days.  We'd pick the remaining stuff from the garden, start mixing, stirring, cooking and in a few days there would be a FEAST!  My grandma had this giant bar in her kitchen and we'd get it all cleaned off and just start piling the food on! So many yummy memories of her homemade cornbread dressing, gravy, turkey, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. And she'd make these tiny little individual pecan pies! My favorite!

If it was nice outside, we'd go eat out on the porch or if it was cold, we'd gather around the wood stove or fireplace.

Christmas was much the same.  Lots of family and food.  My mom was an only child and we were the only girls.  Seemed like we were the youngest in the crowd too.

Now, we are all grown up and everyone's gone pretty much.  It's sad, you don't really know how much time you have with someone.  

So many things I wish I would've learned from my grandma.  She was a quilter, gardner, painter, canner, beautician and so much more.  I was only 23 when I lost my grandparents.  They never got to know my kids.

Holidays are for family and friends and food. It's a time to put aside differences and enjoy each other's company.  Play games, take walks, sit by the fire.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Praying you all have a wonderful, thankful time and ENJOY!!

The number one rule of womanhood

 The number one rule of womanhood is you never ever ever ask a woman if she's pregnant.  NEVER.  I mean, even if the baby is coming out...don't even hint at it!

We were hiking yesterday and I let this lady ahead of me.  I said "Go ahead, I'm slower".  She said "You're pregnant right?"  

😕😟😠😭😡😢😱

Larry quickly said, no but we have 4 grandkids!  HA!

So the rest of the hike, that's all I could think about.   I eat really good, I exercise every stinking day.  I close all my rings on my apple watch so faithfully.  I guess I could use the excuse everyone else is using right now...pandemic??  I really don't know. I've gained a few pounds but geezzzzzz.

You see, I've birthed 3 kids (granted it was 24 years ago-but still).  That poochy belly is my badge of honor.  It reminds me of the amazing body that God has created.  My body stretched to an enormous size.  And out of that misshapen body, I now have my 3 beautiful grown adult kids now and now my grandkids!

That pooch shows me that I'm not perfect.  I still have work to do.

That pooch reminds me to watch what I eat and to keep on exercising.

But this is my body.  

Words hurt.  I've dealt with hurtful words my whole life.

Words can also change someone's life for the better.

So women,  if you feel the need to say something to another woman, please just say "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

Or "I Love your hair today!"

Or anything along those lines.   You have no idea where someone is in their journey.  Having babies makes crazy bodies.  But they are beautiful.

Let's be an encouragement to one another at all times.  But especially now.

Kitchen, Bath and floors!

 So I'm a little late posting this but all the condo is DONE!!  It took them about 3 weeks to do it all!  All new kitchen/bathroom cabinets, new backsplash, new quartz countertops, all new floors! The appliances we've replaced over the last few years, as well as all the fixtures.  Our closets were done the first year we moved in (California Closets!!  highly recommend!) 

So we basically have an ALL NEW CONDO!!!  

It's so exciting!  I love it so much and look forward to enjoying it in the coming years!!

If you are looking for a remodel job Home Front Renovations is the place!!  Super personal service, quality craftmanship, great pricing.  Really happy with how everything turned out!  

Something good outta 2020 after all! :)