An early Christmas

Last weekend, Jason and I were privileged enough to fly back to Austin for the weekend to spend some time with my family. We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and hangin' out with my mom, dad, sister, neice, nephew and aunt. We flew in Thursday night and had Christmas with each other on Friday night. We flew back out of Austin on Sunday at which point things appeared to start taking a turn for the worse. An ice storm hit Amarillo, and contrary to what we had been told previously, they do shut the Amarillo airport down for things like ice and snow. So, after loading the plane and sitting on it for an hour, Jason and I found ourselves deserted in the Dallas-Love Field Airport. Fortunately, Karen and her boyfriend were gracious enough to come pick us up, and Scott opened up his home to us for the night. It was an added and unforseen blessing the weekend. We were able to make it in to Amarillo the next day.

SS left for a home visit on Tuesday, before we were able to sit down and have a big Christmas party, so we sent some gifts home with her to open there. Wednesday, Jason took most of the girls shopping for the day while I stayed home and cooked a big Christmas dinner-Ham (bought for me in Austin by my pork resistant dad), stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, green bean casserole, rolls, fudge, and pumkin pie. KK was able to have a visit with some of her family. We sat down and had dinner around 4:30. There is a group in town that has some mules and wagons to pull people through a very beautiful neighborhood of lights. They are keeping their mules and wagons on our campus and invited the whole campus out for a ride. So we loaded up for some singing, fellowship and lights with about 35 of us in the wagon (I think we might has stressed the mules out a little bit). We then returned to home to open Christmas presents for an hour and a half. KR had braces put on Thursday then left for a home visit later that evening. Aslo on that day, we had a reward party for the kids who had passed all their classes at school and had no behavior problems. Out of 32 (I think) kids on campus, only 6 were unable to attend the party! That is truly amazing considering last six weeks, only 12 kids total were able to receive a reward for the same goal! Friday, both MBs and SM left for a home visit. That leaves KK, LF, MR, and MS here with me and Jason for the holiday weekend. The four girls and I spent Friday shopping and seeing movie. We had a wonderful time!

About Christmas gifts: The people in the Amarillo area are beyond amazing. There were different groups throughout the area that "adopted" the cottages to buy them Christmas gifts. The kids were asked to fill out a list that included gifts under $10, under $25, under $50 and then a dream gift area. At this point, I think across the campus, almost every single child received almost everything on their list including their dream gifts-things like: a day at the spa, a gift card to the mall, MP3 players, gameboys, etc. Then, one our local radio stations jumped in on the giving. One of the DJs decided he was going to spend the night on the roof of his radio station until people gave a certain amount of gifts for these kids. The local Toys for Tots drive heard about it and decided that they were going to join in and brought over some boxes of toys Friday morning. It took about 2 hours to sort through everything they brought (minus the bags and bags and bags of stuffed animals they broughts-we haven't even touched those). Then the radio station, with the help of a local dealership, brought over 4 truck loads of toys for the kids! Unbelievable! And all of this stuff is from the people of Amarillo! I'm telling you, it is GREAT to be back in the Bible Belt!

As for me, I had a Burnt Orange Christmas! My dear husband gave me 3 Longhorn T-Shirts, and a Longhorn Hooded Sweatshirt. My mom gave us a Longhorn Ornament on a baskteball stand. My sister gave me a Longhorn Flag. My aunt gave me burnt orange towels and my girls gave me a Longhorn Helmet decal and a set of Longhorn Coasters. (Not to slight those that didn't give me Longhorn stuff, I also received some body spray and body cream, a book and some cash). I really enjoyed having a Burnt Orange Christmas though!

Christmas morning, we still have gifts to give out for the girls that are here and of course we will open stockings.

I pray that you are enjoying the time with your family and friend during this Christmas season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS