When we walked in the door he wanted to get out his Chop from Neil and Linda and make a card for a classmate from China.  Why stop there?  He went ahead and made cards for the whole class.

The final product is hanging in the hallway outside Hank’s room.  I am not into quotes on walls, but I made an exception for this one as I just love it!

We kicked off our winter break with Brett’s Christmas party at Cool River.  My mom came in early to watch the kids and we had a fun night out on the town with his office mates.  Saturday began the quest to find a dog for my mom and I already wrote about Macie in detail.  During Nan’s visit she bounced between Eric’s house and mine.  I used to not have the competition, but with Eric’s condo being so quiet and smack in the middle of everything,  his place is looking pretty good right about now.  I might like to stay there sometime soon.  Macie and Travis got along OK and a few times, we thought they might become best friends, but it really became a bit of a game to rotate them around each other without making anyone feel left out.

It was kinda a blur leading up to Christmas Eve around our house, but that just means we had lots of fun.  It was cold and rainy on Christmas Eve and we went to Bethany for the child centered service.  It was great and we saw lots of friends there.  After that, we had a drink or two with our neighbors and got meet their extended family.

Christmas morning we slept in until 9:30!  Eric spent the night with us and was afraid we might be one of those families that gets up at 6:30 to open presents.  HA!  We almost missed Christmas as we slept so late.

Before we went to church on Christmas Eve

Fun gift from our neighbors Wade and Malcolm!

Uncle Eric before he got his make up on

Don’t let this picture fool you.  It was not easy to get a picture of Travis and Macie sitting this close.  Although, they could be related based on their coloring.

In the afternoon, Neil, Linda, Aunt Pat, and Shannon came over.  Neil and Linda gave the boys something very special from their trip to China.  It was a special stamp (or chop) with the boy’s names on it in both English and Chinese.  The stamp was made from Jade and it is just beautiful.  Without even blinking Hank wanted to use it for all his thank you notes.

It has been a long four days…. filled with ups and downs, phone calls, internet searches, meet and greets, and finally dirt roads that lead us to Macie.  Let me back up.  My mom has been considering a dog for a while and recently decided that now is as good a time as any!  Nan also felt like Austin would be a good place to look for one.  We are a big city with lots of shelters and rescue agencies and Eric and I both live here.  We really are experts!  We kinda knew that this was the visit that we were going to start looking for a dog.  The main things that Nan wanted in a dog would be for them to be easy going, good company, love to take long walks, and be a manageable size.  Once we got to looking we had to add heart worm negative, cataract free, and non-barker.

We started looking on Saturday and after 3 places felt we found the perfect dog.  Her name was to be Maddie and she was a dachshund.  She was a 7 year old rescue and even as Hank so kindly pointed out that she was not going to live more than 7 more years, they both seemed to be a good fit.  When we went to pick her up the next day, there was an unfortunate mix up and Maddie was not meant to be.  We were all very disappointed, but learned a lot from that experience.  Hopefully, because my mom talked to many people at that shelter no other person will have to experience that!  From there Eric and my mom went out until 6:00 looking for another dog and missed two other dachshunds by only minutes.

The next day, I did some research and started looking into breeders.  Nan’s first choice was a sweet rescue, but once she realized that she was drawn to dachshunds I thought we should consider a breeder.  Regardless of how I feel about breeders anymore, those puppies have been born and need homes too.  Nan did not want to spend a small fortune on a dog, but through a friend we were able to find a breeder who was retiring one of her dogs.  Today we drove out to Luckenbach, Texas to meet some dogs.  We met 3 and Macie was the one that Nan liked the most.  After a little visit, it was clear to Nan that Macie was the best fit.

I can’t wait to hear about how this new friendship will grow.  It will be a while before she comes out of her shell.  A car ride with Wesley was a little taste of what is to come.  Then a meeting with Travis??  This sweet girl is going to love Nan’s home.

This year I signed up Wesley for the first time.  We thought he was ready to be a Shepard this year.  I signed up the 7:20 show and we were dressed and ready to go by the 7:00 show.  The Children’s Pastor said we go jump in the 7:00 show since we were dressed.  Hank gave me a look, like “can I go?”  He was off and Wesley just froze in place.  I asked Wesley why he did not want to go with Hank and he was too nervous.  He said he would only go if I dressed up too.  Next thing I know, I am in an Angel costume with wings and a halo too!

Overall, they did great.  Wesley was behind at a few points during the show, but no one noticed.  I am not sure that any Shepard’s had light up shoes when Jesus was born….

The other night the boys were playing with Nerf guns in Hank’s room and I heard crying.  Not the kind that I need to stop what I am doing and run, but the kind where I know someone is coming to find me.  It was Hank and they knocked over Goldie.  We had to have an intervention and get him back up again WITHOUT touching him.  He got hit by a passing bullet and was face down when I got to the crime scene.  I had to explain that Santa did not give us this Elf to make us stressed out and that accidents happen.  I have noticed Goldie is getting higher and higher when we find him each morning.

We know that Hank is close to finding out the truth about Santa, but they are having so much fun with this little guy.  Hank asked me if he was just a doll the other morning and sometimes I just want to sit him down and tell him everything.  He questions some things and believes so strongly about the rest.  I am going to just ride this year out and see what happens.  I know I have more time with Wesley though.

There was a ceremony for all belt levels last Thursday night and went really well.  Both boys felt such pride in their new belts.

While we were at dinner last night a box showed up on our front porch.  We all raced back in to open the box and learn about our new family member!  When we opened the box, Wesley was disappointed because he was not a real elf.  After reading the book, we learned that he is magic.  We were told to give him a name and we are never to touch him.  If we touch him….he will lose his magic powers.  Every night he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa about our behavior.  How else will he know?  Each night when he comes back he is in a different place and we have to find him.

Naming him was hard, but we finally came up with Goldie.  Wesley wanted Buddy and Hank wanted Texas.  Hank even threw out United States and that is when I thought it was bed time.  There were tears and everyone was getting upset.  We went to bed with no name, but this morning we agreed on Goldie.

This morning when we woke up, they boys knew they needed to find our Elf.  Brett and I were dead to the world and we heard the boys talking about needing to find him.  That is also when they named him Goldie.  Together they ripped open drawers and looked under things, but they could not find him!  He was sitting on the mantle the whole time!  Finally, the boys found him and ran up to tell us about it.  Two great things happened this morning.  The boys worked as a team and got along beautifully and we got an extra 45 minutes in bed!  I wonder where he will be tomorrow?

So far so good.  Normally by this time we would have lost interest, but we seem to see be into this activity.  I hope so, because around every corner, they are asking for more money!

Tonight they tested for their yellow belts.  We have been wearing the same, non washable, WHITE belts for 16 weeks now.  You can test every eight if you have met the requirements, but we had to miss the last test for my high school reunion.  The requirements are based on a certain number of classes and stripes given on their belts.  To test for the yellow belt, we had to attend 10 classes (in 8 weeks) and have 4 stripes on our belts.

Talk about nerve-racking!  We will not know until next week if they passed, but my gut feeling is that they passed.  I will keep you posted!

I have never had that many people in our home at once, but the weather was beyond perfect and we were able to spill out onto the deck and it was a success.  We had sandwiches for lunch, Rudy’s for dinner, and hired out the cake.  I would have loved to have cooked for everyone, but with a burn ban in effect it was better to bring in dinner.  At least that is what I told myself.

We hung out and played in the yard, watched some football, and just caught up.  Some of us were meeting Pasco Jr. and Saxon Rowe for the first time.  We also tried to take a group picture.  We made sure to put our white on right before the picture was taken and got some good photos.  The best group shot happened to be right before the silly one and Uncle Don did not get the message, but that might be Par for the Course.  You can’t have that many people and expect that each and everyone will look perfect.  We got close.