Sunday, December 21 – Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sunday, December 21
Happy Birthday to Heather Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!
When the service was over and the kids were headed home, Barbara and I drove to a Sonic to buy a takeout lunch for everyone. When we got back to the house we found that Andy had gone out shopping for a special birthday gift for Heather, but soon we were all back together and enjoying our meal.
When the little ones had finished their naps, we all gathered in the living room for our family Christmas…the third one for us and the first for them. As we have said so many times, with a family spread over the country the way ours is, Christmas is when and where we make it, and today was Christmas on Norwich Drive in Richardson.
Along with the handing out of gifts, the tearing of wrapping paper, and the oohs and ahs, came lots of pictures so we could have a photographic history of a wonderful Christmas gathering of the family.
Later in the evening we all drove down the road to the Brazil Café, Heather’s choice of restaurants for her birthday dinner. I asked our waiter about any special birthday surprises the restaurant staff might have available, but found that they don’t do that sort of thing, so we just made do with lots of conversation and well-wishing among ourselves.Back at the house we began the process of gathering everything up and organizing it so we could get up tomorrow morning, pack the car, and head off to Mineola for our next round of celebrations.
Monday, December 22
When we were done with breakfast and had the kitchen cleaned up, we started hauling things out to the car and stowing them away for the next leg of the journey which was, fortunately, a rather short one. We then said goodbye to the kids and started the 100 or so mile drive to Mineola.
One of our favorite stops between Richardson and Mineola is the Tanger Outlet Mall at Terrell, not quite halfway between the two towns, We decided we should stop to check out the specials at a couple of the stores as we had a couple of other gift ideas in mind. Some days we don’t find anything we like at the mall, but today seemed to be just our day as we found perfect gifts; it was more than well worth the time we spent.
With our new purchases stashed (or should we say “crammed”” into the vibe, we continued our journey east on I-20 to Lindale, where we stopped at Sonic for a quick hamburger before driving the final 25 miles to Mineola.
We had talked to Ernie on the phone while we were in Terrell and he told us he had already picked up our mail at the post office, so we drove straight to Mother’s house where we started getting caught up on all the latest happenings. It had been a little over a month since we left Mineola to return to Artesia, but we quickly and easily slipped back into conversations, just as if we had taken a quick break to go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or a cold Diet Coke.
T.J. came over after a bit and visited. When she left, we got a load of clothes going in the washer and dryer. When they were all done, we drove over to T.J.’s house, our home away from home this trip.
Tuesday, December 23
With the roast going in the crock pot, we left the house and went downtown to look for some special gifts that we would need along the journey. Usually we are kind of knocked out by the selections in the old stores in downtown Mineola, but today wasn’t one of those days, and we eventually left the downtown area with only one purchase in hand.
The rest of the day was spent visiting Mother, Ernie, and Billee and shopping at Wal-Mart for necessities for the season. I did take some time at Mother’s house to uncover the motorcycle and fire it up in hopes that the weather would be good enough to ride it back to Artesia (via San Antonio and Lubbock). Fortunately, the new battery I installed in July was holding up well and, with a little patience and coaxing, the engine roared to life.
We also spent some time digging through boxes of winter clothing that we had left behind when we moved Big V to Artesia. We still don’t know what we were thinking, but most of our winter clothes and all of our Christmas decorations were stored in Mother’s garage in Mineola, while we needed them in Artesia…guess planning ahead wasn’t our strong suit that week!
Tonight we all gathered at T.J.’s house for our fourth Christmas celebration of this season. We enjoyed a great meal and lots more conversation before retiring to the living room to hand out gifts. Since Mike and Kelly were spending this Christmas in Arizona with her family, they had mailed their packages to Mineola, so we had the bonus of receiving gifts from them.
It goes without saying (except that we’ll say it anyway) that a wonderful time was had by all tonight…what a great way to celebrate the season!
When Mother, Ernie, and Billee had left, we helped clean up some of the mess and then began making what sense we could of all our personal “stuff.” We had been thinking that we should gain room in the car when we left things at other folks’ houses, but we keep picking up more than we left, so the Vibe is full to overflowing.We did at least get things in order, but decided to wait until tomorrow morning to load the car…just way too much excitement already today.
Wednesday, December 24: Christmas Eve
For the most part, this was a travel day…Point A to Point B. After an early breakfast at T.J.’, house, we loaded the car and drove over to Mother’s house to visit a bit before leaving.
Mother had received some really cute outfits for Christmas last night, so we asked her if she’d pose for a few pictures.
She was a really god sport and was dressed in the workout suit that Leah and Ryan had given her when we arrived. After taking a few shots of her, we turned our attention to Ernie and Billee while Mother changed clothes. 
By the time we finished them, Mother was back and dressed in a new blouse and slacks combination that we had found for her. We took some more pictures, I had a cup of coffee, and then it was time to hit the road once more. Unfortunately, we decided that we should leave the motorcycle behind and pick it up on another trip. With 300 miles of holiday traffic ahead of us and uncertain weather conditions for the weekend, the vote was for discretion over valor.
We said our goodbyes, drove to the post office to check for last minute mail, and then headed down U.S. 69 toward Tyler. After a quick stop to fill the Vibe’s thirsty gas tank (gas was $1.39 at the Valero station in Lindale), we took off toward San Antonio.
We made a couple of stops along the way, but generally made good time, arriving at John, Carol, and Randi’s house around 4:00 p.m.; not early enough to beat all the traffic, but there might not have been a time early enough to do that today.
Once we arrived at John and Carol’s house, the Christmas festivities began again. Everyone got busy wrapping last minute packages and placing them under the tree in the living room…sure couldn’t tell that there is talk of a recession by the looks of that tree!
Taryn and Rhett were at the house when we arrived and step-son Kris came by when he got off work. At 4:45 we all drove down the road to Bandera Road Christian Church for a Christmas Eve service…decidedly untraditional by our standards, but there was a packed house for the service, as there was for both the previous and later services.
When the service was over, we all returned to the house for the traditional meal (all kinds of snacks including sausage balls, taquitos, cheeses, crackers, cookies, fudge…you name it, and it was probably somewhere on the table top.From food we promptly moved to the distribution and opening of Christmas gifts, with the lion’s share going to Randi and Rhett, but with everyone sharing in the bounty. Of course, we had a great time watching two-year old Rhett open his packages, set aside the toys inside, and play with the boxes and wrapping paper. Soon though, he caught on to what was happening and had a wonderful time trying out all his new presents.
The night was filled with great cheer and celebration as the family members shared in multiple conversations and watched each other enjoying their new gifts.
Thursday, December 25: Christmas Day, 2008Merry Christmas to one and all!!!
We all took our time getting around this morning. At some point we gathered in the living room while John, Carol, and Randi opened their Christmas stockings and distributed a couple of packages that had been missed last night. Kris, Taryn, and Rhett came in later and more packages were passed around.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying a family Christmas…talking, watching TV, catching a ball game or two, watching Rhett play with his new toys, watching John play with HIS new toy (a new Wii system), and Randi and Barbara playing washers (Ryan and Leah sent it to their family via the Santa Jim & Barbara Express).
The truth is that pictures can tell much more about the day than words can, so the words stop here in order to get out of the way.
Friday, December 26It was another lazy morning around the Colwell house in San Antonio…Carol fixed a nice breakfast and then we just took our time getting around and making sure we were ready for the day.
The plan for today was to shop until we dropped, and we carried out that plan very well. We have to admit that we have never been fans of “Day-After Shopping,” but John and Carol had a different plan for us. By 11:30 we were at La Cantara shopping mall along with about 3 kajillion other crazy people. The parking lot was so full that we finally dropped the girls off at one of the entrances and then John and I cruised the lots for 30 minutes looking for a parking place. We finally gave up and paid $5.00 for valet parking, something I’ve never done (because I’ve never heard of it at a mall).
After prowling the mall for a couple of hours we loaded up in the car and went to some other places, looked, ate, and then looked some more. We finally finished our shopping around 7:30 p.m., after a full 8 hours of looking at everything we could possibly see and/or be interested in.
Now we know why we’ve never participated in marathon shopping…it’s way to difficult and exhausting.
Back at the house we settled in for an evening of snacking and watching movies until about 1:30 a.m. and finally called it quits.
Saturday, December 27Happy 5th Birthday to grandson Alexander Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!
Happy Anniversary to Leah and Ryan McQuitty in Liberal, Kansas!!!
Would you believe it? Today was a repetition of yesterday!
After a rather slow start around the house, we headed out in two cars for breakfast at The Egg and I, a trendy little restaurant that had slow service, but not slow enough for them to get the orders right. But, we were with family and enjoying ourselves, and that’s what mattered for today.
After breakfast, Carol and Randi went to get manicures and pedicures while John, Barbara, and I hit the shop-looking trail once again. Our first stop was at Shepler’s, a western wear shop, where we looked for a nice straw hat for me. Dr. Kaminski gave me strict orders to wear a hat that would shade not only my scalp, but as much of my face as possible. I decided that with the kind of work I do around Jean’s place, a western style hat would be just the ticket…all I had to do was to find one that didn’t look too ridiculous on me. We really got the idea from Spencer Plett when we visited at their house in Liberal at the beginning of this trip. Spencer happened to be wearing a hat that not only looked good on him, Barbara also thought it looked good on me when I tried it on.
After looking through a variety of styles and sizes at Shepler’s, we finally came away with a hat that should serve well for both work and casual wear, although the final decisions will come from those who see me with my new topper.
From western hats we moved on to electronics, looking for a new laptop for Barbara. With all the journals, pictures, and DVD’s that she’s created and edited over the last 2 ½ years (not to mention all the travel that we’ve done) her Dell has taken a real beating. The top has a broken hinge and won’t close properly, and the backspace key is missing. The computer is still useable, but we decided that it would be better to retire it and get another one, keeping the Dell for only DVD work.The problem today was to find a computer with all the memory that she would need at a price we were willing to pay. And, while we eventually found some on the display counters at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Circuit City, we were told that all of the computers we liked were marked for clearance and had already been sold…not what we wanted to hear.
After giving up on the computer search, John and I took Barbara to yet another shopping mall to join up with Carol and Randi, and then he and I took off on our own. After driving all over the city (literally), we did find a Best Buy that had just the computer we wanted, so I bought it while we had the chance…figured that prices in San Antonio would probably be better than anywhere else we were likely to be.
We later hooked up with the girls and did some more shop-looking before returning to the house for the evening. Carol fixed a nice dinner while Barbara and I took the Vibe to Wal-Mart to get gas for tomorrow’s trip (paid $1.33 a gallon for it – our best price yet).
Back at the house we settled in to eat and then spend the evening watching TV, talking, and playing games. We gave the kids an electronic Family Feud game as part of their Christmas, and wanted to see what it was all about.
Tonight was not an extended session for us. Barbara went up to bed at 10:00, and I followed around 10:45…had to get our beauty sleep for an early start and the long drive ahead of us tomorrow.
“The best of healers is good cheer.” - Pindar
Finishing our visit in San Antonio,
Jim & Barbara
