Christmas in Missouri

We had been working towards the end of first semester for so long, living for the 2 days between each 6 week unit, where there were no groups, tests or papers.  Christmas break had become this huge thing in our minds- a wonderful time when all our dreams would come true and we would solve every problem.  Together could do it all, clean the house so well it would never be dirty again, tour Pittsburgh as a family once more, sleep, eat and be merry! 

In reality, once Tyler's semester was over I was still wrapping up homeschool and trying to finish up gifts and package things that needed to be sent to family.  There were errands to run and appointments to keep and a trip to prepare for.  Then we lost a day of prep by leaving early for Missouri to beat out a Winter storm Gemini.

We drove all day Saturday in the pouring rain and finally decided to stop for the night in the middle of nowhere.  We discovered that this was a great idea when we turned on the weather channel and saw the tornado, flashflood and severe thunder storm warnings for our county.  I didn't rest easy that night.

The next day we were amazed at all the flooding along our path and pretty glad we had stopped!

Once we hit West Plains all cares left our minds.  Our arrival was punctuated by my victory over Tyler at the alphabet game.  We play it a dozen times on each road trip, competetivly. Somehow it seems to always be neck and neck (sometimes for hours) with Tyler always scoring the Z and winning.  The Ozarks will always hold a fond place in my heart.

We arrived an hour or so after Alyson and Camille had arrived home for the break from college.  It was an evening full of smiles and laughter.  Alex disapeared almost instantly and we found her in the girls room hunting for barbies.

We had such a great time and did so many fun things that I can't remember what our days were like!  It was decided that the Hulls house is better than Disney Land.
Quinn would wake up early and want to play, and then the little girls would get up and beg to wake up the big girls to play barbies.  They found that waking the 2 college girls up after late nights proved to be a difficult task, and I dreamed of the days without responsibilities when sleeping in was an option.

We ate the most wonderful meals, but of course this was the week my children decided they didn't like any food, except Mini Wheats.  Wonderful Aunt Lisa tried so hard to please them to no avail.

Quinn mastered the ability of crawling up a single step, all that was required to get from the livingroom to the kitchen. 

Grier was a champ and always willing to play with a kid or take someone on a ride.  I got to go on a few joy rides through town and country in his Miada with the top down!

He also came with us to the church gym the day after Christmas where we attempted a game of kickball and ended up playing tag with the lights off and glowsticks. It was just as fun as it sounds!

Quinn enjoyed Aunt Lisa and her metal pacifiers.

We ended up staying in Missouri for a week.  Once of the days I broke out my new flash to play with and Lisa mentioned the photo equiptment she had.  We ended up setting up a photo studio in the basement and taking family pictures!  I was pretty excited about that.

Heidi enjoyed having Daddy to play with, plus 5 other adults at her beck and call.

Unfortunatly we didn't see too much of Uncle Jeff who was often busy working, but we loved the conversations and movies with him when he was around!  The Hulls are great photographers and so it seemed someone always had a camera out, I didn't realize until I got home how few pictures I had of anyone! 

Tyler couldn't sit still for 7 days in a row, so he spent a day with his first love (chainsaw) cutting down a dead tree that had been struck by lightening.

Heidi and I watched Tyler do his cutting and when it was time for the tree to fall Tyler told Heidi to blow hard.........

.......down came the tree.  This was especially impressive because he needed it to fall precicely between those 2 fence posts. Goal! 

I watch Tyler cut down trees all the time.   This is because my eyes have special powers, if I'm watching, then nothing bad can happen.  This power also works when Tyler is driving- sometimes the only thing keeping our tires from spontaniously sliding off the road in bad weather is my eyes glued to the pavement.  This power kept us safe during the tornado also, as long as my eyes were open, no tornados were going to get us.
I often photograph Tyler while my eyes are doing their job and I never seem to get a good picture.  I end up with 20 pictures of the tree upright and 1 when it's starting to slightly fall and then my camera freezes or I miss the golden moment and the next image it's on the ground.

That's when the real fun begins and the girls get bored and we wander off while Tyler sweats and toils.

Once that tree became horizontal we focused on our gingerbread houses! 

Last year I decided graham crackers were SO much easier than making gingerbread. 

This year I discovered that store bought icing and hotglue make the process even more fun.

We also found that the trick to maximum candy coverage is to make a front and backyard. 

Alex's house was covered with gummy sharks and her yard was full of that terrible bubble yum gum.

Christmas Eve I finally buckled down and wrapped the presents.

We had run to the store for a few last minute things and Heidi chose our ornament for the 2013.  We got home and she dug it out of the bag and then placed it on the Hulls beautiful silver and blue tree.  Christmas Eve also marked Quinn's first (and last) trip to the movies!  We all went to see Frozen and everyone loved it!  Since I had already seen it, I paced the isle with Quinn who refused to sit or stand or eat or be quiet at all.  We came home and shipped her off to bed and then attempted a Nativity play.
   Heidi got the lead as Mary with Tyler as Joseph, and Alex wanted to be a sheep.  Some drama unfolded over costumes and the play was over before it really ever began.  Each girl chose a gift to open and then after setting out an apple and milk for Santa- it was off to bed! 

Alex woke up around 8 and just lay in bed, waiting.  I thought she would have gotten up in the night and snuck down to the tree, so this was a surprise.  When she discovered the apple had been eaten and the stockings were full she was so excited!  We ran downstairs to check things out and then ate breakfast.

There were SO many gifts!  The Hulls were very generous and the girls were wide eyed with each gift!  Tyler and I were given a theatre popcorn popper just like the Hulls have and the girls were so excited!!

At one point Heidi completely boycotted opening gifts, she said she was done and just wanted to play!

Quinn got a stuffed piglet of her very own which she sleeps with every night right along with little pooh.  It wasn't a suprise that she loved the boxes and wrapping paper.

Quinn also got the cutest little Christmas outfit that she promptly pooped through.  That is the true mark of a cute outfit, she never ruins the homely ones.

It wouldn't have been Christmas without a hotdog roast so we went outside for an adventure.

The girls were happy to spend the afternoon climbing on the stack of boards, and watching Heidi eat her hotdog at the top gave me 'Field of Dreams' flashes.

The girls got to take Louie for a walk and loved it.

They followed that little dog around everywhere giggling the whole time.

Then they came inside and did all the things that they wern't suppose to do.

After Christmas there were so many things to play with, Alyson got a brief respite from playing Barbies 6 hours a day.  She was such a trooper! What patience!  Camielle what just as wonderful, and SO helpful with Quinn, she even took her out to the hall during church for me!

Aunt Lisa worked her charms on my girls, and gave them a lifetime supply of pixi sticks and licorish!

And with everyone else entertaining our kids, Tyler got hours to himself to read books for fun and study at his leisure.