It's a Long One....

Billy left on the 19th for Dallas, for the last game in Texas Stadium. The Boys lost to the Ravens, but Billy had a great time with Larry. He didn't have a single picture...he left his backpack, with the camera. Oh well...It will live forever in his memory, I suppose. There was a big post game show and everything. The end of an era...now onto next year in the new stadium. Did I mention we officially "own" seats in the new stadium. We won't even discuss that one...It's a whole seperate post. Let's just hope Avery gets a scholarship to college.

Avery and I left on the 21st for Colorado. Once again, she was a champ on the plane. I was not. I thoughtI had motion sickness or something. By the time we arrived in Denver, I thought I was going to die...and we still had a 90 minute car ride. I spent all nigth and most of the morning hung over a toilet. No more Panda Express for me again. EVER.

Billy arrived on the 22nd from Dallas. Avery was so happy to see her Daddy. She was so happy to see all the men in Colorado at Uncle Alex's house after spending 3 days alone with Momma.

The week was filled with all kinds of fun stuff...we made sugar cookies for Santa. Avery helped a little...she mostly played in the flour and ate raw dough, but we did manage to make a butterfly cookie.

We went to Mr. Biggs. An indoor go-cart, laser-tag, arcade kind of place. It was super fun being a kid for a day. Laser-tag rocked. I only got to play once the first day, but managed to play 3 or 4 times the second day (it was so fun, we went back)

We managed to make it to Wal-Mart at least everyday we were there, except Christmas. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. God Love Wal-Mart, but when I die, I hope there is a Target in heaven.

Christmas was pretty unbelievable. TONS of presents for the kids. Us adults did a Yankee gift exchange. It was pretty funny. Especially when Alex opened the first gift and got Bare Essentials Make-up!! Christmas dinner was an adventure...when the stand for the turkey fryer was accidentally left behind in New Mexico, Uncle BK rigged up a red neck turkey fryer in the grill. Did I mention the grill is hooked into a natural gas line...looking back, it was probably not the wisest thing we could have done. We truly could have blown up half the neighborhood! But let nothing stand between a man and a deep fried turkey!!

Coming home was a relief. We had such a great time, but all the traveling has taken it's toll. Avery was not sleeping well, at all. She is not too keen on a pack-n-play for more than 2 or 3 nights.

Did I mention the best part of the trip was beating all the men in a mean (and unbelievably LONG) round of poker? I won $50.00. Billy did his best Phil Helmuth impersonation, but in the end, he was pretty proud of me, I think.

So here we are, all Christmas hung-over. I still have so much to do. I didn't get the Christmas newsletter out this year. So I have decided to do a 2008 recap and send it soon after the new year begins. Did I mention I am back on dayshift now? Maybe I can find time to clean bathrooms and mop the kitchen floor now...perhaps do an entire load of wash from beginning to end, including putting it away. Not that cleaning is necessarily a measure of a person's life, but geez. It's bad. And not in a good way like Michael Jackson sings.