Toadfrogs and Elephants

My family does most of our celebrating on Christmas Eve. I’m not sure exactly why this happened, but I’m not complaining. Melissa, Chris, Wade, and I spent Friday night at my dad’s house. Madison woke up at 6:30 (yuck) but wasn’t too excited about going out to the bathroom. My dad has three big dogs and they were a little intimidating for Madison. She cowered between my legs and then leapt into my arms. I was amused.

We had a wonderful breakfast with Dad, Laura, and Laura’s dad Ken. Did I mention there were cheese grits? Yum. Then we opened gifts – Wade got the tiny video camera he has been drooling about.

We left my dad’s and headed for my mom’s. There the madness ensued. Mom was excited to have us all home for Christmas and we were excited to be there. Madison had fun too!

Wade and I ready to open presents

I had two days of work and Wade had two days of errands – then we headed to Paducah for the holidays. Our car was packed full! We spent Thursday hanging out with Mom and taking care of details. Madison loves having a new yard where she hasn’t scared off all the birds and squirrels.

Friday night, Wade and I joined his family for dinner and then I left to see my high school friends – Johnna, Jenny, and Amy. We get together once during Christmas and for any other occasion when we are all in town – weddings have been the reasons lately. Johnna has her own place in town so we always meet at her house. We got her fiance to take the picture before he left.

Below are the girls holding my gifts to them and wearing the bows I tied on their packages. They are Amy, Johnna, and Jenny from left to right. It turns out Jenny and Johnna are avid readers of my blog – thanks girls!!

After arriving back in Atlanta late last night, Wade and I got up early to drive to Anderson, SC. Wade and I visited with his work friends and just toured the area. Wade has a tentative job offer from his internship and we wanted to check out the area. House prices are great!

These fish are all over Anderson – painted in a variety of themes. This one was located outside of Wade’s company, Ryobi.

Wade completed his internship on Friday and finally moved back to Atlanta! We spent that evening finishing up our Christmas shopping and wrapping and then went out to the movies. Aeon Flux was the movie of choice – and it was exactly what we expected – fun but not really thought provoking. We got in the car early Saturday morning and drove to Memphis – the nice short 6 hour trip. We spent the weekend with Wade’s family and even met his sister’s new boyfriend, Brian.

Late Sunday afternoon was the Burch Christmas. The family gathers for a big meal and the opening of presents. Wade’s Aunt Viola is 94 – doesn’t she look great? I think my favorite part of the evening was playing hide-n-seek with Wade’s little cousins, Marie and Tina.

Tina and I

The holidays tend to bring back lots of memories, especially those of loved ones no longer with us. As I was looking through some pictures, I found one of my papaw and remembered a joke he always told. Our family still gets a good laugh out of it.

A young man has just started dating a young woman. The young woman’s mother has invited him to dinner and he is rather anxious. The young woman has told him her mother is slightly hard of hearing.

During the meal, the mother asks the young man, “Would you like any more potatoes?”
The young man responds, “No thank you. I have dined sufficient.”
The mother says, “You say you went fishing?”
The young man replies, “I said I’ve had plenty.”
The mother asks, “And you caught twenty?”
The young man shakes his head and says, “The poor old sole.”
The mother sighs, “And you broke your pole?”

Anyway, it made me smile.

I woke up this morning to the sound of falling rain. Then I looked outside and saw a winter wonder land. Then I looked again and realized I had been fooled. It was just ice. Thank goodness the roads weren’t slick. I definitely think the dog will need a bath tonight!

I spent last night making Madison a new blanket. It turned out pretty well, but it took longer than I was anticipating. I’d like to say the idea was my own, but a coworker made one like this for her niece’s dog. She had red as the backing and even voiced that black would have been better (you see I agree with her suggestion). After I took this picture, Madison moved back to my blanket. I guess she’ll just have to get used to her new one. I am reclaiming mine!

I’m done. I’m really done! I finished my week of class in DC and took my EMT final last night. I had a little (make that a lot of) trouble getting motivated to do any studying. I finally did some studying and then the test turned out not to be so bad. I stayed late to help grade tests and even found out my grade for the entire quarter – an A. Woo hoo! Now if only I knew if I were going to be finishing the class at Gwinnett Tech….