Toadfrogs and Elephants

Wade and I started the morning off by driving to Memphis. We arrived early enough for lunch and time with the family. I had a quick nap while Wade was fixing his parents’ computer. Then the family started to arrive – Aunt Jean, Uncle Jim, Jamie, Anthony, Tina, and Marie. There was lots of eating and laughing and presents. We also played a couple rounds of Hide-n-Seek, a favorite of Marie and Tina. If you look at the third picure, you’ll see my favorite. We caught Tina on camera having trouble unwrapping her present.

The Entire Burch Family

Wade and I left our house early this morning – 8ish. We made a quick stop at the outlet stores in Commerce, GA and then dropped the dogs off. Thank goodness – I was getting tired of Madison riding in my lap. We made two more stops and then a quick visit with my grandmother, Dorothy, who lives in Atlanta. She and her family looked great.

My sister and her husband are spending Christmas in New York so my mom is meeting us all in Nashville tonight to have our Christmas. Wade and I got to my sister’s house much sooner than expected. We beat my mom, sister, and Chris and they all had keys. We unloaded the car (over half of the stuff is staying in Nashville) and sat on the porch steps until Melissa got there. Then came the fun part. We talked, and cooked, and ate, and opened presents! We even had a visit from Matt – he flew into Nashville and came by for a quick visit before heading to Paducah.

Toadfrogs and Elephants

Wade and I got the car loaded, mostly. We are dropping the dogs off to be boarded in Atlanta, but we still need room for them that far. Tubbles has one seat in the back and Madison is riding in my lap. I think we have it all – amazing. It will be nice to spread out a little once we drop the dogs off.

After packing the car, we had time for a second movie this week. Wade picked Casino Royale. I wasn’t very excited, but I was going willingly. The last two James Bond movies I saw were horrible. This one was great – especially compared to the last two! I know it is a remake and I haven’t seen the original, but I really enjoyed the 2.5 hour movie. I liked all the background it gave into who Bond is.

Wade and I started separating the presents under our tree into piles. We are going to try to pack the car so that what we need first will be easiest to reach. While making our piles, we realized we have too much stuff. My car is only so big… (Did I forget to mention we are also bringing a lot of tools from Wade’s Tool Sale at work?) The obvious initial solution to our problem was to leave a few of the presents at home. Wade and I each opened the largest (in size) gift the other person was giving us. You can see that Wade got a remote controlled helicopter (he is very bummed it won’t be coming to Paducah) and I got a Slanket (a blanket with sleeves so I can be warm and read)!

Wade and I were sitting around the house about 8 o’clock last night watching television. We saw an ad for a movie, “The Holiday,” and decided to go to the movies. We haven’t been to the movies in ages. The movie was a romantic comedy with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black. I normally don’t like Jack Black, but he played a very normal, sane character. We both enjoyed the movie and decided maybe we should do this more often. I think Wade even has another movie picked out for us after Christmas.

Santa is everywhere! Here is a picture of my friend Kate’s daughter. I seem to remember a similar one of Kate when she was that age, but she was screaming. Or maybe it was her brother screaming. Or maybe I just have a bad memory. Regardless, Taylor is cute.

The temperature was 70 degrees today. That just isn’t right. Wade and I worked outside – I worked on refinishing my tool chest and Wade organized his shop. I was wearing jeans, flip flops, and a t-shirt. I really wanted to wear shorts, but I just didn’t feel right putting them on. I knew we wouldn’t get any snow living in South Carolina, but at this rate I’m not even going to get to wear a single sweater!

On an unrelated note: I discovered Belk’s is a decent department store. I bought two jackets the other day, but I knew I would only be keeping one. I am the queen of buying and returning. Well somehow I misplaced the receipt – very unlike me. I really didn’t want that much money in store credit, but I didn’t want the jacket to go on sale any further either. I finally called the store and they can look up purchases from your credit card – just like Home Depot and Target. This makes returns so much easier. Now if only all the stores would save my credit card info my returning would be simple.

Wade and I made a quick trip to Milwaukee, WI. Wade’s company recently bought Milwaukee Tools and he had a new toy he wanted tested. We flew up yesterday and got home late tonight. We didn’t have time to do much, but there was a nice mall across the street from our hotel.

We did get home to a note from the dog sitter saying Tubbles ate the tree again. There is now only one row of popcorn on the very top of the tree. Our tree is definitely looking pretty sad. I guess having a 50 pound dog climb it will do that. This time we had several ornament casualties and two gifts were opened. Poor Christmas Tree.