We hadn't traveled to Texas to see my sister Carol and clan since 2000. (To the best of our recollection) This is where we spent Christmas this year. We got to see all of Carol's chidren, their spouses, grandchildren (except for her oldest son's family who live in Illinois) and my Mom who now lives in Texas in a house near Carol and her family.
I got a chance to meet Ben (My sister's oldest daughter's husband) whom I hadn't met before and he is really a neat young adult. He is into playing games and he tromped all over us in "Settlers of Catan"...very complicated game. I'm not even sure I'm smart enough to catch all the nuances that there were to the game...It's one of those games that they could have made up new rules as we went and I'd never know the difference. When it ended, Tom and I both had a dazed look in our eyes like "Is it over?"...it really was a lot of fun though. I would have liked to play it one more time while I had the rules fresh in my head...lol.
We only got to see Andrew (her second oldest) for about an hour but it was wonderful to see him and see what a wonderful adult he has grown into. We got to spend all day Saturday with Julia his wife and his daughters Alyssa and Brooke. Alyssa reminds me so much of Andrew when he was little and Brooke totally stole my heart. I moved her cup at the dinner table and she gave me the stink eye. See picture below for the 'look' she gave me.
The look above was after I had moved the cup and she had taken it and stored it beside her on the chair.
As you can see below, she continued to hug that cup in fear of me touching it again. She is obviously the younger sister...older sisters are notorious for stealing stuff from the youngest (I should know...I was the youngest in my family.)
Every time I thought I was going to get a picture of Alyssa, she would move as fast as a flash. I got a picture of her back (pretty hair, huh?) That is Julia (her mother) on the couch. She is expecting #3.
I got a piture of the top of her head. You can almost see her beautiful face there...
And I got a picture of 'other' parts of her as she sped by.
Here is my Mom, Sister and Julia during the same dinner party. Julia (on the left) has such a sweet spirit...look at that smile.
As you can see below, after Brooke is fueled up, she moves pretty quickly too! These kids have super human speed....faster than a locamotive or a camera shutter.
Emily, Ben, Matt and Amy were there also. I did manage to snag a picture of them. 8-)
Sunday we all went to Mom's church and I got a picture of her while we were waiting for it to start. She just looked really classy and I couldn't resist.
It was what I would call a most excellent visit. We even got to skype with Daniel (Carol's oldest son), Whitney and their four children on Sunday (Christmas day). Their son Noah had us laughing so hard...he kept getting in front of the camera as either Darth Vador or Spider Man.
Happy New Year Everyone!
By Grace Alone -
Teresa
