Merry Christmas

Wishing your family a very Merry Christmas. We have had a very busy year and an even busier few weeks. This was the first year I was done done done with shopping by the first week in December. I just picked up stocking stuffers this week and food for Christmas day. It felt good but I found myself wanting to buy more as it got closer to Christmas because the kids would mention something they forgot or Ashley would say something she needed. This Christmas (like last) we are staying home. I will cook a ham and a crazy amount of side dishes. My mom will be here and my brother and his family will come by. It'll be a very relaxing day. We travel for New Year's to LA to see Aaron's family and to eat some good cookin by his momma. On January 2nd Ashley moves to Austin to attend Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. She has orientation on January 4th and starts on January 7th. I believe she is ready, this is a very exciting and nervous time in her life. It'll be weird moving her into her own apt. I pray she has great room mates and they all get along.
Preston and Lily are well and so very excited for Christmas or Jesus birthday as it's often referred to. Carly is a mover and a shaker. She has learned to scoot and can zone in on the smallest object on the floor and go after it. Within minutes it will be a slobbery mess in her mouth. Christmas day will be fun with this happy girl. Aaron is doing great at work and hasn't traveled much the last quarter. That changes in January when he goes back to Rio (waaaahhhhh wahhhh) He is still on the worship team at church and is playing Sunday as well as Christmas eve.
We hope you all have a safe Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy and Healthy

Yesterday at MOPS a lady gave a devotion before our activities started. She spoke about JOY and how it can't be bought, or manufactured. She went on to tell a story about when her daughter was growing up their house was an "Aggie House" if your from the south you understand but if your not allow me to explain. Aggie's (and any other die hard college from the south) live, eat, sleep and breath all things AGGIE. The lady spoke of how amazing her daughter was and how she made honors and went to leadership programs during the summer at A & M. So imagine the disappointment of her parents when she didn't graduate the top 10% of her class and go on the be an "AGGIE" As the speaker said that "she didn't get accepted" she still had the look of disappointment on her face. I wonder as a mom if her daughter sees that same look when the topic comes up in their household. The daughter goes to Baylor, a great school as well, but it's not A & M. I thought about this story most of the day yesterday. I thought about going through life with the pressure of getting into a school that you personally may or may not want to go to. I thought about the disappointment that the parents must have felt when she didn't get in. And even more the disappointment the daughter must have felt when she let her parents down. Did she though? She graduated with honors, she attended leadership camp every summer, she goes to Baylor. Is she happy? I don't know. I came to the conclusion that I am so glad my parents didn't put pressures like that on me. Granted my childhood was not at all what this girls was. The only pressure my parents put on me growing up was to be HAPPY! Truly happy. My dad used to always ask me "are you happy" sometimes my answer was no. He would reply "then do something about it" and I always did. All I ever want for my kids is to be happy, truly happy. I don't want them to have the overwhelming pressure to go to a college they might not give a crap about. I don't want to live through my kids. I want them to live for themselves and to be HAPPY!