Christmas down on the Bayou...

Since Patrick turned 1 we have celebrated Christmas here at home...no family, just us. You see we don't want to confuse Santa or forget to give him directions where we will be. We make it easy on him and stay put at the address he has on file.

So in order to share in the holiday spirit with my side of the family, we travel down to Louisiana and share some wonderful food, exchange gifts, and most of all make memories the weekend before Christmas. This year was no different. It all started Saturday morning. We headed out but had to make a quick stop at Target for a last minute gift, to search for a "Santa" gift that was showing up as 'in stock' in all of the Baton Rouge stores - but upon my sister's arrival no one can locate. She called asking me kindly to check our local store since I happen to be there because it says that we had 6 in stock. To my utter amazement (really am I that surprised) there were none on the shelf. I found a very busy Target employee and asked him to check his inventory level on his computer. He said that he shows that had some in the back. Boy was my sister happy when I called to say that Santa had located the gift. She asked me to please tell the employee he was her Christmas Elf - I relayed the message though I don't believe he found the humor! So I load up with my purchases, swing by the Starbucks on the way out of the store and head to the van to find out that my child has fallen in love with the song - "Frosty the Snowman". He has fallen in love with it so much I am not lying when I say we hit repeat at least 8 times. Ok so now we are on the road - Louisiana or bust. Ten miles south of Jackson we here "Bam" - a rock had been flung and created a perfect circle nick the size of a dime. No big deal except the temperature was going from a high 71 on Saturday to 45 on Sunday, translation - this will not be a perfect dime size circle in the morning.

Thank goodness for our iphones...Matthew immediately starts googling "windshield repair" from Crystal Springs to McComb. Everyone we called was closed or gave us the number of someone who was CLOSED! We make it to McComb. While eating lunch I google "windshield repair hammond" and get a hit. Not only were they open they said they would meet me. They would have their tech call me. Well he calls me, ask me where I was. I told him a 1/2 mile from Kentwood. He told me to get off there and he would be there in a few minutes. He was so nice, fixed our nick (you can barely tell it was there), charged minimal, and even took an out of state check! (If you are in the Hammond area, call Tangi Windshield Repair - highly recommend!). So nick fixed....and now to Maw Maw's house.

We finally made it to my mom's. Earlier in the week when I noticed that it would be warm, I asked if we could go on a boat ride when asked what I would like to do. However, when we arrived it was raining - a big bummer since Patrick really wanted to ride on the boat. So we get settled and Matthew and Patrick go take a nap. Three hours later they awake just in time to take a quick boat ride before dark. Patrick had a blast. He told his Papa to go "Faster" and Papa obeyed. He then asked his Papa to go s-l-o-w-e-r, and again Papa obeyed. He loved it!
On our way back down the canal, Papa showed Patrick how to honk the boat horn - which he did all the way from the river to the house...I feel sorry for their neighbors!
Our family all arrived shortly after and we enjoyed some really wonderful food (homemade venison meatballs and spaghetti and seafood gumbo - both were YUMMY!). We all received wonderful gifts.

Today we went to Denham Springs and celebrated with my dad and his side of the family. Once again we took part in some yummy food (corn, shrimp, and crab bisque), received some wonderful gifts, but most of all were able to spend time with members of our family we don't see often enough.

The weekend had to come to an end and we headed back home.

It was so nice to visit and create memories with those we love. Thank you to everyone!

Oh, and you know that new obession with Frosty that I mentioned above. Matthew called my sister who still had a stop at Wal-mart on her list Saturday. He asked her to see if they had the "Frosty the Snowman" movie and if so to pick us up a copy. Amazingly she was able to find one - now we have added "Frosty the Snowman" to our bed time routine...and the best part it also has "Frosty the Snowman Returns"! Thank you Nana!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Love
LeAnna, Matthew, and Patrick