Christmas Cards

We received our first Christmas card in the mail yesterday! (Thanks RIP! I love your cute country Xmas!) Can you believe Christmas is only 20 days away. Seth is really enjoying counting down the days. I have a really cute countdown decoration, but decided to let Seth help create something on the computer instead. We played around with my favorite clipart, DJ Inkers, and made a one page countdown that hangs on the frig. He crosses out a day each night before bed and we are working on patterns as he crosses off days (AB pattern of red, green). Can you tell that I'm missing my classroom today :( I think in my heart I always long for my students and how much fun we had. Will I ever have another Dakota, Brayden, or Karlee? Okay, snapping back to reality now... Hmmm... Oh yes, I was going to write about Christmas Cards. We took some pictures over the Thanksgiving break and I am anxiously waiting my cards to arrive so I can mail them out. What is it about Christmas Cards that I love - I'm not sure, but I love mailing them and I love receiving them. It's a simple gift of thoughtfulness maybe. Here are some of the pics that we took & I had such a hard time deciding which one to use on our card...

I just love the pink and blue matching Santa PJ's. I bought them last year off the clearance rack (Yeah for sales!) knowing that this might be the only year that Seth and K match since Seth is growing so fast. Check out his long legs!

Thanksmas

Thanksgiving means something different to me than most people. It means we go to THANKSMAS! Huh? What? Yes, I hear your questions of what is she talking about? Is that a typo? No it's not. For the past 30 years, my extended Blakeney family meets for something we fondly refer to as Thanksmas... a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is the only time each year that I see my extended Blakeney family. For the past several years, we have met at a state park in southeast Oklahoma. We rent 10 A-frame cabins, a bath house (with no heat), and a "mess" hall (kitchen & dining area). This camp site is used for summer camps during part of the year, but it's all Blakeney at the end of November. Each year, one of the Big 6 (my Papa Joe and his 5 siblings) rotate who will host. The host divides up the menu and mails out a food list and weekend schedule. We haul food, bedding, air mattresses, towels, games, and gifts. We have a couple of devotionals during our time together. Focusing on our Lord and Savior and making time to thank Him for his many blessings is always an important part of our time together. Of course we eat plenty (breakfast is my favorite: Granny makes homemade buttermilk biscuits with chocolate gravy) and there are way too many desserts, but we also love playing games and laughing lots! We open gifts and Santa makes an appearance! This year, we had 69 people for Thanksgiving lunch - a low year for us as far as numbers go. It's an awesome reunion of family and fun and I am renewed and uplifted every year by Thanksmas!

This is the Joe Blakeney bunch (my grandparents, aunts, uncles, & first cousins). We had the biggest group at Thanksmas this year.


Karsyn & her great-Granny Clo sing during a devo...

Santa makes a guest appearance and even takes time out of his busy schedule to take pictures! Karsyn was not all that excited to see him :( but the memory is too cute!

Kids open gifts...

Daddy, Seth, and Karsyn play outside in the leaves.

My first cousins (sadly, I am the oldest) that happen to be the best Taboo & Guesstures players in the world! Really... lots of loud laughs to be had! I can't wait for New Years when I see them again!

Wildcat Reader

I know it has been over a month since I blogged... where has time gone & what has happened. As I looked back over some pics to see what we did, I found these sweet little reading pics of Karsyn. I was going to take a picture of her in her "Proud to be a Wildcat" onesie to send in to ACU Today, but Karsyn had other plans. She was having such a good time looking at books that I just couldn't stop her to pose for a silly picture (we'll do it again later). She's ten months old in these pictures and I am so glad to see that she is learning to love books and reading so early on!