An Oklahoma Christmas - part 2

What a wonderful visit we had already enjoyed thus far!  And we knew the best was yet to come.

*****

Christmas Eve arrived.  We enjoyed our usual morning of lounging in PJ's before Debby treated us to this wonderful, fancy lunch!

You might recall that I've written about our friend Lola Mae before. She's 94 years young and lives alone, just a few houses down from Debby.  The youngest of 13 kids, Lola Mae is witty and sharp as a tack -- quite an amazing lady.  I hope I'm just like her some day.  We were so happy to pay her a visit and take along the little gift we had brought.

Lola Mae always says she is extra fond of our boy because she had a brother named Nolan.

Blurry but too sweet not to include.  Nolan loves her!  

That evening, we attended a Christmas Eve service at a church in Elk City.  It was lovely!

Had to snap some dressed-up photos before changing (back) into our jams.

I love this one!

Nolan and a beautiful shot of Aunt Lizzie (or AL, as I'm teaching him to call her)  ;)

Then Nolan got to open a gift from Lizzie --- Christmas Jammies!!!

When Nolan went to bed, everybody got busy:

Debby prepped Christmas morning's breakfast...

...the pups helped with dishes...

...and Mikel shuffled cards in anticipation of the impending and inescapable round of Dutch Blitz.

Now, for anyone reading who might be fortunate enough to have escaped the experience thus far, Mikel and Lizzie are each a little psycho when it comes to Dutch Blitz.  Two intensely intelligent and competitive people, they can fan their cards and lock horns over this Battle of Speed like you wouldn't believe.  I have personally borne witness a variety of offenses, including but not limited to:

- yelling matches

- re-counts

- accusations of cheating

- actual cheating

- vehement denials of cheating

- bad words

- bad breath

- red faces

- middle fingers communicated with eyes

- gloating

- moping

- clapping at inappropriate times

- smirked offers of "Good Game"

- profoundly rejected offers of "Good Game"

- thrown elbows

- thrown cards

- bent cards

- pocketed cards

And when you mix in some son-of-a-fireball home brewed eggnog, you can imagine the results.

But it was too late for my escape.  I was, after all, iced in...

So the table was set:

The pups were called in to act as impartial judges:

The Christmas tree was set ablaze in hopes of reminding all in attendance of the Christmas spirit which was about to get dragged through the mud....

And it began.

Friendly enough at first....

............... and then?  

Something magical happened.

It was as if the Holy Spirit rose up inside of me and said, "My daughter, you have suffered long enough at the hands of these fiends."

.... And lo and behold, I started winning!  

"BLITZ!!" I called time and again, hand after hand, round after round.  The battle cry of the Amish, dropping all others to their knees and driving their game scores deeper into the negatives.

...Until?

It was over.

It was OVER!

VICTORY WAS MINE!!!!  

And I had the score card (complete with Debby's hand drawn emoticons and time notations), to prove it.

As you can plainly see, at 10:43 I thought my lead was doomed to be like sand, slipping through my fingers in only a matter of time.  Lizzie the Great was hot on my heels and Mikel the Mighty was right behind her.  These two were in it for blood, and I was the reddest meat on the chopping block.

So I got a star and the others got frowny faces.

But I will say it again: the Spirit of the Good Lawd saw me fit to carry this torch.  This beacon.  This message of hope.  That ALL people, regardless of race, order, creed or past Dutch Blitz failings, can find within themselves the strength, power and ability to TRIUMPH in the face of adversitynamedmikelandlizzie.  ALL people. 

Even Debby whose score was 1.

~ It was indeed a Christmas miracle ~

(Love you three. :)  Glad we got this documented since it will never ever happen again!)

******

Christmas morning was a sweet time of quiet breakfast, gift exchange, sipping coffee and enjoying each other.  We are so very blessed!

Grandpa John and Ramona stopped by to say hello and exchange some gifts. 

Even the pups got a couple of new toys for Christmas from Grandma.

Khaki destroyed the squeakers within the hour -- something I actually love about her!

Deaf Dog Paisley isn't bothered by suffering squeaky toys...

Investigating the stockings (my favorite part!)

 

Then came the gifts! There was so much generosity represented under that sweet little tree.  I'm so happy we were able to have this Oklahoma Christmas.

This is the necklace I almost stole from Lizzie.

Another delicious and decadent lunch, compliments of Chef Gram.

*****

Then that evening we went to pay a visit to Ray and Loretha, some sweet family friends who live just across town.

When we got there, Ray greeted us in this getup, complete with a piece of kleenex stuck in his "nose ring" to make fun of Lizzie's.  You never know what that guy is going to come up with!

Nolan never changed out of his Christmas jammies.

Debby and Loretha

There were looooottttttts of little tiny breakable things for tiny hands to "touch touch touch".

*****

The next morning, it was time for us to make the long trek back to Phoenix.  How can a week pass so quickly?  I will admit --- this sight made the homecoming a little easier to bear:

*****

Our Christmas was marked by meaningful time with many people we love.  What more can we ask for?  Debby, thank you for how much you do to ensure that we are all comfortable, refreshed and stuffed to the brim.  You are wonderful and we are all lucky to have you, but mostly I am lucky to have landed you for a mother in law.  

We are thankful to have had such a sweet time to reflect on God's superb and unmatched generosity in the ultimate gift of salvation through Jesus.  The Reason for these days was not lost on us, and I pray that in 2014, I as an individual, our family as a unit, and we all as a nation will strive even harder to pattern our lives after our mighty and perfect Savior.

"The paradox of Jesus is this: 

He speaks harsher than we do about sin and sweeter than we do about grace.  

He's willing to be dogmatic about judgement AND mercy.

He's willing to risk everything - including His reputation - to rescue us.

His love is tenacious and exacting and He does not intend to leave us as He found us."

- Edie Wadsworth

An Oklahoma Christmas - part 1

This year was our first Christmas spent in Sayre, and it was absolutely lovely!

We had originally talked about flying into OKC, renting a car, kenneling the pups.... but a quick crunch of the numbers told us opting for the drive was much (much) more fiscally reasonable.  So off we went on our 13 hour haul.  Nolan was a pretty good trooper, as usual.

I took this pic of the New Mexico scenery for you, Steph, because it is so incredible similar to your sights while traveling around New Zealand.  

.Right.

Blurry but you get it:  our candy stash, purchased because we originally thought about driving overnight.  Chocolate options for Mikel and Werther's Originals for me.  Mikel says I'm a grandma.

*****

We pulled into Sayre around 7pm Thursday evening.  The next night, Mikel and I headed to Oklahoma City to attend the much anticipated the wedding of our friends Sarah and Jayme at the state capitol building.  Many of our (and especially Mikel's) dear college friends were present, making it a rare reunion of sorts. The whole thing was beautiful, and I may or may not have pirated the following pictures from Sarah's facebook page.

The only shot of us from the night!  What was I thinking not bringing my camera?!

*****

Debby was a gem and kept Nolan overnight, allowing Mikel and me a full night away in the city.  Such a gift!  Thank you again, Grams - truly.  

It turned out to be a good thing that we planned things that way because while we were at the wedding, Oklahoma showed up, parading one of her good old fashioned ice storms for us.  Just in case we needed one more reason to think maybe we DO like Arizona, this was the view from my side of the car after the wedding!

As an extra treat, Mikel and I opted to stay at the Two Hearts Inn, the bed and breakfast where we stayed our wedding night and have one additional time since.  Now mind you: this ain't no Great Aunt Mimi's B&B --- this place is AMAZING, and all I could think about as we made our way slowly through the ice storm was the big, fluffy pillows and the ginormous cushy bed that I would soon be curled up in, plus the in-room breakfast they would be bringing the next morning.  Oh my, I love it there.  :)

The B&B has 6 different suites, each boasting a unique theme.  It is my personal goal to stay at least once in each suite.  We are now half way there!

 A peek into the tea room, for my college girlfriends!

 Mikel is forcing a smile because I am blocking his view of the basketball game.

Breakfast!

 Mikel had just woken up, and then I burned his retinas with the camera flash.

 Our sweet little room had no windows (PS: no windows + no baby = best. sleep. ever.), but never fear: the ever faithful Oklahoma weather team was there to alert us of the winter wonderland that was waiting for us outside.

Before leaving for Sayre, we stopped in the tea room so I could grab a couple of gifts.  My girlfriends and I used to come to this tea room for our birthday lunches and I had my bridal luncheon there.  It's a special place to me.

Mikel's assessment of the tea room: "It's just all the same.  It's the same stuff over and over and over again."

... Le sigh.

*****

Back at Debby's house, we just laid low for a few days until things started to thaw.  And it was great.  We are sooooo thankful to Debby for allowing us to tote the pups along on our visit.  Apart from saving us some major expense, it was sweet to have them with us and not stressed with a long kennel stay.

This one was a little snarky toward Maggie and Paisley at first, but after getting a swift (well deserved) kick from Grammers, she got the picture that she might not be the boss of the house -- and she settled in just fine.
A working dog trapped in a wiener dog's body.  That's Khaki for you.

Pretty snuggly!

...Even better snuggles.  :)

That Grandma is no slouch cook!!  Nolan legitimately gained several extra rolls in the week we were there.  And I hate to think how Mikel and I fared!

We made a habit of staying in jammies until all hours of the day.

The ice storm blew in Friday night, so by Monday we were itching to get outside a bit.  

Off we all headed for a walk.  And I hate to say it, but with the wind whipping over those Western OK plains --- and me having donated away all of my decent coats --- it was indeed plenty cold!

Our pups looove to pretend that they are country dogs and run around off leash for this walk route.

We got home and warmed up a bit.  Man, my blood has thinned out quickly since moving south...

Debby had this adorably little tree in place in her front room, complete with an indestructible plastic Nativity set at its base.  Nolan played and played with those pieces - determined to test their strength.  They held up well!  Great idea, Debby.

He has been pulling up and letting go with more and more confidence.

Don't mind the crazy mommy face.

Aunt Lizzie pulled out a blanket and immediately became the most popular person in the room - at least according to all 4 dogs!

Poor Mikel had been sick, worked long hours the days leading up to the trip, and then did almost all of the driving on the way down.  He was tired and grabbed a nap right in the middle of the floor.

Meanwhile, Nolan had himself a little close-up photo shoot...

...and Lizzie worked her fingers to the bone making us REAL eggnog.

It was delicious but let's just say: you don't want to get that stuff too close to a flame ---- and it was a miracle we didn't all end up passed out on the floor.  :)