$250.99 Blockbuster Rental!!!

On Christmas Day, we had planned to go see a movie late in the afternoon. Surprisingly enough, many families had the same idea in mind. We went to two different theaters and what we wanted to see (Marley and Me) was sold out at both. Sooooooooooo, we came up with this grand idea to rent a movie from Blockbuster. Little did we know that our $0.99 movie rental would end up costing us $250.99! What am I rambling about now?

After watching the movie, Dirk decided to go ahead and take the movie back while he had time and while we were thinking about it.

Well, Morgan's boyfriend (Todd) was also over at the time and he had parked his car in our driveway.

A few things before I go any further.....

.....Todd ususally parks his car out on the street in front of our house, except on this particular night
.....Todd's car is jet black
.....It was also a very dark and cold night
.....Dirk gave me his permission to share this

Anyhoo, as Dirk was backing out of our garage to take the movie back.......(drum roll)

He totally ran right into Todd's nice new car! Needless to say, the night got just a tad bit darker.

There was actually more damage done to our car than Todd's. Dirk was in total shock that this had happened. Actually, we were both in shock!

Breaking the news to Todd was difficult. How do you tell the proud owner of a very nice car that you just smacked into it? In fact, when Dirk delivered the news to Todd and Morgan, they both started laughing. They totally did not believe Dirk for about 30 seconds or so. After seeing that we were not laughing, their laughter came to a sudden halt.

After breaking the news to Todd, then Dirk had to call Todd's parents to break the news to them. I felt so sorry for him.

Todd's parents blew it off. They laughed about it. They came right over to look at the damages and starting laughing and joking about it again. Dirk and I still hadn't mustered up any laughter at this point, but we were SO glad that Todd and his parents were able to laugh and joke about it.

I guess since it wasn't going to cost them a penny....why not laugh about it? We couldn't laugh or make jokes about it until the next day. I've asked several times (now joking, of course)...

"How do you have an accident in your driveway, of of all places?"

Renting "The Nativity Story" was the most expensive movie we've ever seen. lol! Not only did it cost us 99 cents, it also cost us the $250.00 (deductible) to repair our cars.

After paying $250.99 to watch this, I will NEVER complain about the cost of a movie again, whether it be renting from Blockbuster or going to the theater.

Oh, and I had my own mishap during the holiday too...I'll post about it another day.

AND STOP LAUGHING AT US!

Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas

Our Christmas was great! It was such a blessing being able to spend time with family. Like many of you, we've had so much going on this holiday season.

We were able to attend two beautiful Christmas Eve services at our church. Jae's class performed (sang) in both services. It was real cute. Jae's not like her Momma in any way when it comes to getting in front of a crowd. Meaning, she likes it....I don't.

The girls opened up one gift on Christmas Eve. I get them pj's each year. I'm not sure why I even bother to wrap these two gifts as the girls already know what the gift is before they even open it. Maybe next year, I'll just lay them out under the tree unwrapped on Christmas Eve. It's getting harder and harder to buy a pair of cool pj's for a teenager, ya know? Picking out Jae's pj's is a piece of cake, though. She still thinks I'm a cool Mom no matter what they look like. lol!

Our Christmas morning started about 7am. The girls were so excited. They got one big gift each and a few small gifts. It seems like they were both happy with their gifts.

We were able to stay home until almost noon before heading out to Dirk's Dad's house. It's about an hour away from our home. We had a fabulous lunch and later opened up gifts from each other there. As usual, we had a lot of fun just sitting and enjoying each other's company.

Then on Saturday (yesterday), we had Christmas at our house with my family. If you read my last post, I had mentioned that I would be inviting my Dad this year. Well, I did invite him, but he was not able to make it. As I was sharing with another friend today, I feel that my Dad carries a lot of guilt and shame for not being around when we were younger. He knows that we have all forgiven him, but it's just something that he's still having to deal with after all these years. It's a long story that maybe I'll share one day. Anyhow, we had a wonderful time together.

Friends, I must admit that, although Christmas was truly wonderful...I am glad to see it come to an end. I was also sharing with a friend today that it seems like I've been in a bad mood the entire month of December. It's totally not my character. I have felt totally unorganized the entire month. This is one area of my life (personality) that I wish I could change. In fact, my prayer during service today was that for 2009 that I would not be so bound to a to-do list and a schedule ALL THE TIME. It's good to have both as long as they are under your control and not controlling you. Not sure if this makes sense to you. lol! Simply stating that I just need to relax more with these two things this next year.

I hope that you all had a safe and joyous Christmas. I am REALLY looking forward to reading your blogs to see what you've been up to.

And you know that I can't end mine without showing you a few pictures of the Christmases that we had. Several of you e-mailed me to ask how Gucci was fitting into our Christmas. He fit in just fine. In fact, he was included in everything we did. Our family members were very happy and excited to meet him. You'll definitely see him in the pictures I'm posting. Sorry....there are a lot of pictures, but keep in mind that we celebrated Christmas a total of four different times. One in the previous post and three more below. So, without further ado...

The girls and I sporting our new Christmas pj's. Since I buy the girls pj's each year, Dirk has started a traditional of his own in making sure that I get a pair too. He's so sweet, huh?




Here's Gucci sporting his pj's. lol!
Isnt' he soooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!?!?!?!
Morgan and Jae are reading their Christmas letter from Santa. No, Morgan does not still believe in Santa, but she plays along with it very well for Jae. Santa Dirk takes a lot of time preparing a Christmas letter each year for the girls to read on Christmas morning. The girls have a good time reading it and at the end of the letter, Santa Dirk always reminds them what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. It's really sweet.


Can you tell that I am happy to receive this gift? I look a bit retarded, but oh well! lol!

Jae and Gucci are watching Morgan open her next gift.
Morgan is smiling proudly as she's examining her new phone.
The next set of pictures are taken at my in-laws' house. Sitting on the couch is Dirk's brother, James, and his wife, Shannon.





This is Dirk's dad and his wonderful step-mom, Karen.




Dirk's brother, James, his wife, Shannon and their two girls, Patricia and Katrina.

Okay and finally....the last set of pictures are at our house yesterday ending our Christmas holiday.

This is my sister, Vickie and her husband, Bill and their youngest daughter, Madison.


We had a VERY CASUAL setting yesterday. The adults ate in the living room and the kiddos ate at the table. So, you will see our plates and cups sitting around in some of the pictures.

My sister and her precious family.

God is good! We are truly a blessed family and there's not a day that goes by that we're not reminded of it in some way.

I enjoyed sharing a little bit (okay...maybe a whole lot) of our Christmas holiday with you all.

Now off I go to see what you all have been up to.

New Christmas Traditions

So yesterday, we celebrated Christmas with Dirk's sister at our house and then we went and had Christmas with Dirk's Grandpa at the nursing home.

I was talking to my sister-in-law about how much our Christmas gatherings have changed on that side of the family. When I first married into the family, Dirk and I would travel from house to house in order to get all our visits in. We would go to Dirk's grandma's house on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas day....ready for this? We would open our gifts to each other starting at 5am. Then we would go to Dirk's mom house in Colleyville, Dirk's dad's house in Burleson, my mom's house in Royse City, and my dad's house in Royse City. Sounds totally CRAZY I know. We both have parents who divorced. So for MANY years, we spent Christmas day driving 200 miles or more.

Well, so many things have changed. Dirk's mom passed away about 10 years ago. Dirk's grandmother passed away 3 years ago. Dirk's grandpa's is now in a nursing home. We will drive to Dirk's dad house on Christmas Day which is "only" an hour from our house. We don't have to show up early like before (9 or 10am). We're having a late lunch so we don't have to rush. Perfect! For the past several years, we celebrate with my mom and my two sisters on a totally different day. This year we celebrate with my mom on the 27th at our house. And for the first time, I have invited my dad to come to our house and celebrate with us at the same time with Mom. I got my mom's permission first. She's fine with it, but it will be a bit weird at first and that's if my dad even shows up. We'll see!

Anyhow back to yesterday's family Christmas gathering, we had a wondeful time. We ate Mexican food at our house, visited for a while, opened up gifts and then we all went to the nursing home to celebrate with Grandpa.

And though our Christmas gathering has scaled down from many family members to just a few, we feel so blessed that we are making new family traditions for us and our children.

I wanted to share a few pictures of yesterday. Look at the happiness on our kids' faces. God just keeps revealing to us all the time that we are truly a blessed family. Katie's husband was not able to join us this year. He works in retail and had to work.

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas.

So, in case I don't post....

I pray that all of you have a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy this time with family!

May God continue to bless all of you!

The girls with Aunt Katie (Dirk's sister)
Bryson, Jaelyn, and Carter

Dirk's Grandpa opening his gifts (with Jae's help).




MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!