goodbye, 2021!

 some of us are ringing in the new year formally...

the others are ringing it in a little more informally...

and there may be some of us that will just say hello to 2022 in the morning!

end of the year randomness

 wes and reed played in a jingle team tennis social at the country club one sunny day in early december.  they had to play with and against all manner of people, but reed's team managed to finish on top!

abe got in the christmas spirit. 

reed had his party at school and came home with a chick fil a gift card and dog toys for abe!

i waited on hold for 3 hours and 21 minutes to speak to a customer service representative.  this is not a good thing, but i thought it needed to be documented.  they only played one song over and over again for 3 hours and 21 minutes...elvis singing amazing grace.  i dusted, cleaned bathrooms, vacuumed, ate lunch, folded clothes, and wrapped presents all while elvis sang.  they did take care of the issue (and oddly enough, very quickly), but let's just say that we'll never deal with that company again.  

wes and knox spent an entire afternoon planning their fireworks extravaganza.  i think it mostly just included bottle rockets, but they had fun!

christmas day

 i didn't take too many pics this year, but we opened all the presents and ate all the food! 

they are starting to struggle to all fit on that top step!

merry christmas from tupelo! 

reed has watched too much food network

 reed decided he wanted to make christmas goodies to take people this year.  and, he chose ALL the things.  he stayed busy in the kitchen all afternoon and loved every minute of it.  i helped clean as he went, but he kept saying, "isn't this fun?" and "i really enjoy this." he even talked wes into helping for a minute.  he finished around 9pm, and we took the first two batches to two of his best buddies, weston and john coley......right then!  ha! and just so y'all know for future reference, don't pass up his peanut butter truffles.  they are perfection!

christmas in madison

 

merry christmas

 

mac mcanally

 the hunger coalition of north mississippi (which runs the food pantry I work for each month) had a fundraiser concert the first night of Christmas break.  they brought hometown boy mac mcanally home to entertain us, and entertain us he did.  he is obviously a great musician/songwriter, but he is also a great storyteller!  he brought fellow coral reefer, eric darken, as a crazy good percussion sidekick! it was a fun night, and the opening act was our favorite!  pop and mr. rodney (aka wishbone) got us warmed up!  

christmas magic

 structure joined forces with the tupelo high school orchestra for a little transiberian orchestra magic.  it was such a unique experience for everybody involved!  and, i think that those orchestra grandparents in attendance may have been a little shocked when our boys joined in.  but, by the end they were yelling and standing up clapping!  :)