Shrimp Boil....It's a Family Tradition

So the song Family Tradition can at times describe my family (especially my mom's side) I mean that with all the love and respect possible, but it's true. One of the things that has become a family tradition in the last year or so is to have shrimp boils. I will admit if you have never attended one of these events you are missing out. Normally a shrimp boil can brings out about 20-30 people - this time since it was cold outside and people were still stuffed from Thanksgiving and all the leftovers it was a much smaller affair, but it didn't stop us from having a good time.

Ronnie cooking the shrimp outside...

Amanda, Whitney and I waiting on the shrimp....Time to eat....yes we really do just pour the buckets onto newspapers and eat with our hands...

Black Friday

So I realize some of you might not know what Black Friday is, so let me explain it is the Friday after Thanksgiving and it is known as the biggest shopping day of the year and it is called Black Friday because it is probably the only day that there is no communication between the stores and their corporate offices. It is usually a day that will make or break a retailer's season - sad but true. It is also the day that kicks off the holiday shopping season and their are tons of sales and good deals. It use to start around 7am on Friday morning, this year there were stores that opened at midnight - I will admit had I been in Dallas I probably would have been there. A few stores opened at 4am JCPenney and Kohls mainly - everyone else opened between 5am and 6am - still crazy.

I will admit every year no matter where I am I am always go shopping on Black Friday-I went as a kid so it is just another tradition for me. This year since I was in WF the shopping choices were a little more limited than in years past when I have been in Dallas, but that wasn't about to stop me. Kevin picked Amanda and I up around 4:30am on Friday and we were shopping before 5am. When we drove past Target on the way to the mall - the line was past Petco, which for those of you who don't know WF that is almost two buildings down - so we weren't the only crazy people out. We shopped hard until around 9:30am when we finally stopped for breakfast and then met up with my mom for some more shopping. I didn't stop shopping until about 2pm - needless to say I was exhausted but it was well worth it because I actually started my Christmas shopping and didn't just buy stuff for me - I even am finished shopping for a few people on my list. This is the earliest I have ever started shopping.
Amanda and I at the WF mall around 6am on Black Friday

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving even if I am not a huge fan of all the Thanksgiving food - weird I know. This year my Thanksgiving was a little different from the last few years because my mom, step-dad and younger sister didn't come to Dallas so I ended up like most other major holidays spending at least two and half hours of it on the road by myself - I will be honest this isn't my favorite thing to do but I guess you can say I have just gotten use to it by now.

This year Thanksgiving started out early by running the Dallas Turkey Trot - Brooke, Marcia (Julie's mom) and I all did the 3 mile - while Julie and Leigh ran the 8 mile race. It ended up being a great little run and a good start to Thanksgiving and Julie's 26th Birthday! After the run I had to continue racing because I had an hour and 45 minutes by the time I made it back to my apartment to shower, pack and be all the way in Southlake for Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family - I will admit I am quite proud of myself because I pulled up at my cousin Mark's house at 12:59pm. After an interesting meal because Mark's wife doesn't cook but catered everything in for the Thanksgiving meal for an extremely picky family. I will say I was doubtful along with my dad and uncle for sure - hints why my dad brought his own dressing and a ham, but the meal turned out to be really good. After a nice meal and good time with the 22 members of that side of my family it was time to hit the road to Wichita Falls to see the other part of my family. I surprised myself when I made it to WF in time to see the half time show of the Cowboy game with my grandparents. I was happy to the Cowboys win their last Thanksgiving Day game at Texas Stadium - kind of sad that it was the last one because that had been a tradition for my family since I can remember. This year I missed my Thanksgiving day nap because of being on the road and by the time I made it to my mom's house the Cowboy was coming to an end and it was time for my cousin's to come over to watch the A&M/Texas game. Even though A&M lost, it ended up being a really fun evening of hanging out with family while watching the game. I will admit this Thanksgiving wasn't my normal one but it still was a lot of fun because I got to spend it with my entire family and we all had a lot to be thankful for this year.

Whitney and I watching football....you can kind of tell how many people we had over in the background.Amanda, my mom and me Thanksgiving night watching footballBrooke, Julie, and me before the Turkey Trot....

No Christmas before Thanksgiving

Okay so I will admit that I am one of those people who loves Christmas and probably am a little obsessive about it. I love every aspect of Christmas - the friends, family, parties, Christmas lights & trees, baking (although I don't really like to eat it all but I love to make it), cold weather, fire places - you get the picture. But I am a FIRM believer that you can't start celebrating Christmas until after the Thanksgiving meal is finished. Thanksgiving is a holiday and it deserves to be celebrated like one. That means that not a single Christmas decoration comes out until Thursday night and I have a real problem with people who decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I know I work in an industry that sets their Christmas decorations out in early November, and believe me they all know that I disagree with this policy, but I also understand that it is just the industry I work in and that is how things have to be done. I personally think it be some kind of rule that you can't turn on your Christmas lights until after Thanksgiving. I understand that since so many people pay to have their lights put up these days that they have to be put up well in advance of Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean you have to plug them in before Thanksgiving. In all honesty I have been known to unplug Christmas lights that I saw were on before Thanksgiving - that is how strongly I feel about celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving. I guess you can say I get it from my dad - he use to actually cut people's lights - I at least just unplug them. So I realize Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so I think we can all wait just one more day before we start to celebrate Christmas. After all we all have a lot to be thankful for this year so lets just take a day and enjoy everyone and everything we have to be thankful for.

Running Shoes & AT&T Full Bars of Service

Okay so I know your probably reading the title and shaking your head thinking how in the world do those two things have anything to do with anything....just keep reading I promise I will make the connection for you.

This past weekend was the Getaway, the Watermark student ministry girl leader retreat. After much discussion and convincing from a few friends I was on my way on Friday night - needless to say I was really anxious about going because most of the leaders I am close to weren't going and a few of the leaders that were going I wasn't on the same page with on a few issues. All that to say I just didn't want to go, but I also knew once I got there that I would probably have a good time, like I did last year. On Friday night Mel challenged us with thinking of where we were in our life and walk with God and where we wanted to be, and in typical Mel fashion we were going to have to be artistic/creative and draw this out on a rock - one side where we where and one side where we wanted to be. So for those of you who know me I can't draw and being a perfectionist this stressed me out, so after I apparently gave Mel a not so nice look - to which I was told to deal. It didn't take much thought at all to know that a running shoe defiantly can describe my life right now - not only do I literally run, but my life is really busy right now as we head into the holiday season (just part of working for a retail company), and I haven't taken a whole lot of time in the past two weeks to just sit and be still before the Lord, and I was excited because I knew how to draw a running shoe. So the flip side of a running shoe that came to my mind was a pillow because that is probably the only time that I have honestly slowed down in the last little bit. Sad to think that the only real time I have slowed down has been when I am sleeping and my time with Lord has lately been right before my head has hit the pillow. So on half of my rock is a running shoe and the otherside is a pillow...representing how I know my life is crazy and I like it that way honestly, but that I still need to slow down and just be still and enjoy life for what it is worth.

Now for the AT&T full bars of service part, and it's not just because my step dad works for AT&T. Something that God has really convicted me of lately through a good friend is that I am not the best at communicating clearly what I mean, think or feel. So I have been working on saying what I mean and meaning what I say at all times, which isn't always the easiest for this people pleaser to do. Out at the lake this weekend no one had cell phone service, so all of our little bars were empty if they were that at all - as cheesy as it is God made me realize that this is how I have been communicating with people because my lines of communication haven't been clear or had full service. I realized that a lot of times I think I say something clearly and it makes sense to me, but when I have stopped and thought about it - I realize that the person I was communicating with has no clue what I am trying to communicate and this leads to frustration on both sides. So the other side of my rock had the signal bar with one tiny bar and the other side had the signal bar with all of the full bars - representing full and clear communication.

While I know my life isn't resting on the pillow of stillness near enough - I am working on making sure that I give the running shoe of life a rest at least a few times each week. I also know that my signal bar of communication doesn't have all five bars yet, but that is something I am trying to work on and hopefully by truely saying what I mean and meaning what I say, I will have all five bars soon. Because a life that just runs the race all the time and can't get the message isn't the one that I want to live.