Very Fun-(and food)-Filled Holidays!!

Okay, so I know the holidays were like a month ago, but I think I've finally recovered from the self-inflicted torture of putting the "Brysons 2008" photo/video slideshow together, so I'm ready to take on my blog and upload some holiday memories. (If this sentence made no sense to you, you are one of the lucky ones who hasn't been privy to one of my photo montage deadline meltdowns! It really is a sick hobby!)
Anyway, Christmas and New Years were great!!! We had my sister, Jen, and her dog, Sophie, here for Christmas and my brother, Rob, came out for New Years. During this time, Dani also celebrated her 3rd birthday and Jeremy and I spent our 14th wedding anniversary, shopping, watching the new James Bond flick and sharing dinner at Chili's.
On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening at Jeremy's parents home enjoying their annual party filled with Santa, food, presents, food, a pinata, food, and dessert! Thankfully, this year no one awoke us to vomit-filled upper bunks (that's a story from 2005! Can anyone say, Mommy just had a c-section! Cleaning up puke is definitely not on the doctor's "okay to do" list!)
Oh yeah, back to 2008, our girls kindly let us sleep in until 8am - yeah, no kidding 8AM! And then we headed downstairs to the presents. Actually, this year there wasn't much under the tree. Back in August we decided to pull a "Christmas with the Kranks" and forgo the many gifts for one big cruise vacation. So in 3 days, Jer, me, Nat and Em will be hoisting anchor and heading to Mexico for 5-days of FUN, FUN, FUN! Dani is going to stay home this time and have 5-days of FUN, FUN, FUN with Hilary!!
What was under the tree from Santa were supplies to make "school kits" to donate to LDS Humanitarian Services. The girls had an enjoyable time assembling the supplies into 20 school bags. The bags will eventually be sent around the world to places like orphanages where there is a need for children to have basic school supplies. Here's the link to the Humanitarian Services page where we learned what to do: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,4598-1-3263-1,00.html
This was a great way for the girls to give a little more and feel the real Spirit of Christmas as we served those we don't even know.
We spent the rest of Christmas day at home enjoying Jer's family as they came by to exchange gifts, and of course we ate most of the leftovers from the night before. Jen flew home that evening and we finished the rest of Christmas doing none other than - EATING!!! We had a delicious prime-rib dinner with the Checketts. I guess you could say we had a very Full-Filling Christmas.
New Years came with food too - but it was more exciting to have Rob visiting! We spend Dec. 31st getting Rob some contact lenses (his first time with contacts - little painful); fighting the crowds at Costco to get pizza for lunch (Costco must have broken some sort of fire code there were so many people inside!!!); and going to downtown Austin's First Night to check out all things Austin - including the ecclectic, but always entertaining, Grand Procession Parade!
We finished off the year with - you guessed it - more food at the Checketts. Happy 2009 - they're now sending me to the FAT FARM!!! But, of course, not before we spend Jan 1st at the Ferguson's strapping on the old barbeque feedbag! It was an absolutely fabulous day spent on their ranch enjoying lots of great friends and dutch oven chocolate cake and cobbler!
So now that your full just from reading our holiday menu, uh, I mean activities, enjoy the above slideshow to go with the story.

My Own "For Real" Christmas Miracle

(I apologize in advance for the length of my story and the confusion that keeping anonyminity makes in telling this story.)

So, like many right now, things have been a little tight for us financially. We've really battened down the hatches to try to ride out this financial downturn. We've cut back on everything from groceries to clothing. Our nights "out" have become nights "in", and we're looking for ways to spend more time and less money with our kids. So all in all, it has been stressful, but good for our family. No worries, please - we really are fine. This was a necessary preface to a great story.
Anyway, Natalie, our oldest, continues to grow and grow and grow! And being the oldest, there really aren't many hand-me-downs. I've put off for weeks buying her some winter clothes and instead have loaned her some of my shirts and an old jacket from my college days. She's taken all my slightly too large clothing with gratitude and no complaints! She is really understanding beyond her years. I finally did get her some pants and shirts this week, but really didn't feel like I could spring for a coat too. She quietly continued to wear my college jacket even though it was really several sizes too big and her friends had (affectionately) named her "Hobo Bob" when she'd wear the coat at school.
Yesterday morning I took Dani to see Santa at the library with a couple of my friends and their girls. While we were there waiting in line I was telling them about Natalie graciously wearing my hand-me-downs and how her friends had nicknamed her "Hobo Bob" because of her coat. I didn't think much about the conversation after it was over. I was just telling stories to pass the time.
Then that night I went to our Relief Society Enrichment Christmas Dinner. One of my friends from the library found me shortly after I'd arrived and handed me a jacket that she told me she didn't need anymore and would Natalie like it? I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and I was so grateful for her being so in tune with the Spirit to know I had been praying to Heavenly Father for some relief from these tight money times. I gave her a hug and said a most heartfelt thank you! Then I turned around and saw the other friend who had been with us at the library. I showed her the jacket for Natalie and expressed how thoughtful our friend had been. At the same time ANOTHER one of my friends overheard the conversation and jumped in saying with surprise: "You just got that for Natalie?! I got her a coat today too!" Apparently, my other friend had mentioned Natalie's situation to this friend and so she decided to just go out and buy a coat for Natalie. She planned on leaving it on my doorstep later that night as an anonymous gift for Natalie, but the surprise of another coat somewhat changed her surprise.
I was absolutely shocked!!! TWO coats!!! I was completely overcome and broke down during the opening prayer. Heavenly Father really was listening and answering my prayers! I was so full of gratitude and humility that it took me a few minutes to pull myself back together. I have the most wonderful, spiritually in tune, awesome friends in the whole world!!!!
This morning when Natalie awoke, her bleary eyes focused slowly on the coat and gift bag (the second coat - my friend did end up leaving it on my doorstep) on her bedroom floor. I watched and explained that a friend had given me the first coat last night and that when I got home the gift bag was on the doorstep with her name. She tried on the first coat and then her eyes about popped out of her head when she opened up the gift bag and realized she now had TWO coats!! I told her I thought she was a pretty lucky girl to have people this thoughtful looking out for her. And since she didn't know who had given her the gift bag (I didn't say that I knew the giver), the best way to say Thank You would be to look for someone in need and "Pay it Forward." She really liked that idea and I can tell it's put her in the Christmas spirit.
It has been a great day!! I'm sooooo grateful for inspired friends and a loving Heavenly Father. I hope (if you actually got through the entire reading of this story) that your heart has been as touched as mine with the goodness of this Christmas season. Miracles abound and the Lord answers prayer!!!

Out of the mouth of an almost 3-year-old...

Happy Birthday to Dani:
Last week Dani and I went into Hobby Lobby and picked out some Christmas wrapping paper. Dani was THRILLED! Apparently the wrapping paper was "just what she wanted for her birthday!" She then informed me that her friends were "going to love it!"
Later, as we're standing in line to check out, she's still in such a good mood that I'm buying her the wrapping paper, that she tells me: "Mom, you're my BEST friend!" How touching, right? Then she follows it up with, "Yeah, and so is Chet!" CHET?! Who is Chet?! She doesn't even know anybody named Chet!! So much for BFF's!

Morning News:
This morning I made some cinnamon toast for Dani and she exclaims: "Mom, this is the best dinner I never had!!!!"

It's My Party And I'll Cry if I Want To:
Tonight we stayed late at the Checketts watching Christmas movies. We also had Maggie, our 1 1/2 year old niece with us. We were sitting around munching on chocolatey (and somewhat chewy) toffee (argh, toffee isn't supposed to be chewy!) Then we noticed that Maggie had really helped herself to the toffee and was covered in chocolate. I grabbed the pieces Maggie was holding and Hilary grabbed Maggie for a serious wipedown. Well being as late as it was, almost 10pm, both Maggie and Dani were beyond tired. This removal of the sweets sent Maggie into a talespin of crying, which somehow disrupted Dani's groove and she fell apart as well. In all this crying, Dani informs me between sobs that I have somehow managed to "ruin her party!" and that I need to start "behaving like a gentleman!!!" Ummm, OK?

New Bryson Family Pictures

Did ya' notice something different about our blog? Our family picture is now updated - yeah!!! Over the Thanksgiving weekend we had a three-hour family photoshoot with our favorite photographer (Mom, AKA Linda Harmon) on the Ferguson Ranch. (Thanks goes to Sandi, Bob and family for opening up the entire ranch to our photographic escapades!)

The ranch setting was perfect for getting tons of "fun on a Texas ranch" pictures. Plus the Ferguson's bunkhouse was just beautiful for the indoor and porch shots. (If you're ever looking for a great place to get away for the weekend, I highly recommend staying at The Five Star Ranch Bunkhouse. The Fergusons let it out as a B&B and it's incredible.)

Here's a slideshow of our favorite pics. We actually took over 250 pictures, so narrowing it down to 3o-ish was a feat! I still have a few photoshopping edits to do before we get them printed for the holidays, but I'm just thrilled to have current family pictures!

THANKS GOES TO THE MOST AWESOME MOTHER AND PHOTOGRAPHER -

MOM YOU'RE THE BEST!!!!!

My Quilts are FINISHED!!!!

So back in September I saw these really cute rag quilts that my friend Sandi had made for her bunkhouse beds. And I thought "wouldn't it be a fun, little project to make one for each of my girls!?" So after THREE long months of having the sewing machine parked conspicuously in our gallery, and spending over 100 HOURS cutting, pieceing, sewing, and clipping - they are FINALLY FINISHED!!! The girls absolutely love them! They each picked out the fabrics they wanted. They are soooo cute and match the girls perfectly.

I'm so happy that they turned out so well, because I never thought I would finish! They weren't difficult to make, just very, very, very time consuming and, well, pretty boring to work on. I could only work for a couple hours at a time before I couldn't stand the monotony of pieceing and sewing over and over again.

Anyway, I wanted to show off the finished products. I owe a huge thank you to my mom and Hilary for helping me finish Dani's last week. And an even bigger thanks to Grandma Joyce and her mother, Granny Veda, who've given our family such beautiful handmade blankets and quilts over the years. It's because of their talents that I even attempted to make and pass down these what I hope will be treasured heirlooms for my daughters.