Christmas in Texarkana!

We were supposed to leave Friday after the kids got out of school to go to Texarkana.  However, I got the flu the day before and still wasn't quite feeling well and running fever.  We finally decided to go Saturday morning though, and got there before lunch with my mom's side of the family.  There were quite a few others that couldn't be there for different reasons so the crew was smaller than normal.  We still had lots of good food and enjoyed being together!

Wes, Tristen, Derek, Tyler, and Uncle Mark.  I am pretty sure they were talking sports.

Mom and Jeff.

Layton and Ellie.

Sweet Emory.  She is a doll!

Hayden and Jolie.

My parents got a basketball goal for the kids.  Everyone enjoyed shooting some hoops after lunch.

Some of the boys--Hayden, Lincoln, Eric, and Jaxon.

The kids played dirty Santa and then the adults did it too.  Aunt Suz opening her ornament.

Kris decided he'd be silly and get a stupid ornament and put an even stupider picture of himself in it.  He thought that my aunts and cousins would all get a kick out of it.  But wouldn't you know my dad was the one who ended up with his ornament.  Haha!!

Kris printed out a big picture to give to the person that got the ornament so they could enjoy it all year long he said.  He is such a goober.  He has too much time on his hands I guess and enjoys playing with iPhone apps a bit too much.

Hannah and Addison did their usual crafts.  They made themselves mustaches.

After all the family left, Layton really wanted to ride the four wheeler so Pappaw took him for a ride.  He loves his Pappaw.

That night we decided to open presents.  The kids were so excited.  They were all really fun to watch this year.  I loved it.  Loved seeing their smiles and happiness.

Lincoln got a big remote control car from Uncle Jeff.

Mimi and Pappaw got Hannah a cute thing to put her jewelry and earrings on.  She needed one!

Jeff checking out his stuff.

Mom and Dad got me a pretty Brighton charm bracelet and some money!  Jeff got me 3 charms to go on it.  Wes got me a gift card.

The kids' school had a thing called the Penquin Patch a few weeks before Christmas break.  It was a little store where the kids could bring money from home and go Christmas shopping for family members.  They had cheap little items that kids could choose from.  I thought this was the neatest idea.  The kids were very excited to come home with their presents and wrap them themselves and put them under the tree.

Hannah got Pappaw a tape measure.  Cutest thing ever!  Lincoln got him a little calendar book.

Mimi got a lipstick holder from Hannah and a calculator from Lincoln.  They were very excited to give them their gifts.  It was wonderful!!

Hannah got a Monopoly game from Mimi and Pappaw.  We have played it and it is quite fun.  They liked it.

Layton got some farm animal figurines and a tractor with a trailer from Mimi and Pappaw.

He loves tractors!

Star Wars Legos from Uncle Wes.  Linc has already put it together.  It was a pretty challenging one too.

Uncle Jeff got a front door welcome mat for his new house.

We got Mimi a few of her favorite things.  I saw this idea on Pinterest.

It was just random things like a picture of her favorite grandkids, a book (she loves to read), a bulb to plant because she loves to garden, some peanut M&Ms, a heated throw because she likes to keep warm, a coffee mug, and a JCPenney gift card.

Uncle Jeff got Layt some trains and train tracks.

Hannah got a camera/video camera from Uncle Wes.  She was surprised!

She ran over to him to say thank you!  She loves her some Uncle Wes and Uncle Jeff!

We gave Pappaw the Duck Commander book.  It was such a hit at the Keim's Christmas and I enjoyed it so much.  I figured Dad would like it.  He got some cologne, a gift card, and another book too.

Checking out the tornado maker.

We had a great Christmas.  Very blessed.  Monday morning was my birthday so we had a birthday breakfast.  Mom got me a pretty sweater and a gift card.  Kris surprised me and got me an iPhone 5.  I wasn't expecting it!  We headed home after that and were excited to get to spend Christmas morning at home!!

Tremayne's Christmas Party!

A couple of weekends ago we drove up to Conway for Tremayne's company Christmas party.  He invited us along with some other people from Kris' office.  His parties are pretty well known and we have heard about them for a while.  He owns Harris Concrete.  His party was for all his employees, lots of his family, and some friends.  They served bbq, had a dj, gave away some awards/bonuses, and played Let's Make A Deal.  

The kids were excited to get to see Tremayne's kids again. Here's Layton with Trey.

Tremayne is a mess.  He knows how to crack a joke and make you laugh.  He also knows how to treat his employees.  He has been really successful with his business and totally believes in sharing his success with others--passing on the blessings.  So, that is what he did at his party.

Lincoln getting his groove on.  Ha!

It took Hannah a while but she finally got out there with Tremere.

Like I said, at his party Tremayne likes to give back to people.  One of his ways of doing this (and to have a good time) is to play Let's Make A Deal.  He taped about 25 numbered envelopes to the wall.  When you walked into the party, you were given a ticket with a number on it.  Even the kids got tickets.  Then, throughout the night (in between awards, eating, etc) he would pick someone to come and draw a number out of his sack.  He would usually talk about that person--tell how he knew them and compliment them in some way.  Then, the person who had the matching number would come up and pick an envelope off the wall.  He would immediately tell them that he would give them x dollars for the envelope.  They would have to decide if it was worth the risk or not.  The envelopes were filled with $500, $300, $250, $200, $150, $100, $75, and $50.  There were several of each amount.  So, you just didn't know what you were going to get. It was so fun to watch people and their reactions.  Tremayne would bargain with them sometimes a time or two.

The whole night Hannah would get so excited when they would draw a number and just hoped that hers would be drawn.  Well, surprisingly it was!!!  I could not believe it.  It was the funniest thing!!!  What was even funnier was that as soon as she realized it was her number, she marched right up to Tremayne with her ticket.  There were probably close to 300 people there, so I was shocked that she was so bold.  He just dyed laughing!!!

She picked her envelope off the wall.  He asked her if her daddy had talked to her about money.  She said no.  Ha!  Then, he asked her something about the most money she'd ever had.  She immediately said, "I have $44.80 in my piggy bank."  It was the cutest thing!!!  The funny thing is that we had just counted all her money in her piggy bank a few days before so she knew to the penny!  I had told her that she would have to buy most of an American Girl doll if she wanted one.  That is why she wanted to know how much money she had.  Anyway, everyone thought she was so cute.  Tremayne told her that he would give her $200 for her envelope.  She immediately said, "I'll take it!!"  Hahaha!!!  Kris and I were laughing so hard--along with the whole room.  So, Tremayne had her open her envelope.

It had $250 in it!!!  He told her that because she was so sweet, he was going to let her have the whole $250.  It was hysterical.  We know he said $200 because of who she was and it was so kind of him to do that.  At the start of the night, he had told everyone that when they got money they needed to tip the dj and tip his grandma.  He had two cups next to the dj table for the tips.  His grandma just recently lost her husband and he was trying to do something nice for her (as well as be funny).  So, Kris told Hannah to put $20 each in the two cups for tips.

That left her with $210!!  Now I looked over at Lincoln and he was a little sad because his number hadn't been called.  I mouthed to Kris something about trying to get Hannah to give Lincoln some of her money.  He whispered something to her and she immediately went over to Lincoln and handed him a $100 bill.

LOVE his reaction.  He was so happy!

Kris and I were super proud of Hannah for being so willing to share.  It was really neat.  She was so excited because she knew she now had enough money to get her American Girl doll.

A few minutes later Tremayne called Kris up to give him a plaque.  He called the award the "Making Sure Our Checks Don't Bounce Award".  Ha!  Since Kris is the Controller for Cone Construction and he's such good friends with Tremayne, he has been good to make sure Tremayne gets paid for work they do on their projects in a timely manner.  They work a lot together and have just become really neat friends.

We had a great time at the party.  It was quite the experience.  It was a treat to see Tremayne's generosity and appreciation for people.  We have really been blessed by the friendship we have with the Harris'--in more ways than one!!  :-)