Christmas in Arkansas.

Around lunchtime on Christmas Day, we hit the road! 

Christmas Day was such a special day for me growing up.  We always went to Mama and Papa's house after lunch to spend the afternoon with them, and my mom always dressed us up in something pretty for the special day!  I loved seeing my four little loves dressed in their pretty clothes on Christmas Day.  Thank you, Miss Beckie, for our pretty Christmas clothes!  

After a delicious meal provided by Gigi, it was time to open presents!  Papa and Gigi gave all of our four cowboy boots and a Leap Pad for Christmas, so exciting!  The children have worn their boots just about every day since Christmas, so cute.  

The day after Christmas, Papa and Gigi treated all of us to a neat little restaurant for lunch called "All Aboard."  The restaurant obviously has a train theme, and a train runs around the top of the building and delivers your food to your table, really neat.  Carter and Lincoln were especially excited about it.  

Look at all those cowboy boots!  Thursday night, we ate supper at Chuy's with the rest of the Calhoun clan, and we had the most fun!  

While in Arkansas, David and I got to have several alone moments, which was such a treat.  We went to see "Saving Mr. Banks," wow.  What a great movie! I was completely unprepared for the emotional intensity of the movie, and I will never again view Mary Poppins in the same light.  Incredible! 

In addition to celebrating Christmas, we also gathered with extended family for Papa and Gigi's 40th anniversary party (separate post coming).  Our family loved spending time with all of David's extended family.  One night, all of the girls escaped for a couple of hours to Starbucks to celebrate Erin (third from the left) who will be married in September.  It was such a sweet time of fellowship with these girls.  I love that they have embraced me and made me to feel like a real part of their family.  Cari (the pretty blond on the far left) is David's sister, next to her is Jordan (her mom is Gigi's sister), next to her is Erin (her dad and Papa are brothers), next to her is Ashley (her mom and Papa are sisters), next to her is Carissa, who is married to Jeff, Erin's brother, next to her is ME and then Emily, who is Ashley's sister.  Got all that?  

The original cousins and siblings, minus three, Yvonne, Andrew, and Jeremy.  I loved watching all of our children play together.  They all played so sweetly and just had the most fun together, so sweet!

One night while we were in Arkansas, our family got to spend the evening with one of David's oldest friends and his family, Jasen.  David and Jasen met during high school, when they played basketball together.  David and Jasen were in each other's wedding, and we have just grown to love their family so much.  Jasen (we call him JK) and his wife, Jennifer have two boys, Eli and Colt, and they are just precious.  We loved our time with them, and the evening just went by way too quickly!  As you can tell by this point and from this picture, we have been in Arkansas a little too long, haha!  

In all honesty, we loved our time in Arkansas so much that we kept prolonging our return to Hattiesburg, and even then I think we could have stayed a few days longer.  New Year's Eve, Papa took the afternoon off early, and we all went to walk around Bass Pro Shop.  

Or the free aquarium as we like to call it!  

NYE night, we enjoyed a yogurt treat together before calling it a night way before the big ball dropped! 

The next day, we hung around to pack up, do our laundry, and watch the dawgs.  Papa and Gigi took the girls to see Frozen.  Again.  Have you seen it?  We are crazy about it at our house.  In fact, we downloaded the soundtrack and have been enjoying singing along with the great songs.  I can't wait for it to come out on DVD, so we can watch it again and again and again.  

After watching the dawgs stink it up on the field, we finally hit the road headed home.  We stopped along the way at our favorite rest stop and Arkansas sign to take the obligatory picture.  

And the silly face picture.  Thank you, Papa and Gigi for a fun Christmas and New Year's!  We loved our time with you!

Carter's artwork on the way home.  I love that our children know that while gifts at Christmas is so much fun, it's definitely not what it's all about.  We hope y'all had yourselves a Merry little Christmas!  Ours sure was!