Merry Christmas

Good news! The Tucks gave us a new digital camera for Christmas. Here are some scenes from the Tuck family Christmas in Rockford. More to follow...


Christmas eve cocktails


First present of the morning


Sam loves his new cars and garage.

It snowed this morning!!

It snowed in Montgomery this morning.... in our dining room! Mister got up before Andy or me and found a box of kosher salt in the pantry. He proceeded to "let it snow" all over the table, chairs, rug, and floor. Sam has really got the holiday spirit this year!

A recent portrait of me

(taken by my four year old niece, Maggie.) Cute sweater, huh?

All I want for Christmas is a...

BELT!!

Last week I went to pick Sam up at school and found him walking around his classroom like this:




His new pants were too big and kept falling down. His teachers told me they fell down all morning and they thought it was so funny. When he noticed them giggling at him, he started pulling his pants down just to make them laugh. What a ham! I wonder where he got that.....

Santa comes to Fairhope early....

The Hugheses have a tradition of Santa arriving on Christmas Eve bringing presents for the littlest members of the family. He came early this year in order to catch most all the kids in one spot. They were so happy to see him.

Bummer!

Aaaaaahhhhh! In all the excitement of Santa's visit to Nonnie and Papa's house last night, I dropped our camera and broke it! It will turn on and the lcd screen comes on briefly but the lens is stuck halfway open (or is it halfway closed...hmmm). I will have to get it repaired when we get home. Andy says this particularly bad for my blog because it is like Playboy- "People say they read it for the articles but really just want the pictures." Touche.
So the lowdown: Santa was very jolly and brought cool gifts. All the kids were very excited except Claire, who cried, and Sam, who ran and hid. Good times.
I'll see if I can get some pictures from someone else's camera to post.

Playing with Greyson and Quinn

Greyson and Sam take turns sliding "Neigh" the horse and other animal friends down the block slide.


Michele hiding behind Quinn. Doesn't Quinn have beautiful eyes?

Whew!

We left to drive to St Louis on Friday afternoon. We stayed in Nashville at Raif and Michele's new house, which is beautiful. Saturday morning Suzy and Ryan brought over baby Riley so we could meet her and she is just a doll. What a good baby. Sam had a great time playing with Raif and Michele's kids, Greyson and Quinn. And Sam was kind enough to show off his best and brattiest behavior by throwing some real choice tantrums. I think Greyson and Quinn were in shock watching Sam kick and cry and scream at the dinner table. They are so well behaved! They all had fun tearing the Erim's playroom apart before we had to hit the road for the second leg of the trip. We got to St Louis Saturday night and had dinner at my aunt's house while Sam learned some new games like chess and pool. I am using the term "learn" very loosely here; throwing chess pieces and moving pool balls on the table while someone else is trying to play is more exact. We did get to spend time with my aunts and uncles from all over that we never get to see. They came to town all the way from Alaska, Seattle, and Arizona. Sunday we went to Papa's house to help clean things out. It was fun seeing all of the pictures of his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids we found. We had a few laughs and shared lots of good memories. Sam threw another monster tantrum but calmed down when he we let him color on a roll of old wallpaper. Dinner again that night with even more family in from Kansas City. We met my cousin's son, Case, who is just a few months younger them Sam. They had fun playing together. Almost every night Sam stayed up hours past his bedtime. (The Hughes family NEVER does anything on time!) But he was a trooper and pulled through. Monday was Papa's service, which was very nice. Sam enjoyed hearing the bagpipes and the 21 gun salute. I thought he would freak out but he really didn't, just popped up looking around to see what was going on. We had a nice lunch afterward at my aunt 's house and then got back on the road to Nashville. Raif and Michele were kind enough to take us in one more time so we stayed with them. Tuesday morning we went over the Vanderbilt campus and had breakfast with Cliff and of course hit the bookstore before setting out for Montgomery (Yea! The LAST part of the trip!). Mister was so good in the car the whole time. He may have been naughty when we were visiting others or around family we never see (big surprise) but he really was an angel in the car. I am amazed by this because I hate being in the car for long trips and get quite cranky when I have to but he didn't seem to mind.
Anyway, all ice storms aside, we are glad we made it there and back safely and with minimal drama. Thankfully, the rest of our family did too. Muchas muchas gracias to the Erims for their kind hospitality and to the Witzigs for having EVERYTHING at their house.
Now this weekend we travel to Fairhope and the next to Rockford. I get tired just thinking about it.

My Papa

Sadly, my Papa, Hugh Evan Hughes (yes, that is his real name) died at age 84 on November 25. We went to St. Louis for his memorial service on December 10. He was laid to rest with full military honors and will have a plaque erected at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery memorializing his and my Nana's lives.
Papa was a proud marine who served in WWII. Among other places, he fought and was injured at Tarawa in the South Pacific. He received two Purple Hearts for his service to our country. Married to his wife Virginia (my Nana) days before leaving for war, he returned home in 1946 and over the next few decades, they had seven children. Their children went on to marry and give Nana and Papa lots of grandchildren, and eventually, many great grandchildren. As you can imagine, there were so many people who loved Papa and were kind enough to come pay their respects and share memories of him upon hearing of his death.
As a member of his family, I want to say a special thank you to "his girls", the ladies who cared for him when he was most ill and put up with him when he could be most difficult. He loved you more than you know! (It didn't hurt that you were a great looking bunch of ladies, either!)
We love you, Papa, and will miss you very much. I will always think of you when my children don't eat their peas. I know you would want me to put those peas in their ice cream. And I will ;)

What's your name, little girl?

Now that we have had two ultrasounds that confirm that numero dos is a girl, we have to name her! We will still investigate old family names but here are some I have marked in the baby naming book. Thoughts? (Be nice. These are names I really like!)

Leah
Eloise
Zoe
Lily
Elise
Caroline
Helen

Rockin' around the Christmas tree

We decorated our Christmas tree today. Sam hung a few ornaments and then quickly lost interest. I made everyone listen to my favorite Christmas CD, Barbra Streisand's A Christmas Album, while we decorated. Trust me on this one, it's a classic. Listen to her version of Jingle Bells. In my experience, it is best to sing along as loud as you can.