A Scrap of Life

One December 26, we left the post-Christmas mess of our house and hit the road for a short but much-anticipated trip north to see my little brother, Jimmy, who had recently returned from deployment, and his wonderful wife and kiddos.  It's about a 4 hour drive from our house and we had stops to make on the way, so we got up and going. I do have to admit making a few extra stops on the way, at both Wal-Mart and Target.  I'm a deal shopper so those day-after-Christmas deals were just calling my name.  Plus I had a HUGE rotary cutting mat to exchange (apparently "large" at my store is only "medium" at theirs. It took a roll of wrapping paper to wrap it, it was so huge. LOL).  Oh, and we made a quick stop at Nipps on the way through Longview, so the kids could taste the best burgers ever! That taken care of, we hit the road.  Our first stop on the way up was in Lakewood, Washington.  In 2009, 4 police officers were killed in a coffee shop and we w...

Well, it's time for another catch-up post.  Christmas has come and gone and I wanted to share just a little of our season.  Here's the kids putting up their Santa sign in the front yard.  I'm not sure how much longer this sign will last, as each year it gets smashed up just a little more than it was the year before.  We've had it for 10 Christmas' now and it's definitely showing it.  At least for this year, it still made the traditional posting in the front yard.   And just because I feel like the kids have grown soooooo much this year, I wanted to compare this to a similar photo from a previous year.  The earliest one I could find on here was from 2007, though I know we have them every year since at least 2001.  Anyways, 2007 was just 4 years ago but look at the difference.  And keep in mind that we put a new, longer stick on the sign a few years ago. Aaaahhhh... Christmas Eve.  Here they are before opening the tradit...