Kay and I were up early to exchange gifts with Karyn and Matt, and watch Ridge open his gifts from Santa and from us.  We packed up all of our goodies, and drove to Memphis to share Christmas with Jenny, Brian, Harper, and Jenny’s mom.  Harper had a room packed full of gifts.  She particularly liked Bubble Guppies items, which were in abundance.  After the gift-opening, we all pitched in to assist Jenny in preparing a feast.  The food was extraordinary, and there was far too much, but we did our best to lessen the load!  This was a particularly poignant Christmas for Jenny as it was the first time that she, her mom, and I had spent Christmas together since she was 18, and of course we were joined by Kay, Jenny’s husband, and little Harper, the primary reason we were all together.

We left mid-afternoon driving back to central Arkansas to spend some short, but quality time with Ron, Kaden, and Cheryl.  Ron had prepared a great cabbage casserole for us, and after eating, we had another gift exchange.  It was really good to spend some time with Ron, Cheryl, and Kaden.  Kaden has grown into a really nice young man, and has decided to attend Arkansas Tech University in the fall, majoring in mechanical engineering—go Wonder Boys!   I would be remiss if no mention was made of our laughing at work stories told by Ron.  He kept us rolling in the aisles with elevator and restroom stories.

Kay and I have been especially blessed with respect to our kids.  While each is different, they all are wonderful parents, are caring and compassionate individuals, and are really good, innovative cooks—thank you, Lord, for our kids.