My Favorite Moments of Christmas 2010

The 2010 Christmas holiday time has come to an end and I just wanted to do a quick recap of my favorite moments of this holiday season.

• Receiving a BIG hug from my little man the morning of Christmas Eve.
  We had been gone for a week on an anniversary trip to Jamaica and his hug told me how much he missed us.
• The reaction of my best friend’s three children when they received their prizes for the 2010 Wallace Family Christmas Eve Cookie Contest at my parents’ house.
  I don’t think I have seen more grateful children than them in a long time.
• Finally getting an upgraded wedding band from Cara.
  My old band was pretty boring and it was time I had a band that reflected my feelings about my spouse.
• Me crying when being surprised by a new tv from my parents.
  Now I know at first you might roll your eyes at me crying over a tv, but the real reason I was crying was that my parents didn’t have to spend that much money on me and I was truly thankful for what they did. I joke a lot with my parents about being the lowest ranking son, but I know they love me and I love them back.
• 3.0’s reaction to getting a rocking horse from us.
  Now, we didn’t wrap any of his gifts until Christmas Eve so that he would be surprised at the gifts under the tree the next morning. After wrapping his gifts, we realized we had under done it a bit so Cara sent me out (at 11pm, no less…) to find a 24-hour CVS that had the rocking horse he had played with when we were in the store earlier that day. An hour and multiple trips to CVS stores in both Fort Worth and Keller later I returned home with the exact horse he had so much fun with earlier in the day. So hearing his 17-month old voice say “Oooooooo” when he saw the horse made it all worthwhile.
• Finally coming home with a “man gift” from the Toulouse family gift exchange.
  The Toulouse family has a big gathering for Christmas every year and they have a big gift exchange between all the teenagers and adults. Every year I have somehow managed to end up with the girliest gifts each year. I mean I have come home with glass bells, candles, and even a decorative dish before. So this year I lucked out and drew the last number so I got to pretty much pick the gift I wanted. So I will treasure the ratcheting screw driver and drill bits I got this year. I already had some of both, but a man can never have enough tools.

All in all, this holiday season was a success. It is nice knowing that I have such loving family and friends. I truly feel blessed to be associated with such loving and caring people.

4 Days and Counting…

By this time 4 days from now I will be enjoying this view…

And I will be missing this one..

The Countdown to Anniversary #5

Time has flown by and by this time next week Cara and I will be on the verge of celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We decided since it was a milestone year we wanted to do something special. We thought long and hard and decided we would take our tax return and turn it into a return to where it all began. That’s right folks. We are returning to Jamaica, the home of our honeymoon. We are even doing it completely over by returning to the same resort, Couples Tower Isles (previously Couples Ocho Rios).

This trip will be a little different than our honeymoon though. This time we will have a little companion tagging along in Cara's belly. You see, we booked this trip in March with visions water sports at the resort and climbing water falls. Little did we know that someone had other plans for us. We found out we were pregnant with our second child in June. The practical guy I am wanted to cancel the trip as Cara would be almost 7 months pregnant at the time of our trip and would be limited to relaxing on the beach and maybe some snorkeling (not to mention the ride form the airport to the resort is a 2 hour ride of road bump hell...). But Cara, she was having no part of the cancelled trip. Even though she won't get to be Mrs. Adventure (her vacation nickname) she wanted to just get away with me for a week as it will likely be the last opportunity for a while. This new baby boy will keep us local for a while and we are pretty sure the next time vacation time comes Liam will understand that Mama and Papi are going on a trip without him (Plus there is no way I will be able to get her to leave not one, but two children behind. I'm fairly certain she would sneak Liam to the resort in our luggage if she could...).

All in all, it is going to be a fun trip. We've already done some shopping for maternity swim suits and we are all geared up to go. We will take LOTS of pictures and be sure to share. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our previous trip.