An old friend, Christmas lights, and a short nap....glorious!

The past few days have been amazing. Burns got home on Saturday and it's been fabulous to have the family together again. I think it's going to take some adjusting for Coop to have two people "bossing" him around all the time, but I LOVE it that I've got help. :) We got to have Christmas in Mansfield with family there (before the night was cut unexpectedly short because of a wardrobe malfunction-don't ask) and then had a wonderful morning of worship at The Ridge yesterday. The gingerbread house making extravaganza went on as usual even without the Israels and they were missed terribly. There were some old faithfuls, some new faces and a total takedown of the reigning champs (sorry Hutsons). These pictures give a snapshot of the festivities..

(In case you're wondering, yes...that is Shelton helping out little man Cooper with the house. He has seriously grown hunh???)

(Katie is working hard, isn't she?)

(Chris really worked hard-chatting with Trey on Skype most of the time...)

(And the winner is...the Train Depot, narrowly beating out the Hutson's airplane/tower shown below.)

Much fun was had by all! It was fun watching Cooper start to get it this year. I'm not sure how much icing/candy he ate, but it sure was exciting for him. :)

Today my old friend from college dropped by. She only got to stay for about an hour, but it was like no time had passed at all. It was fabulous to see her. Fanny, if you're reading...we really don't do that enough! Love you friend!

After she left, I was able to catch a really quick nap while the little man was down and we finished the day by having dinner with Burns' sister and her family and looking at Chrismas lights. It was a good day indeed. (Although I must admit that while I was working on this post I did have to go change a disgusting poop mess because my lactose intolerant child ate some cream cheese dip at dinner tonight before I realized what was happening. Not exactly the ending I was hoping for, but still I can't complain!) I hope that you all enjoyed a good day as well and that you didn't have to clean up a mess of your own to end the day. :) Good night all!!!

PS - I sincerely hope you all enjoyed this post. It was a painful hour long experience. After stopping to clean up the mess, I for some reason could not add the pictures in the right places and somehow managed to delete the picture of Vince, Kimberly and Katie about 4 times. Please let me know if you think it was at all enjoyable to you. Knowing that at least one person read this will make all of the efforts worth it (or at least here's hoping...)! :)