Food & Football

I was a good girl and woke up early on a Saturday morning (7:30) to make Aunt Jana’s Breakfast Taters for the ward Christmas party.  Autumn insisted on wearing her Miss Claus dress, which I was fine with since she only gets to wear it for one month.  She even let me do her hair.

I got out my box of Christmas jewelry so I could wear my present bow earrings.  She saw these clay teddy bear earrings and of course wanted to wear them.

We got to the church and dropped off our casserole in the kitchen.  The party started at 9:00 and they had coloring pages and crayons for the kids to color if they got bored.  There was SO MUCH food and it was all so good.  Who knew there were so many different types of breakfast casseroles?  They also had muffins, clementines, and grapes along with water, orange juice and chocolate milk.  After everyone ate, they had someone play the piano and we all sang along to Christmas songs.

After that, they said the closing prayer and we were getting ready to leave.  But, someone got up and said we had a special visitor just fly in from the North Pole and right then they pulled back the curtains up on the stage and there was Santa.  Autumn took off running the second she saw him and was so excited and was yelling up to him.  We went and got in line and waited for a long time, even though we were at the front of the line.  Instead of all the kids in a family going together, they went one at a time and Santa was so nice and spent time talking to each of them, which is why it took forever.

Autumn could barely contain her excitement and kept going to the front of the line to try and be next.  Finally it was her turn and she was so happy to talk to Santa.  I was a little worried she might recognize Santa’s helper b/c it was Bro. Maggart, our home teacher.  But she didn’t even notice (thank goodness).

After the party, we went over to Mom & Dad’s to say hi and see what was going on.  Autumn made this Santa face at daycare and kept walking around the house saying, “Santa. Santa. Ho Ho Ho.”  I think it’s something from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She cracks me up.

We just hung out most of the afternoon and watched TV and played.  Mom went to the grocery store to get stuff for the party at Aunt Sandy & Uncle Robert’s tomorrow.  Dad & I waited until she got home so we could help bring in groceries and Mom had brought home ribs and salad for dinner.  We grabbed a bite and then hit the road.

We drove to the new Cowboy’s Stadium to see the UIL State Championship game.  Trinity was playing Pearland & we met up w/ Mou and his family b/c they know a bunch of kids that play for Trinity and were at the game.  They were so nice and saved us seats.

Here are the teams getting ready to come out of their tunnels.  It was cool, b/c Trinity did the Haka before the game started, which I was loving.  Especially since most of the kids on the team are Polynesian.  I was sad that Trinity didn’t win, but it was still an awesome game and the score was really close, but Pearland ended up winning 28 to 24.  The best play was Trinity’s first touchdown where the guy carrying the ball hurdled over a defensive player to run in the ball.  It was awesome!  I was surprised how many Pearland fans there were (it’s down near Houston) and how loud they were.

We had a great time and it was fun to be in Cowboy’s Stadium for the first time.  That jumbo screen is really something to behold and I found myself watching that instead of the actual field b/c it was so much bigger.  It was so good to see Mou, Hepi, Francis, AJ, & Mou’s Dad.  AJ sat near Dad and they became good buddies and at one point AJ even gave Dad a big hug around the neck.  He must have sensed that Dad is a Grandpa and loves kids.  It was a great night (except for the big old blister I got on the bottom of my foot from walking too fast in shoes that were a little bit too big).

It was also really great to have a Daddy/Daughter date w/ Dad.  He’s such a neat man and I love getting to spend time with him.  I learned some new things about him that I didn’t know before.  For example, he used to work at McDonald’s when he was in high school and one night it was really slow and they had cleaned the store and were waiting until closing time.  To kill some time, he and the other guy working took a pickle slice and threw it on the grill and would hit it back and forth kind of like air hockey.  The manager came in and got so mad at them for using up their profits.  He said, “those pickle slices are 3 for a penny” and Dad laughed at how cheap the guy was and offered to give him a dime, which made the manager even more mad. 

He also told me about when he was a missionary and some stories about Harry & Alice Dennis.  It was just fun to talk to him and learn more about him.

We didn’t get home until midnight, and Autumn was still awake b/c she had taken a late and long nap.  She was just laying in bed w/ Mom watching Cinderella.  I took her home and we found our present for the sixth night on our doorstep.

Six geese a-laying ~ an interesting sight.
One of them squawked and they all took flight.
A nest made of sticks is all we found,
So we’re getting some that weigh a pound.

Today was a great day with our Ward Christmas party and going to the State Championship football game.  Tomorrow is going to be another fun-filled day!