Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

We usually try to take a ski trip before Christmas but this year the ski thing just didn't seem to work out. Since we fly standby (and now so does Hank and Holly) we started looking at place we could go where the flights seemed to be open. I think it was Wednesday when someone suggested Cabo in Mexico. The flights were great leaving on Thursday so we packed our bags, made few arrangements and headed to the airport on Thursday morning.
To start the trip off, we were late getting to the airport and missed the one hour before flight arrival requirement. The computers would not let us print our tickets and it looked like we were not going to make it. Finally, a really nice Delta employee helped us out and printed our tickets for us. We made it!!
When we got to Cabo Dave realizes that he left his driver's license at home so I had to rent the car which also meant I had to drive!! Yikes! I don't know if any of you have every actually tried to drive in Mexico but it is quite an experience. The one rule of driving is that there are not rules. If you come to an intersection, there are no stop signs. It is basically first come first serve. Really scary, especially when you decline the rental car insurance!!
We only stayed until Saturday but we had the best time. We ate at local taco restaurants where they serve authentic Mexican food. It was so yummy! The beaches were beautiful and the people were so nice. We will definitely be going back to Cabo in the future!

Dave's Graduation

Dave finally finished all of his CFP classes. He had his graduation the other night. We were so proud of him. He has worked extremely hard for this!! He took the exam before Thanksgiving and we are still awaiting the results. Either way, I couldn't be more proud of him!!

Tea Party

So Madison got invited to a tea party the other day. A girl in her class was having a tea party at her grandmother's house and Madison and a few other girls from school were invited. I was really excited for Madison because I thought it would be fun thing to do. So after church I drove her to the address on the invitation and was planning to drop her off and do a little Christmas shopping before going back to pick her up. When I pulled up to the house I realized it was a very large white antebellum home. The front lawn (which was very large) was FILLED with cars. I was little confused as to why there were so many cars since only a few girls were invited. So we walked up to the front door where the grandfather was waiting to greet us. When we walked in the front door the foyer was filled with little girls and their mothers. I soon realized that I would be staying for the tea party (which was fine but not expected). After asking around, I found out that this family does this tea party every year and every year it gets more and more extravigant. There was over one hundred girls there plus their mothers.

So here was the schedule of events:

1. Walk from room to room with your group to hear the history behind the particular Christmas tree or trees in that room. There was a lady waiting in each room to speak as you came in (sort of like the Tour of Homes). The girls also received 5-6 ornaments from the various rooms.

2. Go downstairs where you find your designated table with gingerbread houses for each girl to decorate. Eat cookies and drink tea.

3. An elf reads a story about Mrs. Claus.

4. Mrs. Claus enters to talk to the girls.

5. A ballerina from the Nutcracker does a dance.

6. Decorate your gingerbread house (girls dressed in elf costumes come around with trays of candy and your own icing tube for you to use).

7. Santa Claus enters while girls are decorating.

8. Once you are finished with your house take it over to have your picture made with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

A special thanks to Butch and Marsha Thompson for opening their home to all these girls and giving them a wonderful Christmas experience!!