Diary of a Medical Student's Wife: Just a Small Town Christmas

This year we spent Christmas in Minco with my family. There are many things I love about Christmas, but mostly I just love watching people open presents. I am not a huge fan of getting presents myself; they always make me feel a little awkward. And, it is true that selecting presents for people stresses me out a little, because I want it to be perfect, but when you do get that perfect gift for someone it is a gift in itself to watch them open it.

Before we left for Minco we had a few days at home to prepare. I decided to try and make some Christmas candy. I love cooking and baking and really think that the value of something home cooked/made is lost in today's society. I knew I could never top my grandma's peanut brittle or fudge so I didn't even attempt them (even though she didn't make fudge this year). I decided to make peppermint bark and toffee bark. I hadn't heard of either of these two candies until this year. They are actually fairly simple to make as well. I also made a batch of sugar cookies. This is something I have been doing for years, and while I don't like sugar cookies almost everyone else in my family does.

What is going on?

Yum, Peppermint Bark

spreading toffee

melting chips

Toffee Bark

Icing cookies

Yum! Christmas cookies.

The drive from here to Minco is about 7 1/2 to 8 hours so we decided to make a pit stop in Dallas to see my best friend, Beth. I was so grateful our schedules worked out to where we could hang out even if it was just for one evening. As a bonus we also got to spend sometime with our friend Dave who also lives in Dallas. It was a great evening just chatting with friends. I love having friends where we can just hang out and not have to do an activity. We also got to take Beth to the airport before heading on north to OK.

We arrived in Minco on the 23rd and it felt good to be home; although, my home was very different. My mom had done some major remodeling (with the help of my oldest brother, younger brother and grandparents) and the house looked great. There was so much more comfortable room for all the games and late night hanging out we like to do. That evening my mom and I delivered the last supper crosses that she ordered randomly from a guy that lived just across the interstate from me. They are beautiful.

We opened presents on Christmas Eve which has become a new tradition for us as we have gotten older. It was interesting to see which presents were still a surprise and find out who ruined the surprise for others. Most of the time Steven ruined the surprises. I can say though that I was pleasantly surprised by all my gifts.

Nick with his money pouch from us

Dad, Steven, Mark, and Brett opening presents

Steven so excited about his presents

It's Cowboy time!

Not a great picture of me, but my mom convinced me that Scentsy was a waste of money...then precedes to give it to me as a present...turns out the waste of money story was to trick me into not buying it before Christmas.

Steven showed off his basketball skills by landing a piece of wrapping paper in my mom's glasses.

Fishing gear

It's not Christmas unless you get a Dallas Cowboy gift...right Paul?

Peppermint milkshakes on Christmas Eve.

Playing Phase 10 Twist (Paul's gift)

Then the day after Christmas my oldest brother, sister-in-law, nephew and neice came down for 3 days. I just love hanging out with my brothers now that we are older. They are too funny. My brothers Brett and Nick biked 70 miles from Weatherford to Minco on mountain bikes. They said they would never do it again, but enjoyed the experience. We found out about this adventure when Brett called Paul at 9:00 am to tell him all about their crazy idea. My mom was not pleased, yet also not surprised. My family is also huge game players and we had a lot of fun playing games almost everynight. We also got to see my friend Kendra for a few minutes while in the OKC area (I forgot to take a picture though :( ).