Christmas in the Country

After Christmas, we made our annual trip to Mississippi to spend a couple of days with my mom's side of the family.  This consists a four hour drive down the Natchez Trace with two little girls who don't love being confined for that long but really love it once we reach our destination.  The have a ball when we get there and turn them loose on four wheelers and horses to let them rip and romp as the please.  This translates into the men staying outdoors with the children while the women sit in the nice, warm house to catch up, eat, laugh, eat, solve each others problems, and eat.  And eat some more.  Did I mention we ate?  Lord help us all.  With my cousin Mary Catherine being the ultimate collegiate now, we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like.  Naturally, we joined together at the hip upon her arrival and didn't part ways until we pulled out of the driveway.  We bonded in the kitchen mostly, as we both have a dip fetish.  We could eat our weight in any kind of dip.  We cooked our little hearts out.  We even tried our hand at buffalo chicken dip which was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Miss you already, MC!

We had a big family lunch when we got to Jane's followed by present opening which the kids always look forward to.  Anna Grace and Towns were ready to tear into their goodies...

 So were Melissa and Mary Cat...
I don't get to see my favorite gal nearly as much as I would love to...
One day soon I think I'll kidnap her and bring her to our house for a while!
Whenever we're at Jane and Charlie's, Cate doesn't let Sweet Pea out of her sight...
And Towns doesn't let Mary Catherine out of hers...
 

Most of the next day was spent improving our equestrian skills.  Let me start over on that.  I shouldn't say "our" because I have no skills in that department.  But most everyone else does...

Who knew my husband was a cowboy?!

On our way home he asked me what I thought about him getting into steer wrestling.  Really?!  His argument is that it is far less dangerous than motocross.

Towns enjoyed riding, but also enjoyed being a spectator...

 

Now that's more my speed!  Actually, this was more my speed...

 

While the cowboys and cowgirls did their thing, Charlie built a fire and crafted genius utensils for marshmellow roasting out of coat hangers, wood and electrical tape...

 

Aunt Melissa helped Towns figure it all out...

Success...

 

After getting a marshmellow mouth, she decided that she'd stick with eating just the Hershey's chocolate bar...

 

  Go figure!

We had such a nice, relaxing couple of days and as usual it was hard going back to reality!  This is when I wish I had a big picture of the whole family to insert here.  I'm definitely making that happen at our next get together!  Our trip to Mississippi was followed by a few days spent with my mom and her bunch here in Decatur.  We got to celebrate her birthday as well as my sister's big 13th birthday while they were here.  Good times and lots of pictures for sure!