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Christmas in Texas

by on ‎01-05-2015 06:16 PM

Christmas in Texas…that was a first for Mark and me and all 4 kids!  Since our children are now teens to young adults, we wanted to do something different.  Instead of spending money on ‘things’, I wanted us to spend the money on ‘making memories’!  With Eric, our eldest, getting married in April, this was the last Christmas with just the 6 of us.  Plus, since his fiancé, Alice, is from London, I’m sure the two of them will be spending several Christmas’ in England.  Therefore, off we went to Dallas to do some fun things in a place we’ve never been!


The first two days we were there, we took in a couple of ‘sports’ activities.  First it was to attend an NHL game between the Dallas Stars and the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Mark and I had lived in Toronto for 3 years back before the kids came along, so everyone had a good time.  Then the next day, it was off to tour the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Now understand that we are MN Vikings fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans, but that stadium is a work of art!  Not only is it massive, it is beautiful, costing 1 billion dollars to construct! The tour takes you into the box seats on the various levels, the ‘perch’ where the owner and his family sit, the locker rooms of both the cheerleaders as well as the players and even right out onto the field.  Wow!  It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, especially because the same company who built that stadium is the same one building the new dome in Minneapolis, so someday….


We also toured the memorial for John F. Kennedy at the sight where he was assassinated.  That was very interesting, because it was also about the Kennedy history, information on his time in the Presidency as well as the minute by minute of what happened that fateful day.  It was a history lesson, but one that even the kids really enjoyed!



The last night before we flew home, we had the highlight of the week – a rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards!  That was a blast!!  We found a street vendor who was selling cowboy hats for about $10/each, so we each picked out what we liked and wore them all night.  That was a first!  We spent the entire night laughing – at each other and how we looked in our hats, at the clowns that are so talented and take a lot of risks, at the bull riders who look like Gumby with their bodies flopping all over, to the kids ages 8-12 who were invited into the ring to chase a calf and a sheep around trying to get the prize of what was attached to them!  Definitely a highlight!!!



We also stayed at a very family-friendly hotel called the Gaylord Texan.  It’s very large, but they go all out for Christmas with the decorations and activities, so that, too, would be a recommendation of mine.




All in all, we did what I had hoped for…we made sweet memories of being together, having fun and laughing, as well as some good relationship conversations.  God has blessed Mark and me so much with four wonderful children, who now being pretty grown up, can appreciate how precious memorable experiences are even more than individual presents! 


Happy New Year, Everyone, and may God bless you over and over again!


Mary Beth