A Visit From My Sister, Ice!, Girls Day out & Gifts

This past weekend we had a wonderful and much needed visit from my sister.  Sometimes we forget in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives how important our relationships with those closest to us really are.  This past weekend reminded me just how much I sometimes miss those days of being able to drive over to my sister's house just to hang out.  It also reminded me how much my sister truly means to not only myself but to my children as well.  They too just loved having their wonderful Aunt here to visit and play with them, even if it was only for a few days.

Since it was the first time that she (my sister) was able to visit with us during the holiday season we of course wanted to spend a little time doing some holiday stuff around town.  I really wanted to show her everything that Dallas has to offer and only wish that we would have had plenty of more time and funds to do everything we wanted to.  On her first night in town the kids were literally climbing all of her in the excitement of having not seen her since June so we opted to spend the night hanging out at the house and playing games with the kids.  Plenty of smiles were to be had while we played Life, cards, and ended the night with a crazy game of Star Wars Monopoly.

On Saturday Dalton opted to stay home from his O-meet because he wasn't feeling well, but for him it wasn't a day of staying all warm and cozy in his bed.  Instead we decided to load everyone up and head over to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine for some real Christmas fun.  First up was our tour through the Ice! exhibit.  For those of you unfamiliar with this exhibit it is housed in a tent that is kept at a chilly 9 degrees inside and the tour is of amazing ice sculptures that took artisans from China six months to complete. Each year the artisans are given a different theme to create and this year it was A Charlie Brown Christmas.

After freezing our way through Ice! we decided to thaw out while walking around the Gaylord Texan Hotel/Resort and enjoying their annual Christmas decorations.

Sunday was just a day for the girls. We headed over to the local AMC Theatre and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, stopped at Wal-Mart for a little shopping then headed home to make some Mexican for dinner.  What a meal! We had enchiritos, chicken & spinach quesidillas and chicken and black bean nachos.  After dinner Stephanie (my sister) let the kids open their Christmas gifts from her.

Our last day with Stephanie was a little less exciting being as two of the kids had to go to school but it did however give she and I a day to hang out before she left.  All in all it really was an awesome weekend spent with the ones that I love the most.