Gift of a weekend

Recently, our preacher preached on gratitude. One of my favorite "nuggets" from that sermon was to consider small, wonderful, unexpected happiness as a gift from God. I feel like this past weekend was a gift! We had only one thing to do and the rest of the time was spent having quiet family time at home. A calm before the Christmas storm, if you will.

The highlight of the weekend was Historic Waco's Breakfast with Santa and Santa Wonderland. One of SG's and my good friends headed it up and it was lots of fun! The kids got to eat breakfast, watch monkey tricks, meet Santa, go on a horse drawn carriage, ride a Christmas train, get their faces painted, etc.

The highlight of this event was not meeting Santa, it was meeting Shawn Bell, the quarterback for Baylor. For those of you not familiar with Baylor football, you have to know there wasn't a huge line to see him. We almost had a winning record this year which is better than the last, say, 10 years. Despite all of this, my boys idolize Shawn Bell. They have his jersey. Matthew writes about Shawn Bell in his journal at school incessantly. Matthew cried when he didn't start the UT game.

Several of the Baylor athletes were in a line ready to sign autographs but the boys were locked in on Shawn Bell.

"Are you the real Shawn Bell?" asked Matthew, eyes wide as saucers.

"I am sorry you didn't get to go to a bowl game." said Thomas always ready to make someone feel better.

"Wow you played great in the Oklahoma State game." said a still awestruck Matthew.

Shawn, who I am sure is not used to so much idolization, hollered over to his father, "Dad, you have got to meet these kids!"

The boys talked to Shawn's father and then when it was time to leave, Shawn gave Thomas a hug.

"Shawn Bell hugged me! Shawn Bell hugged me!" Thomas said jumping up and down.

What a sweet moment! The boys then proceeded to get their faces painted. Not with bugs, butterflies, or other things the kids were doing but with BU #11. They then rushed back over to show him. I think he was genuinely touched as were the boys.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching football, cooking, and me getting over the second strep infection in a month. No one in the family is getting it but me. My doctor seems to think that Matthew is a carrier. He is picking it up at school and transferring it to me without him getting sick. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving!