Adventures of the Binghams: Family Time

The trip is not over yet! Just getting started.

I spent Sunday morning with my Mom and sister shopping before heading over to my Dad's house to celebrate his birthday. My Grandmother and Granddad surprised my Dad too by coming for a visit. I may have tipped them off that I'd be in town. Carmen made an amazing Mexican lunch with tamales, enchiladas, and pasole (have you figured out that I'm a little crazy when it comes to Mexican food?) and we ate and ate and ate. We could hardly move at this point so we parked it in front of the tube to watch the Dallas Cowboys embarrass themselves against the Packers.

On Monday, me, my Mom, and Riley hit the road to Bridgeport to see my Grandma and Grandpa. Fortunately, we made it just in time for the sunset over the water. My favorite part of the day out there. A glass of Prosecco in hand doesn't hurt either. I was introduced to their new little addition, Bella. She is the sweetest little squirt; they're lucky I didn't walk right out of there with her in my purse.

Tuesday was a fun day! Girls day at the Galleria! (You know, I'm learning a lot about myself writing this blog. I like to shop and I like to eat. A lot. Hmmmm.) We did some damage in Nordstroms before having lunch at Mi Cocina and since it was "Girls Day" we had margaritas. It was 5 o'clock somewhere. Micah joined us for a bit before heading back to work. We'll pretend like I didn't start crying outside of Williams Sonoma when we had to say goodbye.

We timed our trip just right so we had the pleasure of sitting in rush hour traffic for what seemed like forever. Twenty minutes on an on-ramp, really? Don't miss that. But it was worth the wait. Next stop was The Gonzales' house and the boys were in the yard waiting when we pulled up.

And just like old times, we grazed on munchies and drank wine while catching up. There was only one thing missing....Brad. The boys were sure to let me know they wished he could be there which made me miss him all the more. Tear. :*(

I'll give you two guesses on what Traci and I did on Wednesday......if you said shopping you'd be correct. Hey! It wasn't all for me.

My Aunt Kelli and cousin, Joel, were able to swing by before church so I was able to catch up with them, too. I can't believe how grown up Joel is getting.

We surprised the boys when they got home from school - we were going to see A Christmas Carol in 3D (and on a school night, waaahooo). Standing in line at the automatic machine went something like this:

Traci: Woah! $12.50 per ticket!!??

Me: Are they serious?!

Aaron: Why don't you just buy all Child tickets? They'll never know. They don't check.
Traci: Aaron! I don't think so! That would be stealing! I can't believe you said that.

*Micheal walks up from parking the car.

Michael: What's going on?

Traci: The tickets are $12.50 a piece.

Micheal: Woah! We should just get the Child tickets then. (Kidding, of course.)

It was classic. The conversation, not the movie. It was just eh. 3D effects were amazing but it's not exactly a Christmas movie where you leaving feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Since Brad and I aren't going to be around for the holidays, Michael decided he'd make a full out Thanksgiving Dinner. And he did. A big turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, the works. And it was absolutely amazing! We figured we'd try to cram in as much as we could while I was with them. So we had a big Thanksgiving meal with Christmas music on in the background and (jokingly) told the kids they were going to have to stay up until midnight to celebrate New Year's, too. But in sticking with tradition, we popped in The Grinch for a good laugh. We would have watched A Christmas Vacation too but it just didn't feel right without Brad. Maybe next year.