Christmas in Broken Bow

Happy New Year! We spent our Christmas in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, Duane's hometown. It was quite the adventure! We began with a 12 hour drive, which Duane thought would be best to make at night as the girls would be sleeping. Ha! Our girls slept off and on but woke up everytime we stopped for gas and demanded movies on the DVD player. We attempted to inform them that it was the middle of the night and that they should be asleep but Kaitlyn quickly told us that "I've had enough rest. I'm ready to go." Needless to say, we were exhausted when we arrived at our hotel. We slept for a few hours and then began our rounds of visiting........By evening time my parents had arrived after flying into Tulsa and driving 3 hours into Broken Bow.

Despite the lack of sleep, we had a great time. We got to see numerous cousins, family, and friends. Mom and Dad got shown around the tiny town of Broken Bow, part of the Choctaw Nation and home to just 3 stop lights, a WalMart, a Piggly Wiggly's and the Choctaw Nation Casino. Anyone who knows me well knows a few stories from Broken Bow so I'm sure you can appreciate how fun it was to show my parents around! We even discovered that Broken Bow has a coffee shop - FINALLY. You have no idea how long I have waited for good coffee in this town. Of course, like most everything else in Broken Bow, the shop was closed all weekend so we didn't get to try it out until Tuesday. It was actually pretty good!

Christmas Eve is huge for Duane's family - all the extended family members come to Grandma's house to exchange gifts. We got to see Duane's cousin Ricky and his wife Kim who were in from Ft. Worth, Texas with their two girls Elisa Kailyn (yes, pretty much the reverse of our Kaitlyn Elise) and Sydney Kate. Sydney Kate is the new edition at just 4 mons. so it was fun to get to see her and catch up with her parents. We also got to meet another new family member, Hannah, who is the 1 month old daughter of another of Duane's cousins. Kaitlyn absolutely adored holding the babies. The girls loved being with their Oklahoma cousins and especially enjoyed making Christmas cookies with both Mimi and Memaw and banana pudding with cousin Ashley. They also have decided that they need a horse and some cowboy gear after spending a very entertaining afternoon at Uncle Herman's house riding Outlaw. For a good laugh, ask Mimi and Papa how the girls say "Outlaw."

Broken Bow is definitely a small town with many quirks and oddities but it is home and we loved every minute we had with family. It was especially fun to introduce Mom and Dad to Duane's hometown. Of course, for any of you with small children, I'm not so sure I would recommend all the grandparents in one place............it results in a very large packing job for the trip home and some very spoiled grandchildren! :) And now that both sets of our parents know each other so well, we fear the ideas they will cook up together..........;)

Hope Your Holidays were filled with family, friends, and love.

Love,
Duane, Kelly, Kaiti, & Sam