December 26, 2009. Jackson, Ms. Good Ideas.

It seemed like an innocent question. "Do you need any more meat for your freezer?." I really thought they were going to say no, but to my great surprise, they said "yes, two coolers full of meat will fit into our freezer". Ken and I had such an easy drive from Texas to Mississippi the last time, we wondered if Mary Frances and Kate would like to take a quick trip to Texas to visit their cousins, right after Christmas. Of course I asked Christina if it would be OK with the both of them, before we asked the girls. Unfortunately, Kate could hear me on the other end of the phone and as I was asking Christina, I could hears of shrieking saying "Yes, we will be quiet in the truck and yes, we can drive with Grandma and Grandpa." But Andrew and Christina had to talk and approve and then the girls had to realize how long a trip they were going to be taking, but finally everyone agreed that it was a good idea for us to go to Texas after Christmas to visit David and Suzanne and the four girls. I had previously asked both David and Suzanne for their approval.

Then Ken and I realized that we have no DVD in the car and as we drive with only a short stop every two hours to switch drivers, we wondered how the girls would thrive, so Ken suggested giving the girls a small individual DVD for each girl as part of their Christmas bag. As is our custom, we asked Suzanne. Her suggestion was to buy each girl a Nano IPod, and she would give them a small gift card to get them started, so that was what we did. You can not imagine the surprise on the face of Kate when she opened her gift. She was stunned and elated and thrilled. Mary Frances was right behind her. They could not thank us enough.

Andrew has started his own business and both Andrew, Christina and the girls are being very frugal. They expect from us a large bag from The Dollar Store, and when they opened the IPod that was in their bag they were speechless but delighted. It was fun watching their eyes and squeals of joy. It was a wonderful suggestion from Suzanne. It was worth every penny, all started with our decision to drive to Mississippi.