Christmas with the Catos

Christmas with the Catos is traditionally Christmas Eve.  This year Brett & RoseAnne went to California to celebrate her 50th birthday (Christmas Eve) and the holidays with her family.  We sure did miss them but glad they got to spend time with her family, they don't get to see them very often.

After dinner...it was fun making the kids wait to open presents...they were about to bust!  In Mark's family we only buy for the parents and the kids so I like to drag it out...make them suffer.



Ann and the kids made us a whole box of yummy homemade goodies including these darling little
reindeer cake pops!



We got PIL an LA County Jail shirt
when we were in California, seems
only fitting he should have one
from Vegas!



Jackie getting a little Sugar!

















Mamma Loves her some Cheez Balls!

  




IL with her new Kindle.  We know she likes to read,
we hope she enjoys it as much as we have enjoyed ours!



Heather loving her new birthstone
earrings



Ann shooting with her new Nikon
she got from Santa!



Mark got a super sharp paring knife.
Think he'll use it in the kitchen??



MIL got the girls a really cool BIG GIRL magnetic
necklace...they are like the trendy bottle cap necklaces,
but much prettier!



Superman & SuperGirl!


























Money is always good!!

The boys got decor for their new rooms - Curry/Razorbacks and Harrison/Cowboys.

 



PIL testing out his no touch peanut dispenser!  You just wave your hand underneath it and
peanuts magically appear in your hand!


We love when the kids from NWA come to town and we can all get together.

Hill Family Christmas

Mark and I are very fortunate we don't have to alternate families during the holidays.  Our parents live within 30 minutes of us...so our Christmas schedule always lands us at home in our own beds.  My family always gets together the Saturday night before Christmas (after the big Hill Country Christmas)...Mark's family gets  together on Christmas Eve...then we go to Maumelle with my parents to Sherri's house on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought the girls and then back to Mark's parents on Christmas afternoon.  Works well for us!  : )

Hill Christmas - since we do the traditional big Christmas potluck for lunch on the same day as my family's Christmas, we usually have something very nontraditional for dinner.  We normally open presents first and I am a little OCD about how we open presents...we have to open them one at a time and go around the room...so you can see what everyone gets...plus it makes it all last a little longer!  My Mom & Dad complain every year that there are TOO many presents, but they are the biggest culprits of all.  Secretly I think we all like see the big pile!



That's just Mom & Dad's stash!




Superman & I did all right ourselves!




Sherri & Drew are pretty tickled at Andrew's present.
I told my brother to get creative so with Drew's ITunes card he added some of those
noise maker/blow horn thingys.  Nice job Steve!



Jennifer and her new Kindle



Dad -- thrilled with his pedicure!?!?  : )




Lauren loving her new skates.



Lindsey modeling her new headband.




Dad got a kick out of his t-shirt.



Anything Razorback related is ALWAYS a hit!


Unless you are an Alabama fan!

 

Lindsey loved finding this HD bear for her Uncle Mark.





Love it when we get matching presents.
Temp-tations really cool baking dishes with carry bags.
Love it!  And the matching dipping dishes we got.



Mom opening her requested Silver Omega.



Jimmy digging through his presents looking for food!

 So much fun hanging with these guys.  Wish we got together more often...but with busy schedules and logistics, we just have to treasure the time we are together.  Love you all!

Hill Country Christmas

My entire life...and that's a while!...my Dad's family has always celebrated Christmas the Saturday before Christmas...and I don't remember ever missing a single one.  It's always the start to our Christmas Celebration.

This is my Grandaddy and Grandmother Hill....where it all started.  He was 14 years older than she...he was 40 when his first child was born and 60 when his eighth child was born.  My Dad is the oldest, James Marion Hill, Jr, aka Pistol to his family.  I've asked a hundred times how he got that nickname and I'm not sure if anyone really remembers, but I keep forgetting all that I've been told!  I'm gonna HAVE to get that written down.

My Dad has a large family, seven brothers and sisters, who are now either grandparents or great-grandparents, so that makes for a rather large gathering....normally around 60.  It's just a big ole potluck, exchanging of the gifts (we still draw names) and lots of catching up with family.  I really enjoy getting to see everyone in one place at the same time.  My grandparents passed away years ago, but I am so thankful everyone makes such an effort to get together each year...it's the only time I see some of my aunts, uncles and cousins.

This is a picture of my Dad's brothers and sisters...all beginning with the letter "J".

Back row:  Jerry Lee, Twins Jane & Judy, JoJo & John
Front Row:  Jackie, my Dad- Jim, aka Pistol to the family, and Joyce



The Hill Cousins

My family has been so blessed...there hasn't been a death in this extended family other than my grandparents: my granddaddy who lived to be 101 and my grandmother died at 87 and a baby that was stillborn more than 40 years ago.  To my knowledge there's no family history of diabetes or cancer...which is this day and age is a miracle.

So thankful for my Hill family.

Fayetteville Half Marathon

Friday (12/10) after work we headed to Fayetteville for Mark to run a half marathon.  We stopped in Russellville at Cracker Barrel on the way because I do love me some breakfast for supper!  We like going to Fayetteville and staying at the Cosmopolitan ONLY because it is on the square...it's certainly not for their accommodations or service.

Saturday morning we slept in since the Expo didn't open until 11:00.  When we got up we walked to the expo to pick up Mark's packet...quite different from the huge expo we just visited in Dallas the week before...but this was the first "Fayetteville Half Marathon" (although they do the Hogeye in April) and had less than 1,000 participants...so a lot smaller scale.  But they just seem to be disorganized...it made me want to get people lined up in the right place and divided between "registration" and "pre-registered" but alas I had to step back, before my husband got really put out with my huffing and puffing.  : )

It's was interesting that this was the first thing you saw as you entered the expo...I knew it was cold but...


Wind Chill 7 -- REALLY??!!??


It actually worked to my advantage that the packet pick-up went quickly.  After a walk around the square and a stop in at Houndstooth the BEST store for Razorback t-shirts.  We had time to go Christmas shopping in Rogers!  Well..I went Christmas shopping, Mark was my chauffeur and sat in the car and either read his Kindle or napped.  But hey...it worked out great for me, everyone likes front door service and not having to search for a parking place during the holidays.  After I was worn out, we headed to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Abuelo's...I SO wish we had one in LR.  LOVE that place.

After a stop at WalMart on the way back to Fayetteville we headed back to the hotel, where upon arrival I pitched a little hissy fit because there was NO WHERE for guests of the hotel to park.  It was CRAZY in the area.  The square was lit up for Christmas and it was beautiful, but made parking a nightmare.  We finally kept driving around until a place on the street opened up...no way were we getting in the parking deck.  Later that evening we bundled up and decided to walk down to Osegueara's...it is LaHacienda North! (Yes, we eat a lot of Mexican food...as my husband says, Mexicans eat it everyday!)  After dinner we walked around the square, rather briskly I might add..it was so cold...but it was beautiful.



Where else do you find a Razorback on the carousel, except for Fayetteville, Arkansas!



I tried to talk Mark into a carriage ride, but he wouldn't hear of it!  I sure was thankful for my new furry boots.

The main reason Mark wanted to do this marathon was because the finish line was inside the new John McDonnell Field, one of the top outdoor track and field facilities in the nation.

Earlier in the week a friend of Mark's grandbaby, Lyla Elizabeth Threlkeld, passed away from birth complications and Mark decided he wanted to dedicate this run to her memory.

 I can't tell you how cold it was...the temperature was 19 and the wind chill was 7 at the beginning of the race.  About 15 minutes in, I saw Mark (here in the pic) and asked him how he was doing, he said he was COLD.  This road had a pretty steep hill coming up and after the race Mark told me at that point he was cold and tired and wanted to quit, but then he thought of baby Lyla and pressed on to finish.








Coming into the John McDonnell Track &
Field Complex - the home stretch!



2 hours and 30 minutes - Best time by 5 minutes!
The clock on the right was for the 5K

 

Thank goodness for the new Hog Hoodie we bought at WalMart the night before!  Mark started out with the hood up and started sweating so he pulled it off...a little while later his head was cold so when he went to put it back on the sweat had frozen on his hood!  He said when they got their water at the stations they had to break the ice before they could drink...when he went to drink his Gatorade from the bottle on his hip...it was slushy...now that's cold people!

Marathons the first two weekends of December following Thanksgiving put a toll on this girl to get ready for Christmas, considering my family's Christmas is the third weekend of December!  Good thing I wasn't having to go into the office all day every day, or I don't think I could have pulled it off!  We're going to have to nix one of the December events next year, or I'm going to have to be a lot better prepared for Christmas before we go!

Dallas White Rock Marathon

The first weekend of December we took a trip to Dallas.  Mark had signed up to run his first full marathon...26.2 miles.  Now to date, the farthest he has run was 20 miles around the neighborhood.  He didn't get to train as hard in the weeks prior...first he pulled a groin muscle and then once that healed, he was out running and was tripped up by a neighborhood dog and ended up with knees, legs, hands and elbows that were banged up.  So the trip was off...then on...then off...then on...well you get the picture!

We left after work on Friday night...stopping in Texarkana to eat at On the Border...since our OTB was out of commission due to the fire, we were craving it so we stopped at first available. 

The host hotel in Dallas was the Downtown Hyatt Regency...can you say I LOVED the bed...very nice.  Since we got in late Friday night, we slept in Saturday morning.  When we got up Saturday, we hopped on to the shuttle and headed to the Health & Fitness Expo at Fair Park so Mark could pick up his packet...which contains his bib and all other pertinent information...no packet...no run!  It was the biggest and best health fair we've been to.  There were several good vendors selling "runners wares", booths with information about upcoming marathons and some other booths of general interest. 

The first "Dallas White Rock Marathon" in 1971 involved a ritual of placing your hand on a rock embedded into the shore for good luck...a ritual started by the Grecians in 1896.  Below is "The Legend of The Rock."



Well..Mark wasn't taking any chances!

 After we finished with the Health Expo we went over to the Holiday Gift Expo...it was pretty much a bust, expo for the Texas Toffee we sampled...man was it good!  I have to admit there was a lot of crafts happening for kids at the expo, so that was nice for those that had kids. 

This was the first year for the marathon to be held at Fair Park which was pretty cool...it was the site of the old Texas World Fair and home to the Cotton Bowl. 

After our business was taken care of at the Expo, we went back to the hotel for a little rest and then decided to walk down to the West End area for dinner.  We ended up at Hooters...imagine that!  It was REALLY cold and VERY windy.  I wasn't expecting such chilly weather.

Mark had a dilemma of trying to decide what to run in the next morning...how many layers...but Superman had to be on top...of course!  Here was the final outcome.  Thank goodness for Under Armour Cold Gear!

As Mark had to be on the shuttle headed for the race the next morning at 6:30, we turned in early.  Since I couldn't ride the shuttle on race day...it was only for "runners"...I opted to take the DART later in the morning...and since Mark would be running for "a while", I decided to sleep in a bit and catch the first hour of the marathon on TV...yes, they broadcasted the first three hours of the marathon locally in Dallas.

This is a shot of one of the corrals starting out...there were over 22,000 runners and there were over 15 different corrals...which means, Corral A starts and then a few minutes later, Corral B starts and so on and so on...that way you don't have 22,000 people starting at the exact same time!  Mark didn't get out of the start gate until around 9:00!  Sure am glad I didn't hurry down there to watch them start at 8:00!  heehee!  I got down there in PLENTY of time to roam around and freeze to death while waiting for him to cross the finish line.

Now, I have never taken "the DART" before and had no idea what I was doing.  Once I found the station outside our hotel, I had to figure out how to buy a ticket and then the schedule and be sure I got on the DART going the right direction!  And as my luck would have it, when I got to the platform, there was not another soul around and as I'm trying to figure out how to buy my ticket, some guy walks up to me wanting money...of course!  I got spooked and went back inside the hotel and was contemplating taking a cab!  But then I heard the DART coming and by the time I got back outside to the platform and purchased my ticket, it had gone again!  But there were a couple of people who got off to transfer so I felt a little safer.  I did finally make it to my destination...after only taking one wrong transfer...and by the end of the trip, I was a navigating pro!

While I was in the process of getting TO Fair Park, this is what Mark was doing...

 

RUNNING!

Yes, he ran for 5 hours and 40 minutes!!  The clock at the finish line says 6:27, but remember, he didn't get started until almost 9:00.  If you look real closely on the left, I am in the red jacket (with the hood up!)  I was so proud of him.  To date the farthest he had run was 20 miles and a marathon is 26.2 miles.

Mark headed to the finishers area to retrieve his medal, some nourishment and have his picture taken while I waited outside.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a nap (via the DART)... : )

Later that night we decided to head back to the West End area for dinner (since it was close), but opted to take the DART instead of walking since the weather was so miserable.  We found an upscale Mexican restaurant (I can't remember the name) that was really good.

Monday morning we slept in, got ready and then headed for home.  We did hit a Hooter's in Texarkana (another one for Mark to add to his list)...but I won't be going back, the service was terrible and the food was worse!

It was a great weekend and we get to do it again the next weekend in Fayetteville.