New Year's Eve: A Weekend on Henry's Hill

We enjoyed our last couple of days of 2010 on Henry's Hill (Granny & Pappy's home in Arcadia, Louisiana). It was one last trip of the holiday season, and it was the perfect way to end a busy few months of traveling. It was relaxing and fun! Plus, it helped ease my "Christmas blues." I tend to have a hard time getting over the holidays and all the time spent with family and friends and just the warm fuzziness of December (why can't it feel like that year round?) I've always been that way. I get downright sad when it's all over with. I was expressing my sadness for the holiday season being over (and also my dread for the month of January) to Gran, and she said, "I've learned to like January." There really is such hope and excitement in a brand new year...a fresh start! Time to get organized and do things better than we did them in 2010.

We left Houston around 2 on Thursday and headed for North Louisiana. We made a pit stop in Shreveport to meet Uncle Byram and Aunt Jan at Silver Star BBQ...and it was good. Their au gratin potatoes were out of this world, too. Jackson was hilarious, assigning seats to everyone at the table. He made sure Aunt Jan was on one side of him and I was on the other. Uncle Byram and Daddy were seated way at the other end of the table...ha.

After dinner, we set our sights on the country. Everyone should have a place like Gran & Pap's to go to. Sometimes as soon as you arrive you slip into some kind of coma, unable to do much but eat and lay on the couch and watch TV. Other times you're able to roam around the countryside, enjoying the fruits of Gran & Pap's (and the generations before them) labor and God's blessings. You just never know what will happen. A weekend at Henry's Hill is whatever you need it to be! This visit I was well rested because Jackson and I had stayed inside the few days between our return home from Baton Rouge and our departure to North LA.

Pappy had a special electric train waiting on Jackson when we got there. It wasn't from his childhood, but it was one that his Dad purchased for his grocery store, probably in the 60's. Jackson had a blast playing with it and of course took ownership immediately. We were amazed that the track was built in the same way as the Polar Express Train Jacks was given from his cousin Jacob, and one was 50 years older than the other.

Friday was spent leisurely...I think the guys slept 'til 9. We all enjoyed breakfast and playing outside. Gran and Pap were good sports about Kyle and I trying out our new camera all weekend. We were constantly snapping pictures. Later in the afternoon, Aunt Jan, Emily and Lauren came over. We hung out for a while, and then when it got dark, Pap took us all on hayride! It was so sweet of him to do this because Em, Kyle, Jacks and I all missed it at Thanksgiving. There was no hay this time, but we had tons of blankets. We definitely missed the rest of the family, and with Pappy's new (larger) trailer, it was obvious that they weren't there! When we got to the pond (our typical hayride destination), Pap was locked out of his own property. Ha. I don't know what happened, but we weren't able to get in. We were stalled out near the woods while Pap and Kyle tried to get the gate open. We heard stuff moving around in the woods and FREAKED OUT. We started waving the flash light around in the woods to scare off any wild animals. Granny came forth with these comforting words: "Oh, it's probably just a bob cat or a fox!"

I'm sorry....what?!

The rest of us girls started squealing and begging for the tractor to be moved, still keeping a watch on the woods (thanks to Em's mad flashlight skills!) You'll be happy to know we made it out alive! The hay ride didn't last much longer due to what we thought was a rain shower coming, but it ended up just being a few sprinkles. We kept seeing lightning off in the distance and got spooked. Our typical hayride tradition is to sing Christmas carols on the way back from the pond because the hayride is done on Thanksgiving night or the night after, and Thanksgiving is not over until the bonfire is over! Well...on this hayride it was New Year's Eve, so we decided to sing "Auld Lang Syne." That is a really interesting song to sing when you have no idea what you're saying and you don't know all the words! We had fun trying. Aunt Jan is always the one who initiates the carols, and she tried to come up with more songs to sing, but we couldn't think of any others.

A few pics from the hayride taken with Kyle's phone...

When we got back to the house, it was time for dinner and then...fireworks! Pappy and Kyle put on one of the most hilarious (and scary at times) firework shows I've ever had the privilege of witnessing. Interesting things kept happening, like all of the sudden Kyle running, tripping, doing mad ninja moves through the ditch and falling on the grass to get away from a runaway firework. Later there was a group of fireworks that seemed to malfunction...They started randomly flying across the grass in different directions and we all screamed, jumped...for a few seconds I really felt like something majorly bad was going to happen! (It was soooo dry that even when the little ashes from the sparklers would hit the ground, a little fire would flare up. We were running around stomping them out. So I thought surely when all those fireworks were spewing out everywhere that something was bound to catch on fire!) Everything was absolutely fine, but we were dying laughing.

A few minutes after the fireworks spectacle, Jacks went to run inside and...well...Granny's glass door was really clean. Bless his heart, he didn't realize it was a door and ran full speed into it. We all heard the sound and turned around. He just looked back at us like he was really confused. He never cried, but of course we (meanly) busted out laughing. You just couldn't help it. It was hilarious. Poor sweet little man! Of course we got in trouble with Gran for laughing.

The rest of the night we just hung out and watched the ball drop in NYC and the other interesting entertainment on the Rockin' NYE show. AJ and I had never heard the song "Hair done, nails done, everything big..." and were cracking up. She, Em, Lauren & I said that would be our motto for 2011. OK not really.

On New Years Day we really just relaxed! The girls stayed until after lunch and headed back to Shreveport. We had some amazing creole cabbage courtesy of Gran & AJ! It was wonderful. Later that day while Kyle and Pap were watching football and Jacks was napping, Gran and I headed to "the mall." It's so sad how many of the stores have closed down at the outlet mall in Arcadia. We try to do our part to keep it open when we can. So many memories there! Gran I enjoyed looking around, and we scored a few neat items. After the mall, we headed to Gap Farms. This is a fairly new addition to Arcadia, and it is basically a full service gas station with a casual restaurant inside (with amazing BBQ beef sandwiches), and they have charming home decor and other little odds and ends...it's just fun to look around! There is always at least one group of men crowded around a table drinking coffee, and that does my heart good to see. :_ Gran and I had fun looking around! We ended up grabbing a drink and sitting in a double rocker out front. We watched people come in the store and just chatted. It was perfect! *Pap - You still owe me a cappuccino! ;)

Gran tried to get Kyle and I to go see a movie or go out to dinner later that evening, but we just never got around to getting dressed. We were too relaxed! At one point I told Kyle I was heading to get dressed and went upstairs only to change into my PJ's. When I came back down he said, "I guess we're not going?" I didn't even realize I had done that, so I just laughed and said, "Guess not." Ha!

Sunday morning, Granny was only planning to go to Sunday School and Jacks was dying to go with her. He ended up being her only student that day (she teaches his age group--ones and twos.) It was a probably a good thing for Granny because he was definitely crying before we left the house because he "didn't want those 'other kids' to play with Granny"...yep. Haha. After church we all went to Country Cottage (@ Kyle's request), and it was as good as ever. We then hit the road back toward H-town. It was such a wonderful weekend, and we couldn't have imagined a better way to end 2010 and start 2011!

Here are some more pics from our time on the Hill. :)

On our way home, we passed through Shreveport and wanted to say hello to the Carpenters one last time AND see their new outdoor kitchen! Plus, we had not seen Ellen at Granny's. Their outdoor kitchen is beautiful! Jackson has such a great time playing in the spa pool with Aunt Jan & Uncle Byram. I cannot wait to get back up there for a girls' weekend! :) Here are a few pics...(I told Kyle he can get me one of these for our 20th wedding anniversary (only 12 years away...:) He was very thankful to Aunt Jan & Uncle Byram for putting this idea in my head...)

Well, there you have it! Our last holiday trip of 2010. 2011 is in full swing, and I have some updates to post about January soon. I hope you're having a very restful Sunday! :)