Friday Five | Christmas Memories

Our little towns annual Christmas parade was last night. My girl was finally feeling better so off we went!l She had so much fun watching the parade and her face when Santa Claus came in on the Fire Truck was priceless. Afterwards her class sang some Christmas songs, along with other local schools in the area.

Our elf has been up to some pretty silly stuff - today he decided to make our Christmas tree more festive.

If you want to see what else he's been up to this year, look at my previous post.

So this happened yesterday...

Image via

I have been a Jake Owen fan ever since I can remember. Long before Cadence was born and Tarl and I were married. I've been to countless concerts of his within a 4 hour driving radius (and sometimes more!) and have met him twice, see...

When I saw that picture that he posted - I was so sad!

Jake Owen isn't JO without his hair! I can honestly say that he's not near as good looking without it. What can I say, I like a man with a little length in his hair :)

Anyone else feel this way?

I've had a lot of fun participating in #blogmas14 and decided to make Day 5 part of my Friday Five - Your Most Favorite Christmas Memory

Growing up I was a little country girl. I wore overalls and boots and camoflauge. I went hunting with my dad and brother. Fished. If it involved outside, you name it, I was there. 

I always wanted my own gun and when I was 13 that's all I wanted for Christmas. We have always carried a tradition in my family (and have now incorporated within our family) that you get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. With Tarl, Cadence and I, we pick the gift for you. For example Tarl can't go and just pick out a gift under the tree on Christmas Eve. I hand pick it for him and vice versa. 

Well with my parents you could pick out whatever gift you wanted. There was a small heavy box that was wrapped beautifully and that's the one I wanted to open. My parents refused. I couldn't understand why, but went with another option.

Waking up on Christmas morning that little heavy box was the first one I went for. My parents were in the process of building their house so we were living with my sister, brother-in-law and their children at the time. It was just me, dad and mom in the living room as everyone else was still sleeping. I ripped through that wrapping paper to discover a box of bird shot/ammo. 

Then there it was - my very own 20 gauge! Right then I knew why they wouldn't let me open the little box, because it would have blown the big surprise of my own gun.

With everyone else asleep, dad opened the back door, loaded my gun and let me shoot my very first gun for the very first time. It woke everyone in the house up.

It's a memory I will never forget, ever! To this day I remember the smile on my dads face when I shot that gun. 

We have decided this year to keep Cadence's birthday party very low key. No spending money on a lot of decorations, close family only, come in your PJs and we're serving breakfast. No fuss, no must - just keeping it simple.

The only thing I splurged on was the cake and I picked it up this morning! Can't wait to share pictures with y'all on Monday!

Happy Friday friends!