A Tex-Mex Christmas in Beaumont

December 23rd-29th:

On December 23rd, we finally crossed the Mighty Mississippi River!

Well, if you can read blur, then you see that we finally crossed the Mississippi River :)

What is that we see????  Is it really?  The Texas state line!  Whoooooop!

My eldest daughter is finally back in her "home" state!

Three very happy amigos!

Oh, my... our future destination--El Paso--is a mighty long way away!!!
I think it's funny that our first Texas stop and our last Texas stop are both on this sign :)

Home for Christmas week:

Gulf Coast RV Resort is a nice place.  Sites are very close together, but the facilities are clean and they have a FREE continental breakfast!  This is the only RV park we've seen so far with free food!

How fun are these Texas shaped waffles???  Texans really love the shape of their state... you can find just about anything in the shape of Texas!

Our host in Beaumont, Kevin, welcomed us the first night.

Daddy and the kids inventing a new game with a volleyball :)

We were invited to spend Christmas with a friend that used to attend our church in Panama City, until he moved back home to Beaumont.  It was so nice to meet up with Kevin and visit with his kids and meet his family.  

Christmas Eve morning traditional breakfast...French Toast Christmas Trees

We started our week in Beaumont with last minute Christmas shopping on yes, Christmas Eve!  Since we have limited space and weight considerations in the RV, we made the decision to get most of the gifts at our last stop before Christmas :)  We got to the stores early and it wasn't too terrible.  It was actually fun!  Since we all had to do shopping, Jon and I took turns with the kids, then we'd swap, then he'd have them all, then I'd have them all... we were texting all over Walmart and the mall to make sure we didn't run into each other :)

For dinner, we met Kevin and his children at Cafe' Del Rio and then joined them for Christmas Eve Service at Cathedral in the Pines.  We enjoyed Cafe' Del Rio so much that we ate there twice during our week!  The food was amazing, the decor festive, and the service, excellent.  Unfortunately, the Christmas Eve service was the only service that we were able to attend at Cathedral in the Pines.  It was an amazing service where the Lord was truly glorified.

Kevin and Monty

We came home from Christmas Eve service to keep one of our Christmas traditions...

Our precious Christmas tree, with 3 Christmas Eve gifts...
I wonder what they could be??????

New PJs, of course!  

After the kids were all tucked in for the night, we set up Christmas morning...

Merry Christmas!!!!

We had such a lovely Christmas morning.  We had a toasty "fire" going thanks to a Living Fireplace DVD we were given, yummy cinnamon rolls, and our focus on the One Whose birthday we were celebrating.  Happy birthday, Jesus!

I love the excitement and joy the kids ooooze on Christmas morning :)

Every camper needs a good headlamp and flashlight!
I love that we found identical ones in three different colors.

The start of a new travel hobby:  Geocaching!!  

Sharing Christmas across the miles via Skyping with Nana!

At noon, we headed over to Kevin's mom's house for the Christmas meal.  Boy howdy, do Texans know how to throw down a delicious meal!  There was so much yummy deliciousness to savor :)  We also got to meet Kevin's extended family, which included 9 nieces and nephews!  Our kids had lots of fun playing with them.  We are so thankful for the hospitality the Lamm family extended to us!

And what did we do with our cute live Christmas tree that was a gift from our dear friends in Georgia?  We wanted to plant it at the place we spent Christmas, to maybe one day return to see how it's grown.  The RV resort wouldn't let us plant it on site, so Kevin planted it for us in his backyard.

Thanks for the memories!  We hope to see you again someday.

We spent the rest of our week in Beaumont sightseeing and geocaching!