Some of you may know that just about my entire family lives in various parts of the great (vast) state of Texas. We rarely get to see everyone and this year we made a quick and dirty visit. We hit up 3 cities (actually it was 4 when the weather in Amarillo proved too difficult for the plane to land and we landed in a city 2 hours away, to then drive to Amarillo).
Right, so in Austin we celebrated an early Barnett Christmas with 20 of our family members...actually that would be a small part of our rather large family. I think we average around 40 or 50 people when we are all in full force, who knows when this will actually happen (possibly never). Many of my cousins and I haven't seen each other in over 10 years and now they have babies. We Barnett's have growed up good!
Next off to Dallas where one of my mom's brother lives, as well as my grandmother. My memaw (my (me) grandma (ma)...get it?) was taking a wee vacay to Canada and sadly we missed her, but we took advantage of all her pre-made food and cozy house. Since my memaw was out of town and we were in Dallas for Christmas day my mom (update: dad thinks/claims it was his idea) thought it would be funny if we stayed at this over the top hotel called "Gaylord Texan". The Gaylord family is responsible for the Grand ole Oprey and a few other "classy" joints. Well, at the Gaylord Texan they are BIG into decorations! Huge trees, big "interesting" displays of longhorn cows in outfits, and a miniature train village all decked out as a snowy winter in Dallas (although there is generally no snow in Dallas, it was pretty chilly!) Well mom did a great job because evan and i started referring to it as Texas Disney world, or a long lost Vegas hotel because it was quite the site with daytime tourists. We wouldn't be surprised if a ride is put into this hotel in the near future because it's just so ridiculous. Oh and if staying at the Gaylord Texan wasn't enough Christmas dinner was had at the hotel sports bar. A 54 foot flat screen tv, lots oh margaritas (oh wait this was every night here in Texas) and my favorite was mom having a chilly cheese dog. Meeeerrrry Christmas!
As i said already we initially planned to arrive in Amarillo by plane, but in classic Amarillo form wind, ice fog and general nasty weather forced our plane to land in Lubbock. Lubbock is clearly an important airport and I know why. Any plane trying to get to Amarillo lands there as it is only a short Texas drive away. Although is has a measly 4 gates and one baggage claim it does have a well stocked Starbucks (NO dunkin donuts), which means it gets enough customers willing to pay inflated coffee prices in that airport they want to keep happy (Amarillo has one Starbucks for the entire city). I was only too happy to get off that plane and drive to Amarillo to get our luggage at 11:30pm that night via greyhound bus, don't ask, it's just too ridiculous.
Amarillo has raised many Barnett's and a few Chisholm's (my mom's side). Therefore there are lots of memories and stories from locations all over this city.
See that house, that's where i grew up, oh and that house is where my friend ___ grew up. Oh and there's my high school, Oh and there's the place where Mimi ran over the cat, and there's where Jim had his store and granddad's practice.......
It goes on and on and on and for the amount of times I've driven around this town/city it is still a mess of roads and memories, much too confusing to follow. It is guaranteed that while in Amarillo there will always be lots of laughing. It never disappoints!
As my Texas tornado of a visit wraps up i think about the the slogan for Texas, "Everything is bigger in Texas" and it couldn't be more true. Bigger to go cups, bigger servings, bigger hair, bigger cars (SVU's!) and sadly bigger people. I'm going to add a few more to this...bigger smiles (straighter thanks to my granddad and uncle), bigger hugs, and bigger love. The people I've met in Texas and the family i have here has shown me what passion and love really is. If only there was a way to spread this type of love...we will call it Barnett love.
Well during the holiday season and the approach of the new year i send you all lots of Barnett love because we Barnett's love bigger since we are from Texas.
xo
