The Roby Family

Several months ago we were approached about being a part of a campaign to showcase the diversity and exciting things happening in north Tulsa. We quickly agreed and shot photos showcasing our family and home this spring. The first advertisement was released in Tulsa Kids magazine this month. Here’s a link to the ad:

http://www.pageturnpro.com/TulsaKids-Magazine/29996-September-2011/64.html

Please pick up a copy of Tulsa Kids, be on the lookout for future ads and spread the word about the potential of north Tulsa!

We started our Christmas Eve celebrations with some last minute gift buying (including a last minute delivery from UPS of Auntie Jules’ John Denver box set).  With all the presents bought and most wrapped and under the tree we headed off to a great service at LifeChurch.tv.  Derrick and the band did an amazing job.  You can see their rendition of Little Drummer Boy below:

After church we enjoyed a meal of chicken wings from Wing Stop. The boys weren’t really sure what to think, but after a few bites they dug in!

For dessert we finally decided to cut into Mr Snowman. Jenny sliced from the bottom and oh was he tasty.

Now I am off to watch Jenny wrap presents and put some milk and cake out for Santa. No cookies this year, he gets some of Mr Snowman.

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We continued our six Christmas parties in five nights with a party at my office Saturday night.  Our office is on the corner of 4th & Boston Ave in downtown Tulsa and overlooks the route of Tulsa’s Parade of Lights.  The bank orders a bunch of pizza and everyone brings their families to enjoy the parade from the warm interior of the bank.

Jacob was not real intersted in sitting still why the parade was going by, but was interested in running around the bank and playing with whatever he could find.  Seeing a lot of computers turned off was an absolute nightmare for Jacob.  I think the blank, black screens were calling out to him to come turn them on and play.

On the other hand, Jefferson enjoyed standing still and watching the bands and colorful floats.  He sat or stood with my assistant Karen nearly the entire time and was very sad when Santa came by and the parade was over.

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Once the inside halls and walls were decorated it was time to head outside and light up the house.

Sunday after church we bought new lights and a timer so we wouldn’t run up the PSO bill by leaving the show on all night.  Josh has wanted the “big” lights for several years now and he finally broke down and bought them at Lowe’s…because they were on sale.  We had a hard time keeping the boys contained why Josh was up on the ladder and I fed him the lights.  They really were anxious to see the lights and wanted to come and help hang them.

This was also the first year we had exterior outlets on the house so we didn’t have to rig up the porch light to feed the entire outside lightshow.

We also hung a couple strands on the back of the house for a little extra flair.  Next year we are going to go all out and buy some inflatable snowmen and Josh is going to put a big “OU” on the roof.

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Thanksgiving 2008 started out with a calm, relaxed morning.  We spent the morning talking with the boys about the things we were thankful for.  Soon, we loaded up the BMW and headed west for Norman.

We spent lunch with Gammy, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Jordan & Grandma Rivers-Coley.  Gammy did a great job with her first turkey and had quite a spread set out for us.

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Following lunch and spending the afternoon together we headed to Grandma & Papa Roby’s house for dinner.  Most of our Roby family was there and we enjoyed catching up with everyone and enjoying Grandma Roby’s great cooking.

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After dinner and watching football we headed to Mimi & Poppy’s.  We basically arrived and went to bed to prepare for our celebration on Friday.  Mimi & Poppy gave us a break from turkey and had a wonderful ham and sides.  The boys loved the pickled okra and olives the most!  Grandpa & Grandma Lackey joined us for lunch.

My great-grandmother (my father’s mother’s mother), Mrs. Jimmie Sweat Therrell passed away Saturday afternoon. Grandma Therrell was 96 years young when she went to be with Jesus. When I was a young boy I took multiple trips to Kosciusko, MS to spend time with her. Many times I traveled with my grandmother Willie, papa Roby and cousin Jeff. I will never forget our summer trips to her house. We typically drove grandma Willie’s Oldsmobile Delta 88 and listened to Elvis tapes the whole way. I think my love for great music was fostered on those trips! It seems that most of my memories at grandma Therrell’s house center around food. I loved her skillet burgers, biscuits and gravy and raw turnips with salt. One of my favorite memories was scratching her baseboards with a remote control Porsche 911 car I had. She would always jump when that car came zooming around the corner. I’ll also never forget the time I decided to climb one of her trees only to fall and land in a nest of infamous Mississippi fire-ants. I am pretty sure everyone enjoyed hearing me scream and watching me squirm.

I am very happy that Jenny had the opportunity to travel to Kosciusko on two occassions to spend time with my great-grandmother. One of those trips was to celebrate grandma’s 90th birthday. The trip was eight months before we were engaged and I knew if she made it through that weekend she would say yes if I ever got around to asking. Here are a couple of pictures from that trip:

Grandma Therrell & Jenny

Grandma Therrell & Dad

Grandma Therrell was able to make it to OKC to celebrate Grandma & Papa Roby’s 50th wedding anniversary on September 10th, 2004. We were really sweating the timing because Jacob was due on the 20th of that month. Well, Jacob was born two weeks early on the 6th and to everyone’s surprise we loaded up 4-day-old Jacob and headed to OKC for the celebration. I really wanted Grandma Therrell to see Jacob because he (like me) shares a middle name, Davis, with her husband Jefferson Davis (J. D.) Therrell. She was ecstatic we chose to name him after her husband and couldn’t believe we brought such a little thing so far to see her. We were really lucky he was early and we were able to snap this picture:

Me, Grandma Therrell, Grandma Roby, Jacob Davis & Dad

We are so lucky to have had so many great moments with Grandma Therrell but we certainly will miss her smile and kind words. I know we will see her with Jesus and while cliche, I am so happy she is now with the saviour she loved so much.