Happy New Year!

I've spent a few moments this evening posting some photos of the girls during Christmas (so scroll down until you get to the choir video.) The girls and I took a long walk today, enjoying the two playgrounds at their school (and a good book for me). They played with Cameron's "spa" Christmas gift, making scented lip gloss.

The ball just dropped at Times Square. The current Disney stars Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, and the Jonas Brothers looked cold--get us off the streets now please--cold. Dick Clark appeared to be pleased that he could be around one more year, with his stilted, halting speech.

The girls are sleeping, having celebrated an hour ago with sparkling strawberry soda. Bryan and I have popped the bubbly (yum) and soon will head off to bed. I hope everyone of our friends and family have a very Blessed 2009, with faith to lift you and joy in all things to embrace you.

Christmas with Family

We spent Christmas day afternoon at Mom & Dad's celebrating with an abundance of food and people. All of the kids would sit still when promised that they could open presents. We let them open presents before dinner this year.



Then amazingly we snapped a pose of Granny with all seven of her great-grandchildren. (Even Megan is smiling?)


Friday we headed out to McKinney to have Christmas with Aunt Debbie, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Brad.

We love our family!!!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning in our household was right on schedule. The girls let us sleep until 6:59 a.m. (because we said they couldn't come in until 7 a.m.) Bryan checked to be sure Santa had really come to our house before allowing the girls to come in the room.

I think this picture sums up the rest of the morning.

Christmas Eve

Since Bryan worked most of Christmas Eve, I kept the girls entertained by letting them decorate a Gingerbread House.

After Bryan came home, we did our annual ritual of sharing a Sonic Blast and driving around looking at the holiday lights in our neighborhood. We have a few favorites, including this new one we discovered last year. While the yard is full of lighted moving pieces, it is the garage that attracts viewers from all places.

The entire garage is a multi-level Christmas village. I heard that it takes him six weeks of planning to set it up. The garage door opens, and he constructed a plexiglass wall that is screwed into place, protecting the display.

How cool is this?

(Can you see the skiers on the far right?)

(Did you notice Santa is lounging in the hammock in the bottom center of the above?)

Cameron's Choir Concert

I'm taking some time to close-out 2008 with a few updates that were overlooked in the hectic Christmas season.

Just before the school let out for the two-week holiday, Cameron sang in the 4th & 5th grade school choir. They sang six songs: two fall songs and four Christmas songs. Cameron also played "Silent Night" in the handbells section. When they finished, the music teacher asked them to switch bells... and they played it again with a brand new part and bell. They did great!

I only uploaded the handbell (2nd song) for viewing, but if you have any interest at all in the whole performance, just let me know. ;)

Santa visit

Every year we go see Santa so the girls can tell him what they want. Since Santa arrives at the mall in mid-November, we usually go see him early before the lines get ridiculously long.

Usually.

I don't know what it is about this year, but since Thanksgiving I can hardly catch my breath. I finally found a free afternoon to take the girls to see Santa, but it was on a weekend and Bryan was out of town. Undaunted, I had the girls dress up and we went to the mall. At first I thought the line wasn't terribly long - 45 min to an hour maybe - so instead of walking all the way around to the formal entrance, we just ducked under the rope. We were there about 5 minutes before the lady in front of us turned around and told us that she had been tagged the last person before Santa's lunch break. Sure enough, her photo order form said "Last". She pointed to the formal entrance, which had been roped off, and there was another line already in place for after his hour-long lunch break.

Hm... 45 minutes for this line, an hour for lunch, and a good 30 minutes according to the other line. No way.

So I promised the girls we'd try to go on a weekday evening and last night we finally accomplished our task.

The girls had dentist appointments at 4, Bryan met us at the house about 5 and we were in line by 6 p.m. Forty-five minutes later.... we arrived at a very tired looking Santa, who nevertheless brightened and smiled at the girls, inviting them to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. As the girls tell him, he glances up at me waiting for that slight nod that it's okay to say, "I think I might have some of those left at the workshop. I'll put one aside for you."

The "elf" who took our photo leaned over and said, "Your girls were the easiest photo I've taken all day."

I hear that a lot.

I thought it came out beautiful myself.

(You might want to check out our Santa blog post from two years ago to remember how much we appreciate this Santa. I also love that Brenna and Cameron are wearing the same dress 2006/2008. Did the dress shrink or is Brenna taller/larger at 6 than Cameron was at 7?)

Girls Day Out

Lisa and I took the girls to see the Nutcracker at the Stafford Center this afternoon. Mom and Leah invited all of us to the Country Club for lunch before the show to make a real Girls Day Out.

After lunch we posed the kids in front of the tree.

After lunch we went over to see Granny. We tried for a good photo of her with all the girls, but I didnt' get one worth showing. We did pose for a nice four generations photo.

At first Laurie was all "shy" but just before we left, she was cuddling up giving hugs.

We rushed over to see the Nutcracker performance.

Afterwards the performers gathered in the foyer so the children could ask for autographs and photographs. Cameron wanted to see the Sugar Plum Fairy.

STS Endeavour

While at work today I received a distribution email from a friend at Johnson Space Center.

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer ... on ENDEAVOUR! Even though it snowed last night, Santa hasn't changed his schedule ... but the Space Shuttle Endeavour will fly by Johnson Space Center today, circling over JSC between 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. while mounted on a modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft.

I left my office and went in the back parking lot so I could see in the direction of JSC. I saw it over JSC (distantly) and thought it would come over the front of our building. So I walked to the front - was thinking too many trees.... and started walking another direction. I could HEAR it, but didn't know where it was. Then I turned around just in time to snap a photo of it between the trees.

I practically ran around the buliding to the back again and when it came off the last JSC flyby it went right over us, turned (so we saw the belly of the Boeing 737 SCA) and flew south.

It did a flyby somewhere east of us (maybe the Boeing building?) and then looked like it was heading NW to Ellington. (not sure of all the directions.)

Tooth Fairy Alert!

At 5:45 a.m. Brenna came into our room and woke me up. Seems that she woke up and when she stuck her thumb in her mouth to go back to sleep she felt something else in there rolling around. I wish I had an audio recording of her telling me this, but she pulled out her thumb and there was still something in there, so she spit it out and voila - a tooth! We're on the Tooth Fairy watch tonight!

Real Snow!!

I wonder how many blogs tonight are about the snow in Houston.

Yes, snow in Houston. Our first snow since the magical Christmas Eve snowfall of 2003. We expected there would be snow this year since we had the hurricane. I remember we had a beautiful snowfall in Feb 1984 after Hurricane Alicia in Aug 1983.

Yesterday we had a high of 78, with a cold front moving in during the afternoon rush hour bringing plenty of rain. This morning it was still drizzling and 37F. Throughout the day the temperature continued to fall until about 4 p.m. it read 33F. Bryan called to tell me that it was snowing over at the office (west Houston) about 3:45 p.m. Lisa and Mom called about 5 p.m. to say that it was snowing in Missouri City.

I picked up Cameron from Yearbook club and it was sleeting. After we picked up Brenna we ran a few errands, but the temperature never waivered from 33F and it alternated from rain to sleet. In fact, I didn't know the snow had started until Bryan called us at 6:30 p.m. to say he was on the way home and it was practically a blizzard on the Beltway. The girls ran to the window and discovered a light dusting on everything.

I wouldn't let them go out to play (in the dark) until after dinner and Bryan was home. He didn't disappoint; he was like a child himself playing with the girls in the backyard. The whole time we were outside it continued snowing big fat wet flakes that stuck to your hair and your clothes. The girls tried to make a teeny snowman on the patio table. Then they spent the rest of the time running around pummeling everyone with snowballs. (After taking one down the back and one in the face, I went inside to dry out.)

We let them run and play for about thirty minutes. After their showers, we looked outside the window again and the patio table and chairs and slide are already covered with a fresh dusting. Even now, an hour later, our footprints in the yard are completely covered.

What fun! (Probably only because it happens once every 5-10 years.)

Loose Tooth

Brenna has her first loose tooth. She's been waiting a very long time - wondering when it would be her turn for a visit from the tooth fairy. I really did think this tooth would come out tonight. I practically promised her this morning that it would come out or I would pull it out.

It didn't come out. It bends all the way forward, but there must be a good piece of root still clinging under the gum. Brenna begged me to pull it out, but it wouldn't come.

Even Bryan got in on the action, but it wouldn't budge. (It's difficult to know how hard to pull on a loose tooth, especially when she winces.)

Check back later to see when it does finally come out.

For the record, Brenna cut her baby teeth earlier than Cameron, but Cameron lost her first tooth during the first week of first grade, just before her 6th birthday.

Another funny story. In the car on the way home from Little Gym, Brenna asked Cameron if she remember how the last time Cameron lost a tooth that the tooth fairy brought Brenna a quarter also? Well, she was going to ask the tooth fairy to bring Cameron some money this time. Cameron is quiet for a moment, then says, "Brenna, I suppose I should tell you that it wasn't the tooth fairy who put the money under your pillow. I did it, because I knew she wouldn't give you the money without losing a tooth first." Brenna doesn't say anything for a little bit, then says, "Cameron, would you go to sleep first tonight?"

School Photos

School photos finally arrived this week. They taken on Oct. 31 after Hurricane Ike interrupted their original schedule. Of course they look just like "school pictures" - taken after PE or recess.

So you can see how they've grown, I've added the last two years of school photos. Yes, Brenna is wearing the same outfit as last year. That morning, she came to me saying she didn't know what to wear. (School picture day was purposefully scheduled on "free dress" day, no collared shirts!) To help her, I selected four perfectly acceptable (and adorable) outfits from the closet and laid them on her bed - allowing her to make the choice. Then I went to get ready in my own room. Brenna being Brenna, she went to her dresser and picked out something completely different. When I saw what she was wearing I tried several different tactics to get her to change her clothes. I asked her, I suggested something else, I bribed and cajoled. I told her it was the same as last year and this was a whole new year, so she should have on something different so we can tell them apart. Her response? "But Mooommm, I'm wearing my hair differently and this year I'll really SMILE, see?" *big grin*

I didn't have time to "make" her change. Still, it's a cute photo and there isn't any danger of getting the two mixed up.

Happy Thanksgiving

From the Kelly family to all our friends.

STS-126

You just never know what kind of perks life will send your way. Last night I had the opportunity to view the STS-126 launch of Endeavor from the Mission Control Center viewing area as a JSC Director's Guest. I had been once before - another Endeavor launch in November 2001 for STS-108.

So what is it like to view a launch from MCC? You drive onsite and park at the badging office. They check your name against their list, give you a temp badge, and direct you to the bus. The bus takes you onsite to the MCC building entrance, you are escorted in, ride up the elevator and brought directly to the viewing areas. On the way to the Shuttle MCC, you pass the ISS MCC, which was not very busy, because the astronauts were already on sleep time.

The viewing area is behind glass so you can see all that is happening. The single most important rule is no flash photography. The screens display weather data and on-ground cameras.

When you get closer to coming out of the 9-minute hold, they switch the screens to data.

Then these are the launch screens. The one on the right is the Cape/Launch pad and shows the projected trajectory.

Capcom is the station responsible for communicating with the Shuttle astronauts. (Photo is pre-launch.

In the viewing gallery, we were welcomed by a number of people, including Dr. Ellen Baker, a three-Shuttle flight veteran who took and answered questions about the launch.

Then comes the launch, which is a little anti-climatic, since you're not actually watching the launch-pad cameras like you would see on television. You're watching a room of very intense men and women extremely focused on their job.



Here are the screens during the launch, showing the Shuttle's trajectory.

We saw the official NASA photographer snapping photos throughout the launch, but here is our view of Flight Director Bryan Lunney.

It was all over about 20 minutes after launch. We took the bus back to the gate and went home.

Galveston

If you know us, you know that we used to live in Galveston. We were married there and Cameron was born there. From 1998-2001 we lived in a tiny 1100 sq ft house in a wonderful neighborhood. Some called it "Little Italy" because of all the older Italian immigrants who moved in. The "subdivision" was built in the late 1960s on former German POW camp land behind Fort Crockett. It's about... oh... six blocks, maybe seven, behind the seawall and has an official elevation of 13 feet. Our backyard backed up to Lakeview Cemetery.

Today I made my first return to the island since Hurricane Ike. I've had no reason to go down there before and didn't want to just drive around "sightseeing".

Our street/neighborhood.

Our house looks okay from both the front and the back.

Most of our immediate next-door neighbors looked okay from the front, though you can tell the houses are deserted. The devastation is evident from the back.

(This was our next door neighbor, and that open wall is the master bedroom.

This house belongs/belonged? to the Italian lady who kept Cameron for me when I went back to work. (That's her fence blocking the open garage - can you see the brick wall separated into three pieces?)

It looks like maybe something rammed into the back of the houses. But what? Keep in mind that Ike was TWO MONTHS ago. There were a few really disconcerting things that I noticed. One is how one area looks like it came through okay, but a few blocks down it's totally the opposite, devastation. The other is the dying or dead vegetation. The shrubs in front of our house are dead. Many, many shrubs and oleaders are dead from sitting in salt water. The palm trees are going brown from the bottom up. Yet, other areas still have their vegetation.

Driving down Harborside as I was leaving, there are dead trees and chain link fences (that used to be overgrown with vine, now dead) completely littered with shredded plastic grocery bags. I wish I could have gotten a photo of them; they were very artistic-looking. Decorated. The bags had floated and just snagged, caught on, the fence and limbs. Thousands of them.

I went to the Rosenberg Library and stopped for a short visit. Their first floor had about 7-8 feet of water and they lost their entire Technical Services, Circulation, Operations (telephone, elevator, security, computer network, etc.) and Children's Department. Gone - all of it. I doubt they will reopen before January, and maybe not even until March. They are hard at work gutting the first floor to the concrete floor and walls and rebuilding their operations network. But it's going to be a long, expensive, hard road.