New Year's Eve

Bryan and I had a blast ringing in the New Year with some friends at their New Years Eve "Sci-Fi Character/Aliens" costume party. Amy & Paul have an eclectic mixture of friends from the spectrum of their professional and personal lives, so there were librarians, NASA scientists, sci-fi book club members, and sci-fi convention participants. It made for an interesting evening.

Those of you familiar with the movie Serenity or the short-lived tv series Firefly, will recognize our characters: Mal Reynolds and Inara Serra. My favorite part is that I walked past and made eye contact with several people I knew without them recognizing me. Even Amy looked up and could see the flicker of "huh?" cross her face, before it connected. (Kind of like doing those games where you say the color of the word, not the word itself. You know the word is red, but you're supposed to say blue.)

I really liked Gary's "Han Solo" costume.

Can you read the tags pinned to his clothes? "Pretend Han Solo's robust chest is here" and on his collar reads, "Pretend Han Solo's roguish, charming, visage is here." It was classic Gary.

Meanwhile, the girls were at Nana & Papa's house, having their own "party."

Scooters

Dec 26 turned out to be our "rest and do nothing day." Bryan had to work, but the girls and I were off all week, and we weren't heading up to McKinney until Friday. So Wed. we did nothing but open up toys and play. In the early afternoon I decided we'd had enough of the house, and put the girls and their scooters in the van and headed over to the park.

Cameron joined the ranks of thousands of girls across the nation who got a red Razor scooter (Target, on sale day after Thanksgiving!) for Christmas. Since the park was relatively empty - a few families here or there, but very few cars - I let them scooter around the sidewalks between playground sets. I gave up trying to walk behind them, and instead walked the distance in the parking lot between one walkway (by the car) and where it came out on the far side.

Then we scootered a bit down the road to a boardwalk out over the Bayou. We stopped for a bit and watched an egret walk around - he would land in one spot and walk to the shore, then fly back to the original spot and do it again.

We headed back down the boardwalk and Brenna got very excited over a big rock; she wanted to sit (later stand) on the rock. I went to take a picture and bust out laughing at how Cameron jumped up and "posed".

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I have several update posts to work on this evening, but wanted to make certain to say Merry Christmas and Happy 2008 to everyone.




Clearly, Santa visited our house this year. The cookies and milk are gone, Brenna's letter to Santa has vanished, and two little electronic games are under the tree.

The girls enjoyed opening their presents. I'm not sure, but I think they both squealed the loudest when they opened these boxes, containing new comforters. They moved into separate bedrooms a few weeks before Christmas, and no longer need the matching quilts they've had for the past three years.
Bryan got a surprise - he was not expecting to receive Guitar Hero. I almost didn't get it for him (the on sale one was sold out in our area), but his brother found it on sale in McKinney! So we met, in a parking lot, on the far side of town, and made a little swap on Christmas Eve.

And this is how we spent the rest of Christmas morning. Each to their own electronic device. (Bryan won't let me post a photo of him playing Guitar Hero!)

The Reason for the Season

Before she went to bed this evening, Brenna insisted on adding the kneeling Santa to the Nativity display. She wanted to make sure that we remembered Santa was coming tonight to worship the baby Jesus.

Twas the Night before Christmas

And all through the house,

not a creature was stirring....

except for Bryan and I finishing up cooking the pies, the breakfast casserole, and cleaning up all of the kitchen, sweeping the floor, and moving wet clothes into the dryer.

According to NORAD's Santa Tracker, the big jolly guy himself is in the US, heading up and down the New England coast. Somewhere in Queensland, Australia, a dear friend is already tucking into his Christmas dinner.

Brenna insisted on adding a bag of carrots to the Santa cookie tray -- for the reindeer of course -- and her letter to Santa on the top. Then it was off to bed with them!!

As bright-eyed as she looks (at 9 p.m.) I assure you that she is fast asleep at the present moment.

This one was asleep probably before the flash stopped - I could have put her to bed at 7 p.m. (if we'd been home) and she would have been fine.

Earlier this evening we drove around looking at Christmas house lights throughout the neighborhood. We'd heard of this one house we just had to see and it sure was worth the time we spent looking for it. The family had converted the entire garage into a multi-layered Christmas village extravaganza. I wish I'd had the camera. There were probably 150 small village scenes/sets from the simple to the detailed, with lights and moving parts, skiiers, skaters, dancers. it really was incredible. They had constructed a special plexiglass garage door/front (including security camera.) The rest of their yard looked like a Lowe's or Garden Ridge Pottery advertisement.

Rest easy everyone - we're settling down on the couch watching Patrick Stewart's Christmas Carol (easily the best version I've ever seen!)

Coming Home!

Bryan has spent the last 10 days in Aberdeen, Scotland for work. We've missed him like crazy, and haven't blogged about it. But he's finally on his way home!! He flew from Aberdeen to Amsterdam while we were sleeping. His flight from Amsterdam was delayed in leaving this morning, but he is finally in the air - somewhere just below the tip of Iceland.

As you can see from the tracking map, he'll fly over the tip of Greenland and come into the continent across northern Canada, coming into the US through the midwest. When he left - he flew straight up the Northeastern Seaboard - over Maine and Nova Scotia.

His landing time has already been pushed back to after 6 p.m. but we'll be waiting (somewhere) at Bush IAH Airport for him to come through customs.

The girls are very ready to have Daddy back home.

Walk Through Bethlehem

Every year, on one weekend for three nights, the Methodist church does a special Walk through Bethlehem. They transform the gym into Bethlehem, complete with a variety of costumed vendors, shops, hay/mulch, ending in a live nativity. Outside are camels, goats, a donkey, and sheep, with costumed Wise Men, shepherds, and dancers. Everyone in costume greets you "Shalom. Peace be with you." There are beggars, entertainers, musicians; everyone asking if you've heard about The Child.

You wait in line out front, and enter through a tent, where a woman reads from a scroll from the prophet Micah about the coming Messiah. Then you go into the town, passing the Wise Men - who let you smell frankencinse and myrrh. The "gold" is a piece of chocolate in gold foil. Small "gifts" are given to the children. Inside, the vendors let you sample their ware, show how people lived in the year Christ was born, and let you try your own hand at things like grinding wheat, weaving reeds, pressing papyrus, molding a piece of clay. The girls love it.

When we came to the end, and went into the darkened stable to see the child, Cameron gave her bit of clay (shaped into a bowl) as a gift. It was a very sweet gesture (and I noticed quite a few plastic beads and other trinkets in the bottom of the manger). Brenna looked at her sister and looked at her own clay - and I could tell she was NOT going to give it up. But she couldn't let Cameron out-do her. So she quickly added the other thing in her hand at the time - a sample of the basket weaving.

Afterwards, we came home and ate dinner. After they were ready for bed, I let them open their Webkinz exchange gift. Cameron has a husky she named Hawk (after Heather's own husky, Hawkeye.) Brenna named her white bunny Claire.

All in bed - thought not until almost 10 p.m. CCE is going to come awfully early in the morning!