December
2013
DonÕt mess with Texas. The family Christmas was great! Non-stop action like a three ring circus. Six adults, four
kids, a horse, two dogs and a big leather couch. What could be more perfect? The HartongÕs and the HastingÕs were all in attendance. Jason and Betsy worked hard putting the
final touches on their new addition and we all snuggled in together. The cousins got to play together and
would wrestle and jump on each other until someone cried. There were squeals of delight and laughter
throughout the house. We all got
to go to the famous StoneyÕs
Dinner Bell in Van for their humongous hamburgers. We made it to the East Texas Burger Co. in Mineola. We visited a lot of shops in Mineola to
include the local coin collector and just one of the local guns and ammo
stores. The kids got to see their first Texas
longhorns on the hoof. We cooked
steaks on the grill one night and had homemade Lasagne the next. Sean was carbo-packing for an endurance
race he and the boys attended in Dallas on Sunday. We had our family Christmas and I thank Sean and Stephanie
for making the effort to make the drive all the way to Texas and back. Thanks to Jason and Betsy for being
great hosts. The new addition is
great.
After the
Hastings departed, we went to the local tree farm and cut our own Christmas
tree. There is nothing like the
smell of a fresh cut tree. The
kids, Jason included, had fun decorating the tree and sorting and hanging all
of the ornaments. It was fun to
see all of the ornaments that we had given them over the years. It brought back memories of Christmas
past.
After ÒtreeÓ
day we celebrated ZimriÕs Birthday!
Zimri loves board games and one of his favorites is called The Settlers
of Catan. For his Birthday Zimri
wanted to play The Settlers of Catan and have dinner at his favorite Mexican
Restaurant where we encountered a light fixture made from beer bottles, Corona
beer bottles to be exact. The game
and the food were both excellent.
Good Birthday Zimri.
We returned
from Texas with colds so we spent the days before Christmas recovering and
taking extra Vitamin ÒCÓ to speed our recovery. It was a great trip and we look forward to seeing everybody
in Hawks Cay.
For
Christmas we Skyped with the kids and played 18 holes of golf. It was nice and quiet around here. I like quiet. I must be getting old.
Drats!