On second thought, before I get started with the highlights, I'd like to give a quick shout-out** to my sister, who was responsible for a huge number of this year's Christmas memories. Despite having a very demanding full-time job as a police officer in addition to her other full-time job of taking care of her family, she somehow managed to find the time and energy to plan and host several of our holiday outings this year, such as our trip to see the Nutcracker, our trip to see some amazing Christmas lights, and the Martin family Christmas. She definitely earned her Christmas spirit merit badge. Thank you, Suzanne!
Lunch with Santa at the Junior League yielded the most hilarious family photo of the season, when Amanda refused to sit on Santa's lap. As I get older, I have to admit I find the whole tradition of having our children sit on the lap of a strange old guy they have never met before to be quite at odds with other, seemingly more important, messages we send to our children, such as, oh, I don't know, "if some old guy you've never seen before invites you to sit on his lap, for God's sake don't do it!" So I find my four-year-old's distaste for Santa to be a sign of intelligence, frankly. Anyway, Brian had to sit in Santa's chair and Santa got a nice spot in the background of this priceless gem.
The Nutcracker with Suzanne, Sarah, Mary, Joan, and Caroline was a fabulous day out. Lunch at the Aquarium followed by the ballet at the Wortham made for quite a civilized afternoon for our young ladies. (As soon as I find the pictures from this event, I'll add them to this post.)
Walking through the trail of lights in Dickinson, Texas, was surreal.
The Martin family Christmas also was a lot of fun this year. Suzanne and Jeremy did a fabulous job hosting the event. Fajitas, margaritas, and a hot tub made for a fairly raucous family gathering.
Aunt Diane with her grandson, Drennan.
Dad and Linda on Jeremy and Suzanne's new deck.
Brian on hot tub duty with the cousins.
Dad and Elizabeth
Christmas Eve dinner with the Brantleys was wonderful as always, and Christmas morning with our girls was one of those rare moments that you can truly appreciate for everything it is worth during the exact moment it is occurring, as opposed to those moments whose uniqueness becomes apparent only with the aid of nostalgia.
This year Santa Claus decided that Amanda ought to expand her dress-up wardrobe. He brought her some outfits that would expose her to some future career options besides Princess, such as Firefighter, Police Officer, and Doctor. "Those are boy costumes," she declared of the Firefighter and Police Officer outfits. Relieved that she at least excluded the doctor outfit from that assessment, I reminded her that her Aunt Suzanne is a police officer, and also suggested the many ways in which she might play dress-up with these costumes without excluding her beloved princess dresses. "You could be a princess by day, and a spunky crime-fighting cop by night. A beautiful, royal lady equally comfortable on dance floors and at drug-busts. The SWAT Princess. Or maybe there's a fire in the castle and the princess has to put on her fire hat and grab the fire hose before it destroys the whole kingdom!" It is a little-known fact that Santa is not only an old bearded white guy; he is also a feminist.
Santa brought Elizabeth a trike with one of those long handles on the back. Now when Amanda wants to ride her bike around the block, Elizabeth can ride hers too. She was not too thrilled about this toy at first, but has warmed up to it since Christmas morning.
This post does not even come close to doing justice to how much fun we had this holiday season. But it's a new year now; new things to blog about (including Elizabeth's second birthday!) so the Cliff's Notes version of the holidays will have to do.
December 26th brought our annual holiday dinner. More on that in my next post.
**Conversation with my editor, aka, Brian, regarding the term "shout-out" just prior to posting this entry:
Brian: Don't write "shout-out."
Me: It's my blog.
Brian: I know. I so rarely give editorial input. Just give me this one.
Me: Ok I'll take out "shout-out" if you let me keep in the shot of you in the hot tub.
Brian: Just use "respectfully acknowledge." It's the same as "shout-out," only in English, not prison.
God I love this guy.
