2012 Christmas Card

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that each of you had a great 2012 and are looking forward to 2013.  Our second Christmas (and first full year) in Texas has brought more of a sense of routine.  While it still does not feel like "home,” we at least know that Southlake is north and that there is no lake in Westlake.  We have come to love Texans more than we love Texas, but isn't that the way it is supposed to be? 

The pictures on the attached card chronicle much of our year, which began with the death of our sweet dog, Libby.  She lived a long and loved life.  A rescue dog with no documentation, we don’t have any way of knowing her real age, but she spent her last 10 years with us and was loved every minute. She is still greatly missed. Five-year-old Brownie, the Maltese poodle mix, continues to entertain.

Tate is in the 10th grade and doing well.  He is on the school's swim team, sings in the school choir, works as a lifeguard on the weekends, plays chess regularly, and is active at church. He and Robbie attended the Byron Nelson Golf Championship in May and had the good fortune to eat lunch with Byron’s delightful widow, Peggy Nelson. (Robbie’s cellphone inadequacy made evident in the Christmas card photo.) Tate has made a wonderful adjustment to Texas.  We appreciate his resiliency, adventurous spirit, and sense of humor.

After deciding that she is more of an East Coast girl, McKenzie transferred colleges this year.  She had a fun summer traveling to Europe with Julie’s sister, working at like a small, locally and family owned REI-type business and taking summer school classes.  She volunteers a few times a week at a local elementary school and was recently initiated into a sorority. In late September, Robbie traveled to Parents’ Weekend and they enjoyed attending the football game. We appreciate McKenzie's strong sense of justice, her excellence in her schoolwork, and her continued love of all things Disney (see her pictured this spring break with Tate and a statue of Walt at Disneyland).

We took a spring break trip in March to Southern California: Los Angeles, the Reagan and Nixon Presidential Libraries, and San Diego, and a July vacation to Northern California - San Francisco and then 4 days in spectacular Santa Barbara. Anything to escape the crazy Texas heat! 

For Robbie and Julie, life is much the same.  We were disappointed in the election results in November and are currently taking a break from watching the news.  We recommend the "news fast" and have been surprised at the entertainment value of Law & Order and Seinfeld reruns.  It's funny that we can go a week without watching the news but when we turn it back on, we haven't missed a thing (it's like missing a month of The Guiding Light).

Though for us the physically demanding parts of being a parent are coming to an end, what remain are the emotionally demanding parts.  We understand that this demand will exist for the rest of our lives. Some days we long to change a diaper and put a child down for a nap, comforted by the knowledge that everyone is safe and secure - knowledge seldom achieved with teenagers.

So, as we end one year and begin another, our prayer for our family and yours is this:  that God may bless you in 2013, that He will comfort those who are suffering and support and sustain those that are providing comfort, that He will bless our country and its leaders and give them the wisdom and courage to do the right thing, that He will safeguard those that are serving our country to protect our freedoms and way of life, and that we will have the insight to appreciate our blessings.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013.  We’d love to see you in the year ahead.

Love,

Julie & Robbie

Christmas Neighbor Gifts

Texans are friendly people, neighborly too. When we moved here, we were delighted and amazed by the number of neighbors who dropped by to greet us and bring us welcome gifts - cookies, bottles of wine, lists of restaurants and favorite businesses. To us it seemed pleasantly old school. Like a throw-back in time, when people knew who lived next door and stopped in the driveway to chat about their goings on. Though we had many great neighbors back in Atlanta, they were friendships built over time and this notion of being introduced before the moving van had left the driveway was new to us.  

At Christmastime, the neighborliness continues, with small gifts (often a homemade treat) and Christmas cards left on doorsteps. Last year, I wasn't quite as prepared for the abundance of neighborliness, though I did make some items and enjoyed every minute.  This year, I've settled on a less labor intensive gift. I've seen it on lots of different blogs in the last few months and it's a variation on a treat I made several Valentines' Days ago.

These Peppermint Pretzels are easy and delicious. 

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees (yes, that's all).  You will need:

Mini pretzels. I used the twists but the squares would work too. 
 Place these on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

These delicious Kisses.  Trust me, they're not too peppermint,
more like a butter mint.

No explanation required

Once you've gathered your ingredients, place an individual Kiss on top of each pretzel.

Place your cookie sheet in the oven for approximately four and half minutes (don't walk away!).  Once you remove them from the oven.  Allow to sit for about 45 seconds before placing an M & M on top (this helps them melt just a little extra). Place them in the refrigerator and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.  

These treats are delicious.  I've decided to package them two ways this year. I found these cute food safe bags at Target.

They hold approximately twenty pretzel candies.

But for those in the neighborhood with smaller children, I decided to utilize these little reindeer cupcake toppers, which I bought online last year, to create a special container. 

Last year, I attached them to the top of a cute frame or two.  

This year, with the aid of a Sharpie - Rudolph magically appeared. 

I then used my glue gun to attach Rudolph to white mason jar lids I'd purchased at Walmart. (I got the mason jars there, too). The tulle and tag were the final additions and viola.

Decorating Doubts

This year, Thanksgiving — always on the fourth Thursday in November — was November 22nd.  That’s the earliest possible date the holiday can fall (for the record, November 28th is the latest).  We usually wait until the first full weekend in December to do most of our festooning (don't often get to use that word), but it seems that Christmas decorating has been in full force around town almost since we bid adieu to Halloween. That being said, I didn't waste much time getting our Nutcracker tree  up and decorated two days ago. I wrote about our tree two years ago, here and here, should you doubt my fanaticism.  This year there are some exciting new developments:

The Rat King and his cohorts have taken up residence in the Dining Room.
They've spent the last few years in the upstairs hallway and were ready for some
more attention.

This continues to be my favorite ornament on the tree.

This small Christopher Radko nutcracker ornament was a gift to my daughter
from her 6th grade Latin teacher who had attended her Nutcracker performance.
(Thanks Mrs. Culbertson!)

Oddly, I know, the mouse king is my favorite character.  Consequently, this
is the newest ornament on our tree.

Most of my nutcracker collection loves their new HQ; standing at attention on top of
our dining room china cabinet.

The tree skirt won't be ignored.

Maybe I'll be sick of all this Christmas adornment by the second week of December.  I can say with certainty, it won't be up until the Epiphany, well . . . except perhaps this little tree.

Today

More Tradition

"I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, 

and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands."

~Buddy, the movie Elf

My children still enjoy decorating Gingerbread houses.  Mostly, they still enjoy eating candy, but nevertheless, we do it every year.  Generally our Gingerbread house day follows the last day of school before the Christmas holiday.  

Lights

The holiday light show continues in Dallas. Every day it seems like there are more and more lights at which to gaze and be amazed. 


I have to say, this ranks right up there as one of my favorite aspects of the holidays.  As promised, here are a few photos from some of the more audacious displays.  


These 3 photos were all taken at the same home.  Trust me when I say the photos hardly do the scene justice.  There are gigantic, mechanical toys and music as well.  It is spectacular. Whoever said, "I've paid to see things not as good as this", was probably taking about this home's Christmas light show. Not surprisingly, this is the same home with the blinking eyeballs at Halloween.  They must love holidays even more than me.  

Comparatively, this home, which is just around the corner from the one above, is understated.  But isn't it lovely?

This full-sized nativity sits in the front yard of home not far away.  I have it on good authority that the Baby Jesus keeps getting kidnapped (perhaps "borrowed" is a better word, because he does eventually return).  Fortunately, he was present for our photo taking session.  

The Nativity sits in a portion (on the left) of this yard, which is also beautiful but understated.

Though you can't see it well, that's a life-size Santa in the window of
above the front door - he moves from
side to side and waves as you drive by.  Adorable.  

Even the city gets in on the action.  The 100-year-old pecan tree (it's at least 60 feet tall) which sits in the middle of a busy thoroughfare is decorated annually and it's lighting is a special ceremony.

Another reason to love crepe Myrtles, which are everywhere in Texas.  This is a random side street on our way home.  See also the cute house just down the street.  

Lest you think all the residents of Dallas have their paychecks direct deposited into the power company's bank account, rest assured, there are plenty (most, in fact) of houses with sweet, subtle light displays and even a few with Christmas inflatables (I saw my first Nativity inflatable the other day, wish I'd thought to take a picture of it). But trust me when I say, almost everyone here has some special decorations - making Christmas all the more magical.  

The Nativity

“Hey, unto you a child is born!”

- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*

Sweet memories of my children re-enacting The Nativity

Since he was just 7 days old, I guess it's not surprising his sister enlisted him for the starring role.  

She was 6 and he was 3 and she  "demoted" him to playing the role of  Joseph.  

*If you haven't read this adorable book aloud to your children, you should. In fact, everyone should read it.  

Up On the Rooftop

No doubt, every family has a few strange holiday traditions. Chief among ours, is the ritual which follows our return from the annual tree buying excursion: we sit the children, plus the occasional toy or even a real dog or two on the roof of the car, and snap a photo. I'm not certain how this got to be a tradition, but without fail, we always pause long enough to engage in this little ceremony. Don't believe me? Here's the proof (from most years):