Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 came and went in a blur. First up, went learned at the last moment Ivy was having a Christmas Program at her school. We weren’t prepared! Or maybe we just weren’t paying attention. Either way, we scurried around and got to the school on time. She did great! Front and center and enjoying the limelight. It was a big night for her, and it was sweet watching her interact with her friends and classmates.

Holly and I took a night off to go see the Brian Setzer Christmas Orchestra. Remember him? Formerly of the Stray Cats? Yeah, that guy. He does a big-band, rockabilly Christmas show each year that is very popular. I enjoyed it quite a bit. This was at the Arena Theater on Houston’s west side.

We met up with Arturo a few nights later at Discovery Green Park for some Christmas activities.

Holly’s immediate family in Houston does not get together, so we considered just doing nothing for the holidays or making the drive to Arkansas. After some thought, we decided to head north. I was worried about Ivy surviving a 10 hour drive and not making us crazy, but she did fantastic!

First, we stopped in Dallas to visit my good friends Chuck and Tina Deitrick. Then, the next morning scuttled on up to Fayetteville. It was cooooold!!! But Wes and & Jenn’s house was big, warm, and inviting. We celebrated with lots of food and wine, and even a chocolate fountain. We even got mom to take a shot of hard liqour. I don’t think she cared much for it. Then came opening the presents and especially the White Elephant Game. One hilarious moment came when Ivy went to pick out a random gift, but it turned out to be a bottle of Whiskey! Oh my! Fortunately, someone stole the gift away from her in the next round and she ended up getting a Soap and Lotion basket. Much better.

The weather report was giving us bad news, so we decided to leave Arkansas bit early. It turned out to be not early enough! We drove into a snow storm in Oklahoma, and for the next 8 hours or so just creeped along at about 30-40 miles per hour. I saw lot of wrecked cars and flashing police lights, so we finally decided to hole up in southern Oklahoma at a hotel. To make matters worse, Holly was getting sicker by the minute. Her throat was sore and she felt feverish. So we pumped her full of Nyquil and put her to sleep. The next day, we scraped off the ice and snow from the car and continued crawling south. The roads didn’t finally clear up until Dallas. Then it was smooth sailing all the way home. I drove the entire way – 16 hours – and was exhausted by the time we finally reached the house.

That was about it for Christmas this year. Not too wowzie, not too shabby. Another year gone by.