Texas Christmas

 An exciting Thanksgiving break spent traveling to the Caribbean lead to a relaxing Christmas vacation spent in one of our favorite Texas locations, Wimberley. Grammy and Papa Mas joined us right after the last day of school for the year and we packed up and headed west.  

We rented a house on Cypress Creek that had perfect proximity to the middle of town in one direction and at an HEB in the other. There was a main house for us and a guest house that was perfect for my parents. This place had a pool table and table video game console in our house. The guest house was equipped with air hockey, one of Grammy's secret talents!Graham got better each day, but she remains the reigning champion.

Graham is a #1 fan of the tree playground

Wimberley is known for it's bald Cypress trees. They are everywhere, growing to have gigantic trunks and gangly branches. They lean out over the rivers and creeks and make the perfect rope swing anchors. They also serve as the base for play structures and climbing features, and it was fantastic - they had one at every restaurant we visited.

The restaurant scene in Wimberley is strong! We got coffee each morning from Cypress Creek Coffee House, often passing deer on the way. 

We loved Community Pizza & Beer Garden and Nada Mucho. Neon Armadillo had great potential, but was busier than they could handle and we ended up with a comically bad experience from a completely overwhelmed staff. 

Neon Armadillo

The weather was ideal and we were able to walk around in shorts and t-shirts shopping and sightseeing in town. Many of the parks and public areas of the town have these huge limestone slab formations that were fun to climb around.

Jon and I took the chance to climb Mount Baldy, an unusual hike that is simply 218 rock stairs. The lookout at the top is a 360 view of Hill Country, which was beautiful and also a testament to how flat Texas actually is. We are in Hill Country and the "mountain' is 218 steps and allows for a complete 360 degree view of the area. 

We got a little taste of the Christmas spirit by attending the EmilyAnn Theatre Trail of Lights. This display was precious, so many different shops and people from town constructed their own sponsored light exhibit. It was free, self-guided and only 10 minutes away from where we stayed.

We left Wimberley on Christmas Eve morning, planning to get home in time for an easy dinner before the big night. We were SHOCKED to see that Uncle Chris had flown in as a surprise! He pulled it off without another soul knowing what he was planning. We were so excited to have him join in on the Christmas celebration! Santa came early for us this year!!

It was such a treat to have Grammy and Papa Mas here with us for Christmas. We got to show off Texas in it's finest hour (winter) and spread a little more joy under the Christmas tree. Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving on Turks & Caicos

 This Thanksgiving we have had planned for nearly two years. In celebration of both the Thanksgiving holiday and Thom and Lornie's FIFTIETH wedding anniversary, the entire Gill family spent the better part of a week in Turks & Caicos at a Beaches all inclusive resort. With this size crew and 5 self-sufficient kids, we were able to spread out and take advantage of many of the resort offerings. 

First and foremost, unlimited frozen yogurt, pina coladas and/or strawberry daiquiris. Countless. First it was a novelty, then it became a challenge from Aunt Kyra to go a WHOLE DAY without drinking a sugary beverage. That took a lot of willpower, but a few of the kids went one or even two days without. 

Gran and Poppa were thoroughly generous and indulged the grandkids every request. Sparkle tattoo? Yes. Fancy braids? Yes. Build-A-Bear? Yes. There could be no complaining that anyone needed something to do. 

My personal favorite "yes" was clear bottom kayaking with sea turtles. Alex, Graham, Kyra and I paired off for an excursion with our guide, Byron. It was very low impact kayaking, he towed the whole group, tethered together in a long snake, out to a mangrove "island" and once we were safely shielded from the ocean current, we paddled around dozens of beautiful sea turtles. The water was beautiful and clear, when the turtles surfaced to breathe they sounded like little whales! I adored it!

We had additional adventures riding horses on the beach, going parasailing and tubing on a huge water couch! The beach was soft and clean, and the oversized hot tub was an evening favorite with the kids. We had a really great week with beautiful weather and great company, and lots of experiences to remember for years to come!

Just to top off the week, we had one final adventure, this one was no less exciting, but a lot less fun. We had the terrible luck to fly through Chicago for a connection to Houston and we arrived along with a full-fledged snow storm. We ended up staying the night, more accurately, we stayed the morning - checking into our hotel at 1:15am and leaving for the next days plane adventures at 8:30am. We were thoroughly unprepared, with the boys wearing crocs, Graham and I wearing shorts and not a jacket to be seen. Chicago ended up getting 10 inches of snow that day/night and while it was at first exciting and magical (none of the kids had seen that much snow before), it became frigid, exhausting and uncomfortable very quickly when we had to be outside. We made it through, got home late the next day via Ft. Meyers, FL and after 35 hours of travel we were very excited to sleep in our own beds. 

It all comes with traveling, the highs and the lows, we were safe and together and we all made it home in one piece. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you to the Gill Family for a wonderful island vacation.