A Gran and Poppa Holiday Season

Gretchen has been bitten by the theater bug and we could not be happier! This year the school musical production is Legally Blonde Jr. and Gretchen was double cast as Enid Hoops and a party frat guy. She was so fun to watch and we were so excited that Gran and Poppa were able to fly down and join us for both shows. Gran was put to work and set out chairs, helped with concessions and (most importantly) held the best seats for all of us.

Gretchen and her amazing theater teacher, Ms. Wiser

This was such a fun way to begin the December madhouse weeks!

We were excited to have Gran and Poppa stick around to see us through Christmas. With so much time, we had the chance to explore different places in and around Houston. Jon and Thom spearheaded a guy's brewery tour day, and the weather made it perfect. 

We went into the city to be silly at the Museum of Illusions at the Galleria Mall. Here are some of our silliest photos from this fun spot.

And spent an evening at the zoo exploring Zoo Lights, one of our favorite Christmastime activities. 

In Texas, it snows bubbles.

We had a few extra days so we ventured out of Houston and drove to Bandera to spend a few nights in that part of the state. 

Cousins Jill and Brook joined us for an afternoon at Deep Eddy.

We had an adventure filled spirited Christmas season!

A Very Texas Thanksgiving

 As of the middle of this year, my family is now spread across both Atlantic and Pacific coast states. This provided the perfect opportunity for us to stay put in Texas, and everyone come to the middle of the country for Thanksgiving! This was no easy feat, for many of the nieces and nephew, this was only their 2nd airplane trip ever. For Chris, his rigorous holiday schedule at the airport makes it hard to leave for the 2nd biggest travel week of the year. For my parents, Grammy has been dealing with mysteriously low energy levels, was released from the hospital 48 hours before flying out and needed 2 blood transfusions within the week before travel. Papa Mas is still recovering from multiple strokes in 2022 and this was only his second trip since his hospital stay ended. Needless to say, it took grit to get everyone here, but everyone made it and we are so very happy that they did.

Bernard held his own as the littlest family member

The week of Thanksgiving we spent at a large beach house in Jamaica Beach, south of Galveston. If felt like a complete departure from our everyday lives in Texas, there was water a short walk from the front door, we could listen to the waves and watch the ships pass by all day long, and while the weather didn't exactly cooperate, no one missed out on playing in the sand.

Peityn showed off her perfect spiral throw

Gretchen went fully incognito in her new gigantic sweatshirt

The little girls diligently filled things with sand. 

Aubrey brings her own style everywhere she goes

The day we arrived, we had some really nice weather, warm temps and sunny skies. Like an amateur, I didn't pack swimsuits so the kids had no other choice but to go into the chilly ocean fully clothed. They did. They stayed for FAR longer than I would have thought. And then they stayed for games. 

We had some nice quiet moments of playing and catching up.

And big, loud moments when we were joined by Dallas cousins and the kids all fell in like old friends.

We were given an insider tip to skip the dolphin watching tour, and take the free ferry that goes between Galveston and Fort Bolivar every 10-20 minutes. Great tip! We saw hundreds of dolphins without spending a dime!

We explored all kinds of kid-friendly Galveston attractions like the Moody Garden pyramids:

The Rainforest Cafe, complete with a face paint artist that found a cash cow in our table of EIGHT children:

We had matching jammies and catered food on Thanksgiving. No one got much sleep, but it was so much fun.