Christmas in Texas - Part 1

Christmas will be a series of posts since our 9 days in Texas for Austin's first Christmas is definitely blog-worthy.  We were originally going to leave on Thursday 12/22 at 4am to drive to Dallas.  Mother nature intruded and we decided to leave at 3pm on Wednesday 12/21 due to the impending snow storm.  It's a very good thing we left early to get ahead of the storm because Denver and most of eastern Colorado got dumped on.  We ended up getting about 15 inches of snow at our house.  We drove to Wichita, Kansas that night and stayed in a La Quinta (since they allow dogs).  Austin did great for the 7 hours we were in the car.  He slept most of the way and we made 2 stops to nurse him and do a quick diaper change on the seat of the car.  Our night of sleep (1am-7am) was not that great as Savannah was a nervous dog the whole night.  She growled and muffled a bark at every noise (the walls were very thin).  We got on the road to Dallas the next day around 9am.  Austin behaved in the car again.  He slept, pulled on his dangly toy, and talked to himself during the 6.5 hour drive to Dallas.  We arrived at my dad and Michelle's house around 4pm.  They were very excited to see Austin since they hadn't seen him since October.  That night, my aunt Sally, uncle Brent, and cousins Will and Brooke came over for dinner.  This was their first time to meet Austin.  

On Friday morning, we hit the road for the remaining 4 hour trip to Houston.  We made it to my mom and Stacy's house around 1pm.  We unpacked the car and Mimi came over to see Austin.  Mimi and DiDi played with Austin while I went for a run (it was actually very nice that afternoon - not even humid-feeling and about 55 degrees).  On Friday night, David and I even got to go to a last minute dinner at Cyclone Anaya's (yummy mexican) by ourselves while DiDi and Grandaddy (Stacy) babysat.

On Christmas eve, David took Austin over to his mom and dad's house while I baked a cake (chocolate gingerbread toffee cake), ran, and got ready for Christmas eve church and dinner.  We went to church at MDUMC "the Journey" service.  I am excited for when Austin will understand the meaning of Christmas and for we can teach him about Jesus birth.  Austin behaved himself and was all decked out in his Christmas tree smocked outfit.  I splurged and paid $48 for this outfit.  David looks at this as $25/wear.  But, I made sure he wore it 4 times.  So really it was $12/wear.  Plus, it is a great hand-me-down item or can be worn by a second child.  After church, we met the Smiths at La Hacienda.  This was Austin's first time at David's favorite mexican restaurant.  He was practically a celebrity among the La Ha staff.  We then had desserts at the Stephens house.  

 Hanging with cousin Summer and aunt Ellen

 Fun Summi

 Looking sharp

   Deer in headlights