Houston Christmas

On Monday after Christmas we traveled back to the Houston area and celebrated Christmas with Grandma, Dziadziu, Joanne and Joe. We arrived just in time to see the start of the Independence Bowl, pitting the Aggies vs. Georgia. We watched the new year arrive at the Carter's house in the old 'hood. Sean stayed up way past midnight...

Barbara counting the year left in Coach Sherman's contract

Sean and Uncle Joe read Joe's book on pre-history

Fowl Pictures

The weekend after Christmas we took a trip to the county park in Kerrville to feed the ducks and geese and then to the Beckman farm near the LBJ Ranch to see chickens and other farm animals.

Kerrville Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Kerrville with Nana, Grandpa and Tadd. We attended the Christmas vigil at First Presbyterian. Sean went to the nursery for most of the service, but came back for lighting candles and singing Silent Night. Sean got James (from the Thomas the Train series) and Legos (strangely, also James from Thomas) and lots of other cool gifts (as did everyone else.)

Sean opening and Owl puzzle from Nana on Christmas Eve

Sean playing Gator Golf from Uncle Tadd - nothing to do with U of F!

Sean, Barbara and Nana opening gifts

Grandpa gets into the spirits (I mean spirit...)

Bahama Cave Trip

Monday morning we visited some caves on the east end of Grand Bahama Island....

Bahama Glass Bottom Boat Trip

Sunday the weather cleared up and we headed out on a trip on a glass bottom boat. The water was too cloudy from the rain to see the two wrecks of the coast, but we did see lots of fish. The captain brought along a lot of bread for everyone to feed the fish. On the way back we stopped in a channel and picked up a hitchhiker out of the water - a lobster/crab fisherman. Sean thought the lobsters were cool.

Bahama Pics

Bahama Vacation

We slipped away Thursday for a short vacation in the Bahamas on Grand Bahama Island. While lows are in the 30's in Houston and there is a blizzard on the East Coast of the U.S. there is also a severe cold front here. The high today was only 70F. Sounds nice, but a little cold for us Texans to swim. Yesterday when the front moved through it rained torrents all day. We made the best of it and went sight seeing and got drenched. Sean thinks it is great fun here because he gets to watch TV - being trapped in a hotel room a lot.

Gearing up for Christmas

Our new tree finally arrived last week (I finally talked Barbara into an artificial tree.) We spent a day last week and this evening decorating it. Barbara suggested a train to go around the tree (and had to twist my arm really hard!)

Yesterday we went to Greg's house to watch the Big XII Championship Game. We finally met Tyler (Greg's son, named after Earl Campbell - The Tyler Rose.) The 'Horns barely pulled out a win and are now 13-0 and will play for the National Championship on January 7th.

This afternoon we went to Nick and Heather's for a Christmas cookie exchange. The ladies messed with cookies and the guys and kids hung out in the newly redone playroom to watch football.

Barbara and Sean decorate the Christmas tree

Sean helps Mom put up an ornament

David with Ike and Clinton. Greg and Sean playing football. Nick supervises.

Elissa, Ike and Sean

Sean in Elissa's play house

Sean plays with the Christmas tree train

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma and Dziadziu's house. They put quite a spread - they made turkeys out of cookies and candy to show where everyone should sit. After dinner we watched the UT-A&M game. Barbara won the coin toss and deferred until the second half, so Sean wore a UT shirt the first half and an A&M shirt the second half.

Sean eat cookies to power the 'Horns to a win

Sean Decorates cookies for Thanksgiving

Pumpkin shaped cranberry sauce

Snow (And Plagiarized Pictures)

Today Houston had its earliest snow fall ever recorded. Sean was staying with Grandma and Dziadziu and got out on Dziadziu's childhood sled (and Sean's great-great-aunt Izia's before that - from the 1930s.)

Sean liked the snow, but not the cold, and after a few minutes wanted to play with the snow inside. His grandparen'ts obliged. He had bowls of snow to play with off and on the rest of the day.

(Thanks to Aunt Jo Jo's Blog for these pictures.)

For her wedding anniversary Barbara got and iPod Nano G4. Here are some videos...Sean's singing/drumming debut is to "Walk the Dinosaur".

Merry Christmas Season

This week Barbara and I finally made it to Bass Pro Shop. It is a very cool store, even if you don't hunt. Sean went there with Grandma and Aunt Joanne last year to get a photo with Santa. This year, we did not even know Santa was there yet. It was a pretty slow Tuesday night - when we went to Santa's Wonderland Santa came and helped Sean play with a remote control truck then we had their picture taken. The place is filled with mounted dead animals, which Sean loves. There is also a shooting gallery with moving animals. Sean made sure he described to me each animal and whether it was a "good' or "bad" animal. We had dinner in the restaurant that has a fish tank and fish mounted everywhere. One other boy, about 5 or 6, at another table kept talking about a blue marlin he thought was a shark. Sean: "that's not a shark!"

Rice Wins!

Saturday we and Dziadziu went to the Rice vs. Tulane game.  Rice entered at 0-9 for the season, and pulled out a convincing win to move to 1-9.  Sean loved the big stadium, but was focused on his popcorn and hot dog most of all.

Sunday we went to visit new baby Dylan Boyce.  He is a cute, small, baby.

Barbara loves her some Dylan

Tadd helps feed Dylan

Sean and Elissa in her club house

Heather has her hands full

Johnsons and Carters Visit

On the morning after Halloween we did Sean's new favorite weekend activity (right up there with falling asleep on the couch and watching football) - having breakfast on the patio.Below, he helps dad concentrate on the paper.

On the day after Halloween the Carters and Johnsons came over for dinner from the old 'hood.  Even with a bigger house 8 kids total seemed like a handful.  Sean talked about it all weekend until they came, and he had a good time having all the kids over.

Halloween 2009

Sean had a great time on Halloween. We went to a 6-year old birthday across the street in the afternoon. Halloween night Sean and Mom went trick-or-treating while Dad manned the house. We had about 35 people come by. Dad got a little cranky when Sean and Mom came back and kept handing out too much candy - two pieces per kid, that is the rule!