Enchanted Christmas

Yesterday, it was so warm Josh wore shorts when he came downtown to meet me for lunch. (His favorite part -- the building's metal detectors). His Christmas wish was for snow. We told him that, although they were predicting that it would get much colder by Christmas day, it was going to be a dry cold and no snow for our first Texas Christmas.

Well, we were wrong. It is snowing like crazy today. Josh got his Christmas wish.
[UPDATE: According to the news, this is the first white Christmas for North Texas in 83 YEARS!! Josh really has the magic wishing touch!]

The snow is not that heavy yet in this photo, but the wind was very strong. When it blew right in your face, you couldn't even breathe. It was pretty the way the snow blew around.



Snowball fight!






Lucas wouldn't look straight up because of the wind, so this was the best I got:



Beautiful snowy Sammy:

Our Christmas Tree

It turns out that if you move halfway across the country, to a warmer climate, you shouldn't expect them to grow the same kind of trees there. Our annual trip to tree farms to choose and cut our own noble fir had to be modified this year. There are no fir trees grown here. We did find that we could buy one pre-cut (and shipped to TX), but to cut our own, we almost exclusively had to go with a pine tree. But we did find a tree farm not too far away that had Blue Ice trees. I really like the color.

Here is Josh helping us cut our tree:



Even Lucas could help this year:



Josh hangs the first ornament:



And Lucas hangs the second:



Honestly, our tree was trimmed in record time this year. The boys really helped, and it looks great.



The full effect:

Here's our birthday girl modeling her gift t-shirt and first laying eyes on that beautiful handmade cake!



Make a wish!



Josh's personally hand-picked gift (from his school's gift sale): a flowery screwdriver. "Because she doesn't have one." She loved it!




The next day, we headed out to Grapevine, Texas, to ride the North Pole Express and see Santa:

Lucas was unimpressed.



Here comes Santa!

Which, as usual, leads Lucas to cling to me for dear life.

Goofball.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

The boys were busy preparing Gammy's birthday cake!

The finished product:

Gail's Birthday!

Gail and Gene came to visit and celebrate Gail 75th birthday. We had a lot of fun.

First, John brought his parents to meet me at work and see downtown Fort Worth. Of course we had to stop in at Schakolad and ogle the handmade chocolates (and sample one or two):



And we toured my office:



Then hit lunch at yummy Greek House:



But the meal of the day was dinner at Bonnell's. Here we are Chef Bonnell:



The food was soooo good. Every single dish, even the sides, was delicious and well-made. It was a great meal and a fun way to celebrate. Made even better by this:

Scrumptious!

Jingle Bell Jog

The four of us registered to participate in the 1-mile fun run during the Jingle Bell Jog for Josh's school district. John's parents, Gail and Gene, were here visiting for the weekend and came along (more on their visit in another post). Gene graciously volunteered to take John's place and run with Lucas, while I ran with Josh, and John and Gail took photos and cheered us along.

The weather forecast had predicted that it would warm up and be sunny, but unfortunately it was still cold and was drizzly yesterday morning. Today, of course, it's sunny and 70. But yesterday we were all shivering in the rain as we waited for the race to start.

First order of business was meeting up with Santa and making sure he knew what was on Josh's wish list. Lucas, as usual, kept a safe distance away and clung to me for dear life, but he did manage a wave to Santa this year:




One mile with a 5-year-old is more like a sprint. I didn't think we'd ever reach the finish before my lungs gave out. Here we are finally making our way into the track, where the finish line awaited just one lap away. Josh, of course, entered first:




Followed by mommy:



Finish line!

Then we sprinted back across the field to catch Papa Gene and Lucas making their way into the track. Lucas has pretty good form for a 2-year-old (not to mention Gene's excellent form for a runner of his age. Together they had to set the record for youngest/oldest duo):

Josh and I joined Gene and Lucas for their run to the finish:



And then Lucas stopped just short of the finish line and refused to take another step. All five of the rest of us encouraged, cajoled, and finally just basically dragged him across the finish:



Gail and Gene at the finish line:

Turn up your volume and press play, and you can hear the announcer on the track calling out the names of the winners in the Kindergarten category. Pay special attention to second place (the sprinting paid off):

(The green ribbon in his hand is the participation ribbon we had already received)

Pride of accomplishment. Look at that smile!



Sharing the good news with Santa:



Back home after the race, thrilled with the fun we had:

Fort Worth Stockyards on my Birthday

My parents came to visit for Thanksgiving, which meant they were also here for my birthday (which almost always falls over the Thanksgiving holiday). We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards that afternoon, for the twice-daily cattle drive. It is a whole little area dedicated to the cowboy lifestyle, with the cattle exchange, cowboy hall of fame, cowboy gear stores, weekend rodeo, and attendant gift shops. It was fun. The weather was gorgeous! As you can see Josh is in shorts and a t-shirt. A week later to the day, it was snowing here. Crazy.

Here are Josh and Lucas riding "Pecos Bill," a true Texas Longhorn:



The Markley clan:



Here they come:



And there they go (much more slowly than I expected, but then again I would move slowly too if they're going where I think they're going):




And the future rodeo champion demonstrating his winning form (he lasted well over 8 seconds):

I definitely need to try the mechanical bull on our next visit! It looked like a lot of fun.

Santa Fe

I was in Santa Fe all of last week for a training seminar. I stayed in the Plaza area, which is rich with adobe architecture and art museums and galleries. Since I was in seminars and/or working on a brief all through the daytime, it was kind of nice that there was so much to see just walking along the street for an hour or so before dinner. The buildings are all lined with luminaries along the roof lines, which makes for very lovely evening views.


This is the view from the Plaza toward the shops and La Fonda:





This is the St Francis church. It is a mix of three architecture styles: Adobe, French, and Romanesque. St. Francis is the patron saint of Santa Fe ("City of Faith").





St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be sainted:




I loved the sun setting on this tree:









And, to contrast with the ancients peoples and architectures, something from the future: an R2D2 post office drop box!

"Trick or treat" from Josh and Lucas!

Unfortunately this recording starts too late and they had lost some of the joy of saying "trick or treat" by having to say it over and over for the camera, but at least you can see them in the flesh here.