Texas Trifecta

It had been three years since David and I last visited the Lone Star State together.  That’s too long!  So we were really excited to make a trip to Houston for Thanksgiving, then continue onto San Antonio for David’s grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary, and then work from our Austin offices for the last leg of our trip.

We flew into Houston the day before Thanksgiving with Laura.  We drove straight to the Woodlands to Larry’s house to meet up with Jeff, Amy, and Ross.  Larry’s girlfriend, Connie, also spent the Thanksgiving week with us.  And we got to see Granna and her husband, Robert, for the first time since our wedding five years ago!  They drove in from Amarillo to spend the holiday with her children and grandchildren.

After our reunion, our first food stop of the trip was Chuey’s for some jalapeno ranch and ‘Big As Your Face’ burritos!  Since we arrived before seven, we got to take advantage of the free nacho bar.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget the little things like unlimited chips and salsa / queso.  That is impossible to find in London.

Later that evening, David and I drove over to Katie and Dave’s new house.  It was new for us because we’d never been there, but they’ve lived in the house for about two years now.  The house is gorgeous, and the best part is they are building a custom-made pool in the backyard with a brand new outdoor grill station.  I can’t wait to spend our summer weekends lounging on the tanning shelf with my girlfriends while the guys grill up burgers and hot dogs and pizza for us!

Thursday was Turkey day, and we had a full house.  Denise and Lindsay came over from Kingwood with their two boys, and Connie’s daughter also stopped by with her husband and son.  We had a feast of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberries, corn casserole, stuffing, green bean casserole, cheesy rice with broccoli, and rolls.  For dessert, we had six different pies to choose from – pumpkin, cherry, pecan, chocolate mousse, key lime, and butterscotch.  I split a chocolate mousse and key lime with David and Jeff, and had a slice of butterscotch to myself. 

Ladies, this is what happens when you send your husband to the store for wine on Thanksgiving.  He comes back with one bottle, and before you can yell at him for grabbing just one bottle for 17 people, he pulls out the largest bottle of wine you've ever seen in your life.  

Denise found this 'House Divided' sign for the game on Thanksgiving.

Larry with the kids.

After watching the Macy’s parade and Texas smoke Texas Tech, the kids went for a dip in the hot tub.  I still wanted to try some pecan pie and as it was hours later, I thought it was acceptable to have a slice… in the hot tub.  But hot tubs and pie do not mix.  I definitely felt a little queasy later that night.

On Friday we had breakfast tacos and then watched Trapped in Paradise, a Nicolas Cage Christmas film I had never heard of, before saying goodbye to Larry and driving about four hours to San Antonio.  I had a car full of boys – David, Jeff, and Ross – and we stayed entertained by playing the alphabet game and stopping at DQ for some soft serve.

Saturday was Mama and Dada’s 60th wedding anniversary and everyone came into San Antonio to celebrate.

We started out the day at Lulu’s, a diner in downtown SA where Adam Richman from Man v Food took on the 3lb. cinnamon roll and gigantic chicken-fried steak covered in queso.  Even though I’d conquered a Man v Food challenge in the past, I knew this would be too much for me, so we split the cinnamon roll nine ways with our group.  And even then, we had leftovers to bring back and share with the rest of the family!

While we were taking this picture, Karen was saying, "Hurry!  This thing is really heavy!!"  And notice how we didn't only order the cinnamon roll, but Karen's got fried okra on her plate and I have a breakfast taco.  We needed some saltiness to balance out all of the sweetness...

And you would think a giant anything wouldn’t taste as good as normal-sized, but actually the cinnamon roll was delicious!  Lulu’s begins making them from scratch at 5:00 every morning and they are done rising and baking by 8:00.  Right before being served, the cinnamon rolls are heated up and drenched in frosting.  There was no lack of frosting on these bad boys.  And the best part – 3lbs. of tasty cinnamon roll only set us back $9! 

Worth every penny!

Before going shopping for even more American food and Xmas presents to bring back to London, we stopped by Anna and Mauricio’s house for a visit.  Meike and Felipe were there as well with their new baby, Max.  What a cutie!  I can’t believe that my friends are moms now, and Anna is about to have a little girl!  But I’m not the only one that thinks it’s weird… they do, too!  It was so nice to see the nursery and the baby.  Valentina even kicked for David and me!

I love that V is going to be born just a few months after Max so they can be best friends just like us!

On Saturday night, the anniversary party for Mama and Dada was held at their favourite local Tex-Mex restaurant.  There were 37 of us there to celebrate – four children, fifteen grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren (plus spouses)!

Amazingly, between three dozen people, we couldn't find a decent camera to take a pic (David and I were kicking ourselves for leaving ours back in London).

On Sunday morning, we made our way to Austin, the final city in our Texas trifecta, and had breakfast at Kerbey Lane with Terri and her boyfriend.  S’mores pancakes?  Yes, please.

Once David and I moved out of Austin, almost all of our siblings decided to move into Austin.  Elizabeth, Jeff, Amy, and Ross moved there to attend UT.  Amy has since graduated and now works for the Central TX Food Bank.  Elizabeth is in her first semester, while Jeff and Ross have just a couple years left.

On Saturday, Ross and Amy invited us to their apartment to watch the Texas / Baylor game and exchange Xmas presents.  Ross dressed up as Santa, and with the mini-tree and roaring TV fireplace, it was a cosy afternoon.  Somehow, we did feel warmer with the 'fireplace' on in the background.

It was so nice to just be able to call up my sister to hang out.  We treated her and Jeff to Player’s on Sunday night, our favourite burger spot near campus.  We also got to see Elizabeth’s dorm room in Dobie – which was also my first dorm.  I felt so old when we walked in and Elizabeth introduced us to her RA.  I told her, “I used to live here, too!”  And the RA said, “Oh yeah?  What year?”  “Umm…. it was a decade ago.”  But the place hasn’t changed much in 10 years.  There are still just two elevators for 20+ floors and thousands of students, and large closets but small bathrooms. 

Throughout the week, we ate our way through Austin and caught up with colleagues at work.  I was finally able to meet the local Services Finance team after only ever talking to them on the phone.  David gave me a tour of Volusion’s new office space, which was really modern and fun.  And we caught up with all of our old friends.

Saturday morning, we had a White Elephant Gift Exchange with our old Sunday School class.  While we were shopping on the drag with Elizabeth earlier in the week, we found this amazing pint glass at Urban Outfitters and I knew we needed it for our gift exchange, especially since it was with our Christian Sunday School class.  

David was hesitant, but I told him that even though our friends all have kids now, they haven’t lost their sense of humor.  And if they didn’t find it funny, then we just needed to find new friends.  Luckily everyone thought it was hilarious and the cup was actually stolen twice!

The Sylestine's living room was decorated so nicely for the Christmas party.

Unfortunately David's Walking Dead book was stolen and my 'smart' luggage tags were not...

Brad loved Jen's 'Hot to Trot' nightgown so much, he wore it around for the rest of the party.  Jen does not look amused...

It was so much fun to see everyone and hang out just like old times.  Only difference now is there are half a dozen children running around in the background.  The kids are adorable, and I actually got really upset leaving on Saturday afternoon saying goodbye to them.  I was a blubbering mess, thinking how they only ever hang out with us through Skype and don’t really know us (but thank goodness for technology)!  I eventually pulled myself together… which was probably due to the Hey Cupcake David treated me to.

Our last hoorah in Austin was the Volusion Holiday party at the UT stadium on Saturday night.  Vick from David’s London office had won a contest and flew into Texas to celebrate with us, so there were two employees at the party this year to represent the UK.

We had a great time hanging out with friends and family during this trip to Texas.  It was nice to be able to see almost everyone, as usually we’re only in Austin for a short amount of time.  This time around, it helped that we had ten days across three cities.  Until next time, this image of Jeremy and David in front of the Sylestine’s fireplace will help remind us of the good times we had in Texas… or it may just haunt my dreams!

What is he looking at??

Disneyland Paris

As if being Santa and one of his elves wasn’t enough to get us into the holiday spirit, we decided to continue our early celebration of Christmas by visiting Disneyland Paris this past weekend.  Disney definitely hooked us with their Enchanted Christmas TV advertisements.  Well played, Disney.  Well played.

After work on Friday, we took the Eurostar to France and checked into the Disneyland Hotel, just steps from the park’s entrance.  As we were only going to be in town for a couple of days, we wanted to make sure we didn’t need to worry about shuttles so we stayed close.  Disneyland Paris is much more compact than the other Disney properties, so we were able to walk from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom, Disney Studios, and the Village.

Our hotel / entrance to Disneyland Park

That evening we kept warm by buying some festive Mickey and Minnie ears at the Wonderful World of Disney.  Then we had a late dinner at Annette’s, an American 1950’s style diner where the waitresses serve up burgers, hot dogs, and milk shakes on their roller-skates.  David had the cheese dog and I had a hot fudge sundae.  I know that we’re going back to the states in three days for Thanksgiving and we can get all of that there, but we couldn’t resist.

Saturday morning we woke up early to take advantage of extended park hours for Disney hotel guests.  We had the Magic Kingdom to ourselves from 8-10, and rode Space Mountain four times before trying out Buzz Lightyear’s Lazer Blast, the Orbitron, and then moving into Fantasyland.  There, we rode Casey Jr. (or Carl’s Junior as David called him) through the fairy-tale countryside, spun around on the tea cups, and flew on Dumbo.  (We definitely felt a little awkward just the two of us on the kiddo rides, but it’s Disney – perfect for all ages.  Right, right??) 

So empty at 8:00 in the morning!

At 10:00 when the Studio opened, we rushed over and got in line for Tower of Terror.  After dropping into the Twilight Zone, we visited the Armageddon lot to take part in the special effects show.  David loves Armageddon and has probably seen the movie 100 times.  He was quoting all of the lines while in line waiting for the show to begin.

Everything was in French, with English sometimes thrown in.  Good thing David is more fluent than me!

David with the Armadillo

Later, we swam through the EAC with Crush, met Aerosmith on the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, and rode Andy’s favourite toy car, RC Racer, in Toy Story Playland.  

Then we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to tour Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, defeat the Death Star on Star Tours, discover ancient ruins on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, and meet some spooks at the Haunted Mansion.

And of course we rode Thunder Mountain, too!

And in between all of the rides, we found time to hang out with some old friends.

Pooh in his plaid holiday outfit

Our hotel hosts a character breakfast every morning, but we missed breakfast on Saturday because we were taking advantage of the park’s extended hours.  So on Sunday, we made time to eat with Geppetto and Pluto.

Disney is known for its wide variety of food options, so of course, we ate a lot.  We had lunch of soup and spaetzle on Saturday at King Ludwig’s Castle, and later that night, we had dinner at the California Grill overlooking Main Street USA.  On Sunday, we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It turned out to be lunch with a show because the ride broke down shortly after we were seated.  After about 15 minutes, one of the pirate operators had to climb into the water and start pushing the boats along the broken track.  That ride has had a lot of bad luck lately.  Just a couple of weeks before our visit, a little boy fell into the water and had to be hospitalized when he was trapped by an oncoming boat.  This time, they ended up lowering a ramp into the water from the Blue Lagoon and the people on the boats had to disembark into the restaurant! 

Enjoying some creme brulee after the action was over.

We caught some real shows at the park as well.  There were a couple of parades, one featuring Santa and snow that I thought was real, until we headed to Frontierland and I realized it wasn’t snowing there…  tricky Santa!  The newest thing for winter is the Disney Dreams of Christmas water and light show at the castle.  It featured the characters and songs from Frozen, Disney’s newest animated film. 

David and I felt like little kids again running around Disneyland Paris.  Disney really is the happiest place on earth!  To see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.

Boutique de Noel

I joined the Junior League of London a few months ago to meet some new people and get involved in the community.  A lot of my friends are in the league back in Texas, and I knew a few American girls that were members here in London.  I also wanted to be part of the fun, while giving back at the same time.

It’s been great meeting so many amazing women that work really hard to positively affect the lives of others around London.  The JLL’s current focus is eradicating poverty, and we work with a few partners like Centrepoint, schools through our Learning Club initiative, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to make a difference. 

Of course all of this charity work takes a lot of time and a lot of money.  The JLL’s main fundraising activity is Boutique de Noel and has been taking place every winter for the past 34 years.  Boutique is a two-day Christmas market organized by the women of JLL and the money raised through the ticket and vendor sales helps make our charity work possible.  Basically, it’s a weekend of shopping where a portion of sales goes towards charity.  Could you ask for a better excuse to get your Christmas shopping done early?

As a New Member, I have a few requirements to fulfill like attending orientations, general meetings, volunteering in the community at soup kitchens and putting together amenity kits for women at a shelter, and working on a New Member project.  This year, that project was Boutique de Noel.

I joined the Team Santa committee because I figured it would be a lot of fun getting costumes, decorating the photo area, working with a photographer, and finding Santa volunteers to mingle with shoppers on Friday and take pictures with children on Saturday.  

Though it was a lot of work and a bit hectic towards the end to get everything organized for the event this past weekend, we pulled it off!  Our team put together a schedule of shifts and then reached out to our fellow leaguers to find Santa volunteers, while the ladies signed up to be elves.

I worked on Friday night with Tiffany, Sarah, and Sarah’s boyfriend, Matt... or should I call him Nicholas? 

The shift I worked on Friday for the premier shopping evening was really fun.  We weren’t expecting many children, so we didn’t set up the photo booth until Saturday.  Instead, Santa and his elves walked around Kensington Town Hall encouraging people to shop and buy raffle tickets.  Santa then announced the raffle winners, and even took part in the live auction.

Santa the bartender

The live auction was hosted by one of the leaguers who is a professional auctioneer, so it was really entertaining to watch and raised a ton of cash!  Katherine Hooker, a coat designer that works with Kate Middleton, donated a custom-made coat that went for £1,000.  There were also trips to the states, Paris, and talk show tickets with access to the green room, but the biggest ticket item was the opportunity to open the London Stock Exchange followed by a champagne brunch for the winner and 38 of their closest friends.  That prize went for £3,500!  I was kicking myself, thinking that because our New Member class is so big, we all should have pitched in £100 to go to the stock exchange, and then drawn straws to see who actually got to ring the bell.  A champagne brunch alone is probably worth the £100!  Oh well, at least we know how to strategize for next year…

From American food stalls, to hand-made hats, family photo sessions with a professional photographer, there was something for everyone.  Santa is helping this little girl pick out a scarf.

Tiffany, Sarah, and I felt like little ducklings following around Santa all night.

All photos were taken by Greg Weddell, who donated his time to the JLL for the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, we were short a couple of Santas so Paul and David stepped in to help (or rather, Alyson and I volunteered them).  

David looks so annoyed with me in this picture.  He said he was trying to smile with his eyes, but it wasn't really working...

It was hilarious watching the guys with the kids.  Some were definitely scared and screamed the entire time they were on their laps.  Others were perfectly content, and politely told Santa what they wanted for Christmas before thanking him for the candy cane.  And of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get photos with Father Christmas, too!

Paul (aka Father Christmas) and David goofing around while the room was clear of children

While David waited for more children to come by, he read How the Grinch Stole Christmas to us in his best Santa voice.  

At the end of the day, David didn't want to take the costume off.  He wanted to keep walking around, greeting people and passing out candy canes, saying it felt nice to be Santa – loved and respected by all!

Merry Christmas!

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween was not just one eve, but lasted a week for us this year. 

It started last Saturday at the annual Texas Exes Halloween party.  We grilled out at Paul and Alyson’s first before heading out to Covent Garden for the scholarship fundraiser.

Laura (a loofah), Alyson (a French kiss), Ali (soccer player), David (Jack Sparrow), me (Edward Scissorhands), Paul (Jesse from Breaking Bad), and Jordan (lumberjack).  In the first few pictures, I tried to be like David and stay in character, but after a few pics, I went back to smiling.  When we looked through all of our pictures later, David was in character in every single one of them!  That’s dedication!

Originally, David and I were going with a Tim Burton theme with me as Edward Scissorhands and David as Beetlejuice.  I ordered my costume first, and then David placed his order online a few days later.  When we were putting on our costumes Saturday before the party, David realized the crazy Beetlejuice white wig was sold separately… and he didn’t buy it.  Oops!  Without the wig, he just looked like Robin Thicke and I refused to don a leotard and go as a twerkin’ Miley Cyrus, so instead, David recycled his pirate costume from a few years ago and we did a Johnny Depp theme.

When Jordan told us that he was going to be a lumberjack, I thought, Lame!  Jordan’s from Alaska and wears plaid shirts all the time!  What’s the difference?!  Little did I know he would show up at the Tart’s with a giant homemade ax constructed out of cardboard and duct tape.

David dubbed it the ‘aprodiasax’ because the ladies loved Jordan’s costume!  And whenever someone got separated from the group, all we had to do was look up and find the ax to know where everyone was hanging out.

Kim, Mary Brandon, Frances, and I.  Thank goodness for my scissorhands.  Without them, I felt more like Kris Jenner with that ridiculous hair…

Laura won the Best Female Costume with her homemade loofah and bubble machine! 

Maybe David and I should have gone as Miley and Robin because these two won Best Couple’s Costume!

Best Male Costume, hands-down, was deadmau5.

Early the next week, David and I watched the classic Night of the Living Dead, carved our pumpkins, and roasted the seeds.  Whole Foods recently opened another store in Richmond in West London, and we had visited the week before to pick out our pumpkins and buy stencils.  After my first stenciled pumpkin last year in Connecticut, I wanted to show David how it’s done.

My Trick or Treat, David’s raven on a skull, and Kirby’s wolf.

On Wednesday, Jordan, Paul, Alyson, David, and I ate dinner at the new Shake Shack in Covent Garden (my new favorite burger place in London!) before seeing The Woman in Black.  I’d wanted to see the play since we moved to London, and Halloween week was the perfect time! 

For anyone that’s seen the movie, you know it’s scary as hell.  David saw the play when he was a kid living in England and was terrified, so he built it up for us.  The play was a play within a play, with the old man telling his story of his encounters with the woman in black.  It was very creepy and there were a few moments when I had to cover my eyes, but not quite as scary as the movie.

On Thursday, we stayed home and passed out candy to the kiddos.  And as in previous years, we had a ton of kids!  Our new neighborhood has even more children than our old one, so even though it was Fall Break, we still had well over 150 kids.  They would come in throngs, and after about 90 minutes, I ran out of candy!

David was on his way home from work, so I kept opening the door and telling the kids to come back in 10 minutes.  Finally, as I was turning away some children, I could see him pedalling home as fast as he could on his bike, his backpack overflowing with Mars bars!  Whew!

Once he got home, he dressed up as a pirate and Kirby had a wardrobe change.  Kirby’s costume this year was Indiana Jones, but David wanted him to be his ‘first mate’ so we quickly changed Kirby into last year’s pirate outfit.  They would open the door together and Kirby was such a good boy to sit there nicely and greet the children.

David is still in character...

Then Paul came over with Kirby’s girlfriend, Belle, and Belle got to wear Kirby’s Indiana Jones costume.  

David fears for our future children!

People were taking pictures of the dogs, our lanterns, and complimenting us on our cobwebs and pumpkins.  Almost every parent asked how we carved our pumpkins (I guess they don’t have stencils outside Whole Foods).

Belle welcoming the trick-or-treaters

Our favorite quote of the night from the trick-or-treaters was, “Are you American?”  David – “How’d you guess?”  Kids – “Because this is the best house on the block!”

But alas, even with the extra candy that Paul brought over, by 9:00 we were out again and had to turn away more kids.  We quickly took down all of our decorations and turned our lights off.  Then we watched Hocus Pocus, ate some chicken taco soup, and for dessert had brownies and homemade Butterfinger bars that actually tasted like Butterfingers but I will never make again because making candy is really, really tough. 

It was an epic Pinterest fail.  I thought it'd be simple with only four ingredients - candy corn, peanut butter, white chocolate, and brown sprinkles.  Nope.  First I melted some candy corn in the microwave, but I didn't check it every 30 seconds, so it spilled over the bowl and quickly hardened on the microwave plate.  While I was soaking the plate in the sink, I tried to melt the white chocolate in the microwave but apparently you need that protective glass plate or the microwave will start smoking…   Then it was impossible to cut the candy because it was way too hard, so instead of the perfect little Butterfinger bars from the pin’s picture, I had chunks of melted candy corn and peanut butter that looked more like peanut brittle.  And in the process, I almost cut off my thumb.  It seems that I’m doomed to have a horrible Pinterest fail every Halloween. :(

Oh well, it was still a great Halloween and now it’s officially the start of the holiday season with our Thanksgiving trip to Texas quickly approaching!!