 |
| Emma played a difficult 6-year-old. Jade was entranced by the play and got to hang out briefly with Emma between the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. shows. |
 |
| Jade wanted to meet Aurora, who played the class rich girl. Aurora let Jade try on her tiara. |
 |
| Emma and Jade borrowed Santa's chair. |
 |
| Cousins |
 |
| We took Jade to Waco with us so she could see Emma perform in "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" on Saturday morning. Einar showed up hungry as we were leaving, so Jade filled his bowl with milk. |
 |
| Someone was sound asleep when we arrived! |
 |
| And sound asleep at dinner. |
 |
| But awake for a swim at the hotel later! |
 |
| Cheryl was in town from Bulverde to speak at a brain injury conference on Friday. Had to try Cover 3, a sports bar that has really good food, right in our neighborhood. |
 |
| Okay, I don't usually post food photos, but this looked so scrumptious! I didn't have one bite. Cheryl and Tom had their work cut out for them. |
 |
| Sarah and Jim joined us for tacos at La Mancha on $2 Tuesday, December 8, 2015.. |
 |
| We had dinner with Grandma Evelyn at La Mancha on $2 Taco Tuesday, loading up on an assortment of tacos. Sarah and Jim joined us too. |
 |
After dinner, we hung out on our deck as the sun set. |
 |
| Anjanette and Jason brought along friend Alex when they brought Jade home Sunday night. Coffee courtesy of Amon. |
 |
| Guacamole and chocolate milk for dinner. Because. |
 |
| Got to catch up with Rebecca Melancon at the SOS holiday party. The group's purpose is to prevent pollution of the Barton Creek watershed, which could destroy Barton Springs pool. Rebecca and I worked together at the Williamson County Sun in Georgetown in the late 80s. She and husband Ken Martin (retired Marine colonel and investigative reporter at The Sun) moved to Austin and published The Good Life, about healthy living, for a number of years. Ken now runs the online newspaper "The Austin Bulldog" and Rebecca heads up the Austin Independent Business Alliance. And she's also a former New Orleanean! |
 |
| No Austin party is complete unless there's live music. |
 |
Martha and Craig flew to Baltimore on Thanksgiving Day, to be with Michael Craig. But before they left, Martha made sure Donna had a peanut butter cupcake for her birthday. Donna and Mom always had a peanut butter birthday cake on their birthday.
|
 |
Papa Tom, Destry, Colton, Donna, Dad, and Martin. I was the only "girl" voice when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Donna.
|
 |
Destry, Colton, Keely, and Donna
|
 |
Donna and Mom celebrate their birthday in New Orleans in November 2004.
|
 |
We had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the Flying Saucer with Roy and Camille, who was in town from Denver.
|
 |
Good sign when we filled up for the drive to Shreveport: "1303" is our street address!
|
 |
Papa Tom and Jade made Thanksgiving cards for Sadie, Jim, Lucy, and Jake, and delivered them between naptimes. Well, almost between naptimes. Lucy was still asleep while Papa Tom and Jade played with Jake.
|
 |
Jake and Lucy are 5 months old. He barely fits on Fox's lap!
|
 |
| I thought a drummer was soloing at the Thunderbird Coffee House, about two blocks from us, until I stepped onto the back deck and realized nail guns were rat-a-tatting plywood onto the house going up behind ours. Looks like the new neighbors will have a great view of our back yard! |
 |
| So this is where Yoda and Darth Vader have been hanging out! Friday's hearing lasted from 8:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Very nice to take a midday lunch break and walk through the park along the Colorado. Christmas decorations were up. Not sure what Star Wars has to do with Christmas, but was fun to see the decorations. Red v. green light sabers? |
 |
| New highway bridge in front of pedestrian bridge over the Colorado |
 |
| A Great Dane in the Christmas spirit! |
 |
| When we returned to the Holiday Inn Express, several Union Pacific pickup trucks were in the lot. |
 |
| I'd never seen, up close, pickup trucks with regular tires AND train wheels. I wonder if the entire pickup lifts up when the train wheels are engaged? Noted that the truck tire psi was 95, whereas the Zoomer's tires only require 35 psi. |
 |
| I wonder what they would be locking or tagging? |
 |
| After Wednesday's hearing ended, Papa Tom met me at Neighbors, a multi-tiered restaurant on the Colorado River. We were too late for sunset. And, okay, it was below 60 degrees, so the ski jacket came out. |
 |
| Neighbors is surrounded by antique vehicles and farm equipment. |
 |
| After dinner, we walked across the Colorado River on the old highway bridge, now for pedestrians and cyclists, and romantics who leave their names on locks attached to the bridge. |
 |
| Or memorialized a special date. |
 |
| Papa Tom studied the river below, but it was too dark to see anything. |
 |
| Thank goodness Papa Tom remembered to bring an extra cap from Austin. A warm head makes a difference! |
 |
| I had a 4-day hearing in Bastrop, beginning on Tuesday, November 17. Couldn't help but admire the autumn sky at the end of the day. |
 |
| Because I was only 40 miles from Austin, Papa Tom came over and joined me for dinner at the Roadhouse. We tried the Roadhouse's jalapeno cream cheese burger, named one of the top 50 burgers in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine. Shorted ourselves on the experience by scraping the fresh cut jalapenos off before eating it. But cream cheese, slightly spicy with jalapeno juice, is great on a burger! |
 |
| So many burger places, so little time! Papa Tom remembers going to Griff's Burgers as a kid in Beaumont. |
 |
| Fox decided to invite Piper to sleep over, after talking with Mya, River, and Piper on Monday night. |
 |
| Fox is a tiger holding baby Piper in her lap. Fox wrote both their names and drew the heart. |
 |
| Fox asked me to write the note for her: "I want a sleepover. Please, I'm begging you, Piper, because I never had a sleepover with you before!" She then signed both their names. |
 |
| We had time to walk the letter to the mailbox just before Fox's bedtime. |
 |
Fuzzy stood up and wiggled her cute pink nose to tell Mya and River how much she likes the pictures of mouse friends!
|
 |
| Mya sent a drawing of two mice enjoying their home, just like Fuzzy does. I love the mouse whiskers! |
 |
| River sent a drawing of mice playing in their cage. He even signed his name at the top. Good job, River! |
 |
| New construction as seen from our back deck. I had to go check it out. |
 |
| Two 2-story houses are going on the lot. We can't figure out how the new houses in the neighborhood are getting around the impervious cover requirements. We weren't allowed to extend out deck out any further due to rules about how close it could be to the elm tree. We'd originally wanted to build it around the elm tree. Wouldn't that have been cool to have a deck around the tree? |
 |
| The house at the back of the lot. Yep, these will have Dr. Seuss roof lines. Used to be so out of character with the neighborhood, but now there are so many with "modern" roof lines that our house may soon be out of character. |
