Texas Here We Come

On our second annual visit to Texas, Annie and I had what we thought was an excellent itinerary, with a flight that was scheduled to get us in at about 8:30. Unfortunately, a storm blanketed the East Coast, and we were pretty seriously delayed leaving Baltimore. This caused us to miss our connection in Charlotte. Luckily, there was a flight to Austin that evening that we could get onto. That flight was also delayed because our flight crew wasn't there. Anastasia was a trooper, but by about 10 pm, she was finished. She crashed on the floor of the terminal as we waited.



Finally, at about 11:15, it was time to get on the plane. The airline employees were wonderful, and helped me carry our bags to the plane while I carried her. She did not wake up, even when I put her down and made her walk the aisle on the plane.



I woke her up when we landed and she did a great job getting her suitcase out of the terminal to where Chris and Rob were waiting for us. I'm very lucky to have a brother and brother-in-law willing to drive more than an hour in the middle of the night to pick us up. We finally got to the house at almost 2:00 am. We crashed.

Next morning, it was time for the kids to open up the presents Annie and I had brought with us. By far the most popular of the presents was the Razor scooter that we'd brought for Andrew. All of the kids took turns on it over the course of the week. We had excellent weather so there was a lot of playing outside. Anastasia was in seventh heaven.



The Windcrest holiday lights competition was a fun diversion for us one evening. Anastasia was pretty excited to see the holiday lights, especially the house with it's lights synchronized to music they broadcast over the radio.



The still photo doesn't do it justice. Here's a video of the same house that gives a better look.



We spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the family time. The week ended with the annual New Year's Eve party at the Osborne's, where once again, I came away with a booby prize in the white elephant gift exchange. Guess I have to go back next year to give it back again.

That was the end of our week in Texas. On New Year's Day, we were up very early and hopped on the early flight home. I won't lie, after a week away, I was ready to sleep in my own bed again.