Texas Christmas

I'm finally getting around to writing about our trip to Texas--2 weeks after the fact. I'm nothing if not prompt. Anyway, we left on the afternoon of the 31st (after finding out that morning that the car had a huge transmission leak--Merry Christmas!) We got out of town at a good time, though and stopped for the night at a Ramada Inn on the south side of Oklahoma City. It wasn't great digs but it was adequate (let's just say the pictures on the Internet were much better than the reality). They did have a good hot buffet in the morning which we all enjoyed. We got a leisurely start at about 9:30 and pulled into Tom and Bethany's driveway a little after 1 pm on the 1st. The sun was shining, it was 60 beautiful degrees, and I soaked it up (it's been a cold start to our winter). Everybody was there except for Ben and Liz. Kamryn had been throwing up that morning and Ben called from the ER to tell us they were admitting her. Fortunately, an hour or two later, he called to tell us that after fluids she revived and they had cleared her of any diseases. As it turned out, she got sick from a mislabeled alternative med that she had been taking for sinus stuff. Ben informed the company, heads rolled and B & L will never be using that stuff again! Kam's fine now--no worse for the wear, but it was scary. Ben and Grant came a few hours later.

We enjoyed a great day and supper together that night. With all the sickness and upheaval (no pun intended) at Ben and Liz's house, everyone decided to crash at Tom and Bethany's. Stewart very graciously gave us his room. We packed ourselves quite nicely in there--Scott and I were on the bed, and the blowup mattress with boys filled up the rest of the floor.

The next day we had a great breakfast courtesy of Tom. We had decided to take the light rail from Fort Worth to Dallas, just for the sheer experience of it, and see a train exhibit at Northpark Mall. The boys were thrilled to be riding the double decker train, and though the scenery was pretty industrial, we all had a fun time click-clackin' down the track. We met up with Ben and Grant at the mall, ate lunch and saw the train exhibit. We ambled back down to the train station just in time to catch our train, but had a little mix-up--we all thought Grandaddy was on the lower deck of the station looking at something when the train pulled up. While we were searching for him, the train left without everyone...except Granddaddy! He thought we were on the train and had slipped on. We waited for the next train and met up with him at Union Station. Our next connection didn't leave for an hour, so we went down to the Kennedy Memorial, saw the window in the Texas Book Depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot the President and the little "X"s" on the pavement which marked the first and second shot. The grassy knoll was nondescript and has been overshadowed by the memorial, so there wasn't much there to investigate. We hung out at a little colonade built in the 30's by the WPA and watch a street performer with dreadlocks perform. His girlfriend was twirling this little dirty rubber pizza crust to the beat. Don't ask me why. All in all, it made for a weirdly engaging show. We gave him money just because it was a beautiful day and that girl could make that rubber pizza do anything.

We caught our train with everybody safely on board, though we had to stand for most of the trip as it was rush hour. We got home, ate Mexican and played our favorite pictionary/telephone game (you write a phrase and pass it around, having everyone alternate pictures or phases to describe it and it gets hillariously muddled in the process).

The next day, Dan, our family and Mom and Dad headed for Hallsville. We stopped in Frisco to see Ben and Liz, since we hadn't seen Liz and Kamryn all weekend. Kam was perky and feeling fine. We took a family picture and then it was off to East Texas. Mom and Dad had to get back by afternoon because the wound care nurse was scheduled to dress the brown recluse wound. We took a little more time getting back...we ate at Pei Wei's and stopped by this conspiracy museum in Canton (that was Dan's idea). We got in and the boys, big and little, took a walk in the woods with Granddaddy. We went to a local favorite, Fugler's, for dinner--which is a convenience store/bait shop/meat processor/restaurant. It was very East Texas. I had to have the fried okra, but only handle a bite of Scott's Bubba burger (what they're famous for). I'd hit my grease overload for the weekend!

Sunday we went to church at Alpine. I hadn't been back for probably 8 or 9 years. It was great to see faces from my childhood--now grown up, with their faces on their children! Alpine has changed tremendously over the years, but it was comforting to see those same folks again. (Aside: in my youth, I used to wonder why older people loved the old church song, "Precious Memories"---somehow, as I get older, I'm starting to see why memories are precious. Anyway...). The engine light turned on when Dan, Scott and I were driving to church, so Scott took the car to Auto Zone to have the car checked out during class. At worship, we couldn't find seats together, so the kids sat with Granmac and Granddaddy and Scott, Dan and I sat towards the back. Fortunately, the kids did fine, though Blane kept peeking over the seats and waving to us during the service.

We left about noon, and despite accidentally getting stuck on the loop around Paris, we made it home without incident. Uncle Dan stayed with us until Thursday, hanging out with boys, playing games, watching the Military History channel until he twitched, eating fish sticks, fries and other kid food and generally having a good time! And so, Texas Christmas 2008 (celebrated in 2009) drew to a close. As such, the countdown to Harnden Christmas 2009 begins...