For Christmas Will received a trip to the Rose Bowl to see his TCU Horned Frogs take on Wisconsin. (See this post for a picture of the happy frog with his ticket.) If you watched the game, you know what an exciting and great match it was and that it ended very well for the Horned Frogs, with a final score of TCU 21 - Wisconsin 19. By Will's account the Rose Parade was "cool, but long" and Rose Bowl experience itself was "awesome" and "amazing."
I pleaded with Will before he left to please take some pictures for me, and he assured me that he would. You would think that after 19 years with this boy, I would understand the need to be specific when making requests, but somehow the need to add "with you in at least one of them" did not occur to me.
Will's seat was on the front row in the corner of an endzone directly behind the TCU band
Video clip of TCU blocking Wisconsin's 2-point attempt which essentially sealed the win for the frogs
The past several years on New Year's Eve, we have gathered at the home of our good friends Wendy and Randy and rung in the new year with their family and some of their other friends. My friend Wendy goes all out with her food, decorations and party favors, and we always have a wonderful time. This year was no exception.
Our wonderful hostess Wendy and me
Wendy's husband Randy (far left) and Robert (far right) with some of the other men at the party
Dots and a few friends enjoy some of Wendy's delicious dinner. I can't believe I neglected to take a picture of the bounteous spread of food Wendy served (beef tenderloin, boiled shrimp, fabulous shooters of black-eyed peas - it was as beautiful as it was tasty)
Vivian enjoyed herself at the party too! (Even though she insisted upon wearing her pink Rudolph nightgown on top of her clothes. *sigh*)
Dots and friends don some of the hourly party favors
Randy rolls out long swaths of bubble wrap for everyone to stomp at the stroke of midnight (11:00 central time - we celebrated with New York)
Christmas morning: Santa has been here! (Will received a trip to the Rose Bowl and Dots a summer mission trip to Colorado. Vivian got some books and toys.)
Robert, Dots and my mom gather in the kitchen...
...while Will tries to convince Vivian to come upstairs and see what Santa brought her
Everyone checks out their presents
Vivian loves her new singing Rudolph toy
Dots opens a "peace" present from Biba and Sir (my parents)
Robert reads one of Vivian's new books to her
Will is very happy with his new vest and a gift of cash
Vivian's favorite gift was a life-size Cavalier King Charles Spaniel like our dog Tucker
For Christmas dinner we went to my Aunt Judy's house. The drive there was so beautiful! It felt sort of like "over the river and through the woods"
Me with my cousin Nancy Baby (known to the rest of the world as "Nancy" but to distinguish her from my Aunt Nancy, our family has always called her "Nancy Baby"). Notice my mom to the left: she is wearing a black leather jacket that she bought to take to college over 50 years ago - it still looks great!
The "adult table"
The "grown-up kids table" plus Robert
The "kids table" plus sweet Aunt Judy
Vivian, meanwhile, found a bed to curl up in and slept through the whole party!
Me, Robert, Will and our cousin Peter relaxing after dinner. I think we were watching the Cowboys game, which didn't turn out too well for our home team
As you can see, we had a very merry Christmas! I hope you and your family did too.
Our family went to my parents' house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a week where we enjoyed a great holiday. Vivian was perfect traveling up there and back (well, except for one complete meltdown at the bottom of the airplane stairs that temporarily blocked other passengers from exiting the plane, but other than that...). Christmas morning didn't seem to overwhelm her as it sometimes has in the past.
Will brought a friend from TCU with him, and they really enjoying snowboarding together. His friend flew home on Christmas Eve. I held my breath that the friend would make it back to his family in a timely, uneventful manner (he did). I would have hated for him to hit some sort of weather snag and have to spend Christmas Day in the Salt Lake airport or somesuch place!
I haven't downhill skied much since my mom quit skiing several years ago. I am wholly uncoordinated and unathletic and very timid on the slopes, and my mother was the only other person in our family who preferred the same level of downhill skiing challenge as I did (minimal). Others will ski with me, but I feel like I'm always making them wait. Also, if I go skiing, I have to leave my mom home with Vivian, and that can make it hard for her to run errands or get other things done. So, I generally stick pretty close to the house, which I really don't mind since at home I spend so much time running here, there and yonder.
This year my dad taught me to cross country ski, which can be done on a track that he grooms around their property, hence involving much less time than a day at the ski village. I loved it! Surprisingly, I didn't find cross country skiing that difficult, though I'm not very fast. It is great exercise, and the experience is very exhilarating.
Here are a few pictures from our Christmas. I hope that you and your family had a merry holiday as well!
My dad (in Rudolph antlers) pulled Vivian in a sleigh while Robert pushed from the back. She seemed to enjoy the ride!
A bundled-up Vivian
What a way to travel!
My mom's sister also has a house in Jackson Hole, and her family came to dinner one night (left to right: Will, my mom, Will's friend Ty, and my Aunt Judy)
Dots holding down the fort at the kids table
Looking out the window at our front deck. There was a lot of snow this year!
With my dad on my first ever cross-country ski outing
Dots in the snow
Ty and Will at the ski village
Vivian, who prefers to stay inside and in her pajamas whenever possible!
Well, taking 13 days to make my first post of 2011 is not what I'd call getting off to a good start in the New Year! I hope to do better the rest of the year.
I wanted to share two portraits that we had made over Thanksgiving weekend. I was very happy with how they turned out, especially Vivian's belated (for obvious reasons) 16-year-old birthday picture. Doesn't she look great?
Married since 1987 to Robert, three grown kids: Will, Vivian, and Dots, one granddaughter: Charlotte ~~~~
Majored in mathematics at SMU, taught elementary school for six years before Will was born, currently tutoring math ~~~~
Things I enjoy: playing duplicate bridge, working NY Times crossword puzzles, reading good books, entertaining, visiting with friends, planning trips, traveling, playing board games, spending time with family, working Liberty jigsaw puzzles, cooking, keeping up with old friends ~~~ happy to correspond with other parents about raising a child with special needs
I unintentionally contaminated all of the pictures on my blog when I changed my privacy settings on Flickr. I am working backwards to correct them all, but it is quite a tedious procedure! If you encounter a post with error messages from Flickr where the pictures should be, then I haven't gotten to that post yet. Please let me know and I will update it immediately. Thanks for your patience!
