Houston's blizzard

I have lived in Houston longer than anywhere else in my life.  This time around it has been 12 years, but I have been in and out of the area for over 20 years.  I can only remember snow twice and it was a few flakes both times that never stuck.  Both right after David was born.  See this post and this post.  (the other two have seen snow in VA but A barely remembers it). 

We first started seeing the snow sometime in the evening.  David and Michael went out in boxers to celebrate in the backyard. 

But the snow continued.  It was snowing pretty hard by 1:00 am.  We figured it might be the kids only chance to see it (never stick/gone by morning) so I tried to wake up both girls to look out the window.  Neither wanted to wake up.  I then picked up both individually and carried them to the window to look.  I am not sure E even opened her eyes but asked to be put back to bed.  A looked and said, "It's snowing.  Can I go back to bed?"  I took lots of pictures and videos to document this rare occurrence. 

But what happened next is even rarer.  It started to stick!  And when the kids woke the next morning, there was a blanket of snow everywhere on the housetops, yards, cars, and bushes!  Only the street was spared.  I am glad the kids got outside quickly to enjoy it.  By 10 am it was mostly all gone.  But they had enough to time to throw some snow balls. 

Judging by my kid's outfits, they are not true snow bunnies.  Ha!

Later, I saw this on a sign.  Made me laugh.

Maybe in another 20 years...

introduction to the neighborhood

We really enjoyed our first introduction to the neighborhood social life when we attended the annual Breakfast with Santa (kids in pjs). 

We showed up early and had a donut and hot chocolate while the kids watched the beginning of Polar Express and we chatted with neighbors. 

I talked my little artistic child outside to do some crafts.  E stamped a gift bag, made a Christmas card with finger paint, finger painted a reindeer tile, and decorated cookies (all three kids were interested in this---hmmmm I wonder why?). 

She also posed with Mrs. Claus and Santa when they came riding up on the fire truck.

All three kids wrote letters to Santa giving their wish list.  I looked over David's shoulder when he was done and was touched.  I was curious which lego set he wanted or what new video game.  Here is what I read:

Afterward, all the kids posed for pictures with Santa.

Abigail wanted to pose with Buddy the Elf.

And we took a train ride around the parking lot. 

I am so thankful daily for this new house.  I am also thankful for this neighborhood!

a first for the kids

And "no," I do not mean the snow that would come later in December. 

Our kids have been deprived of gingerbread house making.  The tradition that Michael and I started our first year of marriage sadly ended then when our house fell to pieces during construction.  This year, the kids' house fared only mildly better, but it was a fun experience! 

We went to the Christmas homeschool party.  It was fun to make the gingerbread houses, eat yummy food, and then make cross ornaments, and cards as a service project. 

(I was too busy to take many pics--these are mostly all courtesy of David or friends)

Furniture shopping

I never imagined how challenging the furniture shopping would be.  But realize we had acquired our household of furniture over 17 years of marriage and at various times and places and rarely full-price.  I could wait until I found the perfect piece.  Not exactly so this time.  While we had received some money to replace furniture, we did not have unlimited funds.  I still wanted to be cautious with the pieces we selected.  They may never be replaced again.  What did I really want?  What did we really need?  How does furniture fit in this new house with very different bones than the last one?  The best summation of the process was the first day we spent looking for our main pieces of furniture.  We needed it all: master bed, two couches, chairs, desk, two tables/chairs, etc... And yet, even after 12+ hours at lots of different stores, we walked away with nothing.  Michael was frustrated at first but realized the importance of this process.  I think the hardest part was the shopping with kids.  We finally found one store that made that task enjoyable!  Gallery Furniture!  (albeit we only ended up getting the bed there).

Neither of us had ever been to GF despite hearing much of it through the years.  We went on Veteran's Day.  The experience started outside with the cages of parrots and cool statues.   The kids wanted to pose before we even got inside.

 (upon return visit to purchase the bed)

Then, inside the doors, we stopped to look at all the momentos given to Mattress Mac by presidents, dignitaries and others.  The kids headed straight for the huge tables loaded completely with candy.  We stopped to eat some fruit, cake, and BlueBell ice cream (in honor of Veterans).  Michael had to shake Mac's hand...

The kids then wanted to jump on the mattresses.  Cool!

We did take some time to look at all the massive amounts of furniture but in between we stopped to visit the themed restrooms, look at more parrots mid-store, sit in the same seat that the Dalai Lama had sat in, and pose on a chair that was 10 times the normal size.

The kids played in the two story (McDonald's style) play structure.  Mommy got eaten by the life-size bears.  The kids only stopped playing because they were hungry.

We went around the corner to the cafeteria in GF and had a really good lunch.  At checkout we were told that the meal was free.  Wow!

We picked up looking at furniture where we had left off.  This took us right by the monkey cage.  There were 2-3 capuchin monkeys in diapers in this cage.  Fun to watch their antics for a while.

After another hour of looking, we wound through another hall of memorabilia (check out these shoes I saw!) and back to the front of the store.  Kids wanted to pose by nutcracker.

Overall, despite no purchase that day (I went back two days later), we had a great experience!  And the salesmen were not pushy (no commission).  The furniture was overall nice quality and the delivery experience the best!  Would happily purchase from Mac again!