Happy Thanksgiving (ha ha)

OK, I realize my neglect of the blog has become pretty extreme, but with 2 kids fall birthdays and Thanksgiving and Christmas all smooshed together our level of activity was also pretty extreme! This year, we made a good call and decided to take one holiday "off" -- so we went to Bandera County to a dude ranch for Thanksgiving with our friends the Silvergleids.

It turned out the only person in our family qualified to ride was me! They claimed James was too big for their saddles (that annoyed me -- what kind of Texas cowboy *isn't* 6' 7"?), and Rosemary was too scared (even for the corral walking ride) and Louis of course was too young. So I went on a long ride into the park which -- as much as I like riding horses -- honestly kind of hurt. I think next time I'll hike! But it was fun to see the horses and the park was beautiful. Bandera County is a real winner, even with all the drought.

Rosemary and Nora got along terrifically, even though Nora was 5 1/2. Are all little girls so extremely bossy? I guess so! But it was great fun to see Rosemary actually following someone else's orders and getting a taste of her own medicine. (As an aside, her teacher, Ms. Elaine, told me the other day she fears that Rosemary is having some trouble at school because she is losing her "power" over her friends as they get older. Harumph. Guess it had to happen sometime).

The Thanksgiving meal itself wasn't up to James's usual standards, but we did zero cooking. And what we didn't have in terms of culinary delights we made up for in four different kinds of whisky.

One of our best nights was at a "grill your own meat" night at a local bar w/ live country music. Everything was outside, you bring your own meat, man-up at the grill (James was looked askance by some of the other men for not having his own tongs and/or cooking the steak a little more than bloody), dance, etc. At one point some really drunk person brought a longhorn into the bar. And kids sat on it. I'm not kidding.

Above are pictures from Rosemary's class Thanksgiving potluck, which was really lovely. They made pilgrim hats.

And then we got ready for Christmas! Below are pictures from the Zilker Tree Christmas lighting, which was so fun (see Louis's newly acquired Jedi saber), gingerbread house making after Aunt Mo's graduation (Rosemary still claims she's half kid half adult, but I don't know -- she's now a BUSINESS ANALYST!), and the tree lighting at the four seasons. Plus some cute pictures of Louis in James's boots. He is turning into a super-snappy dresser -- he loves his hats and boots.