Life in Texas: Christmas 2008

Michael and I drove from Houston to Rancho Mirage to spend Christmas with the family. We rented a big Spanish style villa there and it was the PERFECT place to gather. It made sense to drive since we still had some wedding presents that we wanted to bring back. Some of which were too big, heavy, or sharp to take on an airplane. We left on Friday morning from Houston and took turns driving straight through, arriving on Saturday morning. Also, I might note that we were the first to arrive despite the fact that we had the farthest to go. It took us 23 hours!

On the way back, we again took turns driving but we didn't make it straight through because I didn't hold up my end of the driving responsibility. I drove for a grand total of..... 1 hour and 45 minutes!! That is out of a total of 22.5 hours. We were both very tired. We ended up stopping in Kerrville (a little German town) about 4 hours from Houston.

You can see from the photos that we had a great time. Although mom and I agree that one week was not enough! We enjoyed the heated pool and jacuzzi, the cold weather, dominoes, and each other.

I wish I could have gotten pictures of the snow covered ground in Arizona and New Mexico, but I was asleep most of the time, so I had to settle for this in Texas. Did you know that El Paso, Texas is the halfway point between Houston and Los Angeles? That means you do half of your driving in Texas, so seeing the 'Welcome to Texas' sign does NOT mean you are almost home.

We held races in the pool. Christina and I got serious and put on goggles. But before that, I had to drag her in the pool. She thought it would be too cold since it was in the low 50's outside, but the pool was heated to well over 70.

She's making fun of a Christmas drawing I did when I was seven. I put a light in the stable over Jesus' manger. Sorry I didn't realize that they didn't have electricity!