A Very Merry Christmas

Well I hope that everyone had a great Christmas break, I know we did. It's always hard getting back into gear, especially after spending several weeks doing what ever you like.

Jenee and I arrived in Texas to discover that out of Linda, Joe, Jenee and myself, I was the only one not sick. Poor Jenee had a nasty upper respiratory deal, and Linda and Joe had some stomach bug that was going around, both with different symptoms. By the end of the trip, they cared and shared what they had so I had a little bout of everyone specialness. Thanks to large doses of vitamin C I managed to shake it all off quickly.

I think one of the things I enjoy the most is a different lifestyle. While in town, Jenee and I like to help look after the horses which includes feeding, sifting poop, riding, and changing blankets. Dad, you should watch out, I am getting pretty good cleaning out the stalls. You might need to get back here soon to stake your claim as Linda's stable boy.

Of course one of the biggest differences in Texas for those of us who live in Florida is the cold weather. It's actually cold, not just cooler than scorching. All I can say is whoever invented thermal underwear deserves a round of applause cause I don't know how I would survive with out it, and really it wasn't that cold compared to some places.

Christmas was really fun this year, as always. Jenee and I had made a deal with each other that we would only spend $30 on each other. That represents a considerable challenge. You have to really put some thought into it. I have mentioned elsewhere what I got Jenee, it was a Cricut if you have forgotten, and yes I know it was more than $30, but we agreed to both use our spending money to pay the difference. Jenee on the other hand was very creative and bought me a poster-print of my favorite photographer. She wrapped the poster inside a rifle case so when I opened it I thought she had finally let me get a gun, I was wrong. You can see a picture of the poster below.
I have to tell you that the picture you see here is no comparison with the real thing. Of course Jenee and I look forward to seeing what the family sends from Australia and low-and-behold, apparently my Dad had the same idea and sends me another Ken Duncan poster, as you can see below.Well, as you might guess, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Two Ken Duncan's in one holiday is alot to take! Now all I need is a house to hang them in. We spent most of Christmas day with family and it was a delight to have nothing to do on boxing day because this year we stayed in Texas instead of waking up a 4 o'clock and driving to New Mexico.

To replace all that snow and ice, our good Lord offered to bring some of it to us to remind us what its like. An arctic front moved over Texas with freezing rain and all was a winter wonderland for a day. Trees, shrubs, fences, and cars were all coated in a thin layer of ice. I will have more pictures in a later post. Before all that happened though, we had a New Years bash out the back. Its fast becoming a New Year's tradition to burn the now dried out and highly flammable Christmas tree and oh how pretty it was.

Well, that's about it for this post. There are more on the way with a slideshow to boot!

Ice on a pine tree in Texas