More Christmas Eve Pictures...

Dave's sister Cher (and the one who introduced us) with her husband Scott...



We also had Christmas dinner with them - - ham, ham gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry jello, pumpkin pie...the works!

Christmas Eve

Dave & I spent Christmas Eve with his sister and brother-in-law, and her kids. But before heading to Scott's and Cher's, we attended Christmas Eve service (the first of five services held that day). It's always really neat to spend an hour singing Christmas carols. Not very visible in this picture is a whole bunch of poinsettas that were stretched across the bottom of the stage on all the steps.



Is this not one HUGE stocking??? Which we decorated ourselves, thank you very much. Cher had filled it with all sorts of stuff...



Cher's two daughters...



And Gandolph eyeing all the presents :=)...

One Tamale-Making Fool

One of my co-workers, Elisa, and several of her sisters have an annual ritual of making TONS of homemade tamales. This year, they made 40 dozen(!) pork and bean tamales. But that's nothing compared to last year when they made 60 dozen tamales - - egats! Here's Ms. Tamale in the flesh...

The Space Shuttle's Travels

When bad weather forced the "Endeavor" to land in California versus Florida, it had to get moved back to Florida. This is done via piggy-backing on a 747. From California it went to El Paso (on the Texas/New Mexico border) and then had to make a stop in Ft. Worth as weather conditions on the route necessitated it staying overnight before heading on to Florida.

Isn't this an awesome picture?????

"Our" Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

For those of you who saw my Christmas tree last year and remember all the airplanes and white airplane lights on it, this is the same tree (!) - just spruced up with various colored lights with green strands (so it blends in) and little red velvet ribbons. A few new ornaments were added but I don't think there's much more room left on the tree to have additions next year. Dave did the decorating and, as you can tell, he has far better taste than I :=)

Not Your Father's Lamborghini

So what do you think? This thing even has to be STARTED a certain way! This is (another) kit car - - like the Cobra was - - built by someone with way too much money and time to burn :=)

Christmas Lights

Dave & I spent the evening driving through a very exclusive neighborhood in Plano called Deerfield. It is widely advertised down here as having fabulous light displays. One homeowner - who was interviewed by a local radio station - said he had 104,100 (!!) lights this year (compared to around 100,000 last year). The houses were just as fascinating as the lights...

An Old-Fashioned "Christmas"

Dave & I headed to one of the suburbs around here to see the sights of "A Dickens Christmas". There were horse-drawn carriage rides, Santa Claus, lots of lights, various food vendors (where we ate sausage on a stick and a huge turkey leg!), various music performances (including lots of Christmas music), costumed people walking around dressed in the clothing of the Dickens era, etc. With temperatures in the upper 30's/low 40's, and being bundled up, it was very festive.