New Years Eve Crystal Beach Style

Another fun New Years Eve at the beach with a few added bonuses this year!  1st we had a super fun time hanging out with our friends the Olanders, glad they decided to go down.  Also, thanks to Ella's new ear muffs she was finally comfortable being outside and enjoying the fireworks action. She even did her own Roman candles, held sparklers and all kinds of things she would never do before the ear muffs.  Plus she looks super cute in them!  New Years Eve was actually pleasant weather, but sure got cold and wet on the 1st.

 Big kids like big fireworks

 Ella holding a sparkler was a huge change from 4th of July

Being on the deck while Roman candles were shooting would have been unheard of - actually holding a Roman candle was a major accomplishment. 

While we are super proud of Ella for overcoming her fear of fireworks, Star on the other hand still wishes they had not been invented.  She did have fun walking around on the beach during the day and had no fear walking into the water and getting her paws wet.  None of us would have considered that!

Christmas 2015

 Don't be fooled, fake glasses are popular at our house right now and Santa brought some new ones.  Addy also got a really large Lego set which she put together all by herself.  

 Fun times with new toys!

 Christmas morning smiles 

 At Thanksgiving we were talking about how no one uses china anymore, so I got inspired and I pulled the price tags off of a lot of our china and crystal and used it for Christmas morning brunch.  

 Addy and Betsy both got Harry Potter coloring books.

 Fun family photo

Addy and Ella are expert gingerbread house makers.  Jean, Tom and Betsy had the bright idea to have a house for them to build while the adults were being boring and just sitting around talking at Christmas Day dinner at the Kelly's.

And of course we enjoyed our annual Christmas Eve tradition of early church with the Densons and then dinner at the Wolfs. 

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Christmas Tree Train

It is a much smaller version, but Ella was inspired by the train around Granddad and Meme's tree, so she added a train around the tree in her room!

San Antonio Getaway

To kick-off winter break did a quick getaway to San Antonio for the night.  We went to the San Antonio zoo, walked the Riverwalk, ate some yummy Mexican food under the lights on the Riverwalk and finished the night with a river boat ride.  The lights on the river are so fun and festive (yet difficult to photograph, hence no pics from the river adventure of the trip).  And I think that we could just get a hotel room here in Houston and the girls would be giddy.  We didn't even do any swimming at the hotel, but just sleeping in a hotel was a big adventure for them.

Family pic on the zoo train

On the way to San Antonio we saw one of the Natural Bridge Cavern signs and decided to swing by on the way home on Sunday.  Michael and I both remember going to the caverns as kids, but it has been so long it was like a completely new adventure.  I wasn't sure what the girls would think, but I think they both really enjoyed it.  There was a lot of walking and fortunately we didn't end up having to carry anyone!