Christmas 2013, Act I

Gary and I knew that Christmas was going to be really different this year.  We were going to Houston on December 21^st and flying home on Christmas Day; we then were to spend a week at home with a trip to my parents for the weekend and then we were flying to Vegas on December 31^st to have a second Christmas with Jess and Peter.  Kira was meeting us in Houston and then flying back with us on New Year’s Eve to Vegas.  We even decided to not do much holiday decorating, because we wouldn’t be home, so we bought a little pre-lit tree at Wally World and some tree decorations to go on it.  That was the sum of our decorations. 

Christmas Break finally got here after what seemed like a year from Thanksgiving. On Friday, December 20^th after work, we took the dogs to the kennel, and then on

GSP

Saturday, December 21^st, we caught our flight on Southwest Airlines from Greenville-Spartanburg airport to Houston. We were so excited to see Kira and spend time with her, Matthew, Vanessa, Joshua, and Nathan.  Matt was doing a rotation at a hospital in Houston and had a one-bedroom apartment there. Vanessa and the boys had driven there to be with him at Christmas, and now we were joining them. Our flight was fine, but there was a huge cold front running from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico that was causing major problems for the airlines. We timed our arrival in Houston Hobby pretty well, because we got there just after the storms had gone through. We had no problems landing, but had to sit on the ramp for about 10 minutes waiting for the lightning to get far enough away so the ramp personnel could block the airplane at the gate. We got our bags, caught the shuttle to Budget car rental and picked up our vehicle. We drove to the Hampton Inn in the hospital district, met Matt and family for lunch at Smashburgers, and then pick up some groceries at Target.  We then went back to the apartment and visited until we had to pick up Kira.  It was so good to see M, V, J and N.  We had seen them at Thanksgiving, but Nathan had changed in the three weeks we had been gone. 

Kira and Nathan

Later that evening, we drove back out to the airport to pick up Kira who was flying in from Vegas. Her flight was running late to begin with, but when she landed, there wasn't a gate for them to pull into due to all the disruption across the country from that line of thunderstorms. She had to sit in the airplane out on the ramp for an hour before a flight finally left to go somewhere opening up a gate. (This same line of storms would dump 4 inches of rain in Rock Hill.) We finally we got back to the hotel around 11 pm.

On Sunday, December 22^nd, we all dressed up and headed to church.  Gary, Kira and I

made it to the ward building, but just as Matt and Vanessa pulled in, Matt got a call to come to work.  They immediately turned around and headed back.  We stayed through the Sacrament, but left right after, because we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them.  That was the reason we were in Houston.  We changed clothes at the hotel and headed to the apartment.  Luckily Matt was able to come home before too long, so we decided to do our “Christmas” that afternoon.  Matt, Vanessa, Kira and the boys went for a walk, while Gary and I played Nani Clause and put out the loot.  We had a great time opening gifts and Joshua really enjoyed his new digital camera.  Nathan thought the paper was a pretty great toy also.  It was a good time!

Nani Claus has been here

Lobster Pajamas from Maine

Unloading at the USS Texas

On Monday, December 23^rd, Matthew was off, so we needed something to do we could all participate in. We started off the morning with a big breakfast of our favorite stuffed French toast. Then, Gary suggested we go see the USS Texas, a battleship from World War I and II, which was about 20 minutes away. We were able to wander all over the ship, although some of the areas like the bridge were pretty high up and you had to go up some pretty steep ladders to get there, so not everyone got to those locations. The only surviving “dreadnought,” the Texas is not as big as the newer World War II battleships, like the USS Alabama, so you didn't feel like you were completely lost when you went below decks. She is getting pretty old, and there is a lot of work being done on her. We spent about 45 minutes wandering around the ship, but it was pretty chilly and we were hungry. 

View from the bridge

After visiting the Texas, we wanted to go someplace to eat. Matt suggested Gringos, a Tex-Mex restaurant that was only about 10 minutes away. We laughed at the “Welcome to Gringos” sign that imitated the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” signs – especially when Gary, Kira, and I would be flying out to Vegas in about a week. The food was pretty good. They had a tortilla making machine that reminded us of the donut making machines you see at Krispy Kreme.

Houston Metro

That evening, we took the Houston Metro light rail to the Houston Zoo for their big Christmas light display. The weather was pretty cool out that evening, especially for Southeastern Texas, but we had a good time enjoying the lights and music. We managed to miss the shortcut turn off, so we wound up walking ALL the way around the zoo to get to the entrance.  Joshua said the lights he enjoyed the most were the tunnel of lights.  I had to laugh, because that was not my favorite part at all. Of course we had to stop at the gift shop on the way out of the zoo and since they had a sale going on, I had to get Joshua a big stuffed animal.  Since we had opened our presents the day before, it was hard to remember that for most people it was still two days until Christmas. Joshua also really liked riding the light rail train to and from the zoo, which worked out really well for us also.  Parking would not have been fun.

Didn't really snow, but it felt cold enough for snow

Dec 24

Christmas Eve was kind of a regular day for us. We just kind of puttered around and Matt had to work so we just sort of hung out.  Joshua, Vanessa, and I put together a gingerbread village for fun. I think Vanessa had kind of thought Joshua and I could manage to do it by ourselves, but thankfully she took pity on us and helped us figure it out.  PopPop helped a little bit, which actually turned out to be a big help, because he could figure out how they went together.  That evening we played iPad Charades and had a great time together.

Dec 25

Christmas day was really a big letdown, because sadly, it was time to go home. We checked out of the hotel, hung out a little while with Vanessa and the boys and said our goodbyes and headed out to Houston Hobby airport. Flying on Christmas day we really expected to find the place half empty. Wrong again!! There were a lot of people traveling and the plane was nearly full. The flight to Greenville was uneventful and all of our luggage made the trip. The weather in South Carolina was still very cold (for South Carolina) and we had parked way out from the terminal because the lots were about full when we left on our trip, so we had a cold walk back to the car. I think Kira thought we were going to freeze her before we got to the truck. However, we got it loaded up and headed back to Rock Hill.

Christmas: Houston Hobby Airport