Office Holiday Pointsettia

While I was at HEB grocery at lunch today, stocking up on lunches and snacks, I made an impulse purchase of a small pointsettia to give my office a little holiday touch.

Hill Country View

The beautiful hillside view from the Heczko's home. Many of the trees are turning a rust color.
Their fancy new address sign.

Christmas in Comfort

We drove to visit our friends the Heczko's in Comfort, Texas, to attend the annual Christmas in Comfort fair.

Lots of good Texas fair food - including curly fries, gorditas, kabobs, burgers, roasted corn and of course, funnel cake.

Downtown Comfort has wonderful old German homes and businesses, many of which have been restored as antique shops.

It doesn't get any more Christmassy that this!

My favorite vendor had beautiful sculptures. I tried to convince Bill and Lauri to buy one for their pool area.

Homestead Heritage Craft Fair

We went to the Homestead Heritage Fair today. They have an amazing array of handcrafted items, from boats to bars of soap.
We even had an opportunity to get that all-important pumpkin photo!
I loved-loved-loved the soaps. I think I may have to learn how to make soap....
The quilts were wonderful. This one was 3-D with little ears or whiskers popping off the surface.
Rachel liked the baskets.

This is a wonderful fair -- very well attended and incredible demonstrations. There was a display of the children's writings -- even their handwriting -- which was beautiful.

Thanksgiving Day

Too much food and a nice visit with family on Thanksgiving Day.

Flu shot

We all have flu shots now. Hopefully the Swine Flu will not be so severe if everyone gets shots.

Crafts

Rachel is making a lot of beaded necklaces and bracelets.
Stephanie made this scarf.
I made bookmarks. All of these items are for the Advent Conspiracy at St. Albans next week.

Xie Xie

Received a thank you note and drawing from Lin Liang Shun, the 3rd grader we sponsor from Fujian province. His note thanked us for some clothes we provided funds for last summer. He's a great artist.

Crafty girls

Rachel is making a necklace to sell at the Advent Conspiracy market at St. Albans.
Stephanie is making a scarf to sell. All proceeds will go to helping 3rd world countries get water sources.

Sleepover

After staying up all night, the slumber partiers crashed until about 10 when they were roused for a pancake breakfast.

New Moon Night

New Moon got five thumbs up from Stephanie and her friends.

The Split

Rachel has been practicing her split. She wants to earn a special badge in karate.

Advent Conspiracy Supplies

St. Alban's is doing an Advent Conspiracy this year. http://adventconspiracy.org/ We are having a market to sell handmade goods with all the proceeds going to provide water in 3rd world countries. I'm going to make jars of spiced tea and some fancy bookmarks that kids can buy.

Cruise ship ornament

I love to collect Christmas ornaments. While I detest Christmas coming to the stores so early, I do hit the ornament section early for best selection. This is a glass cruise ship -- particularly pertinent to this year because we will be on a Panama Canal cruise over the Christmas holiday.

Rachel's new jacket

Rachel got a new jacket on Sunday and won't give it up.

Stephanie's Closet

Stephanie has reorganized her closet and she says it's "pimped out" now.

Longhorn Game

Paul and I went to the UT-Baylor game. Go Horns!

Rachel's new tool

Rachel has a new tool at school, it's called an Optron. She can use it to project her book on her screen, or even something at a distance like the board.

Fall Colors

Admittedly, we don't get the fall colors of New England or the Midwest, but I enjoy the change of the seasons. Even 100 miles north of Austin, where we used to live, we have more color.
This is Rachel's school with a beautiful red blaze of color. They have exceptional grounds at this school.
Our lawn is suddenly littered with leaves from our pecan trees.

Christmas Box

I turned in our box to the church office. It has a bar code, so we can follow it and find out what country it will land in. We put in some items for a girl, age 10 to 14.

Pretty!

Rachel with her nails done. I love her face when her hair is swept back in a pony tail.

Guitar Hero

Rachel has been playing Guitar Hero and other games on the wii all afternoon long.

Fort Hood Tragedy

13 people at Fort Hood were killed by an Army major, a psychiatrist, who was about to be deployed to Afganistan. Thirty people were wounded, and the Red Cross put out a call for blood. I went there this morning to donate.

Cat and Mouse

It's hard to compete for the mouse with your cat.

Fall color

Pyracantha comes out in the fall with bright red berries.

Plant Life

One of the plants that was on the tables in the parish hall was mine for the taking. I put it in my office. Hope I don't kill it.

Kolaches!

Donnie brought some kolaches to work. He lives in West, a town where many Czech people live and there are at least two very busy Czech bakeries.

Flash Cards

Paul and I worked with Rachel all weekend to try to get her to learn her multiplication facts.