This past Christmas, we headed up to Redmond to spend time with Diane’s family. I was looking forward to some cool weather and hoping that we might get some snow. Unfortunately, the weather warmed up into the 40s, so I was left with the occasional drizzle. On the Monday after arriving, we all headed to Seattle to see White Christmas. It was preceded by dinner at Benihana’s, which was fun.

We spent most of the week hanging out with family, playing lots of games, and wrapping lots of presents. It was fun to see the nieces and nephews and their reactions to Christmas. I haven’t been around little kids on Christmas in a very long time. Other than that, I headed home early because of a business trip up to Alaska while Diane stayed with her family for an extra week.

Some of you may think Diane and I have abandoned blogging…well, I guess I’ll recap what has been going on over the past several months. After been gone for 5 weeks, Diane and I were both happy to have me home for a while. Rather than hopping on a plane like the previous Thanksgiving, we wanted to stay local. So, we headed up to Austin to spend it with Ryan and Suzette’s family. It was great to get away from Houston for a few days (funny that I say that since I was gone for so long).

Ryan and Suzette recently added an outdoor kitchen to their backyard and that’s where the turkey magic happened. They have a smoker, which we used to smoke a turkey as well as rotisserie some turkey breast. In addition to that, the girls spent a lot of time cooking in the kitchen. I was charged with playing with the boys, which I happily accepted. Here are some pics taken from their blog.

Diane making Lion House rolls

Playing with the nephews

Smoked turkey

This past weekend, the temperature dropped below freezing in Houston. This is a rare thing here in Texas, but still, we were surprised at how people were freaking out.

Our neighbors were one of those people. This is a picture of their house.