December began with the running of the Trail of Lights fun run. In the past it was a 5k, but they have turned it into a fun run (so 2mi). Had a great time and next year we need costumes!
We got some snow! It came down in large wet clumps - made me feel like I was in the Rockies.
The office party this year was at Speakeasy downtown and it was fun!
Spent a few days in Georgetown for a work conference and really enjoyed our field trips to Central Texas Olive Ranch and Berdoll Sawmill.
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| fun coworkers |
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| birds nest in an olive tree |
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| grove of olive trees |
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| Throne looking part of a branch from the [former] 2nd largest pecan in TX as measured by TFS. The jackalope looking thing is natural and not carved. |
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| kiln where wood is dried for months to a year |
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| finished product |
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| warm up |
I over-trained a bit for my half marathon in Jan so had to wear a boot for a week.
Christmas was spent with both sets of family. First up was a few days in Arlington with a quick side trip to Fort Worth to see my cousins. S showed one of our nieces how to build a fire in the fireplace and she cracked me up when she said she had "fire crumbs" on her hands (soot). One of our dear friend's baby made his early debut as a Christmas present on Christmas Day! Hooray!
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| fire crumbs |
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| pop! |
Christmas Day we drove to Longview to spend time with my family. There we had Christmas lunch with Jesus' bday coffee cake for dessert and saw my grandparents. A friend stopped by for a visit and it was so good to see her all the way from Denver. My brother had us play some fun games with Jackbox.tv. It's like Apples to Apples, but you play from your phone and the group chooses the answers from the TV.
On Wed the 27th we headed back west to DFW. Mom and Alan were going to be picking Paula from Northern Ireland up at the airport so rather than spending zero time with them that day we drove to DFW. First stop was in Fort Worth at Joe T Garcia's for Sean's bday lunch with the family. S's parents stopped in too! Next we hung out at Starbucks near DFW airport waiting for Paula to go through customs. We only got to see her for 10 mins before we had to hit the road home, but I'm so glad we did! I don't think I've seen her in person since 2007!
I-35 was our friend this trip! We made it home just in time to watch our Horns and they won the Texas Bowl!
Christmas week I was able to see my dear friend that lives in the Tampa area now. It was also nice to just sit and not have much going on this week - I had the whole week off from work. Totally different from last year when we were jetting all over Australia and New Zealand! We also had a rather frigid cold front roll in over the weekend. Before it came, I raked up all the leaves in the front yard that fell while we were gone.
New Years was a total 180 this year. 2017 started with watching fireworks in the Sydney Harbor. 2018 began on the couch toasting the new year with some bubbly while some snowflakes fell outside. May your 2018 be filled with adventures and blessings!
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