The Lull between Christmas and New Year’s

There was no lull for us this year. We flew into TX on the Monday after Christmas and were off to Dallas to pick up my family the following day. I do have to say, I’m not used to this small town living. We are 1.5 hours from Austin, 2.5 from San Antonio, and 3 from Dallas. We are right in the middle of nowhere. I call it Texas’s butt hole, but maybe that is not appropriate to put on my blog. I guess you should just ignore that previous sentence if it offends. The point is, it was a very long trip to get my family and come back. The trip was made even longer by the fact that we got lost, and it rained the entire time.

Once we successfully brought my family back to our lovely government living quarters, we had a grand ole time. I can’t remember much of what we did, but I do know that we spent a lot of time driving around because apparently we didn’t get enough driving on the 7 hour trip to and from Dallas. While they were here we did happen upon a lovely little German Imbiss. This place has wonderful and authentic German food. We ended up eating there twice in the three full days that my family visited. I also took them to the deer neighborhood. I was so excited to show them this cool neighborhood. So excited, in fact, that it prompted my mom to relentlessly tease me over my giddiness (who am I kidding? My mom does not need prompting).

So what is so special about this neighborhood? The DEER!!! It’s not that I haven’t seen deer before, because I’ve seen plenty and that’s not even counting petting zoo style. There is just something about this neighborhood (I’m guessing the woods directly behind it) that attracts so many deer at any given moment. You can drive through this neighborhood in the day or at night and there will be about 20 deer just chillin’ in people’s yards. If you wanted to, you could probably even stick your hand outside your car and pet one. Not that we did, because that’s just gross, but if you wanted to, you could.

Since I was unable to attend my family’s Christmas, we had Christmas again.

After our large breakfast and some wonderful apple cider that I made from scratch, we sat around the Christmas tree and exchanged gifts.
Later that night we went to see this really cool Christmas light show that they put on at a nearby lake and camping ground site. It was very nice. It probably took us about an hour to drive through the entire thing.

Although we spent New Year’s Eve with my family too, I’m going to save that post for another time. I really enjoyed the time that we got to spend with my family. Much like our trip to Minnesota, this visit was just too short. I also wish that my Dad and sister, Brittney, could have visited as well. I can’t wait to see my family again, but I’m thankful for the time I was able to spend with my mom and my two adorable siblings.

Here are a few more pics from my family's visit including our trip to the First Cavalry Museum.