Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

Teresa and I flew to Houston for Christmas to spend time with the Dale family and see a few friends. We had to fly to Hobby Airport due to flight costs and times and that is now considered a 'lesson learned'. That means we will NOT be doing that again. Hobby is a long way away and arriving on a Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 pm is not a smooth move. Thankfully my brother-in-law, Fred, was working in the area and picked us up.

We spent the first night with my parents, slept in a little then took off to our home in North Zulch, TX. It was nice to get out there again and for 2 days we did absolutely NOTHING (except once to go out and eat Mexican food). The place looks great, the weather was nice, typical Houston winter (around 74 degrees each day). We went back to Houston and ate Mexican again, this time at Pappasito's with our friends and former neighbors, Jimmy and MaryAnna Bosshammer. They are great people, good friends and we sure do miss them. We then hung out with my folks for the rest of Saturday. We got up Sunday morning and went to our old church, The Met, and had a good time seeing the people, talking to Sal. The Bosshammer's came to the service that morning. It was great to have them there with us!

After church Teresa and I decided to look at some of the new houses being built in Houston, compare quality and prices. We quickly remembered that Houston has much better quality for a LOT less money. A $300,000 home there is like a $500,000 home here in the Atlanta area. Some of the homes we saw were very nice but they were missing a few important ingredients - hills, 4 seasons, trees and a basement. Sunday night and Monday were spent with the family. After a big Christmas meal of Turkey, dressing, etc. (yum) we went to a Christmas eve service at my parents church, Champion Forest Baptist. That is a big, big church with a new paster everyone really likes.

Christmas day we got up, had some breakfast and opened presents. My sister and her family came over and it was fun to see a kid, Jordyn, open her presents on Christmas morning. We had to return to Atlanta that evening since both Teresa and I were working the next day.

We had a good trip and are glad we went but it is also nice to be home. For New Year's eve e went to a restaurant in downtown Canton, GA called The Downtown Kitchen. We had a small meal, for a big price, then went upstairs and listened to a guy from Austin, John Michael Rose, and his band ring in the new year. Once he got warmed up we discovered he was really good at playing the blues and some classic cool songs. We said Happy New Year and midnight and decided to hit the road before too many other people who partied too much did.

It is 19 degrees outside now, cooooold, with some snow showers in the area. Tonight and tomorrow are going to be even colder so we are all bundled up here!