Celebrating with Family

After a low-key Christmas, we had a low-key New Year's Eve. I had to work on Monday and Tuesday, and we were originally going to go out for my mother-in-law's birthday on Tuesday, December 30, so we didn't leave for Houston until New Year's Eve day. We had planned to go to the Riverwalk for her birthday, but it was drizzly and cold, and she really didn't want to go out.

This is a picture of Eric meditating or trying not to get upset or something or other like that. We had just told him that he had to wait a half hour before getting back on the iPad. I think back to when Natalie was younger--she did not do well in the car when we were traveling to Houston. Who knows if she would have been much better if we had an iPad or similar distraction for her then?

We dropped Alex off at his friend Dylan's house before leaving town. He stayed in town so he could spend some time with his friends and especially his girlfriend, who is moving out of the state in less than two weeks. We would have rather taken him with us, but we didn't want him to hate us forever by forbidding him seeing her before he might possibly not see her again.

The weather was not nice while we were in Houston, but at least we spent it with family. We went to my parents' house first. I didn't get to see my Mom at Thanksgiving, since she was in the Philippines celebrating her mom's 100th birthday, so it was good to see her again. She made Natalie and Eric some "arroz caldo" or "rice soup" as the kids call it--their favorite. Eric almost got upset at Thanksgiving when we got to her house, she wasn't there, and there was no "rice soup" for him to eat.

We had a sort of second Christmas there--really the kids just opened presents from my sisters. My mom and mailed a box to our house that got there the day after Christmas. My sisters both got Eric some Transformers toys among other things, and he spent quite a bit of time playing mostly with the Transformers over the two days we were there. He has been quite upset with Transformers. He played his new Transformers PS4 game as soon as we got back home.

We stayed at my sister Cynthia's house for the rest of the time. We snacked and watched movies into the New Year--"Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Maleficent". We barely noticed when the clock hit midnight. Patrick was upstairs when the ball dropped in NYC and he told us the time. For once we didn't celebrate midnight at Eastern Standard Time by watching the NYC ball drop. When it was midnight at Central Standard Time, we at least "celebrated" by hugging each other and saying "Happy New Year!" We were watching "Maleficent" at the time and no one really wanted to stop the movie.

Even Eric stayed up until midnight, and he did fine. He went straight to bed after the movie, though, and he was still the first one up--maybe by around 7am. He entertained my sister's dog Lucy before anyone else was up. He was always chasing Lucy (and vice versa), playing and petting Lucy. At one point, Lucy did not run after her toy when someone threw it--I think she was exhausted!

We came home today, and the weather was still icky. There is supposed to be some sun tomorrow, and we are all really looking forward to it. I miss my family already, but alas, we have to return to "real life".