Brigid's Last Day

It was a beautiful 83 degrees on Monday, sunny and cloudless...making it extra hard for her to leave these little darlings and head back to the frozen tundra of Minnesota.







We had a wonderful time Aunt Brigid! The trips to school, restaurants, working out and swimming at Lifetime, gumbo, Thanksgiving with the soldiers, walks, backyard playtime, reading, games, Seguin, the Riverwalk, and more...come see us again soon! We miss you already!

Christmas on the Riverwalk!

Sunday night, we headed downtown to see the holiday lights around the Riverwalk. They had been lit Friday night before the big river parade but we didn't want to venture down there until most of the craziness had left the area. Sunday night was perfect! We walked by the enormous tree in Alamo Plaza, saw the Alamo all aglow and window shopped at the glass art gallery.





The one picture I took on the river boat tour keeps getting rejected by this server, so you'll have to settle for this professional shot I borrowed from a photo sharing site.



It's way better anyway!

Pasties!

A popular food item in the UP of Michigan and the Nault family repertoire, a pasty (rhymes with nasty) is basically a meat and potato pie. The jury is still out on it's exact contents, but in this version we had beef, potatoes, onions and rutabaga. Mark has also made them with sweet potatoes. Depending on the size, you can hold it in your hand like a calzone and dip it in gravy...but these were big ones! Delicious!

Field Trip

Not for school - unless you count the school of Grandpa Nault. Having visited San Antonio a few years ago, he passed by an RV dealer with some Airstream trailers on the way. Grandpa Nault wanted Brigid to check some out during her San Antonio visit. Mark and Brigid loaded up three of the kids and headed to the interstate towards Houston. (Ethan and I were at a birthday party.) There were three RV dealers in Seguin (pronounced sa-geen) but this particular model really caught their eye.



The perfect Airstream trailer eluded them but it was a beautiful day to enjoy some sightseeing!

Naughty Boy, Part 473

The Halloween candy is now in a Christmas bowl on the buffet in the foyer. Naughty Boy likes to get the stool from the bathroom and park it in front of the buffet and then climb up the knobs of the drawers to get into the stash. After witnessing this manuever, Aunt Brigid tried to outsmart him by taking all the candy out of the bowl and hiding it.



We waited and watched and sure enough, Naughty Boy went to get his stool and ...



...took it to the refrigerator! Then he got out an apple and fooled us all!

He's awfully cute for a naughty boy. Look what mom found on Black Friday!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our friend's house...Robyn and Jon Chappell. Their extended family was there, as well as our family and three other "orphan" friends. This year, we adopted two soldiers from Lackland AFB. You called and said you wanted to participate, then on Thanksgiving day, you drove to the base at 9 a.m., got in line and a pair of soldiers hopped in your car. You get to feed them (and let them use your phones/computers to contact their families) and have them back at the base by 5 p.m.

We were joined by Ryan and Curly, two 18-year-olds that had only been at boot camp for three weeks. Curly was from Louisiana - bayou country and said the whole meal was the best he ever tasted! After hearing his stories about eating snake, nutria and alligator growing up, we wondered if the meal was really that great or his standards were pretty low! He also wrestled alligators. For fun. Hmmm. Ryan was much more shy. I think he was from Oklahoma but he didn't say much. Definitely both sweet, well-mannered boys going to serve our country. We hope they stay safe!

Jacob was offered the chance to spend the night, but after a crazy day of rich and different foods plus a little brother pile driver to the gut, he threw up in the bathroom sink and we called it a day. Didn't get up early for Black Friday again this year...but made it out for several hours later in the day and got some stuff crossed off the list. Jacob was fine all day Friday so he did get to spend the night at the Chappells eventually.

We were thankful to have such a wonderful group of people to share the holiday with and missed our friends and families from far away.

One Little Indian

Ethan was in the Kindergarten Native American performance on Friday. All the classes sang songs together, then each class sang a song about their individual tribe. Ethan's class were the Wampanoag.



Aunt Brigid arrived and was able to come to school, see the performance and Ethan's class. A special treat!

Swim or Sleep?

Swimming lessons are usually on Tuesdays at 6:15 p.m. After a long day of school and an early dinner, it never fails that Ethan falls asleep on the way. Last week, he sported his goggles even while sleeping, and then managed to forget them in the car for his actual lesson.

Fun at School

On any given day, Lucas comes home rather dirty from school. Art projects, lunch, dust and dirt from the playground - you name it - it's on his shirt. This day was no exception. Especially on the plain white tee! But I loved his elephant ears and had to take the pic dirt and all.



In late October, the elementary school had our annual Fall Festival. It was a huge success and major PTA undertaking - part of the reason why I haven't blogged in a month! This was the only pic I got from the night but much fun was had by everyone.

Jewelry Biz

We've been very busy at Jennifer Massey Designs recovering from the Atlanta market and getting ready for the Dallas Sample Sale this weekend. We've got tons of new customers, orders and styles! It's very exciting and chaotic. Check it out at http://www.jennifermasseydesigns.com

Purple pearl earrings



Multi charm bracelet



White Christmas charm necklace

My Tennis Coach is a Rock Star!

My tennis coach, Dave, has been in a band for a couple years. They haven't played many gigs in a while but last Friday we were able to catch their show at the Overtime Theater in the Blue Star Arts Complex south of downtown. It was really fun to see a completely different side of him ... kind of like how all of you would feel if you found out all of a sudden that I played guitar and was the lead singer of a band! haha!

You can see a video of one of their songs on YouTube. If the kids are watching, beware of the the F-bomb at about the 1:10 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1khfLs5ZhY"