Hills out in the Country for a Hill Country Christmas

The fire is crackling. I’m wrapped up in my new electric blanket typing this on my phone. My dad and Aaron are watching football, and Ollie is talking at his bedroom door.*

My goal is to not make this sound like a school assignment. You know “what did you do over winter break?” So here are some highlights.

1.We made the trip from Amarillo to Pflugerville, which is just short of 500 miles.

We thought we were going to have a four hour detour when we got to a gas station and couldn’t find Aaron’s wallet anywhere. Ollie was sleeping at this point, so we were trying so hard not to wake him as we took everything out of the car and searched every nook and cranny. We came to the conclusion I threw the wallet away at a gas station in a tiny town that was two hours away. 

I called the gas station and begged them to look in the trash can. Meanwhile, I kept searching because I couldn’t understand how a wallet would get in our Chicken Express trash. Thanks to Aaron’s suggestion, I checked the door for the tenth time, and there it was, wrapped in a bag. We were praising Jesus so hard at that point, because a one hour delay is way better than a four hour delay.**

2.One of my favorite traditions is going to a Christmas tree farm in Elgin. Expectantly, most of the trees were cut down already, but Ollie had a great time. We went on a weekday, so we didn’t have to deal with a crowd. Of course, you can’t make a trip to Elgin without eating barbecue. My mom likes Southside’s meat better, but prefers Meyer’s barbecue sauce. So she shamelessly brings a bottle of Meyer’s barbecue sauce into a different restaurant.

This is not my mom 

3.Thursday, we went to Old Settler’s Park to look at lights. There was also a carnival, so Ollie road a couple of rides, after convincing him to leave the bounce house***

I honestly need more shame

The plan was for Aaron and Ollie to go home while my mom, grandma, and I stayed to see a play. At  intermission I see several texts on my phone. Ollie and Aaron were locked out of the house! So my poor husband was driving a cranky toddler around trying to get him to go to sleep waiting for my response. It took several attempts to get a hold of him to tell him where the spare key was because we were both calling each other at the same time.

4. I have lived in the Austin area since I was a baby and I have never been to the Trail of Lights.**** My family, who avoids crowds at all costs, indulged me by braving the  Austin traffic, eating dinner at 4pm, getting the better tickets so we could get there early, and shuffled among the rest of the crowd to look at the lights.

Thanks!

Aaron had to take this picture, because Ollie was desperately crawling up me and all my photos were blurry. 

   
It was such a great trip, and I’m so grateful to my family for humoring me and all my Christmas desires. I am afraid to admit I have no self control and I have eaten my weight in cookies. We’re going to have to attach a trailer to the back of the car and haul me back to Amarillo.

*He’s supposed to be sleeping.
** Not to mention all the horrors that come with losing a wallet.
*** Not wasting the money we spent on tokens.
**** Okay, I haven’t really lived there in over ten years, but my parents do.