December With a Flurry of Fun

Pictures are worth a thousand words. But I was not a very good picture taker in December cause I drooled over Heather's and forgot to take my own. Well, I took a few.

It snowed in Texas and as it drifted down, the Christmas Spirit just floated in too!
The high school football team made it to the semi finals in state playoffs and here is Spencer loading up on a charter bus to take them to Austin for the game in the Longhorn Stadium. They got to miss a day of school and were put up in a hotel for the night. Those football players are royalty for sure!

We had a really nice Hanukkah this year. It was quiet, as we didn't invite anyone to join us. Brisket, latkes, green menorah jello, and this year homemade jelly-filled donuts! They will now be a new tradition. Yum!
Candles, food, a story, music, gifts, a game of dreidel, love and tradition made for a nice evening.
Our 22nd wedding anniversary found us celebrating on the sailboat in Kemah harbor. We had a really nice night sail, slept on the boat and took another sail the next day. The kids came down and joined us the next evening and we all spent the night on the boat. Good times!
It's a little cold on the water in the Gulf of Mexico!
Christmas Eve and unwrapping the mystery present...
It was so cold that we built a wonderful fire that glowed and created a cozy feel.

Christmas morning found Elder Janis' stocking lonely and empty. It looked so stark, I had to take a picture of it.
I much prefer the pictures without flash, but this one would be too dark. I think it was 6:30AM when we started assembling the kiddos on the stairs.

I got the job of videoing the event.
Come see what Santa left!



A quick trip to Beaumont the following week, but alas, I dodn't get any pics! :( But Heather did! See her blog! On New Years Eve, Aunt Alissa and her two girls, Emmeline and Hazel, and Uncle Daron, Aunt Heather and their two little ones, Esther and Nathan, came and joined us for the festivities. Nathan and Emiline loved the helicopter Sr. D got for Christmas.
The newest addition to the Janis family: Hazel Wheeler!

Taylor Turned 16!

Well, he got a surprise birthday party and I didn't get any pictures that turned out. So I found this great shot that sums this guy up right now! He is a fun-loving fella that loves to tease and keep things happy. He can't slow down and likes action. He loves to drive cars of all things too! I love him! Happy VERY belated birthday, Taylor! (November 29!)

A Great Thanksgiving Week

Heather arrived on Monday and we were so excited to see her! Then on Wednesday, Shelby and Jeff and their children came in. On Thursday, Joel and Vivian flew in and then we all sat down to a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.

Saturday was another Cinco Ranch football game. They are in the playoffs and this game was against the Beaumont Westbrook Bruins. (The team cousin Brian would be going to, but he's at a private school.) Cinco beat them 49-26 and is now in the top 8 5-A schools still left in the state playoffs. Go Cougars! The game was at Rice Stadium and it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, Spencer didn't get any play time, but it was an exciting game and fun to have cousins join us!
The parents of the players make two lines for the players to run between and cheer them out on to the field. Before the players come out, the parents gather and have a prayer. It's pretty cool. And here comes Spencer!!! Woooo!

Tommy enjoying the last of the popcorn.
Sr. D and his girls.
Taylor and Brian after the game.

A Tea Party in Texas

Monday, November 2, Sr. D took me, Emily, and Taylor to a tea party at the Sam Houston Race Park (a huge horse race track). It was pretty awesome. There were more than 10,000 freedom loving people there. There were several people who spoke, most notably Lord Monckton, who is exposing the fallacies in the "Global Warming" lie, and alerting America of a treaty Obama will probably sign soon which will compromise our national sovereignty. It was a great speech and it felt good to be part of the whole thing.

Emily, Taylor and Sr. D

One shot of the crowd

Lord Monckton in a cowboy hat.

Happy Halloween!

Emily had two friends go trick-or-treating with her and they coordinated their costumes and went as 50's girls.
Our ward does an annual trunk-or-treat on Halloween, before it gets dark so that the kids can get twice as much candy as they normally would. (Just kidding, I don't know why, it's just the tradition!) We went. Taylor got a mask (above) and a tail (below) to show Halloween spirit. The tail came from Target's $1 section. The friend he's with below is Hardy and his brother went as Laurel. It was quite creative.
Remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds? Well, at a nearby intersection each fall, for about a month, we get a colony of purple martins that remind me of that movie. Each night there are thousands of them that cover telephone lines, trees, and store roofs. The air is just thick with them. I just can't photograph this phenomenon with justice, but I thought it appropriate to blog about it on Halloween!

Renaissance Festival

No, this is not the Halloween post yet, though it may look like it. Emily has been in a theater class this fall and they performed at a Renaissance Festival last Tuesday. They performed a couple of scenes from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Emily was in both the High School play and the Junior High play. She played Mr. Beaver in the HS version, and Mrs. Beaver in the Jr. H. Emily and the girl who played Mrs. Beaver in the HS play are walking to the theater with their teacher (in the blue dress).
Emily as Mrs. Beaver (above) fixing food before she meets the two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve. The cast (below) without Lucy, don't know where she is.
This place is amazing. It's a permanent facility about 1 1/2 hours north of Katy in Plantersville, TX. It has buildings and a big stadium (for the jousting tournament) that look like England in the middle ages. It's got outdoor theaters and rides that aren't electrically powered. Shops with clothing, trinkets, jewelry, and lots of food (turkey legs anyone?) The people running it all are a little eccentric in their dress and behavior, so I have only been once before.

Emily standing at the entrance as we left. She's got a plate of yummy funnel cake. (Like scones with powdered sugar on it.

Homecoming Week for Spencer

Spencer didn't want to go to Homecoming this year, but ended up going. A week before Homecoming, a friend asked if he would come in their group, so he said yes. Then they told him they were going in couples and told him who he was taking. So, we had less than a week to prepare. (Of course. That's my life!) Here is how he asked her. Cupcakes.

Here is how she responded. The smile says YES. I thought it a very clever answer!

The tradition in Texas is for the boy to give the girl a mum. (That's the silk flower in the middle) The mum has ribbons flowing down and is decorated according to the school colors if you are an underclassman. If you are a junior, you get a silver mum, and seniors get a gold mum. (Tradition!) You can buy them for a lot of money (a basic mum runs you around $60) or you can make it for a lot of money. I think they are fun to make, so I made this one. You add stickers and cheap plastic school spirit trinkets, add lights, things that make noise and clank (jingle bells and whistles and cow bells), and any other cute fun toy or whatever. Then boy takes it to girl who gives boy a garter with a little mum on it that he wears on his arm. Macho I know, but it is a sort of trophy, so they all think it's cool. The day of the game, the kids wear their mums and garters at school. The girls wear overalls, which they have painted and decorated up, and attach their mum (which is heavy) to it. They also wear them to the game. It's pretty wild! Here is Ashley and Spencer exchanging the mum and garter. I put a Tinkerbell Pez dispenser on hers and a feather boa around the mum with mini Christmas lights which you can't see.

I had Taylor take a picture of Spencer at school with his football jersey and garter.

That night was the football game (Thursday, and I have already highlighted that in a previous post.) Saturday night was the Homecoming dance. Here is Spencer all spiffy and ready to go pick up his date and then meet all the parents at a location for them to take a million and one pictures. His car looks spiffy too, he spent more time shining it up than he did on himself.

We went to the home of a friend of one of the parents to take pictures. There was a house that was on the market across the street that was vacant and I guess it was okay with the owners, so we took pictures there. Of course I forgot my camera, so I have copied some from others. Here are a few.

Ashley's is the red and white.

Then we went to a park with a little waterfall and a cool tunnel and took more.