Zoo fun!

The kids' grandparents gave them a zoo membership for Christmas.

Claire and I took Chris on his last day of vacation.  (Nathan was at a friend's house...we didn't just leave him behind!)  Chris hadn't been to the Dallas zoo in about 12 years.  It used to be a pretty pathetic zoo, but they have made some wonderful improvements over the years.  He was shocked...it didn't even look like the same zoo to him!  One of their improvements is the new Africa area...



Another one of our favorite areas is the aviary in the kids part....



The thing my kids like best about this zoo, and why I wanted a membership there instead of Fort Worth which is closer, is that they have a nature exchange.  You can take it nature items, trade them in and get points that you can spend getting an item someone else traded in.  They have some very cool stuff there and my kids LOVE it!  I'll have to take pictues inside the nature exchange next time we go. :)

And don't forget...today is Tiggerific Tuesday at the Magical Mouse Schoolhouse so bounce on by to join the blog hop!

Postcard Friendship Friday #83

This is another card I picked up in Hannibal, MO.  The back is actually upside down when you turn the card over.  I thought that was different.  For some reason the scanner didn't scan the bottom of the back of the card.  Its is signed As Ever, Cousin Louis.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Our year in pictures

I think its fun to look back through my pictures from the past year and remember what all we did. 

 January: we had a huge snow/ice storm.  We were iced in for days!

We live in Texas, so, yes, this was huge!

February:  I became the mother of a TEENAGER!

March begins Little League Baseball...

And there was Easter in April...

May was particulary fun since we took a vacation to Missouri.  We visited all of the Mark Twain stuff in Hannibal, but after we caught a Ranger game in Kansas City, of course!

by the Mighty Mississippi...

June brings one of Claire's favorite things:  VBS!

Being that we are in Texas, my post includes a huge snowstorm and a heatwave!

In July it was HOT!  We did all we cold to stay cool....like ice skating...

...and swimming!

It was still hot in August.  That's why we start school then. 

We prefer to have May off for summer vacation instead of August.  Works great for vacations!

Speaking of vacations...

We headed to Southern California in September.

To visit Disneyland, of course!

And we couldn't go to Anaheim without catching a Ranger game at Angels Stadium!

October is always very busy and 2011 was no different! 
Claire's birthday and Halloween added to the excitement.
.

November was busy too...the kids had way too much going on this last year!

That's why it was nice to stay home at Thanksgiving and enjoy some homemade desserts!

December, of course, was filled with lots of Christmas preparations,

Mass on Christmas Eve and

lots of Christmas morning fun!

We had a great year and we feel very blessed
I wish everyone a very happy new year and a wonderful 2012!

Christmas Eve

The stocking are hung by the chimney with care, the clothes are ironed, the pork

loin is stuffed, the chocolate chip cookie pie is in the oven,

and the cat is snuggled all nice under the tree.

Guess we're ready for Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Postcard Friendship Friday #82

Yay!  I finally got time to post a postcard for Postcard Friendship Friday. 

As always, hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

I bought this postcard at an antique shop in Hannibal MO this spring when we were there.  There's nothing written on the back, but someone wrote 1912 at the top on the front.  I wonder if that's the year its from.  Printed on the back is "printed in Germany".   I don't know if you can tell from the scan or not, but the pictures are raised.  Its a very pretty card.

Wordful Wednesday with Santa!

Claire is really growing up fast.  She's 9 already and although she know the truth about Jolly Old St. Nick, she still wanted to take a picture with him this year. 

I'm glad.  This mommy isn't quite ready for her to grow up just yet!!

Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies.

Wordless Wednesday is hosted by Angry Julie Monday

Christmas Cookies

'Tis that time of year when we all fire up the oven and make those wonderful Christmas cookies!

At our house, everyone gets to choose a cookie that they want me to make.  I've already made Claire's snickerdoodles and Nathan's White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies.  I've also made sugar cookies for a book club Christmas party.  This weekend I made Chris' selection: 

Ranger Cookies...

And for gifts for Chris' co-workers, the librarian and the mailman, I made Chocolate Crinkles today...

I'm probably going to be dreaming of these things tonight!  I made over 150 of them!

I still have my cookies to make.  I think I want Toffee Bars this year.  I may wait until after Christmas to make them though.  Maybe for New Years.  I think we need a break with no cookies in the house to tempt us!

What is your favorite Christmas cookie?