Texas for the Holidays

We got to near Houston right before Christmas. We like this campground, and there are some nice people here, not many campers. Houston had the first snow in many years right before we got here, and right now, which is early January it is record breaking cold.

CHRISTMAS

The work campers here at Lonestar Yogi Bear Jellystone Park, had a wonderful Christmas party. Everyone brought a covered dish and the park staff made turkey. We had all the fixing, stuffing, mashed potatoes, bean casseroles, pies and deserts. Mike made his famous pea salad. It was wonderful, and we all stuffed ourselves. We also brought gifts and played dirty Santa, which is a game where you can "steal" someones gift if you like it better. Joe, who is diabetic, kept getting the chocolate. Some truffles were switched 5 times, before I ended up with them. You just can't stand between of a woman and her chocolates!!! We also had to sing for our dinner. We sang the 12 days of Christmas, and had to stand up for the number of the month of birth. So every 4th day of Christmas I had to stand up being my birthday is in April. This became very funny when some of our beer belly boys had trouble getting up and down, Mike had trouble keeping up. It was lots of laughs.

The thing about Christmas that I missed was not baking cookies, not putting up decorations and not seeing my friends and family. I was feeling a bit low on Christmas eve, so I decided to go to church. I found an Episcopal church in Prairie View, St Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church. I went alone, my GPS was wrong, but found the little chapel. I was the only white person there, and I felt so welcomed. I sang along and enjoyed the service. The children played bells, which was so cute. I was asked to introduce myself. (Yes, Liam, high Episcopal service-very much like St. John's.) I stayed for a while for some refreshments, but I left feeling very refreshed in my soul. It was a starry night, and when I came home I looked up, saw a shooting star, and said Thanks.

Christmas, itself was pretty quiet. No tree, a few red bows to dress up Agatha. We exchanged a few gifts. had left over turkey and watched TV. Sean called and it was nice to hear from him.

NEW YEAR's

It is hard to believe that it is 2010. There were people camping here, some even in tents,and it was cold. I never thought about camping for New Years, but it was a great idea. No driving and fun parties. Many people had kids. The staff had a New Year's Eve Party. The room was full of families and kids with balloons, hats, and noise makers. There was snack food. The host had a karaoke system and all the little girls sang Hannah Montana songs, styling along like they were on American Idol. It was cute. I took some pix of that. Before the party, we turned on the Grateful Dead and listened and sung the good old songs for hours. Mike made Black eye peas and I made my traditional New Years Offering. This was paced down from my mom's mother. Every New Year's she would put out a plate. The plate had a piece of bread, rice, sugar and some pennies. They are to give thanks and for abundance in the New Year. I added tobacco as a Native American offering to the Great Spirit to hear our prayers.

By 10 pm all the families left the party, we helped clean up

and came home to watch the ball drop in NY. They delay the broadcast so it appears to be dropping here at midnight central time, which was great...except I know I am getting old when I don't recognize any of the musical guest... oh well...

Hope you all had a Great Holiday season...