Christmas in California

This year we spent the holidays in California with my family - parents, siblings, aunt, uncle, and cousins.  The weather was chilly but we did get some sun, which gave us a great view of the mountains and beach. We were able to relax but also spent some quality time with our family and some of our friends.   

The first night we arrived we went to Buca de Beppo

to celebrate both Ana's and Cecilia's birthday, which

both fall near Christmas.

Mom and Andrey

The birthday girls eating their cake

Back at my parents' house, the tree was all nicely

decorated, though Neal had to get up and fix 

the falling star.

We were lucky enough to catch the annual Stallcop holiday 

party and a few of our friends were able to join us as well.  

Here we are with Mary and her fiancee Shawn.

Group photo op!  Dave, Reva, me, Neal, Brian, little

Kyle, and Erin  

The next day we were able to meet up with Dave, 

Stacey, and Kolbe for dinner at Pickles.  It was too short

but we were glad to be able to see them. 

Christmas Eve at Cecilia and Gaston's house

Christmas Day at mom and dad's.  Ana with her 

new jacket - beautiful smile!

Mom proudly sporting the stylin' jacket that she got

from Ana - HAND MADE by our little fashionista!

For our Christmas gift, Stacey and Dave gave us a game

we had been hearing rave reviews about - Apples to Apples.

We broke it out on Christmas and had a great time with it.

Neal, of course, cleaned house winning both games.

Coincidentally, Neal's good friend Mike and his girlfriend

Holly were in southern California for the holidays.  We

were able to meet up with them for lunch in Long Beach.

After two years of fashion design school, Ana

has made quite a portfolio for herself.  She has

started doing most of her designs digitally but

of all her designs, this one is still my favorite.

It was hand drawn with colored pencil.  What an

amazing talent!!  Thanks for letting me share

this one sis.  :-)

Annual Bailey Holiday Party

2008 was a busy year but filled with a lot of great memories for us Baileys. We traversed the globe, indulged in our new hobby of motorcycling, developed new friendships in our home of Texas, and spent a lot of quality time with family.   In addition, we surprisingly found the rocker within us and somehow became experts on Rock Band. Even more surprising than that is the special affinity Kelly has developed for the term "Y'all." As they say, "when in Rome....." 

It's always great to celebrate the close of each year with friends and family. We had our annual holiday party to do just that and it turned out to be a really fun evening. The best part - Lynn was even able to fly out for the weekend to join us!   We didn't take as many pictures as last year (we were too busy enjoying our guests!), but we did get some good ones. Here are a few of them. 

Who are these beautiful ladies?  :-)

Christine, Lynn and I before the party

(table to the left filled with prizes for our games!)

Tony, Christine, and Lynn

This game was called the "Kiss Relay."  You had to wear a

pair of ski gloves and attempt to unwrap four Hershey

Kisses before the opposing team finished.  It got a little

hairy when people started eating paper and foil along with 

the kisses!  Here Mike and Lisa were competing against

Cindy (a fellow neighbor and member of our book club)

and her husband.

The happy couple :-)

On Sunday the four of us went to mass and brunch.

Christine suggested a place called the Rainbow Lounge,

which felt just like being in a mountain lodge.  For Texas 

that's something special so we thoroughly enjoyed both 

the atmosphere and the excellent food.

White Christmas in Houston?

It snows in Houston about as often as it snows in California but yes, it DID snow today!   At first it was just a few flurries but then it started really coming down, enough to stick to the ground and cover the tops of cars!  We were having dinner at a restaurant and by the time we came out, it looked like this!

(Don't know what the "yellow" is all about)

I know to most people snow is really not that big of a deal but when you didn't grow up with it and witness snow in a subtropical climate, it's pretty exciting.  

Anyway, the reason we were out tonight was to celebrate Christine's birthday!  We had some delicious Mexican food at Chuys and enjoyed time with Christine and her friends.

The ring cleaner we got Christine for her birthday

The Eagles - "Long Road Out of Eden" Tour

Tonight we had the privilege of seeing a band that was not only one of my absolute favorites growing up, but one that is also legendary in the classic rock world.  Having produced music together since 1971 (the first two members at least - Don Henley and Glen Fry), breaking up as a band for 14 years and reuniting for the "Hell Freezes Over" album, and continuing to put their collective genius to work to make amazing music, The Eagles (now in their 60's) sound as good as they ever have.  

The Houston concert was originally scheduled for September 11th but was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike which hit that night.  It was rescheduled for mid October, cancelled again, and finally set for December 1st.  It was certainly worth the wait.  I've seen The Eagles perform without Don Henley, I've seen Don Henley perform on a solo tour, but this was the first time I saw the whole band perform a show together.  What a show it was! 

I wish I had pictures but no cameras were allowed inside the venue.  So, instead I found a nice tribute to them on youtube, a video of some of their moments as a band over the last three and a half decades.  It's set to one of our favorite songs off the new album - "Waiting in the Weeds."