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." 

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Mike, Lisa, and Mike's parents who came into town from New Jersey.  As always, we had a great time with them and ate way too much!  Some things that Neal and I are thankful for this year are our health, our jobs, our friends, and our family.

Big Bend National Park

Several months ago we planned a trip to Big Bend National Park with Mike and Lisa.  We had heard that Big Bend is the most beautiful place in the state (the "Grand Canyon" of Texas) and that at 800,000 acres, it is one of the large national parks in the country.  We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, gearing up for cooler weather since we were, of course, towing our motorcycles.  It was a 10-hour drive each way, but well worth the few days we were able to enjoy being out in nature, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. The four of us had a great time and would go back again in a heartbeat.

Entering the park

As we were driving along at sunset, I was looking for

shapes in the mountains and clouds.  This cloud struck me

immediately, and I couldn't believe the irony that here

we were in Texas and this cloud looked just like a Texas

Longhorn!  It was even a pinkish orange color.

When we arrived at our resort on Wednesday night, we

had the place to ourselves since most guests had either left 

after the weekend or weren't coming until the following 

weekend.  They had an outdoor fire pit at the end of this 

walkway, above which was an open sky with the most 

unbelievable stars you could ever see.  Without the glare of

city lights, you could see a million stars and

constellations.  It was magical.

Here is the front of our hotel in the daylight.  We stayed

at Lajitas Resort which was built only three years ago

and up until this year, was a private hotel open only to

stars by invitation.  It didn't do very well  as an

exclusive resort but did receive a few noteworthy 

guests including Willie Nelson and Tommy Lee Jones. 

I truly wish this picture could speak a thousand words.

This was the Ghostown Cafe, our daily breakfast spot.

While the atmosphere was "interesting," to say the least,

the food was some of the best we'd ever tasted.

Our first day out we drove all over the park to

explore the different sites.  The roads were awesome

for bikers, as they were windy, scenic, and traffic free.

Mike and Lisa coming up along side us on the bike

One of the nice things about our trip was that we had

purchased a couple of "chatter boxes" ahead of time, so

that the four of us could talk to each other as we rode.

It worked out really well, as we were able to point things

out and share what we were seeing.

At the end of our first day we discovered "The Window"

which is probably the most scenic spot in the park.  We hit

it at dusk but came back the next day to do the full 5.5 mile

round trip hike down to the actual window.  Here we are 

riding down to the starting point.

"The Window" is the breakpoint between the two

mountains, an opening through which you can see

the valley below.  It's really quite breathtaking.

On our hike we encountered a plethora of creatures!

There were grasshoppers, like this one, everywhere.

Getting closer to The Window

I stumbled upon this tarantula and it scared me to death.

Once we discovered it was dead, I felt comfortable enough

to move in for a close-up shot.  These spiders were all over

the place.  Neal pointed out at least 5 that he saw crossing

the road as we drove through the park.  They were enormous!

Comically, as the four of us were playing with the dead

spider, there were two deer watching us from about 20

feet away.  When we stood up to look at them, they were

very tame and almost seemed to pose for a few pictures.

Such beautiful animals.

Finally arriving at The Window.  What an amazing

sight!

This is the same picture but one that Mike

took with his camera.  Turned out much nicer!

Back at our resort, we got ready for a nice dinner

at the hotel restaurant, which overlooked the mountains.

I didn't get a picture of it but we had an early

celebration for my birthday this night, when Neal

surprised me with a cake that he had ordered from

the small bakery on the hotel premisis.  He had our

favorite waiter bring it out with a candle and

everyone sung "Happy Birthday."  It was truly

a wonderful evening.

"SHADOW CREEK BIKER GANG"

(all of us in our Harley coats)

On our last full day in the park we left the bikes for the 

Hummer since the temperatures had dropped another

10 degrees.  We did a little off-roading and visited the

second most scenic spot in the park - Santa Helena.

The mini "Grand Canyon" of Texas

Annual Halloween Bash

Mike and Lisa had their annual Halloween costume party, which was a blast as always.  This year there was an outdoor Rock Band stage, which almost everyone played on.  A good time was had by all. 

Like last year, no one was quite sure of what

Neal was.  He got everything from Gandalf to

Barabbas, to Moses, to Father Christmas.  He was 

supposed to be just a wizard, but I guess it wasn't

 that obvious.  My costume, on the other hand, was 

more obvious than I anticipated.  Everyone had seen 

the movie, "Edward Scissorhands" and seemed to 

really get a kick out of the outfit.  I even had one guy

 ask to have his picture taken with Johnny Depp!  

It was a big hit, and the esteemed judges at the party 

awarded my costume first place.  :-)

Thunder Storm

Since moving to Texas, one of the things I haven't yet adjusted to is the kind of storms we get.  Anyone who grew up with me in California can appreciate that we just don't get storms like this back home - with thunder and lightning.  Our idea of a storm is some warm Santa Ana winds with a little rain sprinkled in - and I do mean "little."  I've never seen raindrops as big as what we get here.  They plop down on your windshield and make the biggest splats!  Not like the small drops of a California shower.   

As I was sitting in the living room tonight waiting for Neal to get home from work, I was a little nervous as this storm passed overhead.  After I saw a giant lightning bolt shoot down right in front of our house, my nervousness turned to fascination which of course, inspired me to get out the camera.  I wasn't able to capture another lightning bolt on film, but got some good footage of the storm lighting up the sky.  You can also hear some pretty good thunder in this video too.