Christmas in Texas

Tomorrow our Christmas interlude ends and we begin phase 2 of our U.S. Journey!  Here I am discovering the  wonders of the central park in the small German town of Fredricksberg just west of Austin.

We enjoyed the upscale touristy Texas-German community and Dirk finally found a hat that might fit him!  And who would have thought that this was a wine growing area with vineyards, peaches, and pecans abundant here.  Scored some new crop pecans!

Highlight of our Austin area visit was a long awaited dinner with son, Kris, and his wife Beth Ann.  Beth Ann was dressed splendidly, as befitting the amazing restaurant where we ate.  Here she is sampling an assortment of different alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. 

It was terrific to see Kris again after almost three years, and he was looking good too.  Here he is enjoying one of the 15 courses served at Barley Swine restaurant!

A close up of one of the molecular gastronomy dishes served at Barley Swine.  One must refer to the menu to actually be able to identify all the food items included in each artful dish.  I believe this contained a red turnip ribbon on top of some green foam.  It all looked great and mostly also tasted great, despite frightening sounding combos like chocolate sauce and pate de fois grois!  Thank you Kris and Beth Ann.  Interestingly, they gifted Rick a Molecular Gastronomy Kit, so we can expect some homemade food creations in the future!

After dinner we retired to our RV for an intimate gift exchange.  Here we are trying out our new cameral extension for making higher quality "selflies" than normal.  It was a gift to ourselves and our blog victims.  Beth Ann is back into the soap and potion business, and she and Kris know how to wrap gifts with elegance!

An unexpected treat while in Austin was rendezvousing with our niece, Caroline, for dinner with her and her beau, Erik, and later for a cold but beautiful bike ride along the river in Austin.  We always enjoy visiting with Caroline and she treated us to some yummy Hawaiian goodies, chocolate macadamia nuts!

A flat boring 4 hour drive took us to Arlington, where many Havlaks awaited.  The day after Christmas we were able to have a gathering with four of the five Havlak siblings AND all of their kids except Kris.  They all took over the dinner table and banished the old fogies to our own locale. Fortunately, we all enjoy each other.  We also got to show off Rick's girlfriend, Caitlin, as they both flew into town en route to their vacation in Roatan, Honduras.  Jess was able to fly down on Christmas day as well, to spend three plus days with us.  We were so lucky!!

A late-night Christmas gift exchange yielded some fun surprises…..Bioware Tshirts from Kris, homemade honey from Rick, Kiva Microlending certificates from Jess, and something special from Caitlin (see below).

We all scored some amazing soaps, lotions, candles, and shaving bars from Beth Ann.  I thought Mary Jo was going to eat her soap when she read that it was made of Shea Butter, but she was just pretending!

Our clan and Frank and Paul are modeling our new red and green tuques (pronounced "tookes") made by Caitlin.  A tuque is a warm hat if you are speaking Canadian!  Caitlin is officially now sick of knitting!  She is also officially accepted by the Havlak clan, including persnickety Grandpa (despite his evil expression here!)

To give Caitlin a quick taste of Texas, we took her to the Fort Worth Stockyards and arrived just in time for the Long Horn cattle drive.  This cowboy could crack a mean bull whip!

Although dressed for dinner with Kris and Beth Ann, Caitlin daintily climbed aboard this mellow long horn for a little low key rodeo-ing.  Yee ha!

Rick and Caitlin headed for Austin to visit the Bro and Sis in Law and we headed for the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth.  This segment represents canyons.  Dirk and Jess descend to the central pool.

This place is amazing.  Here we are surrounded by a hundred water cascades!

Jessica ascended the next section of the park, " The Mountain."  Thanks for family and good weather!

And a focal point of our visit was small family group visits to Mary Jo in her memory care facility.  It is a very nice place and Frank eats lunch with her daily and hangs out.  Although Mary Jo has problems with Alzheimers, she still has a sense of humor and is affectionate and pleasant to visit.  Our lunch with her on Christmas day was not only colorful, but a comfort in being able to see both her and Frank in a good space.  Mary Jo's home is only 4 minutes from Frank's and the caregivers are nice, the routine is comforting, the food good, and the set up works well for both her and Frank.

Tomorrow we head for Louisiana and the bayou, crawdads, alligators, music, plantations, and we hope……WARM WEATHER!!!   Happy New Year!!!