Of course, it wasn’t just us. We had the whole family involved: Kathleen, Dave, Amber, Joshua, Adrianne, Cody, Corey, Willow, Wesley, Aidan and Jillian (I think that is roughly by age).

The train heads down the tracks a short ways, stops near a small waterfall and then heads back the other way. While the train is stopped the engine is moved from one end of the train to the other. So our car was the first on the way out and the last on the way back in. The perfect combination if you ask me.  The train cars are from the early 1900s and in surprisingly good shape. When we were kids it seems to me that the engine was steam and the cars were more open, but I guess things have changed a little.

Starting at one end Santa comes down the train and sits with each of the kids. He takes their seat and does his usual thing. Wesley was really excited that he got to be the first kid on the train to sit on Santa’s lap. And Jillian didn’t scream at all this year!!

From the opposite end of the train as Santa comes Ben the banjo player. He plays and everyone sings carols.

We had hot chocolate, apple cider and lots of fun.  Look at these faces and tell me they didn’t have a great time.

 

More than being really difficult, the trouble with going homemade is just how long it takes. First we made the dough. This was fun and Jillian was a big help. But then you have to bake the shapes three times for each house. The roof and long side get baked twice and the other side of the pan, the small sides and chimney, get baked just once. But you can’t bake them back-to-back because the pan is hot. You have to wait for it to cool and that takes hours. So, for each house it took me three days. I’d make the dough and then bake each side a night. Then repeat the process for the second house. I wanted my own house, but I was too lazy to make any more.

Once all of the pieces were baked I took another day to assemble the houses so they could dry and be sturdy enough for the kids to work with. We used a pretty standard royal icing recipe and it gave us structurally sound little houses.

Finally, a week later, we were ready to decorate these little guys. Amber bought a ton of candy and there was plenty to go around. Interestingly, even though we divvied everything up 50/50 some strange things happened. Some of Wesley’s candy bowls were empty even though hardly any of them were on the house. Where did they go?

To start with we let the kids go there own way. Once they had made good progress Amber and I each started adding little touches and giving the kids some more complicated ideas. They each came up with great ideas of their own and copied from each other when they saw something they liked.

They had fun. Here they are with the finished product. The houses had to be moved to the mantle almost immediately since pieces of candy were being removed even before the frosting was dry.

 

Last Christmas I had the idea that Jillian and Wesley needed their own special stockings. We looked at some while Christmas shopping, but didn’t find anything that we fell in love with. So in January I made a note to remind myself in August that I was going to have get to work making them myself. Because I loved the latch hook stocking Grandpa Joe made me (and the other Hunter kids) I wanted Wes and Jillian to have the same kind.

In September I ordered two kits from Shillcraft: A snowman for Wesley and a teddy bear for Jillian. The kits came with almost everything I needed: the pattern, yarn and mesh. I bought a latch-hook tool and set to work. Here is what the snowman kit looked like when I unpacked it.

Once I had it unpacked I realized I didn’t have a clue what to do. So I hopped on YouTube and found a few videos that were rather helpful. One key tip: count out your yarn for each row before you start. Following the pattern on the mesh is asking for mistakes. The actual process is pretty easy and you get much faster at as you go. Which is good, because I was very slow at first. When I calculated how long it was taking me to do each knot and that I had 1700 to do on each stocking, I got a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to finish. In fact I posted this to Twitter:

“math can suck. at the rate I’m going it may take 22hrs for each stocking. about 1700 knots each. ignorance is bliss.”

I decided to share the process with the kids from the start. This was a very good idea. They were very interested in the whole thing and their enthusiasm kept me motivated. Another way I kept motivated was by tracking my time for each row of the stockings. Yes, I know I’m a geek. But I did it and it helped. I used a great free application called Klok to track my time worked which is how I know it took me 14 hours and 54 minutes to latch hook Wesley’s, but only 12 hours and 43 minutes for Jillian’s. I started onWesley’s first and that 2 hour difference is the learning curve for latch hooking (at least for me).

Being the kind of person I am I also took pictures of each few lines.  This is the time-lapse movie I made.

The only problem with the kit was putting their names on the top. My stocking from Grandpa says “Josh”. Of course mine is twice as big as theirs (and due to its enormous size I realized this year it has probably fetched me thousands of dollars of extra stocking-stuffers over the years. Thanks Grandpa!). And it didn’t take long for me to figure out I could shorten Welsey to Wes, but Jillian was going to be tough to fit on there. Just not enough little squares to make it happen. So after some back and forth I decided on initials. I’m still not thrilled with them, but they are stuck with them now. Sorry kids.

Yes, despite the fact that Jillian will likely get married and change her name someday. She’ll just have to limit her choices to people with last names starting with “H”. It worked for her mom after all.  This limited space is the reason Adrianne as called “Dri” for a bit there. I thought the stocking said Dri because that was her nickname, but no, her nickname was Dri because it fit on the stocking.  Who knew? (Maybe everyone knew this. I’m slow on this kind of stuff.)

Once the pattern and initials were finished I kind of panicked. Now I had to sew. Not a skill I actually possessed (or do now). So I basically did nothing for two weeks. Then panicked some more because I’d wasted two weeks. What to do? Back to the internet of course. I found this page and this page to be really helpful with types of stitches. Then the kids and I bought fabric. Amber said nope and we went back and got some different fabric.

A mere 11 hours and 20 minutes of hand sewing later and Jillian’s stocking was done.  Another 7 hours and 12 minutes and Wesley’s was done. An even steeper learning curve on the sewing. I had to redo multiple parts of Jillian’s as different stitches didn’t work the way I thought they would. In the end I ended up using whipstitches and backstitches for the visible parts and for the inside parts a whole bunch of stuff that I made up that would make people who know how to sew cringe deep down inside.

I am so glad to be done! And I’m done before Christmas! When I was ordering I asked Amber if she wanted me to make her one to match the rest of us and she said “no”. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If I had to do another one I’d probably break down in tears. Which would probably ruin the holiday for all of us, frankly.

I’d hoped to have included a bunch of nifty graphs using Open Flash Chart v2, but sadly there doesn’t seem to be a plugin built to make charts for WordPress that isn’t really lame. So instead of being able to show you all kinds of nifty data I collected while making these things I just have this one sad chart I made in, embarrassingly, Excel.  The big flat stretch there in October was when we went to my Mom’s wedding and then again in late November early December that is when I was pretending I didn’t have to learn how to sew to complete the project.

 

We got there right at 6, but Santa was a bit late…

Sitting in Santa's Chair.

The kids were really excited while we waited in line.  But as soon as they got up close to him… that was a different matter.

So I showed them that Santa was nice.

Then Joshua told Wesley that, THIS was his chance to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.  But he was pretty nervous and a bit terrified.  But he really managed to pull it together an conquer his initial fear and sat with Santa like a champ.

Drying his tears...

This is right before he said he wants a FISH TANK from Santa.

We really wanted to try a picture with Jillian too…

I was really surprised that she even sat with him.

This was after about 10 seconds, she had really calmed down. If only we had 10 more, she may have even smiled.

I promised the kids cookies, to try to get them to cooperate with Santa, so we went over to the rec center and had cookies and hot chocolate.

Enjoying their snack.

Yummy!

He just did not want to smile for me!

Time to go home.  But first, a few more pictures…

It was about 50 out tonight.  It felt pretty good.  But we (When I say we, I mean the kids and Joshua.  Of course I was in a jacket.  I even had a scarf on too.) were the only family without jackets on.  And most kids had on mittens and a hat!

It was a good night.  We are looking forward to walking along the trails tomorrow and looking at the luminaries and the Christmas lights.  The tractor train will be out tomorrow, so I can’t wait to get photos with Joshua and the kids!

 

This year we got our Christmas tree at Home Depot. Which makes me a little sad because I really enjoy the hours of agonizing over which of a thousand identical trees is the just the right one. Unfortunately the trees in Texas are terrible and Costco wasn’t selling, so we went to the hardware store. On the upside it came with a 90 day return policy which might come in hand if we don’t need a Valentine’s Day tree.

The kids had a great time decorating it just the same. They were almost busting at the seams to get the ornaments out of the boxes.

We let them do nearly all of the decorating.

So we had a little bit of bunching …

To encourage a more even distribution Amber and I got involved.

And of course we needed our traditional tree topper, a large glass snowman.

While Amber was up north we added some chains with the “lick-and-stick” paper that YaYa sent. The kids liked putting them together better than I would have expected and I really like how they look on the tree.  Wesley wanted to send a photo of the tree to YaYa so we took this one (J was asleep).

After the chains we did tinsel. I don’t know what we were thinking. The kids loved it of course. We’ll probably need to buy a new vacuum cleaner after sucking up all the extra from the floor.

And of course the final product:

 

As is our new Texas holiday tradition we headed down to Zilker Park for the lighting of the “tree”.  We first enjoyed the enormous yule log fire and then counted down as they turned on the lights.  Once the crowd thinned down underneath the tree we headed inside to do some spinning.  The photos look a little blurry because of all the people walking and spinning, kicking up the dry Texas earth.

I started with Wesley in my arms and spun him around and around as he stared up at the lights.  After just a few rotations we met Steve Albert, KVUE reporter, and his cameraman, Woody.  They asked if we’d like to be filmed and we said sure.  By the time they had gotten all set up and had me mic’d up I was spinning Jillian around and Amber was getting Wesley dizzy.

Jillian loved the spinning even more than Wesley.  She would get this mellowed out zombie look and go limp.  When I stopped she would sit up looking all dizzy and then ask for more.  As I say so eloquently in the video I don’t think she would ever have stopped on her own accord.  And I must admit it is rather dazzling looking up at the lights.

They filmed us for a while, asked me a few questions (and to my defense I was rather dizzy and not thinking straight), and then told us it would be on at 10.  We went home, eventually got the kids tucked in and sure enough the Zilker Tree Lighting was their top story.  I managed, with some effort, to get a copy of the video off their website.  Feel free to skip ahead to about 1min 25sec.

And yes a few people at work actually saw us on the news.  I was in the elevator with Jack today and he said “Hey I saw you on the news!”

 

I found an iron almost exactly like Nani’s. The pattern matched and the size and kind of cookie that it made was just right. But the handles were different. I bid on the iron anyway figuring it was lucky that I found this one at all. And I didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste since I needed it in time for Christmas. When I logged on the next day to check my bid I found another iron exactly like the one my mom has now (originally Nani’s). So now I’m in the position of hoping that I get outbid on the first iron that I’m winning so I can get the one I really want. No luck, I won the first iron. Close, but not exactly what I wanted. So I bid the minimum amount on the other one (the Nani’s clone) and won that one as well. Do we need two nearly identical pizzelle irons? No, but now we have them.

A couple of weeks later and yesterday we finally got ready to make some cookies. We let Wesley help. He loves to cook and if he is awake you don’t really have any choice but to let him help. We only made half a recipe so he only cracked 6 eggs. I mean cracked them. Smashed them to bits. One at a time into a small bowl followed by me pulling out each and every egg shell fragment (hopefully each and every). He helped add the flower and other ingredients. He even helped run the hand mixer and it all went pretty smoothly, though he did try to stick his finger into the moving beaters (don’t worry he didn’t get it in there I was paying attention). For obvious reasons we decided not to let Wesley help with the extremely hot iron portion of the cooking. He took a nap and Amber and I got to work.

I had cleaned both irons before we used them with water and a produce brush. It had to be done. I didn’t know where they were from or what was on them. The problem was that I may have killed whatever non-stick coating had been created on them. The first cookies from both irons stuck terribly and were basically trash. We had to soak, scrape and scratch all the burned, stuck-on cookie bits from the irons. We let them cool and later that night we seasoned them just as we would a cast iron pan. The irons were heated on the stovetop over medium-high heat. When they were hot enough to sizzle water drops we brushed vegetable oil onto them using paper towels. We let them cool, wiped up the excess oil and repeated the process two more times. Success! The irons have started to take on a bit of slickness and the cookies didn’t stick. Another 50 years or so of cooking baking and I”ll have as good a coating as my mom.

Today Wesley helped shape the cookies. Normally the dough is rolled into small balls or sort of loaf-shaped lumps each made from a tablespoon or so of dough. Wesley’s strayed a bit from tradition. They were definitely more snake shaped and were less uniform than Nani would have allowed. He had a good time making his “snakes” and then watching me place them in the iron (on the back burner on the opposite edge of the stove from Wesley). All told we cooked up maybe 18 snakes into delicious cookies. I wasn’t sure how Wesley would take to the cookies, but he loved them. Only a bath could pull him away from the making and eating of these treats.

After only a few cookies the house is filled with the most wonderful aroma. The distinct smell of anise and butter filled our house and made it instantly feel like Christmas. I’m so glad that we can pass on this family tradition to yet another generation. I wonder if Nani had any idea how important these little cookies would be. Wesley has now added “pizzelle” to his vocabulary. And he always says it with a smile.

 

Call me old fashioned, but I when I hear “tree lighting” I think of a tree (preferably a large evergreen of some kind) with lights on it (preferably in strands that wrap around the tree branches). It probably stems from growing up in Sedro-Woolley which has forever placed a large tree in the center of a downtown intersection during the holidays. The tree becomes the center of much conversation in town. The talk goes splits pretty cleanly into two groups: 1) “Have you seen that tree? That is the sadest tree we’ve ever had.” and 2) “Have you seen that tree? That is the nicest tree we’ve ever had.”. Nothing in the middle. It is either awful or wonderful. Either way it is a real tree and special. I remember the year they placed the tree in a corner lot rather than in the center of the intersection. I don’t think they’ll do that again.

In Austin the big tree lighting isn’t a tree at all. Rather it is a lot of lights strung from the Moonlight tower in Zilker park. The Moonlight towers in Austin are actually historic landmarks. They were the first of their kind and only a handful remain anywhere. You can read more about them here. All told the cone of lights extends 155 feet high and 180 feet in diameter. That’s a big “tree”.

We crowded around underneath the lights with a few thousand of our closest neighbors and waited through the normal slew of speaches from local officials. None of which we could hear because they had the requisite poorly setup and inadequate sound system. It makes it hard to enjoy, or even endure, the talks when you can’t hear them at all. And frankly the mayor isn’t much of a mime.

Then we had a nice little elementary school chorus treat us to a few holiday tunes. At least they were loud enough to hear and actually sounded pretty good. Good for 8 year olds anyway. They sang a few songs and then a few more. The limit for this kind of thing should be set at 3 songs. No more. The first song makes you think “Oh, how sweet”. The second song makes you think “Hmm…not too bad”. And the third song makes you think “Okay. Get on with it already”. By song six the crowd was getting restless and I guarantee they weren’t thinking happy thoughts about that group of third graders. Had they gone on to song seven or eight I think 2007 might be remembered as the year of the great Zilker Tree Lighting Riot.

When the tree was finally lit it was pretty neat. Of course from underneath it doesn’t look anything like a tree, but still cool. We engaged in the local tradition of looking up and spinning around. Fun. I imagine it is totally trippy if you are under the influence. Wesley enjoyed the spinning, but really he always enjoys a good spin.

Next we are going to hit the Trail of Lights. A mile plus long display of Christmas lights that brings in about 400,000 people a year. I think Wesley and Jillian will both really enjoy it. Staring at pretty lights is something they both have in common.

 

For Wesley and Jillian both this was their first trip to see Santa. Wesley and I have been talking about Santa on some recent runs. He has been getting really interested in stories and has been asking me to tell him has many as I can remember. During the runs I default to the easiest ones I can think of. This time of year they are a little Santa and Rudolph heavy. I wasn’t sure how he would do. He is a little timid around strangers and can really get upset at things you wouldn’t expect. Jillian of course would be a total crap shoot. She’d either be in a good mood or not and there wasn’t any predicting or changing it. After waiting a reasonable amount of time (I’m glad we got there early) we had our moment with the big man. I would say he was a very high quality santa. The small room with low ceilings and dominating fireplace was the perfect setting. If it weren’t 75 degrees outside and 90 inside the cabin it might have felt like the north pole. Wesley was timid, but smiled in the pictures and was patient enough. Jillian was just Jillian and so all went well. We took a bunch of photos with our camera, bought one Polaroid for $2 (surprisingly reasonable) and headed outside.

We walked down the trail again and headed to a block I run past all the time. Lately they have gone all out in terms of Christmas lights. Wesley was enthralled. He clearly believes that lights are meant to be observed up close and also that they look best when under a little tension as when tugged on by a small child. We had a few struggles but the promise of more lights up ahead always kept him moving.

The luminaries were really neat. A little slumped and crumpled from some overnight rain they still were rather magical. They were spaced every twenty to thirty feet down the trails and sidewalks throughout the park. It was much neater than I had imagined. I took the opportunity to take a few long exposure shots that I think really give a feel for the mood while we were there. We spent a little time at the playground near the pool. We took some more pictures and headed for home.

And then it happened. We saw the train. We had to ride that train. Okay it wasn’t a train in the real sense. It was pulled by a Kubota tractor, the cars all had rubber wheels and were made from used barrels. But to Wesley it was the greatest thing ever. We got up to the “station” about the time the train was loading. All the cars were full and the conductor actually said “all aboard” and blew a whistle. We waited as patiently as a two-year old can for a train and got our turn on the next go around. Wesley and I rode together both because I was afraid he might get scared and because I thought he might just jump out. We wound around the park and did some nifty S-curves. Then he did a couple of big loops where the engine (see now even I’m calling it an engine and not a tractor) almost touched the last car. The conductor waived and talked to the kids in the last car and then we headed back to the station. What fun. The train filled up and took off. Wesley wanted to go again and again and again and … well, you get the idea. He had a hard time leaving, but I think it was worth it. Today as we ran through the park he pointed out all the places the train had gone. Ah…the memories.

 

Friday afternoon we headed out to hunt down our Christmas tree. I knew we were in for something different than what we were used to in Washington. Back home we have a lot of tree farms fairly close by, the trees look just like they do on the Christmas cards (firs mostly, but with lots of other species as well). Down here mostly you have Pine. Pine are a good tree. Nothing against them. I’m sure they are great for something. Unfortunately they don’t make a terribly great Christmas tree. As an example look at this tree:

This is NOT the ugliest tree we could find. I would say it was actually in the upper end of the bell curve. The problems are many:

• sort of yellow in color
• crooked trunks
• low density (you can see clear through them)
• long wimpy needles
• weak branches that don’t hold much up

There were also some non-tree-related problems:

• It was 81 degrees for goodness sake
• There were ant hills all over the place (no bites thank goodness)
• Giant spiders. Trust me. Eye level on webs stretched across the rows.

We did manage to find a tree. Mat, Becca and Elliott who came with us (and visited the same tree farm last year) couldn’t bring themselves to commit to one of these trees. We were pretty determined to “go native” and get a Christmas tree like true Texans. Turns out true Texans go to the Home Depot parking lot and buy a tree shipped down from Oregon. We’d heard these trees were really expensive. “Oh my goodness they cost $100…$150…$200″. Turns out they cost about $5 more than we paid. Counting the gas driving the hour and twenty minutes to Smithville and we didn’t break even.

On the way home we were rewarded, however, with a gorgeous sunset. It was a huge red sun setting over the plain. Amber and I were both reminded of the pictures we’ve all seen of a giant sun setting over the African savanna. If you squinted the cows could pass for elephants. Maybe not.

At home we put up the tree and Wesley helped put up the lights and ornaments. We had a few magical moments talking about how pretty the tree was. He really likes it and he is doing better than I had expected keeping his hands off. Not perfect, but it could be worse. He likes it well enough that he keeps asking for more trees. He doesn’t care where we put them he just wants more trees with lights indoors.

Despite its shortcomings I glad we went out and cut our own local tree. It has lots of unique character and we all like it just the way it is.