Christmas and New Year's in TX

We spent Christmas 2011 down in Austin. After packing up all of our presents and stuffing Franklin into his little carrier, we flew in on Friday the 23rd.  Franklin actually did great on the plane and didn't make a peep. We arrived in Austin after lunch time, so we proceeded directly to Chuy's with Kent's parents.  Ahh it's been a while since we had Tex-Mex!   (On a side note, apparently a Chuy's has just opened in Atlanta!  It's a bit far from our house, but we'll have to go do some quality control.)  We hit Spec's for wine and beer supplies and then went on to relaxation in Lago Vista for about a week.  

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner and opened tons of presents. We enjoyed Christmas dinner again and a few extra desserts.  :-)  As you can see from the pics, we did a lot of eating.  Winston finally warmed up to Franklin...he wasn't too sure about having a puppy in HIS house. I came down with a really bad cold/flu just after Christmas which put a damper on my week, but on the bright side allowed me to read Hunger Games in one day.  Kent and I cooked some fancy meals to treat his parents and we basically relaxed and took in the warm weather.  We even had a few meals out on the patio!  

New Year's was fast approaching and we had our parties lined up!   We had two days to fit in seeing many different people.  First up was a New Year's Eve Eve party at my Aunt Ruth and Uncle David's house in Spicewood, TX.  They are actually very close to Kent's parents....if we travelled by boat!  But by car, it was a journey. So great to catch up with them and my Aunt Marcia and Uncle Dennis at the gorgeous party!   That night it was on to Kent's favorite pub in Austin, The Draught House, to meet up with some old friends.  A few beers were consumed and a few darts thrown.  

Kent and I had booked a room at the new W Hotel in downtown Austin (thanks Starwood points!), so we could stay in town that night and New Year's Eve.  The W was really nice, definitely would stay there again.  We didn't run into anyone famous in the bar, but apparently Willie Nelson was there with all his crew and we heard Coldplay was there as well.   The W thought of everything - they even left the makings of a bloody mary in our room while we were out on NYE!  (mini Tito's vodka, V8, mini Tabasco and a glass with pickled veg)  They also included a "prescription" of Jelly Belly's.   :-)



New Year's Eve during the day we met up with Kent's parents again for a Thai lunch followed by a Texas basketball game.  It's been literally YEARS since we've been to a basketball game, so it was fun to get into the action.  After the game, Kent and I went for a nice walk on Town Lake - the weather was so nice.  We hurried to get ready for our super-early reservation at our favorite restaurant in the world, Uchi.  They were so full, we had to go at 5:30!  That's ok though, because it's the kind of place that you want to take a long time.  Awesome, small plates.  It's our "celebration restaurant" and we were celebrating my new job and a fantastic 2011!

On to Tom's annual NYE party.  We've gone to it every year that we've been in Austin.   We rang in the New Year with good friends and a giant bottle of champagne!

A great trip to Texas! Here's to 2012!

Note: Tom has creatively used the same numbers since 2008, as you can tell from the "12"!