Jacob's Birthday Weekend in Houston

At some point every December, Jacob will celebrate his birthday, and family will invade Houston. This year, there were horrible sideways rains pouring down making a horribly dangerous drive ridiculously scary. The weather tried its best to stop us from celebrating together, but it only stopped us from enjoying Shabbat dinner with them. Subway Shabbat it was!

After unpictured chaos of enthusiastic cousins running around Aunt Sandi's house while adults mostly ignored them, the youngins were put to sleep, and Aunt Debbie decided it would be smart to venture back out into the storm for special birthday boy dessert. At least I had the outfit to match the craziness.

The next morning took us to an indoor playplace.

floating Spencer

The cousins did a great job of getting alongly-like all weekend. I got more special aunt time while my kiddos were napping when Mira and I went to get manicures.

More photographed fun:

They weren't good, but they were free.

And because it was only 40 degrees outside, an outdoor ice cream parlor seemed like the perfect birthday treat!


We kinda sorta skipped Chanukah Night 6 from the previous night's storm, but we made up for it with extra light and love on Night 7.




Aunt Sandi hand-crocheted gifts for each Cohen in the form of Rockets kippot and an adorable owl hat.


Anyone over the age of 5 got to stay up watching a movie. Apparently, some of us were too old to stay up that late.

The next morning "Mira" babysat while I was packing up to leave. (There may have been an electronic device under the table.) Spencer was not to be distracted.

Before departing for Austin, we stopped for one more birthday treat at Duck Donuts where everyone got to choose his/her own icing/topping/drizzle on each made-to-order donut. (And also, check out Mira and Gabi's matching hairdos.)


A sign of a successful trip: