Christmas in the (Hill) Country

For whatever reason, Nana and Zayde thought it would be a good idea to spend alone time with each Texas family over Winter Break. It really just allowed my children's "true colors" to come out without cousin distractions, but we all certainly survived.

Here's how we started. It can go downhill OR uphill from here...

We arrived on December 21, the winter solstice. Some in my family remembered the "Solstice Circle" at a local park that we visited last year, and we were eager to see if the sun lined up where it was supposed to.



After some hiking and exploring around the park, we headed back to the Solstice Circle to see how the afternoon shadows had changed.


After leaving the park, we had a late afternoon treat at Dairy Queen!

For funsies, we snuck BACK to the Solstice Circle right as the sun was setting, just to see if the sun and our shadows lined up the way the artistic and scientific sculpture was designed to.



Being the only family, we got lots of focused time with Nana and Zayde to ourselves!






Big girl Reggie was there too!

So were the parents:


It was a lovely week away.




Daddy ran some tennis lessons:


Mommy taught some old-school hand games/songs.

Time with family is very exhausting.