Happy Holidays In Hillsboro

Our Christmastime celebration began as soon as we arrived home from Guatemala on December 11. The next night was our church choir dress rehearsal, and then came the annual NTAC (North TX Airstream Community) board meeting, election of officers for 2010, and dinner in the clubhouse. Entertainment was provided by our many fine musicians. On Sunday night Jerry sang in our church choir, and the video-recorded Christmas story event went well. The shepherds left the fields as directed, wise men arrived from the East, and Joseph (youth director), Mary, and the Babe had that special glow. The Star of Bethlehem miraculously moved to its perfect position.

Our daughter, Robin, her husband, Alejandro, and son, Samuel, age 11, arrived from Fairfax, VA a few days before Christmas. It was great sharing Christmas with them, since we had not seen them since May. Samuel was our resident techie. He helped his Grandma set up her new musical train around the Christmas tree and taught the basics of her Nintendo WII video games. Competition results shall remain secret.

Hillsboro was a quiet, serene, chilly community with Christmas carols flowing from the tower of our lovely, majestic courthouse. A frolicking Santa, riding his motorcycle, was spotted late on Christmas day heading north. Evidently he had not checked on the weather forecast after his big night on the sleigh. We cannot brag on our “warm” Texas weather this year. We even had a light blanket of snow on the ground and our bushes on Christmas morning—hardly a disappointment.

Daughter, Stephanie, from near Wimberly, TX, her husband, Steven, and children, Jack, 15, Lucie, 13 and Lincoln,11, arrived on Dec. 27 and stayed for a couple of days. We were amazed that Jack is now six feet tall. Contractor Steven completed several household projects, including the hanging of two new ceiling fans. There was the traditional family gift exchange, loads of laughter, and lots of eating. One of the highlights was big-screen images of this family’s recent round-the-world vacation. The three jubilant kids had lots of vivid stories about their fantastic odyssey.

With 10 of us present we showed our church choir’s Christmas DVD, played surround sound music, and displayed our recent Guatemala photos on our big screen TV. The children scootered, played cards and video games, and explored the trails of NTAC. They enjoyed every minute of being together. When Samuel wasn’t practicing his violin, Jack, who had never played the violin, was getting some pointers and was actually producing music. Gloria engineered the meals, Alejandro provided a few of his Colombian dishes, and our daughters and Lucie furnished goodies and helped with the cleanup. Robin kept up with her Conservation International job online and even found time to successfully help one of our neighbors with her computer issues. Jerry stole a little quiet time to set up his new laptop and helped keep the dishwasher churning.

Both Robin and Stephanie’s families traveled to Palacios, TX to visit Steve’s mother and share the holiday with his sister’s family. We stayed at NTAC for the annual New Year’s dinner and party, which included games and a Chinese gift exchange. It lasted until midnight. Yep, we can still do it, but we needed to sleep until 10:00 a.m. the next morning; however, we still made it to church. Robin and her family returned to our home for a day before beginning the long drive back to Virginia on Jan. 2. We’re thankful for this special time with two of our children and their families, but we still missed the other three, their spouses, and our four other grandchildren. When everyone has departed, and the house is quiet we still have our wonderful NTAC neighbors and social events.