Hello from Texas!!

Well, we had a great holiday season! We aren’t religious but still enjoy all the trappings of Christmas as, to us, it’s simply a fun and exciting time to spend with family. J This year, Adam went modestly bananas putting up several hundred lights around the outside of the house without falling off the ladder once, while Jade and the girls put up tinsel and decorations inside. We all assisted with the family tradition of assembling and decorating our Christmas tree, which had more lights on it than ever before this year and looked splendid. Best of all, Adams’ parents flew in from southern England to join us for the fun and spent a couple of week with us, which included Jasmines tenth birthday; all of which was marvelous and, I think, thoroughly enjoyed by all J

Jasmine and Daisy continue their ice-skating, and in late December they each performed in two different roles in a production of “The Nutcracker” at the ice-rink where they train; a total of four shows – three evening productions and a matinee. We arranged it such that Adam’s parents were able to attend one of the evening shows in the best seats available, which was a great experience for everybody! The girls loved it and we think each matured a year as a result of the experience.

Like many people this year we had a really mild winter here in Southern Texas and so we’ve been out and about a lot, exploring parks and what-not, and generally making the most of the fine weather before it gets too hot and we have to cower inside, away from the heat! Jade and Adam bought new bikes in January so that the four of us could explore some trails; our favourite (so far!) is Brazos Bend, a huge State park only 30 minutes south of us, where there are lots of trails to explore and where you share the park with a very large array of unfenced wildlife, particularly alligators! We are thinking it might be nice to go camping there sometime (we’ve never taken the girls camping! The last time Adam and Jade went camping it was in Devon, England in September in a leaky old tent before we got married and Jade doesn’t have fond memories of the level of comfort she experienced! So Adam has a lot to improve upon, and some convincing to do… )

Adam continues to thoroughly enjoy working for Microsoft; which definitely has its privileges J

Jade continues to volunteer in the library at the girls’ school, which she really enjoys. A couple of months back she did look at (and was offered!) several part-time jobs, in order to meet more people, but we all feel it is better for all of us, particularly the girls, if Jade is at home for them when they come home from school in the early afternoon and of course at weekends, so she continues to stick with what the rest of the family considers she’s best at: Stay-At-Home-Mom.

Now it’s March, and Daisy had an enjoyable ninth birthday as she had a special guest – Great-Nan! She is Adams’ Dads’ mum, or Grandmother (but he calls her Nan) and she is 86 this year. When Adams parents were visiting in December, Jade suggested it would be nice to see her and Adams Dad was prepared to help organizing everything in England and so she is here now, during a stay of two weeks that ecompasses both Daisy’s birthday (March 10) and Adams (March 19) as well as Spring Break, which is similar to Half Term in England where the schools are out for a week. That was last week and Adam took the week off to enjoy the time with everybody.

We’ve taken Great Nan to watch the girls ice-skate the last two Saturdays, to a number of parks for walks in the warm weather we’ve been having all week (did rain once or twice though but the grass needs it), and last Wednesday we spent the afternoon and evening at the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo, held in Reliant park in Houston. We had not been before, and this was a truly fabulous experience and as absolutely authentically Texan as you can get – they had all manner of things going on all afternoon like petting zoos and livestock shows; after which we had some genuine Texas food at a barbeque place on-site where Great Nan got to experience Sausage On A Stick (she was initially horrified at the size of the thing but it all disappeared so we think she liked it!) and Adam and Jade had one of the best flame-grilled steak-burgers we can remember (Adam’s was covered in chilli, too - so recommended!). After that we mosied on over to the 70,000 seat Reliant Stadium, where for a couple of hours we all thoroughly enjoyed watching Cowboys getting thrown off of 2,000 lb bulls, Cowboys rope fast-moving cattle (individually and in pairs) on even faster-moving horses, Cowboys getting thrown off of bucking broncos and then Cowgirls racing around barrels at break-neck speeds. (Jade really liked the Cowboys and now sports a shirt which reads “So many Cowboys – so little Rope”).

Our favourite event was the “Calf Scramble”. Here, a group of 28 teenagers in white t-shirts and jeans, armed only with rope halters and determination, lined up across one end of the arena. With the drop of a hat, 14 black calves raced into the arena and the teenagers leave the starting line in pursuit of one of those calves. To achieve success, a scrambler must catch (using their bare hands) and halter a calf. After the calf has been properly haltered, it is often tugged, pulled, pushed or coaxed into the winners' square. This took some time, as those calves could sure run a lot quicker than the teenagers! It was a two-acre field, too and you’ve never seen people look so exhausted as this spectacle continued on until every calf had been caught and pulled to the middle. Also, each person had to do it without help from any other, once a calf had been grabbed; and many calves escaped after an intial catch. Each of the students who catches a calf is awarded a $1,000 certificate, donated by an individual or a company, to subsequently purchase a heifer of their own. Raising and showing this heifer becomes a yearlong project as the scrambler sees to the grooming, feeding and care of the animal and returns to the Livestock show the following year.

After this fun, we were rewarded with what the four ladies had come for – an hour-long concert by Country and Western star Alan Jackson. (Adam prefers heavy rock to C&W but still had a great time; it was a fun show!) A fabulous, very enjoyable evening; we will return next year and attend more of the concerts, we think; it was so much fun.

On his Birthday, Adam opened his Birthday cards (hand made by Jasmine and Daisy!) and prezzie from Jade (a book by one of Adams’ favourite authors - Terry Pratchett – called “Thud”) and we are all heading down to Galveston to explore the Lone Star Flight Museum which houses a large variety of historic and vintage aircraft. Tonight we are heading to our favourite all-Texas Steakhouse for a very large Steak, or Ribs, whichever takes our fancy!

Great-Nan flies back to England next Wednesday, accompanied by Jade, who is heading to England for a week to see her family.

Jasmine is going to Horse Camp at a ranch north of Dallas at the end of May for a week; there she will be given a horse to attend all week and she will learn to ride. Daisy is too young but may go next year.

Adams parents are coming to stay for a while in August, on their way round to New Zealand for an extended stay.

Adam has promised to make a much bigger effort at getting our photos online so expect to hear about something in the coming months once he’s set something up (it will be registered users only and Adam prefers to write something himself rather than buy a service as it’s more fun)

And life goes merrily on!! As you can see, all is very well with us – we hope all is well with you! J

- Adam, Jade, Jasmine and Daisy