Christmas Highlights

Another Christmas has come and gone! The time sure does fly by as you get older. I can't believe that Christmas is already over...seems like just yesterday when December started. I had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was a very stressful but very enjoyable holiday.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is seeing The Nutcracker Ballet. Alex bought Houston Ballet tickets to see the Nutcracker with me this year. On our first date I mentioned that I loved ballet and used to be a dancer and he went and bought tickets, all on his own. I was so excited to share my love of dance with him and for him to experience his first ballet with me. Unfortunately he was out of town the weekend were supposed to go and so I ended up giving his ticket to my mom. We had quite the adventure driving downtown because our exit was closed off but luckily the GPS got us there in one piece. We would have been lost without it. It was a very interesting experience for both of us. Not quite like my experiences seeing Ballet West perform The Nutcracker in Salt Lake City. People were walking around with glasses of wine and champagne; not something that ever happened in Capitol Theater. The ballet was excellent but not my favorite version and choreography. I managed to take some pictures with my phone.

It is my own personal tradition to buy a Nutcracker every year. This is the one I chose to purchase this year. It wasn't the one I wanted but they were out of stock of my first choice. I still like him though.

The Christmas Tree in the Wortham Center

A huge gingerbread house next to the huge Christmas tree

The curtain inside the theater

Work has been extremely stressful and exhausting for me this holiday. I've been working retail for several years and I can honestly say that I have never worked so hard in my life. The hours have been long, the employees have been scarce and the work has been tremendous. It was wonderful having off yesterday for Christmas and having off today as well. I really needed those two days to relax and recuperate.

My older brother, Danny, came down from Dallas for a few days and it was really nice being able to spend some time with him. I had a wonderful and relaxing holiday with family. It's a shame we all couldn't be here but it was nice celebrating with who was available. I was sad to see my brother leave because I don't get to see him much through the year.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.