Christmas 2015

As usual, the Austin Bickel family traveled to Dallas to spend the Christmas holidays with the family. It was a rough start..... We got to Didi and Pops house to find out there was a water leak in the attic and the water was turned off. It would be 1.5 days without water. We flushed toilets with water leaking from the attic and washed dishes with boiled hot water.  A real Little House on the Prarie experience. Luckily the water was back on my the time we returned from our annual girls trip to Neimans on Christmas Eve.

We arrived at Neimans around 10:00 and the line to see Santa was about an hour long..... Not too bad to see the REAL Santa - not some helper fake :-). Alice was a champ about waiting in line. She played games on her iPad and listened to music on Spotify.

Our lunch reservations was not until 1:00 so we spent some time exploring the store and taking pictures with the displays - a new tradition started by Alice last year.

Christmas Eve before bed Alice, set out cookies and milk for Santa. The cookies were hand decorated by Alice and myself....although ones selected for Santa were all done by Alice.

Alice had a hard time sleeping that night. She woke mom up at 12:00, 2:00 and 4:00 wanting to know if it was time to get up. Morning finally arrived and Alice got to open her presents. Her favorite present from Santa was a net canopy for her bed. Her favorite present from her parents was a new iPad mini.

Alice saw her cousins the day after Christmas for another family gathering and of course, more presents :-)

After our second Christmas, we decided to head back to Austin. We could be home before 9:00 and sleep in our own beds....sigh!!!!!  Not long into our trip, it started raining and then a warning came over the phone.....tornado watch.  Lots of lightening, lots of wind....but not too much rain.  However, within an hour of driving we were out of the bad weather and made it home in less than 4 hours, not bad.

The next morning, we found out that within the hour after we left, several tornados tore through the exact same area, and hit the city adjacent to where our families live.  Luckily our families were spared, but very sad for many families who lost homes and a few who lost lives. 

Definitely a memorable holiday. Here's to a Happy New Year!