Austin ModHouse

he found a sock monkey in his lap.  my mom made one for each of the kids.  the next morning I found one had been gutted by marvin.  I collected the parts and mom made him a patch complete with a red heart to remember his surgery.

mom left to spend the holidays with my sister in nebraska.  the kids opened their gifts from her before she left.  she got them this star wars vault that has been a big hit.  at every flip of a page he says "AWESOME!"

mom and baby feeding the koi.

the school put on a fantastic holiday show this year.  #1 son was a snow flake.

daughter's fourth grade teacher dressed up as a who from their production of HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

the Grinch in the act of stealing.

paparazzi caught her backstage.

fifth grade issued us an Elvis Holiday song.

grand finale

principal acosta and our friend matt manroe.  matt had a lot to do with the success of the event and he made it clear that this level of art at eanes was possible by charitable contributions, not government funds.  the dude's eyes got all soggy and his wallet parted as the bills leapt into the collection bucket.  thanks to everybody who contributed (including our wine social we hosted last week) as it was a great show.

we've had snow this year!

PV array covered in a white blanket.

kat's firm's work party had great food, great fun and was held in an amazing home.  I didn't want to be responsible for lugging a big DSLR around so not many pics and the ones that don't look so good below are from my iphone)

I had friends in town from San Francisco.  We landed at a rockabilly Festivus party.

I took the guys to Guero's where richard enjoyed this margarita so much he had to get a good look at it. 

went to a holiday gnome observance party.

kat took the daughter to see the nutcracker by the austin ballet.  she brought her new nutcracker home.  her brother (#1 son) promptly set out to play with  it.  he broke it immediately.  there is some irony in there if you know the story of the nutcracker.  it was a minor damage and I have glue fixing it now.

and the Austin Mod House (AMH) now has a facebook page as a public figure.  it makes my brain hurt if I think about it too hard...  so this blog documents our house and our lives in it, and the facebook page is there to ...  well, here it is

http://www.facebook.com/pages/AMH-Austin-Mod-House/53583106013