Holidays in Houston

Because I decided on Texas for the winter, it meant that I would be spending the holidays in Houston. Thankfully, I was blessed to have friends in Houston, and we had a beautiful holiday season in the Longhorn state.

Before Thanksgiving, I had a chance to visit downtown Houston with a friend and see the Houston Museum of Natural Science. There was a Death of Natural Causes exhibit that highlighted all the kinds of ways one could perish “naturally”. It was beyond interesting and kinda gross. 🙂 We had some good laughs and were definitely amazed by the ways that people have met their maker.

The herbivore part of the exhibit was displayed in a quaint greenhouse and was my favorite part.

For Thanksgiving, I baked what will hence forth be known as the crack brownies. My friend’s husband has been on a sugar-restricted diet for a few years now and rarely cheats on that plan. I baked the brownies at their house, and before I got back to Estella and Arthur, he had eaten a whole row of the brownies. He named them the crack brownies because he said they were like crack, and he just couldn’t stop eating them.

We had Thanksgiving at their daughter’s in-laws’ home, and there was an incredible amount of delicious food and great company. We played dominoes, had some great laughs, and all left with very full bellies.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we set-up Christmas decorations, and I made a quick trip down to Florida for a work trip.

The picture on the right is the tree we used in the RV to celebrate.

For fun, I also made a quick to Minnesota to visit my favorite orthodontic surgeon to get the implant for my missing molar. The drugs were effective, and the healing went well. Still no tooth back there, but we’ll get to that at some point.

These two cuties helped me feel better, and their dog mom made sure I followed all the directions from the surgeon. For two months, as per the recommendation, I did not eat on that side of my mouth. Have you ever tried not to eat on one side of your mouth. It really isn’t that easy. 🍫🍫 If you’re bored and looking for something to do while eating, I wouldn’t recommend it.

For Christmas, there were more crack brownies, gluten-free peanut butter cookies, and homemade sugar cookies that my friend’s grandkids helped us decorate. There was even a very cute grandkitty who helped open presents.

There was so much to see and do in the Houston area, and I’ll cover that in the next installment. For now, just a little bit more on our journey since Thanksgiving and Christmas were months ago. Arthur and I are on to “Phase Two” of our journey, and Estella is taking a well-deserved break in a barn on my parents’ farm. Phase Two includes Arthur and I driving around the country in an SUV and living in some of my favorite places and where we may end up. This phase will last until April of 2026, but I am hopeful that we will find our forever hometown by that time.

Arthur is helping me write this post tonight in our first destination of Phase Two. He and I have both enjoyed living in the extra space and trying to remember what it’s supposed to be like to live in a city and travel like normal people. Once we leave this location, I’ll share more about where we are and what we loved about being here. Until then, know that we are safe and that I will finish blogging about Phase One: Life in the RV.