The May Family  
The May Family; Garland, Texas

 

31 December 2004

Celebrating the New Year

In order to ring in the New Year, an enjoyable meal was shared with Kristie and Mark at Cantina Laredo. While most everyone else in the party ordered the standard fare, Herman took advantage of the special occasion to order his favorite, cabrito. Mark was jealous, but vowed to order this scrumptious delicacy on his next visit. :-)

Stubbs and the Horse

We took advantage of the holiday break to travel to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and enjoy the exhibit entitled "Stubbs and the Horse". This was a special treat for Rebecca, given her love for the equine species, but all of us very much enjoyed the experience — including Collin who protested the event. ;-) Especially entertaining is the mention of David O'Kelly's "living companion".

The Stubbs exhibit is highly recommended to anyone who will be in the Fort Worth area between now and 06 February (2005).

25 December 2004

Happy Christmas!

The May Family would like to wish all of our family and friends the very best during the holiday season.

We are fortunate to be able to spend the majority of our day with Elizabeth's mother and step-father. It is always a pleasure to host family for Christmas. Following the opening of gifts first thing, we shared a breakfast of short order eggs (yes, Herman was drafted as cook once again), stollen and mimosas. As Elizabeth prepared to depart for work around noon, Margaret, Theodore and the kids journeyed to the hamlet formerly known as Westminster to spend the afternoon with John and his family. Herman stayed at home to enjoy a viewing of one of his holiday gifts: a DVD copy of "The Hidden Fortress".

It was a semi-white Christmas as some of the snow that fell Wednesday afternoon and evening was still lingering in the shadows!

24 December 2004

Mimi arrives for the Holiday

Margaret and Theodore will be spending Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day with us. Elizabeth is scheduled to work tomorrow afternoon, so we will be preparing and sharing our Christmas meal this afternoon. The menu included smoked turkey (Greenburg), apple-mushroom stufing, assorted vegetables and Parker rolls. For dessert there was pumpkin and minced meat pies.

23 December 2004

Poppa returns home

Poppa (Elizabeth's father, Fred) departed first thing this morning for a return flight to Orlando. As usual, it was a very enjoyable visit. He spent Saturday evening with us and the rest of the stay with Kristie and Mark. However, he, Mark and Herman had the opportunity to spend most of Tuesday afternoon together doing "guy" things — mostly at the Apple Store and shopping for a bicycle for Collin.

He checked-in around noon to let us know that he arrived home safely and with little delay; in spite of the snow that covers most of North Texas this morning.

19 December 2004

Adame holiday dinner

We spent most of this afternoon in communion with the local branches of the Adame Clan to celebrate the holidays at the home of Kristie and Mark. The early festivities were organized to take advantage of a visit by the Adame patriarch, Poppa.

The mid-afternoon feast featured a spiral cut, honey-baked ham, cheese grits, and a selection of steamed vegetables — primarily brussels sprouts and asparagus. Shortly after the meal we engaged in gift exchanges, which were a hit with all of the younger boys and served to provide the fodder necessary to keep them quite busy for the remainder of the afternoon. Most of us them tethered the canines and walked up to the park to run around and toss the football. Upon our return it was time for dessert, featuring peanut butter bars and apple crisp.

We departed around 1800, but left Collin behind to spend the night with his cousins, Ethan and Avery. No doubt kristie and Mark will be resolute in their decision not to have children any time soon following an evening with those three terrors ! ;-)

Though Poppa will be spending the remainder of his visit as a guest of Kristie and Mark, we will likely coordinate another renez-vous of some sort for dinner between now and his return to Florida on Thursday. Nevertheless, the afternoon was quite enjoyable and we had a great time sharing our home with Fred for the past thirty hours.

18 December 2004

Tree harvest 2004

Though delayed by a week, we traveled to Wall Tree Farm today in order to procure a tree for our yuletide celebrations. Our plans to hunt for a suitable specimen with Kristie and Mark were thwarted by scheduling issues. However, we hosted a special guest, nonetheless. Poppa, having just arrived at 1230, was eager to join us in our quest.

A small collection of images have been assembled to commemorate the event.

11 December 2004

2004 Music Learning Holiday Concert

Collin performed in his first public concert as a trumpeter earlier today. As a member of the Saint Paul School band, he participated in the annual, diocesan Holiday Concert for students engaged in programs coordinated by Music Learning Band Programs.

As was the case when Rebecca was a flautist in the Saint Monica band around five years ago, the concert took place in the gymnasium of Saint Pius X school. The repertoire was also largely unchanged and consisted of excerpts from such holiday favorites as "Up on the Rooftop", "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Jingle Bells". The highlight of the concert in general was the Jazz Ensemble's rendition of Leroy Anderson's "A Christmas Festival".

Music Learning Band Programs is the same organization who coordinated the SPS band's participation in the Richardson Christmas Parade. Following the show an announcement was made that the Music earning float had been awarded the Chairman's Award.

We congratulate the Music Leraning Band program on the receipt of their award and the students for their excellent performances at the Holiday Concert!

08 December 2004

2004 Holiday Choir Concert

The entire family attended the annual holiday concert presented by the Naaman Forest Choirs. We invited Nana along as our special guest for the evening. She also attended last year with Herman.

Again taking place at the First United Methodist Church of Garland, the program followed much the same schedule as that of last year's production. Rebecca, being in the Treble Chorale, was in the fourth group of the evening. Their repertoire included "Love Came Down at Christmas" (Duson) and "Slumber Still" (Kral).

The entire show was well done and featured many challenging pieces and arrangements which the singers, for the most part, did extremely well performing. Among the highlights in general was when the Renaissance Choir sang the Randy Rogel lyrics to "The First Noël". Originally written for broadcast on the Animaniacs television show (episode 84), this hilarious mutation of the traditional holiday classic tune left even the most curmudgeonly Scrooge chuckling. Last year, the same piece was featured during the entertainment during sinner. This year, it was incorporated into the program itself.

The next holiday related activity takes place this Thursday. At the monthly meeting of Troop 728, the scouts will sign holiday greeting cards to be sent over sees to the troops in Iraq. On Saturday we are off, with Kristie and Mark to Walls farm to harvest a Christmas Tree for the house.

05 December 2004

Parade watch

The split obligations of this year's holiday parades went off without a hitch. Rebecca spent the night at the home of a friend and fellow Starlette with whom she caught a ride to downtown Dallas. Elizabeth and Herman dropped Collin at the staging area around 0700, then went to Starbuck's for breakfast. Herman was then dropped at the rail station around 0830 before Elizabeth headed off to find a location to view the Richardson Christmas Parade. Meanwhile, Herman made his way to a position on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Saint Paul.

Video of both parades was captured by the respective parents. In addition, the broadcast of the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Christmas Parade was recorded. Below are links to the vidCaps taken by Herman and the TiVo. Elizabeth was making use of the JVC cVHS camera whose video has yet to be digitized and archived. We hope to have captured stills from that footage available in the next few days.

NMACCP image 01 NMACCP image 01 NMACCP image 01

 

continue to the November 2004 archive

 

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last edited: 2006.10.30