Episode CLXXIV: (Stuck at) Home for Christmas

This year we found ourselves in an unusual situation for Christmas: stuck at home, in Texas. 

Instead of hanging out with friends and family in other states, we had to devise new ways to celebrate with just the three of us. 

One way of celebrating was by visiting nearby Christmas themed drive-through extravaganzas. Here was one housed in the parking garage for the Dallas Mavericks' arena.

And another way out in the middle of nowhere (Athens, TX).

We visited a lights extravaganza at Downtown Dallas' symphony hall & opera house, and were treated to miniature golf with glowing golf balls.

We were also treated to some nice local decorations, such as this ginormous Santa down the road from us. 

One evening a pickup truck with a Christmas caroling quartet in the truck bed came through our neighborhood.

On the big day itself, some of the gift highlights included: matching exercise mats....

A giant piano...

And lots & lots of Meg & Elliot's favorite snack. 

Episode CLXXIII: Thanksgiving in the Piney Woods

Our plans to spend Thanksgiving with extended family were canceled this year due to a certain coronavirus. So instead, The Norrises spent some time in a remote cabin in the Piney Woods region of East Texas.

One of the "large" cities in the region is Tyler, TX, self-proclaimed "Rose Capital of America." We stopped and smelled the roses.

We visited Tiger Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, which houses all sorts of rescued tigers, lions, etc. Pretty remarkable place, out in the middle of nowhere.

While there we had a Thanksgiving lunch of Turkey Lunchables.

Later we visited a drive-thru Holiday Lights Spectacular.

But if you ask Elliot what the best part of our trip was, it was sitting around in our tiny little cabin, reading books and playing games.

Episode CLXXII: Texas Hill Country

 As per tradition, The Norrises took a Happy Anniversary vacation in August.

Due to the global pandemic, we selected a vacation destination with lots of solitude and outdoor activities: Texas Hill Country.

We lodged in a cabin out in the countryside, complete with rocking chairs on the porch, and lots of room to roam. On our "property" we spotted cows, donkeys, deer, and bats. Meg's favorite was an armadillo who came nightly to our yard to dig up grubs.

Elliot was so happy exploring the historic cabin, we probably could have spent our whole vacation inside.

But we did venture out a bit. We visited Lyndon B. Johnson's "Texas White House," the ranch complex where he spent much of his presidency.

He nicknamed his plane "Air Force One-Half" due to its small size.

Nearby we visited some Longhorn cattle.

Elliot was clearly not afraid of the giant cattle

Elliot *loved* our visit to Luckenbach, Texas (population: 3) because we got to attend a (socially distanced) blues rock concert.

But his overall favorite was probably this hike up "Enchanted Rock," a giant granite dome that affords 360-degree views of the hill country.

Then after a long, hot, hike, it was time for a long nap on the ride home.

Episode CLXXI: Shelter In Place

The Norris family "sheltered in place" for nearly half of 2020 so far. (As of June, we're partially going back to work/daycare). We got along well enough. Meg and I had plenty of work from home to do, and we switched off morning/afternoon childcare duties. Here's a snapshot of my productivity according to my focused-work tracking app. Note the large peak of productivity coinciding with nap time.

Elliot LOVED hanging out with Mommy and Daddy all day every day. We went on lots of walks outside, and Elliot started a tradition of selecting a vine (weed) to "take on a walk" with us.

One of Elliot's daycare teachers was kind enough to host a weekly Zoom music time, which was a nice way for him to "keep in touch" with his friends. He's now a very proficient Zoom user.

I had a lot of extra free time in the evenings (much less work email!) and thus lots of time to read. Where I usually read around a dozen books in a year, during the pandemic I read a dozen books in two months.

We had to get creative in thinking of fun outings that were properly socially distant. Some of our outings included: a giant hat sculpture...

The grave of Clyde Barrow (of "Bonnie and Clyde" infamy)...

And Dinosaur Valley State Park, where you can stand inside giant dinosaur footprints lying at the bottom of the Paluxy River.

Finally, here is a montage of some of the fun Elliot and I were up to while Mommy was working.

Episode CLXX: Norris Family Winter

Did you know it snows in Dallas? Neither did we!

But there it was, our first snow since moving to Texas. It snowed all morning, and accumulated ~1 centimeter.

Then a couple days later, it was back to beach volleyball weather.

Other things that have happened this winter included: Christmas celebrations, including festive lights and Santa Claus himself.

We took our traditional trip back to SoCal, including quality time for Elliot with his cousin, as well as our traditional Norris Family Goodwill visit.

More recently, Dallas made news headlines due to a failed building demolition, creating the "Leaning Tower of Dallas." Explosives failed to fully bring it down, leaving the elevator shaft leaning precipitously. Each day a small wrecking ball chips away at the remains, so we made sure to check it out while it still stands! (FYI, Yelp reviews here.)