photos of our family christmas in texas

it was really, really good to be in houston for christmas. spent lots of time with my dad and gloria and mom and bob. here are some photos...

joy in the journey... on the 12th day of christmas

As our 1st Christmas together as husband and wife, we left Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and came to Texas to celebrate with Dave's family.

We talked about our

Christmas traditions:
Christmas Breakfast
Christmas Caroling
Secret Elves to Mystery Family/Person
Stockings
Scavenger hunt on Christmas Eve (written by an elf)
Advent Calendar
Homemade gifts

On Christmas Day we went to John and Gloria's house in Brazoria and ate (lots) of good food. It was good to see that John was feeling good that day. We were worried since the radiation was so draining. Deana and Buddy came with Brayden. We missed Colton. Gloria made all of the goodies and everyone was sure to mention that I had to eat more since I am eating for two.To tell you the truth, I'm really not that hungry. In fact, I think I am less hungry now than before.
Anyway...
We were going to stay the night but since I was so tired and we had Boone with us, we decided to make the drive at night rather than in the morning in a rush to Deana and Buddy's new house right around the corner from Janice and Bobby's. It was amazingly huge and well decorated. They just have the house decorating gene. I hope they help me with my house when we get one.

With a bag full of new winter and maternity clothes, I am ready for the coming months (am I ready?) David scored too with lots of clothes (which we needed) and is having fun downloading loads of music and movies on his new huge external hard drive.

For our families (all 32 people) we brought Kyrgyz shoes for Christmas. It was funny to see them all try them on. At first they thought they were hideous but by the end of the night everyone still had their shoes on and were loving them. Made of wool, they are warm and cozy. Hairy, but warm.

joy in the journey... on the eleventh day of christmas, my true love shared with me...

We are adding one to the family!

We had a doctor's appointment on Christmas Eve...

and we saw the heartbeat, which melted ours, and saw our little baby on the screen!
It doesn't get better than that!
We just keep thinking that this time next year we will have a little 4 month old.

We are 6 weeks pregnant, give or take! Due date: August 16th!

David just couldn't wait to give me the "What To Expect When You're Expecting" book. He already started reading it. He is going to be such a great daddy. Tonight we went out for our date night and we talked about baby names and other parent/baby related things in the driveway for about an hour. The anticipation is so fun!

My mom screamed, my dad gasped, my brother smiled...Dave's dad cried, Dave's mom laughed and hugged me, Dave's sister was happy for us too. David hopes that it is a little girl since there are ONLY boys as grandkids so far. I'm hoping for a healthy little munchkin.

Our little Cashew Conover is so loved already.

(I feel so good! David has a couple 'perky perks' that he likes about pregnancy too...in addition to that there is the little baby on the way! )

Yay!!!

joy in the journey... on the second day of shristmas..

my true love gave to me...
a night with friends and Christmas lights!

We went and met our good friends in Houston. Nick, April, Mark, and Emily met us at this lovely Thai restaurant on Westheimer. Our server, named Sex, took good care of us. April and I can't wait to go back for mangos and sweet rice--one of our favorite desserts. Because we were heading over to Lights in the Heights we had to get going (which meant skipping dessert)!

The streets in the neighborhoods were crowded. But with bands playing and private parties being hosted it felt like a movie. Tons of Radio Flyer wagons were being pulled with kids in tow. Laughing and dancing made the night wonderful. It's so good to be in Houston!

Having some time back in our old stomping grounds makes us see that we lived in such a great and trendy part of town. And thanks to Richard (our Boone-sitter) we even got to stay in our old apartment...even though it now has a Bow-flex machine in the kitchen and a single recliner in the living room for gaming, no doubt. It made us laugh and look back and be thankful that we aren't singles anymore.

joy in the journey

prior to the bishkek adventure, jenny kept up her own blog (for her photography and such) called the "joy in the journey". she has started to update it on a regular basis with her take of life in central asia. since she is such a better writer than me... i thought you should check it out.

christmas joy

as you know... we are heading back to the states for the holidays... and we are so excited. so much of my thinking has been fast forwarding to seeing the family in houston that i haven't take too much time to think about christmas here.

kyrgyzstan doesn't really celebrate christmas (being a muslim country and all) although there are some shops with decorations up (aimed at folks like us). no crazy day after thanksgiving shopping sprees, no christmas music playing in the stores, no lights going up around town.

so it has been easy to not get in the mood.

but my lovely wife is having none of that... and this weekend she bought a little plastic tree (thanks chinese factory workers!) and some (so cute) felt dolls that i fell in love with (already dreaming of putting them up in a future nursery).

it is starting to look a lot like christmas...

iving weekend is all about multiple meals (one with mom... another with dad). both of them make crazy amazing spreads.

thanksgiving in bishkek

because of my wanderlust... it feels like i have spent way too many thanksgivings away from home. it is also my favorite holiday so being away is sad and hard for a couple of reasons:

1. i love my family and holidays are a time meant to be spent together.
2. being from a standard american family (my mom and dad are married to other people)... the thanksgiving weekend is all about multiple meals (one with mom... another with dad). both of them make crazy amazing spreads.

so of course... being in bishkek for thanksgiving was sad and hard like so many of my past holidays... but not as sad because this year i was with "my" family... jennifer. as this was our first thanksgiving together as a married couple... we are starting our own traditions.

after school (can you believe it... we had work today!) we headed home for some last minute prep (i made a cake... jen made cream of corn, pumpkin risotto, and apple crisp) before heading over to our director's house for thanksgiving dinner (with turkey, mash potatoes and everything!).

although not the same as being home with our families... it was a wonderful evening spent with dear friends with lots to be thankful for.

travel plans for christmas break

we have finalize our travel plans for christmas break. we will be leaving bishkek on friday, december 12th for a long, long flight back to houston. turkish airline. layover in istanbul. non-stop istanbul to chicago. then united airlines from chicago to houston intercontinental airport. because of time difference... the 20 hour flight gets us in houston the same day (only a couple of hours later) that we leave bishkek.

we are scheduled to leave houston on december 31st. same flight plan on the way back home but this time with an extend five day layover in turkey. jen and i are going to explore istnabul for our honeymoon (we are still in that stage!).

our ticket to leave houston is open ended... so depending on family stuff (remember the prayers for my dad) we might stay in texas for a while (by taking a leave of absence from work).

while in houston we are so looking forward to spending some quality family time. and we can't tell you how excited to see boone... he will be with us 24 hours a day! we also are looking forward to spending time with friends. so if you are around... we can't wait to see you. not sure what we are going to do about a cell phone so we can get in touch with each other... but we will figure something out.

although we haven't bought her ticket yet... jen is planning on spending a week in california visiting her mom and brother.

we are counting the days...

weekend in review

we had a good weekend. friday was a teacher in service and as much as we like our kids... it was nice to have a day at work without them. i wonder if parents ever feel that way about their kids? jen and i will find out soon enough!

no... we are not with baby. yet...

while i was gone in poland, jen hung out with the mcbrides... the parents of one of her students. really good people and they have been really kind to jennifer. she was excited for me to meet them so we jumped at the chance to go over to their house for poker night.

jen and i are card players... we can play all night at nickles or set... but poker? no experience whatsoever. but a friendly game with another couple sounded like a good time.

so of course... we show up to a house full of people (almost all of them embassy folks) all waiting us (we got lost on the way over) to show up so they could begin. we were a bit taken back (there was a 1000 som buy in... that sounds like way more than it actually is) but we went for it.

we started at different tables (there were 13 people playing in total... all of them very serious about it) and as people explained the rules to us... we both started winning... and winning... and winning. after about an hour... most people were wiped out (broke) and they combined the tables. jen and i each had the most chips at that point. it was funny. we were laughing and not taking it serious while everyone else was so tense and questioning how we could both be doing so well.

i explained my success... i was playing with yahtzee rules and jen was just lucky.

well... the game calls for more than an understanding of yahtzee rules and jen's luck ran out. but we did come in fifth and fourth place out of 13 people. so pretty impressive.

after folks left... we hung around for a while chatting with the mcbrides. really good people. they both work at the us embassy and have been in bishkek for about a year. their experience with building communitys (a struggle at times... but that is a different post) is much like ours. and they have a very similar since of humor. we are hoping to hang out with them again.

of course... the highlight of the night came from my wife (oh how i love her). as were were being shown the door (so to speak... it was past midnight)... ann marie (the wife) had a plate of pizza that she was carrying with her as she was walking us out. kind of odd timing... offering a slice of pizza to someone who is leaving... but jen smiled and grabbed a piece. ann marie smiled back and said "the pizza is for the guard!". classic jennifer moment. of course... jenny has a very different version of the story... but i like mine better... and i think you will too. funny stuff. and true because as they walked us out, john (the husband) dropped the plate off with the guard at the front gate.

side note - all us embassy folks have really big nice houses. the houses all big yards (which is rare in bishkek) and they have generators for when the power goes out (which is daily). and the houses all have private security guards paid for by the embassy. so weird being let into someones house by a security guard.

saturday was a glorious sleeping in late day. we finally meandered outside of the house around 100pm and went to osh bazaar for christmas shopping (gifts for our loyal readers!). we also went to our favorite food bazaar for some ingredients to make plov. plov, as you will recall, is the local rice and meat dish. jennifer makes amazing plov! so amazing that i don't feel like i am missing out by not having married a local girl like all the other american boys seem to do.

sunday was more of the same. we slept in late. went to another bazaar... this time with our friend yassi from work. did some more shopping. i ended up dropping the girls off at a local plaza while i went to sunday night tennis.

sunday night tennis is a new tradition we are starting with a couple friend of ours. we started by playing at the clay courts across from our apartment... but those are closed due to winter. so we play at the indoor court (court... not "courts") at k2... a local "gym". the courts are nice but the dimensions of the court is just a bit big. great for my serve and baseline shots... but going to kill me when i get back on a regular sized court.

and that my friends...was our weekend.

(editors note... as we feel so far behind on our blog... we now feel obligated to make you sit through long winded non-exciting post like this one. we will try to return to our exciting life next weekend).

blog update galore

life is going great here in bishkek and we have been so busy the past month... that we haven't had the time to keep the blog updated. that has changed as we are (mostly) up to date!

follow the links below to our most recent posts or just scroll down...

the alpine fund dacha trip
seeking russian hot springs
fall break
halloween at the metro
trip to poland
outdoor adventure club trip to the dacha
jen's field trip to the coca-cola factory

jen's field trip to the coca-cola factory

jen tells the story much, much better than i ever could... so i will leave the telling to her. but here are some photos from a field trip her five year old class took to the local coca-cola factory...