Last year was a very somber Christmas with everything going on. We ended up spending it in Austin out of necessity. This year, we were able to spend Christmas in Bryan with her family.
We ended up hitting up a lot of places, so if you want to skip ahead here is the list. The story continues below that.
Her dad also was in town, so we first met up with him at Jim's Restaurant.
After eating, we filled up at this sketchy gas station on Burnet Rd. Hopefully, it's getting a facelift. The crazy thing is it's one of the only gas stations that is with the times and takes Apple Pay. Take that credit card skimmers!
We then hit the road for the Bryan\College Station area. We made a detour in Hutto to get some beef sticks at Westphalia Meat Market
It was smooth sailing after that. It was a warm day and the birds were out flying around.
We took a detour to Navasota. We wanted to go to Classic Rock Coffee, but we ended up exploring this cool little town.
After Navasota, we drove back to Bryan. We went to Koppe Bridge for some lunch.
We then checked into the same hotel we did at for the Texas A&M game, visited Victoria's grandparents, and then went to Saturday mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.s
After mass, we headed back to the hotel and called a Lyft. It was time to go #OldPeopleNorthgating! We hit up a bunch of bars at Northgate in College Station. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. You can read about that adventure here.
The next morning we went to Blue Baker for brunch.
We had some time to kill so we figured we'd do more exploring. We first went on the Texas A&M Campus and saw the big Aggie ring.
We then went to Downtown Bryan. Most of the businesses were closed so it ended up being as dead as when we went on Northgate the night before.s. I did get some cool pictures as we walked around.
We thought it would be cool to visit the George Bush Library on the Texas A&M Campus. We found out that it was closed because of the government shutdown. We fortunately were able to walk around outside and visit the gravesite.
The next day was Christmas Eve. We met at Victoria's aunt and uncle's house for the Texas tradition of tamales and chili. There was a festive porta potty at the end of their cul-de-sac
After the Texas tradition of tamales and chili was finished, a family tradition happened. The ancient slide machine came out and we looked at pictures from times past.
There were a ton of slides and it was cool seeing how much things have changed from the past. We spent a decent amount of time watching them until Victoria and I went to First United Methodist Church for the Christmas Eve service. You may have noticed we went to Catholic mass on Saturday. I'm Catholic and Victoria is Methodist so we alternate where we go.
For Christmas, we went back to Victoria's aunt and uncle's place for burgers. There was something in the air and my allergies were killing me. We visited a while but left a bit early since I was feeling pretty sick. It sprinkled along the way to Austin, but the sky and my allergies started to clear as we got closer to home.
Later that week we go some pretty strong storms. In many ways it was good because it knocked the allergies out of the air. It was definitely a contrast from last year when we received snow!
Another positive thing is Victoria and I finally got to have a lunch date. We haven't been able to do this since I started my new job. We decided on one of our favorite places in Austin, Dos Batos.
Victoria's dad was still in town so on Saturday we got burgers with him at the legendary Hut's Hamburgers.
We then went to mass and headed to the Cedar Park Center to watch the Texas Stars take on the Ontario Reign. We great front row seats to take in all the action.
We then took it easy on Sunday. I had to work New Years Eve so I did that. For New Years Victoria's dad came over and we watched the Texas A&M game.
After the game Victoria's dad left. We then had a drink before midnight. At midnight, we toasted some champaign and then promptly went to bed.
I covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of places between Christmas and New Years. 2018 was a great year and hopefully 2019 will have many more adventures!