Glad you enjoyed St. Helena. Here's the rest of the Houston Holiday Highlights for you to enjoy vicariously.

We, like you, were shocked and chagrined there were no robin's egg blue boxes for us to take home as party favors. Please .. this is Houston at Holiday time. Shall we deliver a really cute Namibian penguin to them in exchange for a blue box? Seems more than fair to me.

We enjoyed very good weather Wednesday and met up with my aunt & cousin at Raven Grill in the West University area on Wednesday, after breakfasting at Le Peep. The focus was definitely on the food this trip.

Mom & my aunt worked on a pecan pie, as Gary and I opted for a lengthy afternoon walk. Umm .. Houston is not ready for pedestrians. We are, however, NYC Iron Tough so we stared down traffic as we traversed the wide streets. We arrived at the Galleria and found the sales racks. I found several things I liked. Gary was the designated shopping bag carrier. We had to hustle back to the hotel, get changed & pick up Mom and my aunt for dinner at Maggione's near the Galleria. Spaghetti and meatballs, anyone? Got back to the hotel in plenty of time for a little Mafia Wars Thanksgiving Food Fight fun.

Next morning, LePeep is closed for Thanksgiving. Eek! Those of us in the heathen East are unaccustomed to places closing on Thanksgiving. I scrambled and found a La Madeleine open in River Oaks. Mom's eyes were like a kid at Christmas. French pastry .. and more French pastry..and a promise we'd come back there the next day for breakfast, too.

We headed over to my cousin's for dinner. They are in a renovated early 1900s house. It's stunning and comfortable at the same time. I was assigned the cornbread stuffing for dinner. I tried, Betty, I really tried to stick to the recipe. About 2/3 of the way through it, I started freelancing. Despite that detour, it passed the true Texan test - whew!

We headed home around 7 pm, and as we drove down San Felipe, the tree lighting fireworks were in full display. How cool was that? We turned off for the hotel just as the finale was underway.

Next morning, there's a silver Rolls Royce pulling up, with full tint windows. A young lady with custom hosiery slides out of the back seat, holding hands with a young man. We figure they are from Dubai (lots of their countrypeople in the hotel over the holiday). Sunglasses in place, they could be models. My mother's mouth is agape. Gary's grinning .. because once the foursome enter the hotel, the two young men walk together, and the OLD guy takes the young woman's hand. We figure we know who owns the Rolls ... it was very funny.

After that fun, back to La Madeleine to stock up for breakfast & the flight home. We got to IAH early, so grabbed earlier flights home.

All in all, a great trip. Hope you enjoyed being virtually in two places at once. Cheers, Anne