Snowy Palms

Snowy Palms


Christmas Morning 2004 Crystal Beach (Bolivar, Texas)

Mom and Dad rented a beach house for the family on Crystal Beach in Bolivar, Texas. It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend, in spite of the noticeable absence of our nephew, Steve and his lovely girlfriend, Gina. They got stuck in Memphis when their flight was cancelled due to weather. Connor and I picked Marilyn up from work Christmas Eve at 6:00 PM, and downtown Houston was practically a ghost town with just a few workers and last minute shoppers scurrying around in the cold.

We drove straight to Galveston with snow flurries and BB sized ice balls swirling around us, and caught the Bolivar Ferry to Crystal Beach. The water was really choppy, so it was too cold and wet to get out of car. Waves crashed over the bow and sprayed the cars with salty mist. It was dark, so the only thing we could see while we were on the ferry was Sea Wolf Island, but the visibility was really poor, so it looked more like a yacht than an island. We arrived at the beach house, ate and played gin rummy. Marilyn and Dad set up the tacky little artificial Christmas tree I got from CVS - a four foot wire and paper pine with the lights already on it.

It was quite a surprise Christmas morning, when we awoke to snow covered palm trees. Who'd a thunk we'd get a white Christmas on the Gulf of Mexico? Connor got to see real snow for the first time in his life and he loved it. To top off his Christmas adventure, he had a real snowball fight with his mother and grandfather.

After we took pictures of the snow, we went back inside and opened presents. As always we were blessed. We kept things low key and didn't cook anything except the greenbean casserole and the potatoes. Marilyn and Igot to play Shanghai Rummy with Mom, but I think I was too PMS'y to fully appreciate the game. It was nice to get the time to play cards and just talk with the parents, though. Seems like the older we get, the less spend that kind of time together, but the more we appreciate it when we do.

We took pictures the whole weekend and even stopped on the way home to get some pictures of the cemetery on Broadway on the way out of Galveston. Final analysis:
*beach house rental $ 500.00
*tacky artificial Christmas tree $ 7.50
*white Christmas on the Gulf of Mexico - you guessed it, priceless!



Galveston Cemetery December 26, 2004