MERRY TUBA CHRISTMAS!

Like John's sci-fi family outing, Austin and Alexis each have must-do Christmas traditions as well. Yesterday, we did both in one day. For Lex, it was the annual excursion to the gargantuan Whole Foods store in downtown Austin, where we all split up to shop for our individual contributions to Christmas dinner. I'm doing the main course - beef tenderloin with smoked-paprika mayonnaise, John is in charge of beverages and appetizer, Austin is doing side dishes, and Alexis shopped for bread and dessert. The place is such a feast for the eyes during the holidays that I became mesmerized by all the displays and tidbits to be sampled, and completely forgot to take any pictures for you, until it was too late. So sorry!

For Austin, it just wouldn't be Christmas without tubas. He played tuba all through high school (and was definitely the star when it came to tuba-dancing, in my completely unbiased opinion), using a school-supplied tuba, since tubas are priced a bit on the exorbitant side. Every Christmas they allowed him to check it out for a few days, so that he could join a couple of hundred other tuba-players in whatever city we happened to be living in at the time, for Merry Tuba Christmas. This year involved a couple of firsts for us all: the first time to attend the one held on the steps of our state's capitol building, and the first time for Austin to be in the audience with us, rather than performing, since he no longer has access to a tuba. I think the poor kid must be suffering from withdrawal, because mid-show he pulled out his i-phone and started looking up "used tubas." Feel free to let us know, if you've got any leads!