A virtual holiday card from the Knox-Broyles family

God bless technology. I wasn't able to send out Christmas cards this year, but with the help of animoto.com, I made this video, which will give you a pretty good idea of what we've been up to this year.


Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season!

The merriest of Christmases

We're having a blast with everyone in Austin. GaGa and my sister and her husband are in Missouri, stuck in one of the whitest Christmases in recent memory. It will be their memory, not mine, because on this sunny day, we are headed to Uncle Tom's house, where I'll hoping shoot more photos to add to this Flickr gallery.

In this set of photos, you'll see more of Ian-turned-Santa, the Statesman's Cookie Swap party that I organized, as well as our Hanukkah/Christmas/solstice/birthday party last week, where I fried latkes for everyone and our friend Jodi led a menorah lighting.

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! Enjoy the snow for me, if you have it. It's been far too long since I've been surrounded by a peaceful winter wonderland.

Making gingerbread cookies for Santa with YaYa

Julian and YaYa set out to make a gingerbread house today, but it quickly turned into gingerbread cookies instead (thanks, partially incomplete Whole Paycheck Gingerhaus Chalet directions!).



We put the finishing touch — red, er pink, and green icing piped from plastic bags — tonight after Christmas dinner with my dad's family.






Santa will be getting these gems, which, if you ask me, are elegant enough for a Martha Stewart cookbook.

Too bad Julian ate all that icing! Santa could be stopping by any minute and he's not going to bed any time soon. I guess we'll manage.

Merry Christmas!

Who is this adorable Santa Claus...

...and why do I want to give him a big kiss on the lips?



It's really too bad Ian had to miss LaLa's annual Christmas party for the kids. He would have liked this jolly fellow. :)

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Update: It appears Santa even made a stop by our house earlier this week.

Keeping bees

Beekeeping holds a special place in my heart because my great uncle Lee was a beekeeper. I never got to suit up with him, but last month, I got to don a suit and go with Konrad Bouffard, who runs Round Rock Honey.



I shot the above video and a bunch of cool pictures, which you can flip through in this gallery on Austin360.