Texas, Our Texas, All Hail the Mighty State

We had such a great time in Texas for the holidays.  We left Virginia early Christmas morning and flew down to San Antonio out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  We had some trouble with flights, but we arrived late that afternoon in time for Mathis' big family get together.  The weather was absolutely beautiful while we were in Texas, and I really enjoyed the sunny blue skies.  We celebrated Christmas with Mathis' family and made a quick 24 hour trip to Houston to see more family.  On our way out of Houston we stopped at the Galleria for some shopping...

Mathis' parents and two younger sisters

And we couldn't leave town without stopping by our absolute FAVORITE cupcake shop! :)

We bought Hope and Hannah their first Sprinkles cupcake, and they loved them!  Soooo good! 

My parents spent Christmas in Florida, but they flew back into town for the Alamo Bowl and New Year's.  In addition to the bowl (which I'll write about in a separate post) we got to do some wine tastings with them!  This is something we love doing in Virginia, but we'd yet to experience in Texas.  Laura was still on her visit from Dallas for the Alamo Bowl, and she went with us on our Texas Hill Country wine tasting.  The first winery was in an old cotton mill, and it was a really neat building.

My parents are so cute together :)

We really enjoyed the wines at this winery, and we bought two bottles with us back to Virginia.  

Before going to the next winery we made a brief stop in Luckenbach.  This town is known for being a small town with only a couple buildings, and it's a fun place in Texas to visit. 

And of course, only in Texas do people ride cows. :)

Our next stop was Grape Creek Vineyards where we got to take an hour long tour and taste wines straight from the barrel!  We had a great tour guide, and it's always interesting to learn what each individual winery has to say about their wines and the wine making process.

Laura and I tasting together on the tour

We got to taste three separate wines from the barrel, and this is something I'd never done before

That night we stopped in Fredericksburg for dinner before heading back to San Antonio.  It was really a fun day, and I'm so grateful we got to do some things in Texas we hadn't yet done before.