I hope that you decided to click on this one because of the incredibly clever alliteration that I used in the title above.  I heard once that this helps make things more memorable.  Just ask Chubby Checker or Tiny Tim - they know.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house.  Around this time of year, our family welcomes a host of colorful and happy Christmas playthings from their storage place in the attic, where they have patiently waited for the previous eleven months.  I wanted to take a minute to share some of them with you, my loyal reader/subscriber:

I start with this one from my wife's childhood.  It is a Santa Claus that plays "Jingle Bells" while skiing UPHILL into the chimney after you pull him down the slope with the string attached.  How clever is that?  I guess Santa has to defy all laws of physics, and this is no exception.

This is a newer, "junior" version that we found at some point.  In this case, it plays "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" while he orbits the small house below, although he never actually gets there.  Suspicious?  Highly so.  My only wish is that it would play the Bruce Springsteen version of this song instead of the instrumental.

This snowman has a tree with 25 ornaments (one for every day of December including Christmas).  A voice that sounds a lot like the original "Frosty the Snowman" from the classic movie on TV each year (Jackie Vernon) says, "Each day, place an ornament on the tree to find out how many days are left until Christmas." Then there is a magic wand sound (perhaps a glockenspiel), and he says, "Wow!  It's almost time for that special day.  There are just ____ days left until Christmas." or something similar.  This is a lot of fun for the kids, although sometimes they sit and do every day in sequence, in order to speed up the space-time continuum and make Christmas day come today. 

 I know these frogs came from Dillard's (after my mannequin days there) because they are one of the few items we own which are still stored in the original box.  Through the mystery of infrared technology, they communicate with each other as they croak an energetic medley in two-part harmony, including portions of "Silver Bells", "Jingle Bells", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". 

My wife reminded that I was highly excited about buying these frogs back in 1999 or 2000, when my son was but a toddler.  I didn't remember this (big surprise), but she was giving me credit for a good idea since all three of our children have loved the Christmas frogs and the older ones ask for them by name now.

Last and perhaps least, we have the dancing Santa Homer Simpson (see below).  We obtained this beauty at Kohl's when my mom was in town one year.  Although it seems like something that would grow old quickly, it makes us laugh every Christmas now.  He sways his hips, Elvis-style, and sings a good number of tunes along with several sayings.  My favorites are "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls".  Here are the lyrics as performed by Homer:

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the day

Oh, what fun it is to ride singing polly wolly doodle all the day.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the day

Oh, what fun it is to ride to Santa Claus to-day.

And for "Deck the Halls":

Deck the halls with Buddy Holly

Fa la la la la la la la la

Tis the season something jolly

Fa la la la la la la la la

We are heavy with our jackets

Fa la la La la la La la la

Sing like crazy - make a racket

(manically) FA LA LA LA LA LALALALALA!

Thanks for joining me on this magical tour of our special Christmas friends.  I hope to share more terrific Christmas posts over the next month or so.

Austin Real Estate  Copyright 2007

In this week's portion of my series about the affordability and desirability of Austin real estate, this week I focus on homes priced just under $1 Million:

This terrific Stadler custom home built in 2004 is located on a one acre lot in west Austin.  It features over 5000 square feet, with 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, awesome views, and tons of upgrades!  Offered at $999,000.

Built in 2003 and located one mile from Lake Travis, this home features almost 5600 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, all on a 1.73 acre lot.  Ultimate privacy. Tropical landscape, pool & hot tub, many outdoor living areas. Study, Media room & gameroom + 2 more living areas.  Chef's kitchen. Lake view from upstairs. Quiet cul-de-sac. Offered at $999,000.

With almost 5000 square feet, and located on the 16th green of the prestigious Flintrock Falls golf course (designed by Jack Nicklaus), this 2006 Stadler home is a phenomenal value.  Award Winning 2006 Showcase Home! Incredible finish out includes fauxed barrel ceilings, Subzero & Wolf appliances, much more!  Offered at $999,900.  

If you are looking to make a move to Austin or if you are interested in purchasing an investment property (or more than one), please call or email me and I will be happy to help.  I can be reached at 512-796-7653 (cell) or at jason@austintexashomes.com.  I look forward to helping you with any and all Austin real estate needs.  

Here are the previous articles that I have written about various price ranges here in Austin:

Austin Real Estate - What can I buy for $200,000 in the Austin area?

Austin Real Estate - What Can I Buy in the Austin area for $300,000 or less?

Austin Texas Real Estate - What Can I Buy in the Austin area for $400,000 or less?

Austin Real Estate - What Can I Buy in the Austin area for $500,000 or less?

What Can I Buy in the Austin Area for $600,000?

What Can I Buy in the Austin, Texas Area for $650,000 - $700,000? WOW!

What can I buy in the Austin, Texas area for $750,000 - $800,000?

What Can I Buy in the Austin, Texas Area for $800,000 - $900,000?

Copyright 2007   Austin Real Estate     Jason Crouch   All rights reserved

Having been raised by my mom, who is exceptionally giving and caring and a lifelong social worker, I learned an interesting lesson about how to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas.  For years, my mother invited single friends of hers who had no family nearby to share our meals and our special days.  Many people don't have the advantage of a nuclear family, or perhaps their families are simply too far away.

Over the past few years, we have been hosting both of the major holidays at our house, since we have three small children and the largest home.  Frankly, it's been nice to remain home rather than taking a car trip with the kids. 

Starting last year, I decided to take a cue from my mom and invite a friend to hang out and enjoy a stellar meal with us.  He is from Mexico, and his family is still there.  He has been working here in the U.S. since about 1994, and sending money back home to his wife, parents, and his teenage son.  He spent both holidays with us last year.  He truly considers us to be his family now.

Today, my friend was here again to enjoy a terrific meal with us, including my wife's patented sweet potato casserole, which she could probably market.  This time around, after my son prayed (very eloquently, I might add), I asked my friend to say a prayer in Spanish, which was both beautiful and poignant. 

He stayed to watch the Cowboys' game, and I gave him a small gift by allowing him to call his family in Mexico for awhile before he left with a "care package" of great food.  At first, he protested, but I really wanted him to have a stress-free chance to speak with them.   

I have another friend who spent last Christmas with us, along with his mom.  His father passed away, and he and his mom didn't really have any other plans.  I think both of them enjoyed getting a chance to watch our kids with their gifts that day.  They also attended our Christmas Eve service at church.  I was hoping he would come over today as well, but I think he got suddenly shy and decided not to come this time. 

Over the weekend sometime, my wife Pam and I will go to a government housing project to speak with several families about our church's outreach program called "Tree of Lights".  If you follow my blog, you may recall that I spend time every month with the kids who live there:  My Day with Project Intercept (Helping Disadvantaged Kids in Austin).  We will be speaking with each family about what they want/need for Christmas this year, and I will be helping to coordinate the "adoption" of each family by the members of our church.  Just before Christmas, there is a large program held at the community center with songs and food and the gifts are all distributed.  At last year's program, I seriously had more holiday joy in my heart than I have felt since I was a child.  Although I realize that it is a clunky analogy, it reminded me a lot of the end of the Grinch movie.  The happiness that I saw and shared that night made me wish that I could do that every day of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  I hope you are also able to find some ways to share your joy with others during the holiday season this year. 

Thanks for taking some time to read this one.

Copyright 2007   Austin Real Estate     Jason Crouch   All rights reserved

My wife wrote another restaurant review for my primary website (http://www.austintexashomes.com/) and I wanted to share it here as well:

Café Mangù is a small restaurant in Pflugerville serving "Caribbean" food.  The cooks hail from the Dominican Republic.  Some of the dishes, such as ropa vieja, we at Austin Texas Homes were familiar with from Cuban cuisine.  There must be some overlap between the two.

The menu has a great selection of interesting foods, many of which contain plantains, a favorite in Cuban and Dominican Cuisine.  Mangu, itself, is a mashed plantain dish that we tried on our visit.

The parking lot is located in front, and is small, but that's probably appropriate, because it's an intimate restaurant.

When we walked in, we noticed still-life paintings hanging on the wall, wooden chairs, and Latino-beat music playing in the background.  It sounded like Cuban dance music, or salsa music to me.  Old-fashioned molding on the windows, a bar toward the rear of the restaurant, and ceiling fans added to the rustic atmosphere.

We all got seated, and decided to start with the Queso Frito, which was something we figured the kids would eat.  We were right.  When it came, we were very pleasantly surprised!  It had a very toasted taste.  It wasn't like cheese sticks, with heavy breading on the outside--it wasn't even in stick form.  It was small slabs of cheese that seemed a lot like mozzarella, and had a very small amount of breading on the outside.  The waitress said it was "panela" cheese.  The dipping sauce was red, and seemed to be tomato-based, and was similar to marinara sauce, but much more watery in texture.  It was all gone in no time.

It took us a while to decide what to order.  The menu is large and varied, and we were unfamiliar with most of the foods, so we had to read all the descriptions carefully.  They have appetizers such as tostones y longaniza, alitas dulce, and mariquitas.  They have traditional Spanish dishes, such as the Paella, which is $44.95 for one person or $64.95 for two.  They have salads, sandwiches and soup.  They serve beef dishes such as the carne guisada, asado de res, and ropa vieja.  There are seafood dishes, such as the pineapple rum shrimp, mahi mahi, tilapia en salsa criolla, and langosta al ajillo.  They also have chicken dishes, such as the chicharrones de pollo, pollo guisado, and pechuga a la plancha.  The side dishes they have are things like maduros, mangu, arroz, chuletas de cerdo, and yuca.  The kids' menu has things like chicken strips, shrimp, fried fish, and french fries.

Jason decided to order the vaca frita with arroz congri, mangu, and maduros, and I ordered the asopao de camarones.  I would say that if you're really hungry, don't order the asopao.  It doesn't come with side dishes, like the other entrees, but is about the same price as some of the entrees.  Our older kids ordered the chicken strips with fries (a common theme for them when we go to exotic restaurants).  We ordered a plain arroz for the baby, who absolutely loves rice.  Jason remarked that is was nice to be waited on by Rita Moreno from "West Side Story".

The rice came first, so the baby set right in to the task of getting two out of every three rice grains onto the floor.  While we were waiting for the rest of our food, our son noticed that we were having a little trouble hearing each other.  I think it was because of the echo in the room (it could use some curtains or carpet to cut down on that.)  It was starting to make him edgy, so he went to the waitress/hostess and asked if they could turn the music down a bit.  They did, and he was much happier after that.

When our food arrived, we were very pleased with all of it.  Everything was good.  The vaca frita was interesting:  long shreds of beef that have been fried.  Almost like a "teeny beef jerky" sort of experience--very flavorful and a little chewy.  It came with the most delicious lime-butter sauce that was just to die for!  I wanted to get a bottle of it and put it on everything. 

The mangu, which is mashed plantains and onions, had the texture of slightly undercooked mashed potatoes.  It was good, as well.  It had butter or oil in it, to make it more pleasing.  The arroz congri was flavored rice with a little black beans in it, I believe.  Very good, and not too spicy at all.  In fact, the waitress was correct in her claim that nothing at Cafe Mangu was spicy-hot.  Jason's plate was totally full; it was a whole lot of food--almost enough for two meals.

The asopao had a cilantro flavor.  It was mostly broth with rice, a few vegetables, and shrimp with the tails on.  It was described on the menu as "soupy rice," which sounded like a dish that is mainly rice.  However, I would describe it as "ricey soup," because it was mostly broth.  It did taste good, though.

We tried the kids' food, too.  The chicken strips were definitely better than average, and the fries were actually julienned potatoes, which are always very good.  They didn't have enough fries for both kids, so they gave us the order of rice for free.  We thought that was fine, since the kids didn't seem to need more fries, anyway.  The rice, even though it was just rice, was also very good, and I'm a rice connosieur.  I think it had a lot of butter in it, but it wasn't greasy or salty at all, and didn't seem to have broth or any flavoring.  Impressive.

By this time, our toddler was completely bored with sweeping rice off the table, and was trying to grab everyone's food with her patented "raise the arm and slap with extreme prejudice" method.  We decided to sacrifice the table advertisement to her (you know, the little board booklet of desserts and drinks?)  She'd disassembled it in no time.  Fortunately, our son intervened.

He began, "Getting rid of hiccups is a dangerous job, because you have to hold your breath, and suck it in as much as you can, and then drink the water, and then exhale."  He's a very animated little guy, and the whole time, he's acting out how to get rid of hiccups with his gesticulations and wheezing breathing sounds, and funny faces.  Meantime, our baby girl, who thinks her big brother is the funniest person in the world, begins giggling up a storm and squealing with glee.  Whew.  Crisis averted.

For dessert, we ordered the tres leches cake.  If you've never had it, it's a moist cake with icing, and with a very creamy sauce over and around it, to make it even moister.  It's so creamy, it's almost like eating Irish cream.  We all dug in, and it disappeared.  We had to beg the kids to resrain themselves from taking such huge bites.  Our son, in particular, had to be talked to about bite size and being polite to leave some for everyone else.

Jason checked out the bathroom and said it was "very clean and nice and smelled good."

The cost of the meal, with 4 meals, an appetizer, one dessert, and drinks was about $50 before tip.  Not too bad, but it will be a special occasion restaurant, for our budget.

Address: 15200 F.M. 1825 in Pflugerville

Copyright 2007   Austin Real Estate     Jason Crouch   All rights reserved

I graduated from Southwestern University in 1992, and held a job as a manager for a rental car company for about a year.  After leaving there (which may be the subject of an entirely different post someday), I had a period of time when I was unable to find a job.  I finally went to work for Dillard's department store in mid-1993. 

Now, one of the reasons that I eventually got into real estate is that I enjoy variety in my tasks.  I do not do well with repetition.  The old scene from "I Love Lucy" where Lucy and Ethel are trying to wrap chocolate candies from an ever-faster conveyor belt is like a nightmare to me, not because they get behind, but because it seems like such a terrible job.

I went to work at Dillard's in "Men's Collections", which was essentially the nicer guys' clothes with recognizable names.  Back then, it was Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, Perry Ellis, and others.  This job offered a ton of mind-numbing tasks for me and my co-workers, including folding giant loads of clothes, hanging giant loads of clothes, intricate and repetitive cashier work, and my personal favorite: standing.

Yes, standing entailed much of my job as a full-time employee.  I had to wear a suit every day, which is something else I really don't care for.  So, wearing a suit and standing.  It sounds easy enough, but with dress shoes (or at least with the dress shoes that I could afford), my feet and lower legs began to ache around hour number four. 

The point of this post was something that I don't have to worry about now that I am in real estate.  Here's the best part, and I should probably note that this is the absolute truth:  I was mistaken for a mannequin no less than FOUR times.  I know that my friend Candace Robinson will appreciate this story, since she used to work at JC Penney dressing mannequins.

I suppose that this could be taken as a compliment, since mannequins are generally attractive, at least the ones I have seen.  The reason that this happened so much was that I was standing stone-still for long periods of time waiting for something to do.  An unsuspecting customer would start to browse near me, and I would notice them and turn to greet them, at which point they would jolt and shout, "I thought you were a mannequin!"  After this happened twice, I started to think about just standing up on the little podium along with the mannequins in order to intentionally freak people out.  This is where your mind goes when you are ridiculously bored.

The funniest occasion when this occurred later became a story that my wife has asked me to repeat many, many times to friends of ours over the years, and I will never forget it.  I was standing rigidly at attention in the Nautica section, and I heard someone behind me, so I turned and said, "Hi, how are you today?"  I honestly think that the women might have wet themselves they were so surprised.  The best part was, they spoke French, and the only word I could pick up was "mannequin", which sounded like "mahn-eh-keen". 

Thankfully, in the eleven years of my real estate career, I have never once been mistaken for a mannequin.  I can state with some level of certainty that this is something that won't happen to me again.  I have several stories that I may choose to share from other previous jobs of mine.

Needless to say, my tenure at Dillard's was short-lived.  I think I was there for about four months, which was probably three and a half months longer than I could tolerate.

Thanks for reading!

I took my two older kids to see "The Bee Movie" two night ago.  This was a reward that my wife and I established for them to help them get along better this past week, since they have been arguing a bit more lately.  Our choices were this movie or "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", which is rated G and looks somewhat interesting, but was panned thoroughly by critics. 

While we were in the car on the way there, my son began to tell us what to expect from the movie. 

"At the beginning, a bee named Barry leaves the hive, then..."

"Wait a minute," I said, "Where did you hear about the plot for this movie?"

"From a TV commercial, and from National Geographic Kids magazine." he said. 

"Let's not talk about it.  I just want to enjoy it, and so does Aleah." I said.

Then Aleah chimed in with, "I know how the beginning starts, too." I was thinking to myself that this was not going to be the wonder-filled night that I had originally planned.

She continued, "I think something is going to spell out, "THE BEE MOVIE"."  This was both exceptionally accurate and perceptive on her part, and it didn't even ruin the plot for any of us.

 I knew that I had to stop and get some cash on the way there, and if you know me very well, you know that I don't allow a lot of room for error when I am trying to make it to any appointment, including a movie. 

I pulled into the bank, and headed directly to the drive-through ATM machine.  I inserted my card, then put in the PIN number, then requested $60 from checking. 

UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTION

CARD RETAINED

What?!?  I couldn't even begin to imagine what that was all about.  I decided to continue on the off chance that they took credit cards at the theater, although I was virtually positive that they did not.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was wrong, so we made it with a couple of minutes to spare.  (It turns out that my bank had already sent me a new card which was sitting in my unopened mail - they said that they thought that many of their debit cards had been "compromised by a third party institution", whatever that might mean).

The only complaint that I had about the movie experience was the especially scary preview for "The Spiderwick Chronicles" that made me want to cover my eyes, too (not really, but it was quite intense for a kids' movie). 

We all enjoyed the movie, and I would highly recommend it for a family outing of your own.  There are plenty of jokes to keep parents interested, and the overall message is sound.  Much of it has to do with believing in the power of teamwork and the ability to overcome big obstacles.  There is also a rather big lesson about the environment.  Having Jerry Seinfeld as the main character's voice also certainly didn't hurt, since I am a big Seinfeld fan. 

Thanks for reading!

I love Christmas.  Let me repeat that - I LOVE CHRISTMAS.  I would like to get that out of the way first.  It is far and away my favorite holiday.  As a Christian myself, the significance is exceptionally important to me, though frankly not as important as Easter. 

 I love Christmas songs, presents, and food.  I love the looks on my kids' faces on that special morning.  I love teaching my kids about it and what it really means.  There are certain movies I always try to watch leading up to December 25th (namely, "It's a Wonderful Life", "A Christmas Story", and "Scrooged").  I also usually watch the Grinch stealing Christmas (old version) and Charlie Brown's Christmas show (classic).  Even the piano music from the latter, performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, is able to evoke strong holiday memories for me.  This is going to be the year that I buy that CD finally.  It's just really good.

Now that we have set that straight, WHY OH WHY does "Christmastime" have to start earlier every year?  It is still celebrated on the same day.  I was telling a friend of mine earlier that I saw the first Christmas commercial on TV the night that I was getting my kids ready to go trick-or-treating.  You heard me.  I saw a department store ad for a Christmas special on HALLOWEEN night. 

Are retailers only going to be happy when it's called "HALLOTHANKSMAS"? 

Today, as I was leaving my house, I turned on my car radio and there is a local station that has already started its annual 24-7 broadcast of Christmas carols.  Are you kidding me?  Don't we have another holiday to celebrate first?  This is rampant and blatant commercializing of this terrific and special time of year.  Do we really need to be reminded of when it occurs?  Christmas is 38 days away.  Can't we wait until after Thanksgiving to start this stuff?  I suppose if I am being honest I could listen to this music anytime of year and still enjoy it, but since I know the reason is to sell ad time, it irritates me.

I know that the ads seem to have affected at least one of my kids already, as I am right now looking at her Christmas list that she left on the table next to me.  I finally told her to make a list because I was tired of hearing about every single thing that she wants.  She was pushing me to order everything early, ostensibly because she didn't want anything to come late.  Hmm... my wife and I have always managed to get her gifts here on time before.  Maybe she saw an ad somewhere that prompted this, or maybe she is just six and excited because she knows it is next month. 

At any rate, I would like to humbly suggest that we refrain from any overt Christmasalization until the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone and their dog can hit the malls (with boughs of holly) to begin their shopping.  As for the radio thing, I think I would find it acceptable next week or perhaps December 1st, but not right now.  I am going to single-handedly coin this new phrase (Christmasalization), and I hope you will join me.

Thanks for listening. 

By the way, now that my older kids are 8 and 6, it is interesting to note that they KNOW when the decorating occurs.  My wife told me a couple of days ago, "I hope you are ready to get in the attic on Thanksgiving or the day after.  The kids want us to start decorating."  That's fine.  In fact, it warms my heart since I know that their excitement comes from genuine joy about the time of year.  As for the radio and TV ads, I feel a bit differently.

Thanks for reading!

DISCLAIMER: I shouldn't have to write this disclaimer, but I will anyway, because it's my blog.  Nothing in this post is to be taken seriously.  I am only writing this for fun.  Back to your reading.

I have written a number of posts about my children over my 3+ months here at Active Rain, but I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about something that is beginning to concern me:

My toddler daughter talks smack sometimes. 

Yes, our beautiful 19-month old little girl has recently developed a foul mouth.  In fact, I hesitate to share some of these things with you, for fear that you may contact the authorities and they will raid our home searching for evidence of improper behavior or politically incorrect educational materials.

The other day, my angel came into the room screaming, "TARDS!  TARDS!"  I was so startled by this, "What?!  Who? Huh?  Are you talking to me?"  Oh, I see.  She only wanted to play with the cards that she had seen on the shelf.  Disaster averted.  All is well. 

A few days later, she looked straight at my eight-year old son and said very clearly, "Dumb."  I was taken aback by this.  "What's that, honey?"  She began to whine a little, and she repeated, "Dumb.  Dummy!"  I then realized that he had gum in his mouth and she wanted a piece (not really advisable for a toddler, usually). 

She absolutely loves our cats, and she often wants to be around the "Kitty", but she can't yet pronounce the "K" sound, so it often comes out as a "T".  You can imagine the great laughs that has elicited when we have company over and she is begging to see the kitty.

As a funny side note, she was looking at a picture with me the other day of an outside scene, and she said, "Foggy".  I was amazed that she grasped this weather concept already, so I said, "Yes, it is a little foggy there.  Good!"  Then she pointed at a small frog that I hadn't seen, and said, "Little foggy."  Oops.  Yes, I see the little frog now.

She is at the stage where she will literally try to repeat anything that you say, no matter how challenging it may seem.  I love this phase, because you can say, "Antidisestablishmentarianism" and it will come out as "Tards".  Just kidding.  The inflection sounds identical to yours, but the word has no meaning at all, unless by pure accident.  On short words, it is usually very close.

We have a saying that my son started in our house when he was a toddler that we still use today.  When he was small, he would say, "Noooo, you not!"  Obviously, he outgrew this, but we thought it was funny, so we still say it seven years later.  We even taught our littlest one to say it now, only it comes out as "No.Ninnut!" followed by a big smile or a laugh.  She loves to be the life of the party. 

The other saying that lasted for awhile from my son's toddlerhood was "No.  Go away from me."  Not "get away from me" but "go away from me".  I loved this one.  He would say this anytime another kid was bothering him when he about two.  Believe it or not, my mom actually still says it to me when she is talking about someone bugging her at work.  This phrase is actually remarkably freeing and descriptive at the right moment.  I may start using it with telemarketers now.

I would share one last example with you, but I don't think my blog would be considered family-friendly anymore if I told you how our baby girl pronounces "Fox" these days (think about it and it will come to you).  I have placed a moratorium on reading "Fox in Socks" until she is a bit older.  Foxy Loxy is also out of the question, as is the phrase, "Crazy like a fox." 

Thanks for reading!

Copyright 2007   Austin TX Real Estate     Jason Crouch   All rights reserved