HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We drove 3,000 MILES to spend Christmas in Kansas!

The day before we left, we had our own little celebration at our house.

A Cinderella castle!!!

Fun, fun, fun. And then we packed, packed, packed. This is Sophie calmly playing on our bed while Rob and I manically throw half of our possessions into suitcases.

(nice elf hat, Sophie)

We had a really wonderful time at my parents’. The kids made themselves right at home.

Grams had lots of fun activities planned.

My Uncle Danny and Aunt Susan and cousins came over for dinner one night. I hadn’t seen them for a long time, and it was great to catch up!

We got all beautiful to go to Russ and Chandelle’s church the Sunday before Christmas.

Had lunch at Russ and Chandelle’s beautiful home.

And then it was finally Christmas!!

Gramps reading the Christmas story.

And then,, PRESENTS!!

And a feast!

Grams and the kids made Jesus a birthday cake.

We had such a lot of fun and made many happy memories.

And then we said farewell and headed to Kansas City to celebrate our 15-year wedding anniversary.

15 YEARS!!! WOW!

Kansas City welcomed us warmly. Would you believe, as soon as we exited the interstate, the first thing we saw was this.

We had our first date at Winstead’s on September 26, 1993! Of course, we had to stop in.

The kids were very impressed with the classy setting in which we began our romance. You can’t get better than a restaurant with a juke box.

Next stop, Kansas City Crown Center. They had life-sized Legos!

We have many happy memories from Crown Center.

Then we were off to the big event. The Plaza!!

Have we mentioned that we love Kansas City?

It was tough deciding which restaurant to go to. Figlio’s? Tomfoolery’s? We decided on Cheesecake Factory. I have lots of happy memories from going here in college, and every time I’ve tried to take Rob there’s been a 3-hour wait. Not this night. We were in luck!

Sophie had a view of the plaza lights.

I don’t care how many sit-ups I have to do to pay for this, it was worth it.

Sophie begged to go in the Cinderella carriage! (sorry, sweetie)

We also managed a trip to Jack Stack’s BBQ with our good friend Jim.

Kansas City, we love you! Until next time…

 

Epilogue:

We drove the 3 days home and had a few days yet til school started. There was snow at home! Perfect for Elliot to try out his new snowboard that Santa brought him. Awesome!!

Happy New Year, everyone! May it be magnificent!