Hoping you had a wonderful holiday season - we certainly did! We even got ourselves a (seriously) White Christmas right here in Southeast Kansas - now if it would just warm up and melt it all off. Instead, temperatures are unusually cold (breaking records, I may add) and the snow keeps on coming. Yup - reminds me of winters during our Northwest Kansas years. . . .
The holiday were kicked off by an awesome vocal and band concert by one very talented group of high school students. . . Javyn was among them on his alto saxophone. The vocal director even had the audience join in on the last number. People left cheery and ready to do some Christmas shopping. We were pleased to see such a grand turn out and the new Chanute High School has such a nice auditorium.
Then, before we knew it, both kids were on holiday break. Jori traveled from KU with some friends to 'kidnap' Javyn for a couple of days. They had a great brother-sister time exploring Lawrence. Troy & took the opportunity to spend a day in Joplin to finish with our shopping. The crowds were pretty amazing - but it was a great day together!
Speaking of crowds, we went to Kansas City a couple times over the holiday season - the first time the last Saturday before Christmas. You know, the crowds were thick, but overall the stores were well staffed and lines weren't that short. The second time found us at Cabela's, along with about everybody else in the country, it seemed. Man, oh, man. We were able to get our errands done with little trouble and even spent some awesome time (and ate some awesome food) with our nephew and his wife.
Santa was very good to all of us this year and the electric blankets he brought came in extra-handy with the snow flying, the wind gusting, and the temperature falling over Christmas. The chocolate helped too - hahahah!
The four of us enjoyed spending time together and doing one of our favorite things - eating and cooking. We had seafood night on Christmas Eve. . . and Italian on Christmas Day. YUM! Good food and good company - Good Times!
The day after Christmas found us loading everybody up - including Jaz and Zayda - and road-tripping across the state to spend some time with Troy's family in Leoti. We had one loaded down van! I seriously heard it sigh with relief when the last item was unloaded - hahaha! Was a good time visiting and visiting. . . and visiting some more with all the family in Western Kansas. The dogs spent all of their time running around - I really don't think they ever stopped except to eat and sleep at night. We all certainly enjoyed our time in the country!
Then it was time to load everybody and everything back into the van and head back to the 'city'. How is it, no matter how much 'you leave behind' you always end up coming home with more than what you started with? Some squeezing, pushing, and rearranging (Yup. I'm sure the van groaned) and we were road tripping once again. Roads were 'sloppy' on our way west - and we hit 'sloppy' roads on our way back east. We came home to find the snow and ice just as we had left it. It was actually colder and cloudier in Chanute than in Leoti. Quite unusual.
Jori headed back to Lawrence right after we returned from Leoti and has been busy working, preparing for next semester, and, of course, spending time with friends. Classes will start again January 14.
New Year's Day greeted us with more snow and more cold-cold temperatures. Was a good day to just stay curled up on the couch and watch television - which is exactly what I did! Troy spent his day in 'Man-Land' reloading ammo and Javyn had spent New Year's Eve at a friend's and didn't come home until later in the day.
Poor, dear, dependable minivan, with all of the road dirt and then getting buried under the New Year's Day snow - you look rather unloved sitting out there in the driveway. Sorry, dear thing. You'll get cleaned come Spring. If Spring ever gets here. Sigh. . . . And now more snow is predicted to fall today.
Entirely too soon, January 4th arrived and back to the routine of school and work Sure is easy to fall out of it and so much harder to get back into it. My to-do list has spread from just one bright blue post-it started on Monday to two as of this morning. And yes, things are scratched off - just seems more keep getting added. Just wish the list would go away so I can get serious about mastering that new sewing machine of mine!
So, 2010 is so-far-so-good (I've almost retrained myself to write '2010' instead of '2009') and we're looking forward to a bigger and better year than the last. We wish you the same!
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