Every year when the holidays are upon us, we head north to Kansas to spend quality time with Don's family. Like with most family visits, it is never long enough. We were very lucky to spend quite a bit of time with the family and lucky for me, my cat allergies allowed us to spend longer than two hours with one part of the family where it is a non-stop laughfest (thanks Primo and e-Stacy for helping my build my tolerance!). Mari had a wonderful time at that visit, stalking their 1 year old kittens. We also were able to celebrate in 4 very special Christmas festivities. We received our dozens upon dozens of chocolate peanut butter balls. We ate loads of food. Every year, I look forward to my MIL's rolls. I swear I must've inhaled a dozen of them. I didn't want any kind of sweets, I just wanted her yummy, melt-n-your-mouth rolls. mmmm-MMMM-good!
We very glad that we brought the hitch because our cousin filled an ice chest with deer meat for Don on a recent hunting trip, and Mari cleaned up with loads of Christmas loot. (and so did we!) This proved helpful on our journey home, since the added weight helped us trek through the remaining slush/ice/snow on the highway.
No Christmas trip is complete without a visit to the local mall. While there, we visited Santa. Unfortunately, it was a Santa with a fake beard. We'd heard the guy with the real beard had been working earlier in the week, but we just missed him. Again, she didn't like the visit, but it was only accompanied by a short amount of screams and shrieks. For her efforts, she was awarded a red lollipop and a bowl of salsa. Here she is walking hand in hand with her daddy.
We'd had two other Christmas celebrations on Christmas eve, so Mari was in no hurry to open gifts. Frankly, she was more interested in the tree decorations and the baby doll she'd received the night before. Eventually, we coaxed her into opening two of her gifts, but she was finished. Proclaiming, "all done!" and, "Nooooooo!!" while running from the room to hide. I guess she was over Christmas.
And lucky for us, a snow storm had passed (while we narrowly avoided a full-on blizzard), so Mari was able to enjoy the snow. She remembered it and gleefully squealed, "SNOW!"
All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip to the land of Dorothy. Speaking of Dorothy, I've just ordered our 3rd (yes 1, 2, 3!!) copy of The Wizard of Oz since our last working copy nearly the bit the dust on this trip. Luckily, I purchased Enchanted and it has been a nice distraction for the meantime. I hope you all had a very blessed and happy Christmas!
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