Home for the Holidays

After the flurry of holiday activities and traveling we have settled back into our humble abode enjoying a slower pace during the first few weeks of January.  The relaxation now is nice but we also have had a wonderful time with friends and family over the past few weeks.

Our first stop was making the trip to Alex's hometown for Christmas with her family.  We arrived in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve and our niece was so excited about Christmas.  She was running around singing "Christmas is going to be awesome" over and over.  I asked her, "So, can you tell me what tomorrow is?" and her reply was "Tomorrow's Friday" as if it was just another day in the week.  At the young age of 3 we don't think that she has figured out that Christmas is a particular day but basically just a wonderful time of year.  My family (Alex) always goes to the Christmas Eve program at our church.  It's traditional to say the least.  In the past quarter of a century the major changes that have taken place include the Sunday School kids singing a different song, a guitar choir for Silent Night, and now we hold battery operated tea candles during Silent Night-- I guess the 2-3 years we used real candles was not very relaxing for the adults involved.  Afterwards we always head to my grandmother's farmhouse for soup after the program.  While my grandma has been gone just over 2 years now and we miss her during these gatherings I love the tradition of still gathering around her table and living room.  While I am not the family history expert I would guess that Christmas Eve has been held in that living room for 50-60 years if not longer.  After soup most of the cousins wandered down the road to the neighbors to sing Christmas carols.  It was a full moon and so bright that our shadows were cast on the road.  On the way home we enjoyed the Christmas lights on Main Street into which could be the Main Street right out of It's A Wonderful Life.

Since my niece didn't know that it was actually Christmas Day we all got to sleep in and have our Christmas breakfast before opening p-r-e-s-e-n-t-s.  Having a small child around does add to the excitement on Christmas.  One of the gifts that was a highlight for Arthur and I was we got a book of all of our blog posts printed out.  It's amazing how many pages we have written over the past few years.  Later that morning we watched my favorite Christmas movie of all time-- The Muppet Christmas Carol.  This is a must see if you have never experienced the Muppets' rendition of this classic piece of literature by Dickens.  That evening we broke from tradition (or added a new one) with the first annual family karaoke sing. We had such a variety of numbers: Let It Go for the whole group, Walk the Line sung by the men's glee, I Say a Little Prayer for You performed by the women's chorus, and each couple sang "their song".  I will never forget my parents singing Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe.

The next day a huge winter storm was supposed to blow through so my parents kicked us all out to go to our own homes.  While the storm never came, Arthur and I pretended it was a snow day since we had already asked someone else to take care of our obligations at church.  We slept in, curled up with some good books and movies, took a nap, and didn't leave the house.  It was wonderful.

 For New Year's Eve we got together with several of my friends from college for a game night.  We stayed up til midnight playing card games and toasted in 2016.  By the time we drove home it was 1:15am before we crawled into bed.  It's been a long time since we saw that time of day as college students. (Actually I never saw that time of day as a college student but Arthur did fairly frequently.)

For New Year's Day we took it a little easy in the morning and put away all the decorations from Christmas before hitting the road to spend the weekend with Arthur's family.  We listened to our audio lectures on American History which Arthur thoroughly enjoyed.  I must admit I probably napped more than a good copilot should on this trip.  That evening we had "Christmas" with Arthur's family.  This included one of his favorite meals; his mom's chicken and noodles, which was delicious, and his sister's peanut butter chocolate cream pie, also delectable.  From Arthur's parents we each got a couple of pairs of hiking pants which we love-- so much more comfortable than jeans for hiking or just hanging out.  The entertainment for the evening was watching the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope.  While I'm not a huge Star Wars fan I understood what was going on this time and enjoyed it quite a bit.

The next morning we got to sleep in again-- it is always a highlight if you don't have to get up before sunrise to head to work.  I spent part of the morning watching a Fixer Upper marathon on HGTV.  Arthur went out to his sister's house with his dad to visit Darcy, their basset hound puppy who is ridiculously cute, as basset hounds seem to be.  The afternoon was spent watching the K-State football game as well as other bowl games throughout the weekend.  The evening's entertainment was a family viewing of War Room.  On Sunday after church there was the customary Sunday lunch at his grandma's house which includes quite the spread plus wonderful desserts.  His grandparents on the other side of the family were also able to stop by for a visit so we enjoyed listening to some great stories before we had to hit the road to come back to our home.

It was fun to be able to go "home" for the holidays where we grew up.  We enjoyed a snow day hanging around our home here too.  As Arthur has mentioned frequently, "Home is wherever you (Alex) are".  He is racking up big husband points.  Omnia Vincit Amor.