Midwest tour 2013

Robert and and I have returned from our 11 day tour of the Midwest.  I had been looking forward to this Christmas for more than a year as we had decided that last Christmas we would stay in North Carolina and the next Christmas we could travel.  Robert got out of school on December 12 which is majorly unfair.  He spent the next week working and enjoy some well-deserved R&R.  I went ahead and worked a half day on the 20th and headed out around lunch.  One of the major bummers about being away from family is that we always have to find a ride to the airport, but thankfully we have tons of friends here who are in the same boat and we can take turns helping each other out, so our friend Adam gave us a ride to the airport that afternoon.  Our flights were fairly uneventful.  I hadn't really factored in a longer line in security due to the holidays, but everything still turned out just fine.  We had a layover in Atlanta, and then we were on to Kansas City.  Robert's family lives in Kansas City, so we were able to meet up for Mexican and some catch up time.

Once we got home Jim and his fiance, Taylor, came over.  We hadn't met Taylor yet, but she definitely fits in with the family.  We are excited to see what cool things she and Jim will get to experience in their many years together.  Jim left, and my parents went to sleep, but Robert and I stayed up until 3:30 getting to know Taylor.  Eek!  Obviously, she's easy to talk to. :)

As I sat down to write this blog I had great hopes to chronicle every single day, but I'm afraid the days blurred together a bit.  Instead, I will write about various categories or phases of our trip.

Food 
Mom and Memaw are both great cooks!  Memaw had us over for our usual Sunday after church lunch.  I sure miss these delicious meals and sweet time with family!  Mom also treated us with a wonderful homemade meal to celebrate Memaw's birthday.  It was great to be there for that special day.  We hit up some of our favorite local restaurants as well: Boon's BBQ, El Rodeo, and Jasmine.  We hadn't been to Jasmine since it moved to its location.  We approve!  Memaw enjoyed our traditional Christmastime Tea for Two at The Tea Garden.  We have kept up this tradition for approximately 20 years.  I am very thankful to have four special, thoughtful, and loving grandparents.  Another food highlight was a surprise - my sweet parents went to 3 G's on the last day it was open for the season and bought a quart of frozen custard and saved it for us.  It was still delicious as ever!  

Silver Dollar City
What a fun day!  The weather ended up being quite pleasant at about 45 degrees.  The lines for the rides were pretty short, and we got to ride the new wooden roller coaster.

Christmas Day
This was our first year to have 8 people celebrate Christmas together, and were were pleased to have Taylor there.  My family is very thoughtful and generous.  We had our traditional brunch after opening presents.  Each year Santa brings us a family game.  This year we got the card game version of Pictionary.  It was a lot of fun.  That was one of MANY games we played over the break.  Other games included Scattergories, Carcassonne, puzzles, Catch Phrase, and Imaginiff.

Decorating for Christmas
My sweet parents had the house decorated so beautifully when we arrived, but they saved the tree until we got there.  It was a lot of fun to be able to decorate it.  After that, we went over to Memaw and Pepaw's house to decorate their tree and build the first fire for the year.  We also enjoyed driving around town and looking at the pretty lights.

Our welcome home banner

Lights in the park

Church
Robert and I had a pleasant surprise by being able to lead the Christmas Eve service with my dear friend Elise, her mom, and one of Robert's former professors.  My mom also did a beautiful solo.  On Sunday Robert was able to lead the music with an SBU friend.

About to lead the Christmas Eve service

Time with friends
We got to spend so much time with friends!  A trip to Camdenton to visit Tarah and James and see their new house, game and chatting time at Michael's, catch up time at Elise's, breakfast at Leigha's, a walk with Tiffani, Bean 3:16 with Dee Dee, dinner with the Bethells in their new house, and a sweet visit with my parents neighbor who is in his mid 90's.

The pretty welcome sign that Leigha made us while we were in town.  Check her out here.

After our time in my hometown we headed back to KC to be with Robert's family.  His family treated us very well, too. :)  We got to meet the new family dog, Moose.  He's still a puppy so he's a bit awkward, but he is very lovable.  Robert and I enjoyed chasing him around the house as well as being chased around the house.  Note to self: keep your bedroom door closed when Moose is around unless you want slobbering socks! :)

Robert has two good friends who live in KC.  We enjoyed catching up with Harrison at his parents' house, and loved catching up with Josh and hearing all about his engagement while we enjoyed breakfast together.

Serina cooked us great food and took us out to wonderful restaurants as well.  The New Years Eve spread was unbelievably impressive!  I think we had just about every appetizer you could think of.  This was also the night that we had our final Christmas celebration of the year.  Very fun!

Our flight home was rather eventful as we got seated next to a twenty-something who was drunk out of his mind, had to get up to go to the bathroom, came back and pooped his pants, kept on irritating us with incessant questions, asked why we looked so tense, and then asked Robert not to beat him up.  Nonetheless, we made it back home.  We had left our house nice and clean which was helpful, but we didn't have any groceries left.  After a trip to the store and time spent unpacking I think we are settled back in.  It's time to get back to the daily grind, but, hey, it's a 2 day week!

Happy New Year!