KC, CoMo, and NYE

Hello!

Well, we all made it to school on time yesterday. Again, the schedule and routine will be good for us, but re-entry is always difficult!

Last week, I shared a Christmas recap, and today I’m sharing about out of town Christmas and the second half of break.

The four of us celebrated Christmas the morning of the 23rd.

We also woke up to additional snow and negative wind chill temps. We enjoyed our morning at home and then prepared to go out of town. Trav’s family always celebrates on the 23rd, and then we were headed to KC on the 24th. Honestly, we kept hearing about the road conditions, some parts of the highway shut down, and more. It takes quite the effort to pack up the car with luggage and gifts, but once we did so that afternoon, we decided to attempt the drive to Louisville. Let’s just say that I was outvoted. Slow and steady was the name of the game. What normally takes 1 hour 15 minutes took over 3.5 hours. Honestly, we didn’t have an issues, but we saw cars on the side of the road, came to a standstill a few times, and more. I was relieved to get to Trav’s mom’s house.

We enjoyed our evening with them…always good food, games, presents, and dessert. We woke up on the 24th, dropped off Homer (He was staying in Louisville), packed up the car, and hit the road to KC. Once we crossed into Indiana, there were no travel issues.

Once we got to KC, we unloaded the car, showered, changed, and got ready to go to my dad’s cousin’s house. I always “joke” that we drive eight hours west to then drive about thirty minutes more because he lives in Kansas. Some of my extended family I only see once (maybe twice) a year. It’s always fun to catch up, there’s great food, some exchange gifts, and play a few games. It usually is a late night after a long day of driving.

Christmas morning, we opened gifts at my mom’s and then went to my dad’s. KC was expected to get some freezing rain/snow Christmas evening, so we went to my Gma’s for dinner, but it was a little earlier that normal. We opened gifts, ate dinner, and then played some Bingo. My kids don’t always want to play games when we are at home, but they always do when we are in KC.

Then, we were in KC for two more days. Honestly, we didn’t do much which was nice. One night, I actually got 11 hours of sleep. I was beat. I always wish we did more, and some years we go to Union Station, the Plaza, or ice skate, but we didn’t do much because the weather continued to be so cold.

Hadley made crepes one morning, and then my aunt and Gma came over to carry on the waffle cookie tradition. We use the waffle iron that we think is at least 150 years old. It was brought over from Germany by my great great grandfather in 1898.

The kids are really good at making these.

Hayden and my mom completed a puzzle one afternoon, and the kids played Scattegories, Jr. with my mom too.

We usually drive home after four days in KC. The kids didn’t know it, but we planned on stopping in Columbia, Mo. (literally right off the highway on the way home) because my Tigers were playing the Kentucky Wildcats. Since Columbia is only 1.5 hours away from KC, and it was a 6:00 game, that meant that we had a bit extra time in KC. We had a slow morning, went and visited my Gma again, packed up the car, had lunch with my mom, stopped by to see my dad and then hit the road to CoMo.

Once we pulled into town, we told the kids why we were there, and they both were excited. We found a parking spot right by the quad, and went to see the columns and Jesse Hall. We stop through CoMo every few years, so while this wasn’t the kids first visit to Columbia, they probably don’t remember much of the last time they were there.

The weather was beautiful that afternoon. A lady offered to take our photo, and I was clearly outnumbered in the black/gold to my three in blue.

Travis and I met in Columbia. He worked for Mizzou’s athletic department as did I my senior year. For many reasons, I love Columbia, but meeting him was a wonderful twist of fate.

We walked around a bit before heading to get some food.

Unfortunately, two of my favorite places were packed, so we stopped for nachos and a drink before heading to the game.

After dominating against a ranked Illinois team the week before, Mizzou Arena was sold out! I hadn’t been to this arena in years, and it was all of our first time attending a game there.

All I was asking for was a competitive game…

…and it was even better than I’d hoped with a *dominating* win for my team.

I joke that my family should be thankful that I’m such a gracious winner!

After the game, we drove on to St. Louis to spend the night. We finished up the rest of the drive to Kentucky the next morning.

NYE

I’m not a big NYE person, but some of our friends host a progressive dinner. The friends’ houses are close together and in our neighborhood, and they’ve been kind enough to include us the past couple of years.

One house has apps, then another house has salads, then the main meal, a dessert house, and ringing in the new year house.

Another friend and I helped at the main course house. We had beef tenderloin, Brussel sprouts, and I made potato casserole.

The set up was so pretty.

The kids were in and out of all of the houses, and Hadley snapped a group pic for us.

Like I shared yesterday, we also drew three words as our “words of the year.”

These were mine:

It was a great night.

As an addition to yesterday’s post and my interest in Enneagrams, @ashton.creates had Enneagrams for the new year…

5…

• Night in
• Traditional food
• Bed by nine
• To do lists
• Reflecting
• Netflix

6…

• Sparklers
• Small gathering
• Sparkling cider
• Midnight
• Goals
• Dreaming

Most of these are pretty on brand for me I would say.

What are your typical NYE plans? January 1 sure hits different when I have to go to school on the 2nd!

Thanks so much for reading,