Trans Siberian Orchestra

One of our family Christmas presents this year were tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. We kept the secret for 2 whole months only to have someone outside of our home say something that gave it away. :( While it was frustrating to have the initial excitement of the event taken from us we still had a fantastic time and once again LOVED sharing in that once in a lifetime memory. Lucas was the only one who had no idea where we were going even while we were on our way and for the other two, the excitement kept building as we got closer and closer.

Our show was at the Sprint center. Did you know they have a Quick Trip there?

We took Grandma for her Christmas gift and Grandma brought Uncle Billy. It was a family affair!

Once the show started we were mesmerized. The light show was awesome! The music was rockin' and the kids were in awe. I took a ton of photos because the lasers were just so amazing. I won't comment on every photo but I think you get the picture. :) It was a great Christmas show and the kids want to see it again next year. It was phenomenal!!

The musicians were outstanding. LOVED the piano players and the Violin player!

Can you see the 3 pronged cat walk? That lifted up high in the air while people danced and played their instruments on it.

The fire breathing dragons were so cool.

What an amazing show! If you ever get the chance to go see them, we highly recommend it. It was a great family memory!

World War I Museum Tour

We finally had a chance to go to the World War 1 Museum in downtown Kansas City, to see the prints of our two photo contest winners. You may remember (because I bragged about it so much :-) ) that Autumn won 1st place and Lucas got 2nd in the youth division. They won some fabulous prizes and as part of our Christmas break we were treated to lunch, a tour, a trip to the top of the memorial tower and Autumn got to spend $50 in the bookstore. It was a great afternoon!

Here are the winners next to their photos. How exciting!

We ate a delicious lunch in their cafe.

 

We went to the top of the tower and FROZE. It was soo windy up there that I had to show you the 2 photos that we got. This is the best of the two and you can tell it's a little windy....

But look at this one. Look at Lucas' hair! It was sooooo windy and cold!

I stayed up there long enough to get a few good shots of downtown. You can actually see our old loft to the left of downtown.

The elevator doesn't go all the way to the top...so we got to climb our way up and back down...

Too cute...

This is part of the bunker that is set up on one side of the museum. It is Lucas' favorite exhibit.

They have some great pieces in this museum.

I realize that I am really drawn to photos, images, typography and visual things. Could be why I have a BFA in Visual Communications and am now a Director of Marketing. :) But I LOVED the war propaganda posters.

Remember this one?

The visual time lines were amazing!

This was a great visual for how WW1 started.

This was Autumn's favorite. A Naval mine from April 17, 1917 that use to contain 300 lbs of TNT.

Here are the 2 winners with their bookstore goodies.

It was a great afternoon and because Autumn won a year pass, we will be back for sure. What a great museum! Congrats to our two photo winners!

Christmas Day Celebration

We had a great Christmas break this year but it's hard to believe the Holidays went so fast. We didn't get snow this year either so that really made it weird...in fact we are supposed to hit 58 this week and it's feeling rather balmy. The kids were home the 16th-26th with the exception of one night and we really enjoyed the extended time. I took 3 extra days of vacation because I had lots of fun things planned with the kids but I woke up sick on Wed. and felt horrible until Christmas eve. :( The kids spent their break PLAYING all sorts of games 24 hours a day and I managed to get done a few of the things I had planned with them. It turned out to be a great Christmas break with lots of rest for the adults. :) yay!

We got a new tree this year and I just LOVE it. Our old one was given to me in 02 and it was probably 13 years old and ready to retire...the new one comes in 3 pieces (yay!) and was just beautiful. I think this was my favorite tree ever! The papers in the tree are the letters to Santa. Once the letters are penned they stay there until Christmas Eve when Santa picks them up...you can never check that naughty list too many times, right?

The puppies were in HEAVEN with their kids home for so long. They both got some major lovin' and Aslan even found himself a new bed. He hops right up and is asleep within minutes. He even gets a pillow!

This is how they would sleep...

We really did make a snowman with our fall leaves...it was too weird not having any snow!

Isn't he cute? With a great big smile too!

He was ready just in time for Christmas Eve!

I had big plans to bake again this year but I was soo sick Thur that we put it off till Friday and then only did a fraction of what was planned. BUT, what we made was delicious!

Lucas helped me make our annual Christmas Puppy Chow. YUM!

And when we were getting ready to bake I asked Noah if he was going to help and he said, YES! He had such a great attitude about helping (and participating in family things) that I told him he could invite his girlfriend. I realize that the secret to getting a teenager to cooperate is having their boy/girlfriend come over for any family activities but I decided I wanted to reward him first for his great attitude. And Hadlee was a big help in the kitchen. They made quite a few cookies before moving on to ornaments. Aren't they crafty? :)

We let them open up one gift on Christmas eve before they got ready for bed...

I love this because Aslan was soo interested in the gift. Cute!

Lucas took care of Santa's cookies and eggnog...

We must think a lot of Santa because Lucas gave him EGGNOG!

These two are inseparable and Lady Bug was in heaven while he was home so much!

We did a special version of Confessions on Christmas Eve. Every silly question pertained to Christmas. The kids always ask for Confession time but I am seriously out of questions! I need to work on that!

On Christmas morning I was awake at 5 am (still not feeling well) and I was so afraid I would wake up Lucas who would get our Christmas morning started way earlier than I had planned. :) I managed to go back to sleep and Lucas woke us up by 8. We opened our stockings first, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then started opening our gifts. It was a super relaxed morning!

Grandma stayed with us for a few days before and after Christmas. It was nice to have her home to celebrate with us.

This gift was from Grandma...and was very heavy...

What could it be?

Is that gold?

"The greatest gift ever!" Lucas exclaimed as he found Grandma's gold ware. This was his favorite kitchen thing at Grandma's house and now it is his. We used it for our Christmas dinner and he loved it! Thanks Grandma!

Buggy got a Christmas sweater.

Which took her a while to get used to. She didn't like the hat though. :)

Aslan got a tug of war rope that he quickly got the hang of.

Such a sweet girl. So thankful she was finally able to spend Christmas day with her dad (and us)...for the first time in 14 years!

Hmmm....looks like someone has a muffin top...

The kids got some cool musical instruments from Aunt Claudine.

 

Santa left his cool bag again this year and the kids were pretty happy about what was inside...

Santa is a little slow in Christmas fads at our house...

But he finally came thru with a PS3 and 4 games...

For our Christmas day dessert Scott made a delicious Key Lime pie. Yum!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas surrounded by those you love!