Christmas In Missouri

I went South for Christmas hoping for warmth. And I didn't get it, but we still made lots of fun memories. And the most important thing was we were with my family. I needed that the most. We played lots of games. The kids loved opening presents. Plenty of rough-housing in the loft with Uncle Jack and Uncle Lenny. Ate lots of great food.

Miner Mike's kept us busy for almost 5 hours Monday afternoon. Talk about a fun place, complete with an indoor roller coaster whose stop at the end of the ride is enough to jolt you to the moon and back. {I'll do a whole separate post on this tomorrow!}

We all loved our walks through the local State Park. That was my favorite activity; just being out in nature, with family, hiking through the woods, along the lake, up across an open prairie on a ridge. Really beautiful State Park. {Oh, and what's with the serious face on Lenny in the previous pic and Jack in the before that? They're too cool for their own good.} We celebrated Dad's birthday with a bit of improvisation ... markers for candles. It was just good to be with my family.
People that know me. Family jokes. Family sillyness. At one point I was across the room and I saw my mom take out a huge chunk of ice (like 15 ice cubes stuck together huge) and put it on the top of her glass and then she turned to Jack and innocently said, "I just need one ice cube." And she giggled and I giggled across the room. We just like to be silly and I miss that in my every-day life. Perhaps I shall resolve to be more silly each day, even with my mom 500 miles away. Perhaps I shall drive my kids insane with silliness and maybe they'll start getting along better. A mom can only hope. The time always goes to quickly and every single time, as we're driving away I think to myself, "Wait, I didn't ask Lenny about this. Or, I wonder about this." It seems that with 6 kids under 8 I get side-tracked and don't ever get all my questions asked. And as busy as it is with 6 little ones, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love our family. I love our times together. I miss them already. Lenny et al drove back to Dallas today. We drove to Chicago. Mom and Dad started their whirlwind southern tour visiting all sorts of relatives, returning to Canada in a week. Rock Lake {our annual trip to Northern Ontario} in August is a long way away and I do wish we lived closer to do day-to-day life with them. Makes me sad really, and I think the whole trip home today I was feeling rather sorry for myself. And just a hint of crankiness, too.