Bon Voyage!

The day has finally arrived. We're flying to Vietnam!

Bags are packed

Animals are guarding the house. Will they behave?

Neighbors

Last holiday celebration with our next-door neighbors before our big trip.

Enjoying Papa's home made cookies and some cherry

Merry Christmas, Ed & Marilyn!

Band

Snow day meant band concert rescheduled. Middle schoolers had a great winter concert.

Here comes the trombone section

Sounding really good

Bravo!

Festive piece for the holidays!

Recital

Our piano teacher retired. Here is the new teacher with an informal recital announced a couple of days ahead of time.

Bredele

Mamy made Alsatian Christmas cookies called bredele. The mailman knocked at the door today to deliver them. For once, the package had a strange tape around it...

Apparently US Customs was curious about the metal box...

No funky business there. Just bredele. Merci Mamy !

Yum! Mamy makes the best bredele!
I want to learn how to make them sometime,
as I eat them faster than Mamy can bake...

la boite qui a tranversé l'Alantique
plusieurs fois déjà

delicious

Snow

Winter is coming. It snowed all day on Sunday and Alex got his wish: no school on Monday!

Pretty snow makes a great workout, right Papa?!?

From our cozy dining room: Oma's Christmas decorations

Snow day means snowman/monster

Xmas Program

Snow is on its way! Let's get the church Christmas program going before the city gets covered in white.

handing out Christmas cookies to Sunday school teachers

Worship Arts Choir: Sophie likes to hide

"O Come, Little Children"

"Ring, ring, ring the Bells"

Jr & Sr High Youth interpreting the Christmas story.
Alex is a shepherd this year.

Early Christmas

We won't be home for Christmas this year. When the kids found out we would be out of the country, they wanted to make sure that the presents be delivered before we left. So Saturday night is when the Christmas celebration happened at our house.

So impatiently waiting for Christmas

Alex reading the story

a few decorations

new backpack!

nail stamps and Lego set!

Alex really really really wanted a phone this year.
So far, he's got the box. We'll see if the rest will come next year.

Quiz time

Look at my new bike!

Grateful for a few presents knowing that the upcoming trip
will be an even greater gift than they imagined.

Thank you everyone! Merry Christmas!

Winterfest

We enjoyed a relatively warm night at Winterfest. Last rides at Word's of Fun.

Lights everywhere.
Can you say Christmas is coming?

Tis the season: pretty decorations

Watching carolers

Last ride of the year

Alex is turning into a teenager and is harder
to take pictures of... Got you, there!

I wonder what Santa has for me this year?!?

Gingerbread House

Sophie enjoyed making her gingerbread house with Sara this year. Ask her why there are so few candies decorating the roof and wall...

Working hard on decorating the house eating candy

Happy holidays!

Concert

To kick off the holiday season, how about a concert at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts? So happy to share this experience with friends.

Being silly with BFF Lilly at Papa Keno's

Ready to hear the KC Symphony

We're pretty close to the percussionists. How cool!

Great view

Baby John enjoying his first concert with sister Layla

Thanksgiving

We had a great time spending a couple of days with family to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thank you Mark & Alice for hosting us!

backyard fun

Leaves, here I come!

Alex can twirl and get his glasses back on!

FaceTime with the Oregon family

cuddle time

Ticket to Ride, anyone?

Riding trains made us sleepy. John is pretty comfy...

Ready to watch the Cornhuskers play? Bring it on!

While the boys are watching college football,
the girls are out drinking kombusha!

Library

Johnson County opened up a brand new library branch in Olathe. Let's go check it out!

fire place, coffee shop, bubble wall, teenager game room, oh my

learning all about encyclopedia
(before we knew how to google stuff)

very cool space for big and small