chris + elyse

While we were home for Christmas we got to see our wonderful Smith and St.John friends. Rusty, the McKinnon’s dog, was especially excited to have the gang back together. We had a movie night and it was just like old times (except for missing Mr. Z)!

We got to see our nephews. We saw some giant Christmas trees and Chris seemed to be carrying everyone around.

We went to the movies to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and had to get Cole’s picture as Obi-Wan fighting Darth Maul.

We spent Christmas afternoon at the Dukes house; here’s all the cousins waiting for dinner and resting after some football. Earlier in the week, Chris and I went to eat in downtown New Port Richey with the McKinnon’s at La Tropicana Del Sol. I tried to get as much Cuban food as possible while in Florida. Yum!

One night we went to Uncle Rob’s RC plane meet. Cole got to fly Uncle Rob’s plane, which took a beating at first, but Cole was pretty good by the end of the evening. Chris had some fun flying Uncle Rob’s helicopter.

The rest of us enjoyed watching all the different kinds of remote controlled aircraft in the building. There were some pretty interesting ones that ranged from tiny as a mouse to a huge one that took off like a space shuttle but then flew around like a plane. Chris and Cole enjoyed playing pool and Chris made the winning touchdown pass in the family football game.

Chris and I spent Christmas day with Kurt and Madelyn. Here they are with the Christmas tree! Rusty got to open his stocking first. Chris was a little jealous.

Chita got lots of presents for Christmas, here I am with some of them. She was so happy when we got back and gave her the gifts! Chris, Cole, and I made road signs for Mom & Dad’s Georgia hunting property.

Cole got a tea maker for Christmas and decided to carry it on the plane since it was fragile. Security in the airport didn’t like it to much and unpacked his carry-on, took the tea maker out of the box, and re-scanned it. We headed back to Kansas and miss our family and friends in Florida but were very happy to see Chita when we got back in Lawrence!