Christmas

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Wow, we have quite a bit to write about over the past two weeks.  Last week, we were eagerly awaiting our forthcoming trip to Amarillo.  We spent some time wrapping up our duties at the office.  We also had a brief Christmas celebration at the house before we left for Amarillo.  Rachel's Aunt Susan and Uncle John got Kennedy a pink fleece jacket.  She liked it so much that she had to put it on right away.  It was in the seventies in the house and we were worried that she'd get too hot, but she insisted on wearing it.  Afterward, we went to look at Christmas lights.  Kennedy seemed to enjoy it.

Last Saturday, we headed to Amarillo.  Kennedy seems to get progressively less patient with the car ride from DFW.  We left around 7:00 am and she did well for the first couple of hours, but we were in for a real treat after that.  Kennedy started with typical fussing, but she eventually exploded.  She was screaming so hard and so loud that it started to hurt our ears.  We eventually got to where we just ignored it, but we were sure happy to get out of the car.

Once we made it to town, we went by Rachel's parents house to visit with the family.  Tyler, Lynsey and Brody had also arrived in town around the same time as us.  They won the prize for longest car ride since they had to drive all the way from Nebraska.  Rachel's Aunt Carol, Uncle Roger, and Aunt Barb were passing through town on their way to Santa Fe.  Brody was a real trooper.  Everyone was playing "pass the baby" and he didn't didn't seem to mind a bit.

Kennedy also enjoyed sitting in Pops' lap and browsing the web in the mornings.  She also enjoyed tinkering with the keyboard.  It is a good thing that Pops has an extra keyboard that were were able to unplug.  Later that day, we all headed over to Meme and Grandpa's house to celebrate.  The Duhon family also made it up from Austin to join us.  Kennedy spent a few moments with Pops looking through the photographs from Whitney and Nate's wedding.  Whitney spent some time chasing Kennedy throughout the house.  We probably took 40 pictures of her, but we only got one that was in focus since she was running around so much.  Kennedy also had a great time playing with Bella!  They had a game called Elefun.  It is a game where a toy elephant blows tow butterflies through its trunk and the kids get to catch them with their nets.

You'll also see a Christmas train that spells out "leon" instead of "noel."  The story goes that once upon a time, Meme put out the Christmas decorations and then Grandpa gave her a hard time when he saw that the train spelled out "leon."  It seems that every year, the train winds up spelling out "leon."  We're not sure who changed it this year, but we had to snap a photo once we saw it.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to the 4:30 pm service.  Unfortunately, the kids didn't make it through the entire service.  Kennedy was the first to go, so Jason took her out into the hallway.  Fortunately, they had the audio and video of the service running in the hallway.  Tyler had to take Brody out shortly thereafter.  Once the service let out, we headed back to the Kime household where we had beef barley soup and some of Tyler's chili.  Kennedy didn't much care for the beef barley soup, but she sure enjoyed the chili.  After the main course, we had some chocolate cheesecake.  Kennedy absolutely enjoyed eating the cheesecake.  After dinner, we exchanged gifts.

On Christmas morning, we were greeted with a white Christmas for the second year in a row.  We exchanged gifts after breakfast with Jason's family.  We had a nice time and after the gift exchange, we played the Nintendo Wii.  Nate and Whitney brought their Wii over and we got to play some.  Keith even joined in on the action.  After lunch, the Kime's came by and we got to visit.  LuAnn brought an old antique rocking toy.  Kennedy was a bit apprehensive about it at first, but she eventually warmed up to it and started having a great time.  We even got the Wii back out and played some Mario that evening.

The day after Christmas, Nate took some pictures of the Kime side of the family.  We gathered around a bridge over in their neighborhood and they turned out pretty good.

On the 27th, we had a bit of a surprise in store for Dennis.  He celebrated his 60th birthday earlier this month and we weren't able to be in Amarillo, but wanted to do something special for him.  Rachel, Tyler, Lynsey and LuAnn started planning a surprise party a couple of months back.  They invited all of his friends and we ended up having a pretty good sized crowd for dinner.  He was pretty surprised and seemed to have a good time.

In general, Kennedy has been doing some fun new things.  When prompted, she will point to different people.  This was especially fun when we were back in Amarillo.  We could say "Where is your Auntie Whitney?" and she would point to Whitney.  We'd just go around the room and she'd point at all the different family members.  Even though she can't speak their names, it sure is fun to see that she knows all of our family members.

We also had a bit of an experience at the Amarillo mall.  Nate was looking for a new coat and we were browsing around at the Gap.  As usual, Kennedy was getting pretty impatient with the experience so we were walking up and down the dressing room hallway.  We'd also go look in the three-way mirror.  This helped to keep her under control while we browsed around.  At one point, she got away from her dad and she squirted under the doorway of an occupied dressing room.  Needless to say, we were pretty embarrassed.

She is also learning her animal sounds.  She does a fantastic "moo" when asked "What does a cow say?"  She has gotten a little mixed up along the way.  Roger and Barb got Kennedy a stuffed giraffe and we were keeping it in the backseat with her while we were in Amarillo.  When we would get in and out of the car, we tried to teach her what a giraffe says.  Unfortunately, she seems to have gotten her giraffe crossed with a lion because she would say "Rahr" when prompted about what a giraffe says.  We've been trying to get her corrected, but no luck yet.

There is surely more that has happened, but these were the highlights. We really enjoyed getting to spend so much time back in Amarillo. It is also nice being back and still having a few days off.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a tremendous New Year!