Final Holiday Post From 2006

Well, I'm pretty sure our Christmas visits weren't too different from anyone else's, aside from the seven-hour flight. Lots of fun and eating and merrymaking. I was able to see my best friend from high school and her sweet baby Ella, who was eight months old during her visit - she's almost ten months now. It's amazing to think of my childhood friends as parents, but I guess we're all getting to that stage in our lives now! We also paid a quick visit to our friends Adin and Almedin, who were the ringbearers at our wedding. They are growing up so fast - we had a great time seeing them again, as is evidenced by the serious video gaming pictured below.



In addition to seeing my family again, I was able to visit Nate's folks in Kansas City, and had the chance to see Digger the Miracle Dog. DiggerDog has been in Nate's family for quite some time - Nate has a permanent reminder of Digger in the form of a scar near his ear when Digger bit him long ago. Last Christmas, however, he was so sick we weren't sure if he would make it through our visit. In a last ditch effort to save him, Nate's parents gave Digger some kick-butt human antibiotics that somehow cured the sturdy little fella. He can't see anymore, but he's moving around just fine, and his disposition is even a little nicer than I remembered! That's good to know, because Digger will be having two temporary four-legged roommates named Bob and Josie in a few months (our cats - can't believe this blog has existed for seven months without a mention of them).

On New Years Eve we took Nate to his earthly version of heaven - probably his heavenly version of heaven too - a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. Nate and his brother should commend themselves over getting me into a pair of non-figure-flattering winter bibs - I looked like a big puffball, but was warm and cozy the entire game. And the Chiefs won too! I won't go into what happened to them later - just remember who's playing in the SuperBowl this weekend, that's all that need be said.














After the game, we headed to our old college town of Columbia, where we had a great New Years gathering with some friends. This cinderella was not ready to leave the ball when the time came for us to depart - we are just excited that at least two of our friends from that evening will be paying us a visit before we leave the Emerald Isle!

This concludes my holiday update, a month in the making - bet you're glad you waited for that!

Up and coming: We're taking a lot of short road trips with our final weekends here. Stay tuned for Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast and my farewell visit to Galway.