Christmas at Home

      Well, I've spent the last several days in my hometown.  My flight from SFO to ICT was relatively uneventful. From SFO to DEN, I was supposed to have a window seat, but some lady took it, and then she FEEL ASLEEP! The nerve. There was all sorts of fog and whatnot over the Bay Area and I really wanted to take pictures of it, but I thought leaning over the lady and snapping my camera would be a bit of an invasion. The flight from DEN to ICT was also about an hour late because of all the storms out East. But I made it to Wichita, Ben picked me up, and we headed to Clay Center.
       The next day, Saturday, was our family Christmas. I received a cool “rainy day” painting from Grace, a pencil drawing from Natalie, some new grey Toms, and some other stuff from my parents. Ben got a box of Fruity Pebbles, because I told him that if he didn't give me any Christmas ideas for him, I'd get him a box of Fruity Pebbles. He also got some other stuff, but for awhile we tried to trick him. I'm sure he didn't fall for it.  Ben and I then took a walk outside, had a snowball fight, took some pictures.

Whoo, Christmas tree!

I made a raccoon scarf for Natalie!

      Dad also fixed up an old Singer 99 ¾ size sewing machine for me, showed me how to thread it up, and figured out how the buttonhole attachment worked. I planned to have Ben take it back to California when he drove out the next day. It'll be nice to have a sewing machine close at hand again – hand sewing takes a little longer than I'd prefer, and plus I've got a quilt top to piece!   

      Ben headed out the next day at 6am. He planned to drive to Berkeley over the next two days with his little Festiva, and he ended up making it in the next day at 10pm or so. The family headed to church, then afterwards, we went to the ice skating rink in Manhattan, since all the ponds around here were empty. The rink was super full of a bunch of little kids who didn't know how to skate. It was also really small. For someone who grew up skating on farm ponds, it wasn't as enjoyable as it could've been, but better than nothing. 

        After that, we went to see “The Hobbit,” which was just as good the second time around. Except for the part where I was so tired that I snoozed through the first 30 minutes, but I came 'round around the time they all reached Rivendell, so it was all right.  

        It snowed most of the day on Monday, which was all right with me. I'd been missing the snow and the cold (strangely enough), so I was really happy to see all the snow. Four inches worth! It was gorgeous. I walked around in it, took some pictures, and spent time with our dopey ugly/cute dog.  

The view from our front porch.

The most common view of our dog.  He likes to jump.

        Today, we took advantage of all that snow. We went sledding, tried to go cross-country skiing, and wandered around in the deep drifts up by the windbreak.

This did not end well.

When we came back, Dad and Grace made New Year's cookies while Mom made Dutch Letters, both of which are the most delicious things ever.  

        We had to take down our Christmas ornaments, since Dad's still on his crutches and Mom didn't want to have to do it herself. So then there was the usual “oh, how do we fit all these ornaments into these three boxes,” “what did we do with the ornament hooks again?” “hey, you forgot these decorations in the kitchen!” But now it's all done, and we're all hunkered down watching a movie before all of us girls head out tomorrow afternoon.

       So that means that I'll be in Newton tomorrow afternoon, arriving around four or so. So all you kids that are leaving for Interterm, look me up, ok?!