Christmas is best in the Midwest...

We were fortunate enough this year to head to the midwest for Christmas. We were able to see LOTS of family and friends. It was great to see everyone since we have moved so far away, and enjoy hugs, laughs, fellowship, and love!  Here is a little breakdown of how we spent our Christmas....

Our Christmas adventures started in Southwest KS...

We celebrated December birthdays - Eliana, Myself, my brother Jake, and brother in-law Josh...

There was snow to play in and made for a beautiful white Christmas.

We had a lot of good family time!



We made gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve, one of my favorite Christmas traditions...

The kids were excited for "santa"

And "santa" delivered ;)



It was a great time in SW KS and we miss everyone there already!



Our next stop was to see our friends the Hodson's..

It was great to see them and catch up.

From there we headed to central KS with Todd's mom to see his cousins, and aunts and uncles. I always love getting together with their large family. Their is something about a busy house full of noise that warms my heart. But for some reason I didn't get any pics at this stop (oops)... We were only there a few hours and then on the Todd's parents house for some celebration.

Grandma and Grandpa's house was full of baking cookies, playing, long walks, fun games, and laughter! Another great stop on our Christmas "tour"!

Next we headed to Nana's house...

As always Nana spoiled us! We were able to spend good family time and I got to celebrate my birthday with my mom and brother and sister with a full day of shopping, family fun, and ending at my favorite place the Cheesecake factory!

The same night as my birthday we drove to CaliMo to see our friends and catch up...

These girls made my birthday night so great, full of laughs and great time of catching up on their lives!!!

The day before we headed home we were able to meet up with friends at good ole Pizza Hut to see everyone (well most everyone ;) it reminded us that even though we are far away we truly cherish our friendships in CaliMo and plan to protect them through the years!

Lastly we drove to KC where we met with Todd's aunt and uncle and cousin Graham for dinner and a little sleep before we flew out early the next morning. They loved us up on the end of our journey and made our send off easy and enjoyable!

And WHEW.... that made me tired just putting it all together into one blog post!  I must say that the kids were amazing on this trip, they traveled well, adapted well, and only had a few melt downs! Considering the craziness I'll take it! And as each year passes this year was no different, the Christmas season left me overwhelmed with Joy for my family, Joy for the life God has blessed me with , and Joy for a God that loves me more than I can understand!!!

Thank you for reading this long post and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn