HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well,  I'd say it's a good thing my little blog isn't a money maker or I'd be broke!!!  Christmas has come and gone as have our post-Christmas visits to Dallas and Virginia Beach.  It's always nice to get back to Dallas and see, not only our kids and grandkids there, but also, this visit, we were able to meet up with our friends, Dan and Carolyn Lawson, and Mike and Susan Curry.  Not surprising, I loved spending time and catching up with them and am grateful for the friendship we share.

Before our trip to Dallas, I did a little "me" shopping at one of my favorite stores (Banana Republic) which is walkable.  When I began having hip problems and couldn't wear the heels I love, I said I would at least wear cute flats.  I haven't really done that...being in Paris threw off my shoe game since walking so much required sensible shoes (what??????!!!!!!).

Anyway, in the midst of a fabulous sale, I bought two pairs of shoes..one for now and one for springtime.  I wore the zebra flats most of the time in Dallas and VA Beach.  They were immediately comfortable and didn't require any "break in" time.  I do love that!!

These are as fun as the leopard I love!

These seem really comfortable and they look so cute with white pants-they're actually more a blush color than the beige they look in this pic

We always love visiting our kids and spending time in their homes.  It gives me a real perspective on how they live when I'm in their space instead of them in mine.  Because Courtney was in the process of moving into their new home, we spent our entire visit at Andy's, which we always enjoy.  I've forgotten the energy that exists in a home with kids in it!  However, it gives me lots of time to visit with, not only my kids and in-law kids, but the "little" boys.  I love that.  Catherine treated Courtney and me to tea at The Adolphus Hotel which was lovely.  

Between our Dallas visit and our VA Beach visit we stopped my sister's in Appleton City, MO, to sit in on her 3-month physical evaluation at the nursing facility where she resides.  After several small strokes and some smoking-induced health issues, she requires the care she receives here.  She seems happy, and I'm happy we can be more available now that we're stateside.  Anyway, we still had a few days to de-Christmas our home before heading to VA Beach (which was nice so we could come home to a clean house!).

Nikki's house is always pretty quiet,  and this year was really different since Scott deployed for six months beginning mid December.   We had a weekend to be out and about then the boys were already back in school the next week before we left.  We did lots of shopping, eating out, walked around the Botanical Gardens (without the boys) and evenings were spent watching movies, David playing games with Levi and talking.  The visiting never stops!!!!  Hard to imagine, huh!!!??????

The weather in Kansas City has been pretty mild over the holidays but last night took a turn to cold.  It was raining yesterday as we did some of our weekly shopping then we woke to a beautiful snow.  The flakes were huge most of the morning (we went to Target) then turned to what looked like white rain.  When we left for Target, not much was going on in "the hood" but it was pretty.  My grandmother, who I adored, always loved the snow.  In her latter years, she lived in a small apartment in South Lake Tahoe on the California side and saw tons of snow for long periods of time.  But she had no where to go so she could stay in her little apartment and enjoy the beauty of it.

Not much action on a Saturday morning!

Our Sunday morning small group cancelled tomorrow (which David and I think is nuts) so I think we're going to try and attend one of the satellite campuses downtown just to see what we think (it would be closer to us than the Leawood campus).  I'll keep you posted.

One last note, I haven't posted many pictures of the apartment but I will.  I'm waiting until we have our things from Paris (they were supposed to arrive in the US Jan. 7 so we're hoping to get them by the end of the month) so we can get things on the walls and finish making things ours.  We've decided not to overhaul my bathroom and do a little in there and have Container Store come in and redo the  closet in our bedroom.  It has been done poorly,  and we really need it to be more functional.  I did, however, buy a fabulous mirror for above my bathroom sink that I absolutely love.  It's vintage and we got it at Bella Patina, a store that is open only on First Fridays of the month.  It's three floors of all kinds of old, new and in between things and we're hoping to get there again in February.  Anyway, here's a pic of my mirror....

I thought I'd return to the US and get a "normal" sized bathroom-guess it's a good thing I lived in Paris for 20 months with small space...

You can also see my little chandelier in the reflection.  It's all such a process...step by step.  But we're in no hurry and I've already had some buyer's remorse about a few things so I'm trying to move slowly until I'm sure of a purchase.

We're in for the night...hope each of you is as warm and cozy as we are!!