Cook's In Kansas: December 2006

Well we are now in our home state! We arrived in Arnold after a rainy white knuckled drive on Wednesday. (I don't think my knuckles were white. -Laurie) After a restless night spent by Laurie, Kevin and Marsha, we went shopping yesterday for things that were left on our list. We discovered a very cool shop that sells fair trade artisan items. It might be our new favorite place to shop. Laurie's mom, Shirleen got out of school for break yesterday, so this morning we all had a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes. They were yum-yum! We returned to our shopping today and are all most done! Audrey has failed to take significant naps the last few days, so you can imagine her state at this point. Hopefully, by tomorrow when her cousins arrive she will be in a meeting mood!

Last night Laurie and I hosted the team I work with at our house for a holiday party and meal. We had a great time. One of the grads got us all Chinese yo-yos. You can see everyone had a great time with them. Audrey really got into it.

Craig one of my grads was dared by the other two to shave his goatee until it looked like a fumanchu. As you can see it made him look really creepy. Of course that weird look on his face doesn't help.

Audrey and the yo-yo

Craig, Kelly and Nick playing with the yo-yos

Kelly, Linda, Audrey and Craig

Creepy Craig

Audrey helping me put the star on our Christmas tree

Marsha helps with the tree trimming

I know this is a little late, but I thought I would tell you about our trip home for Thanksgiving. We traveled with Marsha for the first time. She was very good. In fact on the way back to Kansas she was better behaved than Audrey.

While at in Missouri, we visited with many of Laurie's relatives. Her cousins who grew up in New York were all there with their respective significant others and some with thier dogs. It was quite an adventure at Grandma Stahl's. Laurie, her mom, Aunt Karen and Grandma all worked on a coat for Marsha, too while we were home. Laurie's brother Bill was in town from Nashville, too.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving we did brave the stores, but did not get up super early. Bill went along and we had a pretty good time. We were able to get all the things we went for without the early rising.

In Malden, we visited with my Papaw Cook for the typical country breakfast. We celebrated my Provance grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. We also ate a lot. Marsha got the chance to run in the church ball field. She really got up a lot of speed. Now we know why at one time she was a $10,000 dog.