a little Rapid Christmas

We did something different for Christmas this year. We visited my husband's side of the family in their relatively new location of Rapid City. We left for the airport a little before nine in the morning. Little Blondie was thrilled! {Read the following line to the tune of Jingle Bells, please ...} Oh, what fun it is to ride ... in an air-plane ... on Christ-mas day-ay ... Daddy was a little less thrilled about flying and security and being stripped of our rights -- but he's a good sport :) These two were highly excited as well ... And we were pretty tired ... but happy :) After our safe arrival and unloading a host of bags and belongings ... the kids immediately ventured down to the creek in search of adventure ... and ducks. So ... I ventured down too ... to take some pictures :) Feeding the ducks. See them??? I don't know how Halo got this apron on so fast ... I don't think she wore it on the airplane ... she's an apron kind of gal :)
Daddy just fished this kid out of the creek ... Smile :) Yes, this is not our usual Christmas ... that's Buddy in his stocking feet and shorts ... in the snow ... He just scared all of the ducks away ... Time to warm up in the hot tub! Here you can see some of their "view" ... and a couple of neighboring homes ... and how close their deck is positioned to the creek ... Me and Little Guy :) A little while later, the aunt and the uncle {that would be Jeff's only sibling} and the cousin {little boy on the right} arrived :) If you notice the cousin's shirt ... you will deduce -- correctly -- that there will be TWO cousins by next Christmas! Little Button-Pusher hardly ate any lunch or supper. He was too busy pushing buttons on all of Grandma's many ornaments/toys/decorations ... Oooh ... more buttons!!! Not only was he too busy to bother with eating ... but he was also too busy to look over at the camera. Needless to say ... he was pretty hungry by 5:30 the following morning. While we were still in bed, Little Button-Pusher woke me up and said, "Mommy, do you have any food in your pocket??? For me???" I told him I didn't have any. "I don't ever want to be here again," he replied. That's Grandma -- of course -- and Buddy ... and I think some important business was going on here ...