Hill Country Kupers: Christmas in Missouri

We spent Christmas this year with my family in Missouri. We weren't there for our usual week-long stay, but we made the most of every minute and really had a wonderful time.

When we landed in Kansas City, we were welcomed with a light snow. It was the only snow we saw while we were there, but it was fun to remind Trip about it and to show Anna Kate for the first time. On one of the shows Trip watches, the main character must live somewhere north because he plays in the snow a lot. Which means Trip talks about the snow, even though I'm not sure he knows exactly what it is.

The eve of Christmas Eve we made our way to Murry's, our family's favorite spot to eat in Columbia. We were there fairly early, and there was still a line out the door. Thankfully, the kids were patient and we were able to thoroughly enjoy the blue chips cheese bread, fried green pepper rings tossed in powdered sugar, and tuna pesto sandwiches ... mmmmmmmm ....

Trip spent almost the entire dinner playing with a glass of water and a lemon! I'm not complaining, but it did make me think about all the money spent on fancy Christmas presents he was soon to open. Should have bought the boy a lemon.

Anna Kate and Aunt Anna

Whitney wasn't able to join us until later that night, so here is a sisters picture minus one.

Trip and his dad. Just plain cute :)

On Christmas Eve we got all gussied up and went to church before dinner. This is one of the only pictures I have of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Anna Kate looked like a little doll, and Trip was making a goofy face in 9 out of the 10 pictures.

This was our group this year. We were sad not to have Trett, who is in China working for a year, and Matt who is working out in California. Maybe next year we will get the entire gang together. This picture just does not seem full enough!

Trip with his Uncle Tim-Bo, preparing to be Santa and hand out one present for each person to open on Christmas Eve.

He took this task very seriously. He was much more interested in handing people their presents than opening his own.

Trip was most excited about his Cappy's present. We gave him a guitar signed by all of his kids and grand kids (he was gracious, but very confused) followed by a guitar signed by Jimmy Buffet. We just wanted to make sure he knew who the real famous people were in his life. Trip played the guitar as often as possible for the next two days. When we got back to Texas, J's mom, Cupcake, came to visit and gave Trip his very own kid-sized guitar! I will post more on that later.

Oh ... what to say here without crying. Trip had so much fun playing with his Aunt Anna. He followed her around insisting that she hold him most of the time they were together. These two have a special bond after Anna lived with us from the time Trip was about one to one and a half. It just doesn't seem like enough to say how much they love each other.

Christmas morning was not exactly as I thought it would be. Trip slept with his Aunt Anna, and Anna Kate slept in. This meant that J and I got to sleep in! Merry Christmas to us! When we finally got up, everyone else had been waiting and we were all hungry. So, instead of going straight to presents, we ate breakfast and took our time. I imagine this is the last year we will be able to get away with that!