Scattered Thoughts . . .

L ukey and Kenzie have been dying for a long distance trip on Amtrak for many years.  Last Christmas, we were booked to take Amtrak to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie but our train was cancelled as we were waiting for it to arrive in Waterbury.  It was cancelled due to flooding here in Vermont and, at the last minute, we decided to drive down to Manhattan instead.  That means Lukey and Kenzie missed out on a huge part of last Christmas' surprise trip.  They were sorely disappointed but we still had a great time in Manhattan at Christmastime.  That train cancellation really put a big damper on the trip though which we were reminded of constantly during the long 12 hours in the car instead. With Lukey and Kenzie's cancelled Amtrak trip in mind, Sheila and I started planning another trip for this summer way back in November.  We've had to cancel a trip to Dayton and the US Air Force Museum at least twice in the past ten years so we're long overdue for a trip t...

Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend when we were celebrating Christmas (this year we celebrated the weekend after Christmas).  While she was here, I made a nice breakfast. I made French Toast with thick sliced Challah bread...  it was delicious!  The Challah bread is hard to come by in our area but we got lucky and found some before Kenzie arrived.  I grab some whenever we do see it especially for making French toast... And, some Harrington's thick sliced bacon...   We enjoyed breakfast very much!

T his morning, I wrote about Lukey's Christmas gift from Gee and Papa.  I wrote about his gift separately because there was an interesting story pertaining to how he got his gift.  The rest of the grandchildren opened their gifts just like everyone else around the world...   tearing off wrapping paper like a monkey on a cupcake! Tonight, I'll share some photos of the rest of the grandchildren opening some of their Christmas gifts. Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend so she opened one of her gifts on the previous day.  We gave her two pairs of boots...  one for everyday playing in the snow and a nice pair of boots for special occasions.  We figured she would want to wear the nice pair of boots for our night out so we had her open that one gift on the previous afternoon.  Then...  she had to wait patiently for the rest of the grandchildren to arrive before she could open the rest of her gifts. Sophie was in a very happy, festive, and playful ...