What a busy Holiday Season!

Brian, Mason and I started our journey to Kansas in a most unusual fashion this time around! Instead of driving in rush-hour traffic in Atlanta, Brian had the brilliant idea of taking the MARTA (for all of you non-Atlantans, that is an acronym for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority – whew!) Boy do I miss the public transportation of Chicago!

Although carrying our baggage to the station was cumbersome, it was well worth the effort to sit back and let someone else do the driving to the airport. The other advantage to riding the train was the $3 a day we saved on parking! What a smart husband I have!

After getting to the airport safe and sound and traffic-stress free, we walked to the Delta kiosk to check in and to my surprise Al Roker, the weatherman for the Today Show, was standing directly in front of us! Oddly enough, he was the first celebrity that I have spotted while out and about in Atlanta.

Getting through airport security is no small potatoes these days and it went surprisingly quickly considering what time of year we were flying. As we were waiting to board our flight, an announcement came over the loud speakers that our flight was overbooked by 15 people. WOW! Since we weren't in a time crunch, Brian and I decided to volunteer to take a bump from our flight and take the $400 per ticket in airline vouchers and run! We were also put up in a hotel that was close to the airport and got free breakfast courtesy of Delta.

We finally arrived in Kansas City at about 1:00 p.m. on December 23. Thankfully my mother lives close to the airport and she was anxiously awaiting to give us all endless hugs and kisses like all moms do. The following day, she prepared a wonderful standing rib roast dinner with all the trimmings. Yum! After we were sufficiently miserable from overeating, Michael, Sam and Mason, opened their gifts. Michael and Sam scored mp3 players and Mason got a Leapster! Toys for kids these days are so cool.

Relaxing with my mom was great, but it was time to head on to the Fleske home in Larned, KS. Larned, for those of you who are Kansas geography challenged, is almost 5 hours from Kansas City. Mason was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa that he was about to jump out of his skin! He did manage to take a short nap on the way, though.

Now, Christmas at the Fleske household is not just a one-day ordeal. There are many many relatives to visit in a short amount of time and so Brian's Aunt Karen hosts Christmas dinner for anyone who can make it. Even after over 30 inches of snow, Brad and Kristen managed to make it in from Denver, and they brought their little boy, Logan, of whom we had not met yet.

On the 26th, Mark, Elizabeth and their three daughters joined us at Bill and Janet's. They have Madison, 4, and Brooklyn and Jordan, both 2. Luckily, Mason and Madison are best buddies when they are together. They all had a lot of fun unwrapping their packages. I was very proud of Bill and Janet for finding "flat" things that would be able to make the trip back to Georgia.



After celebrating Grandpa Steffen's 80th birthday and Christmas at the Steffen house, it was back to Kansas City to catch a flight out on the 31st. Mason does well at following directions, especially when mom and dad's hands are full of baggage, and followed us through the airport incident-free. He even took a nap on the flight home! What an ending to a wonderful holiday visit! Happy 2007!!!