A Slow Slide to Christmas

We had a little pre-Christmas trip that turned out to be unexpected in a couple of ways. Maybe more than a couple. We had planned to spend a night in Lindsborg, Kansas on our way to Wichita; but I hadn't considered the fact that the small Swedish town was going to be decorated for Christmas nor that it had snowed four inches the night before we got there. It was splendid with shocks of wheat tied to the lamp posts, Christmas elves on the shop facades, and the Swedish Dala horses everywhere.

He Who Must Be Obeyed surprised me with purchasing Swedish clogs for me. No, not one pair to wear home, but two more to be hand painted and shipped when completed. The Swedish immigrant shopkeeper was going to paint them, daisies on the blue, rosemallen on the red, the Friday after Thanksgiving. She is going home to Sweden for Christmas. I don't know who was happier over the purchase, she or I, and isn't it fun when that happens!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with our son and family in Wichita. Good food, good company, Christmas decorations every where one looked, it was a Thanksgiving to remember, good in every way.

The adventures never ended, either. We spent a night in Atchison, KS and had dinner at Paolucci's, an Italian Restaurant founded in the mid 1800's. Our server was Joe, a first generation descendant, who gave us a history lesson with every course. Lewis and Clark's expedition spent July 4th, 1804 in the area and celebrated the first Independance Day in the American West there. It would be fun to go back on Amelia Earhart Day.

Now that we are past the First Sunday in Advent, it is time to get serious about Christmas. No, I am not going to let the secular commercial world tarnish it for me. But I do have to make a decision about the card/letter thing. Yes or no? At this point, I don't know.