KC Christmastime

So it is now officially the Christmas season in Kansas City! I love this time of year and we started it off with Adam's friend Ted's birthday. Dinner was great and while studying for exams it is always a relief to have someone else cook! Happy Birthday Ted and I guess Josh can give you a Birthday kiss?! We spent one Saturday at Union Station looking at Christmas lights and visiting a Chocolate exhibit! I really like chocolate and it was interesting to learn more about it!

This was Adam's favorite tree, the blue one to the left. I liked the one with red bows below and the giant wreath above. There was an enormous toy train station with a ton of kids watching the trains go by.

Later that night we went to the Reno annual bake off. Well there is no competition but they made 12 different types of cookies and Adam and I benefited from the influx of sugar! Susie and Joy did most of the cooking with Fran to help. I think Adam and I rolled a few cookies and opened some packages but mostly just watched and chatted and then did some Christmas shopping. It is fun to go shopping with Adam because he actually likes going!
So Christmastime would not be complete without a trip to see the crazy house with over 15o inflatable penguins. I do not envy their electric bill but totally worth the trip! Adam and Molly were with us but opted not to get out of the car. I think it was only 14 degrees that day so we spend most of our time looking a Christmas lights from the car! So a lot changes in a year. A year ago Molly and Adam wanted to have a baby, now they are having twins. A year ago I met Adam and we are together today. I am so thankful that God brought us together - Adam from Hershey PA/Ithaca NY/Chicago IL and me from Nashville/SF/Bangladesh/KC. It has been a blessing to have Adam to share the last year of my life with and look forward to this new year that we have together - so this is to last year....And to the year to come! Merry Christmas to all and may we remember that the reason we do have hope is because Jesus came to be with us and knows us by name.

Thanksgiving and before

The next few weeks consisted of a lot of studying and some good times with friends! We went to a 40th Birthday party which means now have friends who are 40.....one day we will be 40, although not too soon;-)

Fall in Kansas City also means lots and lots of leaves at my house! I have 11 trees in my little yard but two of us working this year it went quickly and was fun! Adam became quite proficient with the leaf eliminator!


Another week brought another concert of Adam's which was excellent and another great exposure to classical music for me! Our friends John and Katie came along and then we went out afterwords for John's birthday and ate 3 ridiculously large pieces of pie - they were delicious!!! And then it was off to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, it was a mixture of Thanksgiving and Christmas because we are going to Bangladesh to see my family for Christmas. It was a great trip and fun to be with Adam's family again. Adam's grandmother and Uncle came for Thanksgiving and then we put up the tree.
We sat around and opened presents and had a great time laughing. Adam's brother Rob is a chef and he had a real delicacy for Adam for Christmas....hot dogs of course! They both love food from Chicago and Rob had ordered a 9 piece set to make the real Chicago hot dog complete with really green relish! It was a fun gift and one that everyone enjoyed - well I haven't started eating hot dogs but enjoyed looking at everything in the kit! The next day Rob had to return to Philly to work but the rest of us headed to the Hershey museum and took some pictures that would never have been taken otherwise - all of us as kids who would have gone to Milton Hershey's school or maybe worked in the chocolate factory. There is a lot of history in that town and Milton really was a philanthropist. His school continues to help out 100's of kids in need. Not anything you see in the Reese's commercials! (http://www.mhs-pa.org/) if your interested in finding out more!

Tea anyone?
Saturday my Aunt Linda, Uncle Merritt and Cousin Amanda came it to hang out and meet Adam. We ate lunch and had some really yummy chocolate drinks. It had been too long since we had all been together! That night we went to Sweet lights which was a gigantic production of light put on by Chocolate World that you could drive through and listen to Christmas music. We loved looking at all the different creations they had come up with! Then it was back to Kansas City where Adam surprised me with tickets to see the Swell Season who are the artists from the movie ONCE who I absolutely love!! What a great surprise and a really fun way to end the trip! Thanks ATS!!

The Next Weeks

Over the next few weeks the Fall season came to Kansas City and the leaves changed on the trees to some beautiful colors!
Adam and I tried our hand at cooking some delicious fall type foods. Below is Kima which was a favorite at the Schroeder (my) household growing up. It looks a bit sketchy in the picture but was as good as I remembered and healthy with soy meat. Adam has started to request it:-)
The happy Kima eaters - Thanks mom for the recipe!
The next attempt was by Adam which he got off his iPhone app (aren't we so trendy;-) and it too was scrumtous -Garlic Shrimp with Polenta. We had never really tried polenta but it was a good cool weather food and Adam did a great job cooking; I got to stay out of the kitchen!
Happy polenta and shrimp eaters!
Besides that Adam and I primarily eat out....It has been more difficult with this semesters schedule to just sit down together so we instituted a Tuesday night date near KU so that after work we could meet and just sit before Adam headed to Orchestra practice (he plays violin for the KC civic orchestra and is on their intro to KCCO video - http://kccivic.org/) We ate at some incredible Asian restaurants and they made great carrot flowers - what more could you ask for! Our favorite so far has been Blue Koi; if you come to KC let us take you to dinner!

The Orchid and Family

For Adam's Birthday present I bought an orchid. Adam loves orchids and I have learned that I do too. Garmin is about 6 minutes away from my house so if I am not working a 12 hour shift then Adam will meet me at my house for dinner. For that reason the orchid continues to live on my dinning room table which I am quite happy for. It has been blooming for almost a month now and we are enjoying the colors!
I had the privileged of taking Ruthie (there are not many of us Ruthies in this generation) to get here nose pierced. She is under 18 so her mom came with us to sign all of the papers. They were very professional and almost intense about checking that she really had her mom and it was not just a pretend mom by photocopying the licenses and having them sign a bunch of papers but the end result was a nose piercing and I thought it looked so cute.
On the lines of cute my niece Brenley just turned 5 and we were able to watch her cheer one Friday night. I was glad that the allowed the girls to wear coats as it was cold out! The next afternoon we saw these clouds in Overland Park. We wondered what made them look like waves but it reminded me of the ocean so I loved it!
Adam played the other night at a benefit for Angel tree. There are a few guys that have formed a band of sorts and Adam has played with them several times in coffee shops and such. It was another chilly night to be playing outside but was really an enjoyable show!Adam's brother Rob came in town and this is the only picture I have but it sure was good piazza. Rob is a chef and Adam is slightly obsessed with hot dogs so they made hot dogs and Italian sausage from scratch. Adam's apartment stills smells a little like meat;-)
Below you can see the shoe throwing-away documented. Adam had worn holes in the bottom of his shoes and his Mom was able to convince him that it was time for them to go!
Adam's parents were in town last weekend and I may be able to post more pictures but here is the one that I have from Adam's Symphony concert. We heard the KC symphony play on Friday and then the next night Adam played with the civic orchestra he is a part of. It was a weekend of music! School continues to plug right along. This is the busiest semester by far! We are traveling up on Pennsylvania to see Adam's family for Thanksgiving and then to Bangladesh for Christmas to see mine. I can't wait.....More about that trip later!