What I did on my Christmas vacation by KB VanHorn

Long time, no blog. It's been so long it seems I've forgotten how to do it (blog, that is). Let's see, where was I when I last posted an entry? Ah yes, the holidays. We spent ours back east visiting family and friends in Ohio and West Virginia. Yes, we braved an airplane with a 5 year old and a 4 month old and we survived. Not only that, but we managed to spend Christmas morning with my parents and brother, then drive to West Virginia to Erik's parents house and spend Christmas dinner with them.

I have to say that I didn't grow up in Ohio. My parents moved there when I was in college. I just had to make that fact known. Viva la West Virginia! Moving on.

Sage got to play with his cousins:

Along the way we saw TREES glorious TREES. I miss trees like these. We would have loved to see snow on these trees, but Mother Nature didn't come through in that department.

We couldn't leave West Virginia without doing two things - first, go to Gabriel's (one of Appalachia's best kept fashion secrets), and next, go to Shepherdstown (decked out in our fancy new Gabe's clothes, of course.)

How can I adequately express my love for Shepherdstown? Everyone should be so lucky to know a place like Shepherdstown and have the kind of friends we have there. As much as L.A. has to offer, this is what I miss more than anything. Our friends threw two, yes two, big parties for us complete with good food and drink and breakfast in the mornings.

Scooter and Kelly made an awesome dinner.

We introduced everyone to McKenna.


Luca introduced herself to Erik's crotch.




The next morning we walked to the monument.




And ate at the Blue Moon.

Our progeny.

We met Jessie and Todd's new baby Mable.

Kendra came over to see us. We lived together in college. She has a boy and a girl now too.

Sage and Una. Their mom's have the same tattoo. We got them in New Orleans (the tattoos, not the kids).

We had dinner at the Yellow Brick Bank.

Then Steve and Maureen had a big hairy party for us at their house. Unfortunately my camera was m.i.a. for most of it, but I did get this picture of all our kids having a party of their own.

The morning after.


On the way out we got M.T.Os at Sheetz.

And visited some of our old houses.



Then we drove 6 hours back to Columbus where on Sunday, my dad baptized McKenna. (He's an Episcopal bishop so he can do that. They don't let just anyone baptize babies.) One Monday we celebrated New Years with a rousing game of Scrabble with my parents:

and On New Years Day we flew home. Whew, what a trip.

Now, we're all caught up.