Our Girls

When: January 24, 2020 Where: Our snow-filled front yard Nothing is better than a day off from school, a pile of snow, and joining with a friend to sculpt an entire family of snow-people. May I introduce you to the snow family known as The Geralds. Unclear if Gerald was the first name of each snow-person or if Gerald was their family name. Either way - making them was an entire day's worth of laughter-filled labor. 

Where: The Lichte Farm, Lexington, USA When: January 18, 2020 Every year we celebrate one last Christmas hurrah with the extended Kinney clan, and lately that also meant spending the weekend in the country on the Lichte Farm.  There is usually a hay-ride or at least a trip out to the sheds and barns to see cows and farm equipment. There is hot cocoa. TONS of food. Games played at all hours of the day and night, and usually at least one theatrical production put on by the Kinney Cousin Players.  Spending time with cousins we only get to see a few times a year is definitely the highlight. And naturally  when you are reunited with cousins you take selfies while making strange faces. There are also PRESENTS! As Grandma Bert would say: 1. Can you believe I started all this? and 2. This is just TOO much.  And the chaos that ensues when this many kids and adults are opening and playing and throwing wrapping paper all at once.   

  Where: St. Louis, Missouri, and it's finest gym meet and swimming pool venues When: January 11, 2020 Winter is gymnastics and dance competition season at our house. This particular wintry weekend we headed to St. Louis for a gymnastics meet, but we also got to have some quality time with our Kinney Cousins, who live near St. Louis.  Here's Katie in the Number One spot on the podium saluting - or she was about to salute and the photographer just missed it.  Festive Gymnastics Meet Photo Op! With the meet out of the way it was COUSIN TIME! The snow was falling outside, but we were able to warm up in the hot tub, and spent hours swimming in the hotel pool.   Once upon a time, Molly was the baby of the family, but now this guy has the honor of being the youngest.  Crazy cousins. Every time they get together they have a blast. Thanks for making the trip Uncle Nate!

Where: Bach New Year's Eve Headquarters When: December 31st 2019 We rang in the New Year at home with a house full of friends. There were wrapping paper New Years hats. There were games, there were many many laughs and eventually we said goodbye to 2019. Cheers to 2020!  

When: December 29, 2019  Where: The Fabulous Fox Theatre After a great night of Thomas family yuletide fun, you might think that our weekend of holiday festivity was over. But you'd be WRONG. We packed up everyone (and Jake) and headed to St. Louis to see our friend Nemo perform in the traveling company of WICKED! Jake prepared for the evening by practicing the nap he would take at the hotel during the show. You can't just go into a nap without practice.  Everyone else got ready by finding fancy hairstyles, and dressing up.  Before the show Nemo (whose name is actually Jennafer Newberry) was able to give us a backstage tour! We were able to see the Emerald City set, and the giant robot Wizard head, and we got to see the racks on racks on racks of costumes. Best night at the theater ever! And then we found our seats, which were extremely close to the stage (thanks to Nemo) and we were blown away by how great the cast was - especially our Nemo, who had a few speaking lines ...

Where: The Meyer House, Quincy, Illinois When: December 28, 2019 After Christmas at our house on the 25th, we welcomed Jessica's family for the Kinney-side Christmas. And then the grandparents and all the aunts, uncles, cousins and dogs ... headed north to Quincy for the big extended Thomas Christmas. This is cousin Will's excited face: I don't know what percentage of the Thomas family was able to make it to the annual Thomas Family gathering (Jessica's Mom's siblings and their kids), but the house was full of so much food and laughter; so many cousins to play with and uncles to throw children into the giant bean bag.  Here's the whole party posing in front of a portion of Grandma Betty's famous (infamous) Byer's Carolers collection. Even some cousin dogs were in attendance - here are the Bach girls with Emily Nelson and Murphy.  

Where: Ashland, America When: Dec. 25th, 2019 We are not afraid to travel for Christmas, but this year we had a home Christmas. Ba and Papa came to town and we went to Christmas Eve services at the Crossing, and ordered Chinese for supper. The next morning...Santa Came!!! According to their tradition, the sisters slept in the same room and came out at the same time to see their presents.   The rest of the day was filled with playing, and apple cider and card games. We didn't know it then (foreshadowing allowed since I'm writing this far in the future), but this would be the last "normal" Christmas for awhile.