The Best Christmas Vacation EVER!!

Last Friday we loaded up our van with lots of kids, clothes and food and headed to Cottonwood Falls for our family Christmas Vacation. On our way down the turnpike who did we happen to see pass us? My cousin and her family on THEIR way to Iowa. I called her on her cell phone and she said she would love to meet us for lunch so, First stop: The Cassoday Truck Stop for lunch.

Upon your arrival at this eating establishment you will notice they have CHICKENS on the porch. Don't let that frighten you, the chickens are harmless. Just walk on by! Inside is an all you can eat buffet that is served from 11 am til 2 pm. On the day we arrived they were serving homemade pizza, salad, breadsticks and for dessert brownies or pumpkin bars! Our sons were in sheer heaven.........Dave and I were tickled because Jeannine and Dan paid for our entire family's lunch! Wow! We had called Jessica, our oldest daughter, and she was meeting us since she lives only about 35 miles from Cassoday.

While there the 2nd grade class of the Flinthills Elementary came in and sang Christmas carols. They did a wonderful job and they gave all the members of our family handmade cards they had constructed in art class........we were COVERED in glitter by the time we left! LOL!! We hugged Jeannine and her family and then gather up our crew and headed up to Cottonwood Falls.

The 1874 Stonehouse. What can I say? Coming here is like coming home. Our children fell in love with the house, the property and most of all......Billie and her husband Joe. Not to mention her dogs Chase and Bo.

This was my and Dave's second trip here since we had spent our anniversary here last summer. We knew how beautiful the house and property was and of course we knew how sweet Billie and her family were.

When we arrived, we first introduced our kids to Billie.........she tells me "I'll never know all their names!" I assured her by the end of the weekend she would know all of them............she did. We then showed all the kids the house and where they would be sleeping. The 2 oldest were in the Wilhelmina Room. Across the hall in the Blue Room were the 3 boys and down the hall were the 3 youngest in the Yellow Room. Dave and I had the Prairie Flower Suite.........GORGEOUS! Then came operation: Unload Van!! After the van was unloaded and everything situated, the kids insisted we all go explore the property. I'm glad we did that on Friday because the remainder of our trip, the weather was BRUTALLY cold!



After walking around the property, we went inside for some sugar cookies, coffee and hot cocoa for all of us. Billie use to own a bakery so all the weekend she fattened us up with homebaked GOODIES.......those sugar cookies were to DIE FOR!! I begged for the recipe and she gave it to me upon me swearing not to hand it out to anyone......so DON'T ASK ME FOR IT!!

After we warmed up in front of that charming fireplace, we then bundled up and took our family to the Emma Chase Cafe for supper. What can I say?? THE Yummiest food!! I had the Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, greenbeans, biscuit and the owners very own apple butter! Some of the kids had the catfish with coleslaw, hush puppies, and fries! They EVEN serve sweet potato fries.........YUM! We all had pie for dessert and then did a little shopping!

We then loaded back into the van and went back to the house. After everyone took either a shower or a nice long hot bath *ME!* we then all decided to watch "The Shining" now folks...........this movie is scary to begin with but I don't suggest you watch it when you are staying at a house that is well over 100 years old. Our kids all had to be tucked in that night because they were all scared!!

So ended our first day of our trip. I'll try to get the remainder up by the end of the day!!