Christmas in Indiana

(As I typed this title, it made me think of one of my favorite Christmas CD's, Straight No Chasers' Holiday Spirits and their song "Indiana Christmas".  You can listen if you want some mood music while you read. :-)  Okay, enough side tracking.)

My parents finally have a house so we traveled there for Christmas.  They live in the suburbs of Louisville, KY but on the Indiana side of the Ohio river.

It was a wonderful and relaxing visit.  The weather was cold but still warmer than here.  We enjoyed daily walks/runs in their rural neighborhood.  I fell in love with their neighborhood.

We put together a puzzle (P is our puzzle girl and she got one for Christmas that we all helped her with.)  We played games, ate lots of yummy food, and enjoyed time with family.

My brother lives nearby so we had fun touring the school where he teaches.  He took us to the lab with the laser cutter where the kids got to each choose a design and he made them a custom wood puzzle.  He and his wife also hung out at my parents quite a bit so we got to spend lots of time with them too.

One day the group of us walked all the way from Indiana to Kentucky and then back to Indiana (via the old train bridge that has been converted into a pedestrian walkway over the Ohio river).

We celebrated Mom and Dad's anniversary while we there.  We all went out to dinner for their anniversary and then drove through the "Lights under Louisville".  It is thousands of Christmas lights in multiple displays in a sandstone cavern under Louisville.  It probably took about 20 minutes to drive through the whole thing.

Because he loves me, Dad unpacked his stereo system and hooked it all up so that I could listen to all of my favorite records from his collection.  It was so fun to relive that part of my childhood and share it with my kids.  Dad also read us Uncle Remus stories at night, something that he used to do when we were on our boat vacations.