Christmas Traditions Continue

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024 - Janis Moore's birthday and the extended Moore family Christmas dinner

The group photos at the Moore family birthday/Christmas gathering have gotten progressively easier to accomplish. Even though the photo expanded by another person this year to 34, we all perform on command and look at the camera.

The same could not be said of the great-grand photo with Birthday Girl Janis Moore back in 2017:

It was marginally better in 2018, when the last of the current great-grands was added:

These days, it takes considerably less time to capture the moment:

Look at that: Everybody looking the same direction and smiling!

The rest of us are pretty good at it, too. I guess we get it by example.

With 34 people, we need a couple of birthday cakes to celebrate Janis Moore's Christmas Eve birthday. This year, it was her 89th! Besides the cakes, I also made three kinds of homemade ice cream, another birthday tradition for our family.

 The "kids"

The grandkids

And the "outlaws"

Here is Exhibit A as to why the meal has been moved to the "good" shed. This is my mom opening her birthday gifts in the family room, the largest room in my parents' house. And this isn't everybody. I couldn't get the whole crowd in one shot. We probably should move the noon meal to the shed, too, but that would interfere with the basketball court.

 

As with most families, our combination birthday/Christmas celebration has its share of traditions.

There are often some shots by my dad's 1952 restored pickup.

But we have some at our house, too, where the grandfather clock - an heirloom from Randy's family - is often the backdrop for holiday shots.

Our own family Christmas began with a great cat escape. One of Randy's "tame" cats didn't particularly care for the influx of visitors. It scratched multiple people as it escaped to hide. For those of you who know me well, you can imagine how thrilled I was that the cat was MIA.

However, the cat was successfully recaptured after an unplanned interlude of "hide and seek."

There are plenty of other traditions. I am known for my snack mixes. But the Ladd family just gets better and better at the yearly sugar cookie decorating they do at home and share with the rest of us. I've told them that I need lessons.

It's also part of our family tradition to play games. Susan brought a new family bingo game this year. We have our annual Left, Right, Center tournament, also compliments of Brent and Susan. We had a surprise winner for a new music game called Hitster.

Every year, we add the girls' height to the same measuring stick that their mom and Uncle Brent used.

For the record, Kinley pretty much mirrors her mother's growth patterns.

At this point, Brooke is outpacing them both.

The only problem with holidays? They fly by too quickly, leaving behind only the colored lights and empty tree.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, too. 

The front of our 2024 Christmas card - taken at a family wedding in June 2024

Today, we're hoping for a K-State Wildcat victory over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the Rate Bowl! Go 'Cats!

Mischief Munch Crunch

Are you crunched for time? Your family or gift recipients might enjoy "crunching" this mix. And bonus! It's quick and easy.

I have lots of favorite snack mixes - probably too many, if I'm honest. This year, I asked my family which were "must-haves" for our Christmas gathering. Some of them require baking time or extra things like popping popcorn. 

While none of them mentioned Mischief Munch Crunch, I had written a note to myself last year that the mix was popular both at home and at the extended Moore family Christmas. Since we have a nut allergy at the Moore gathering, it is also a good one when you are avoiding things like peanut butter or nuts.

And it requires no baking at all so it is quick and easy to add to your arsenal of snacks at the last minute. Let's face it: The last minute is about to arrive. On second thought, it's probably already here.

Mischief Munch Crunch

Modified from Facebook

2 cups Golden Grahams cereal

1 cup Cookie Crisp cereal 

2 cups Life cereal

2 cups micro-mini pretzels

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup red and green M&Ms

12 oz. white chocolate/almond bark

2 tbsp. holiday sprinkles

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

 

In a large bowl, combine all cereals, pretzels, mini marshmallows and M&Ms. Melt almond bark in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring in between. (I used 50 percent power so I wouldn't burn it.) Once melted, pour over cereal mixture, stirring to coat everything. Transfer mixture to lined baking sheet; top with holiday sprinkles and mini chocolate chips. Allow to set up before breaking into pieces.  

For gift giving, portion into decorated plastic bags or holiday tubs. 

Notes:

• The original recipe called for French Toast Crunch cereal. I can't find that in my area, so I used Golden Grahams.
• I cut back a little on some of the cereal and added the mini pretzels. I found mine at Glenn's Bulk Foods. I have seen the micro-mini size in discount stores, but I couldn't find them this year. I like the little bit of "salty" in a sweet mix. The amounts in the recipe are the amount I used.
  
• My almond bark had 24 ounces in the package, so I doubled the cereal/other ingredients and used the whole package of almond bark. Easy, peasy! And then I did it three times! I give a lot of snack mixes for gifts.
   

Bookends of Our Trip

 

BOOKENDS: Every trip has a start point and an end point. Of course, if you have stronger "constitutions" than we old people do these days, there don't have to be as many way-stations along the way. But our trip to and from Eureka Springs had some tourist stops on both ends of the journey. 

BEGINNING BOOKEND

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite TV shows was "Bewitched." I often daydreamed about how convenient it would be to "wiggle my nose" like Samantha and instantaneously get the result I wanted. 

Alas, it doesn't work any better now than it did when I was a kid. So, when you depart for a trip, you know it's going to take you a certain amount of time to get there. When you live with a map aficionado like Randy, he definitely develops a time table and plan. 

Randy figured our departure time would have us arrive in southeast Kansas around noon.When it's nice weather, we often take a sandwich lunch in a cooler for our noon meal, rather than stopping at a fast food place along the way.He proposed stopping again at Big Brutus, where we'd had a picnic lunch on our spring 2023 trip through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and back home again.

On one of our excursions through that part of the state, I'd seen that there was a Little House on the Prairie Museum. So I suggested a new stop instead. The museum near Independence, KS, celebrates the setting for Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" book. 

My mom read the "Little House" books to we three girls, and I re-read them myself later in elementary school - twice, if I recall. Both Jill and Kinley read some of them, too. During the earlier 2023 trip, we'd stopped at Mansfield, Mo., when I happened to see a billboard advertising a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum there. While the Kansas version wasn't as extensive as the Mansfield site, I still enjoyed it, and there were even picnic tables there to enjoy our lunch. 

The log cabin resembles one described as the Ingalls' home in "Little House on the Prairie," though this is a reproduction. The Osage signed the treaty selling the land to the government on September 10, 1870. The family home was listed as the 89th residence of Rutland township in the 1870 U.S. Census, and the family lived there about one year. In her book, Laura told of building the cabin, of encounters with Indians, of going to Independence for supplies and of Dr. Tann's treating the family members for "fever'n'ague." Dr. Tann's grave is in Mount Hope Cemetery in Independence. The family Bible reveals that Caroline "Carrie" Ingalls was born in Rutland township in Montgomery County, Kansas, in August 1870.

There is an old farmhouse on the site, but the Ingalls family never lived in the house. It's just a representation of how people who settled in the region may have built more permanent housing if they were in Kansas to stay. The Ingalls family only lived in the area about a year before returning to Wisconsin.

 

A gift shop is now in the farmhouse.

The hand-dug well on site, dug by Charles Ingalls, is mentioned in Laura's book.

Also on site are the Wayside, Kansas, post office ...

... and the Wayside School.

It was a nice stop along the way ... even Randy enjoyed it (though probably not as much as I did).

ENDING BOOKEND

We stopped to see Brent and Susan in Kansas City on our way home. While they finished up their day of work, we did a "tourist-y" thing and went to the Kansas City World War I museum. We'd been to a concert on the grounds, and we'd seen the museum from the outside. For this trip, we took the time to tour it.

The displays were excellent. At the time we were there, they were working on a display that would feature tanks used in warfare. We'll have to go back another time, since Randy's dad drove a tank during the Korean War. (It was scheduled to reopen on Veteran's Day, so if you're planning a trip to Kansas City during Christmas break, it should be open.)

However, there was a bit of nostalgia with another of the displays. Randy remembers a tent similar to the one above that they unearthed at his Grandma Ritts' house. It had probably belonged to her brother, Ray, whom she'd cared for. Randy and Lyle took it home and had a grand time setting up the tent and playing Army at the farmstead.

Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of more than $40 million today, this accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world.

“It [The Liberty Memorial] has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty…. Today I return in order that I may place the official sanction of the national government upon one of the most elaborate and impressive memorials that adorn our country. The magnitude of this memorial, and the broad base of popular support on which it rests, can scarcely fail to excite national wonder and admiration.”

— Liberty Memorial Dedication Speech, President Calvin Coolidge, November 11, 1926

All the displays were well-done and gave plenty of opportunities to read as much or as little as you wanted. Plus, there were films interspersed throughout, giving ample chances to sit, rest and learn something at the same time.

 

Over time, the physical structure of the original Liberty Memorial deteriorated, and it was closed in 1994 due to safety concerns. However, in 1998, Kansas City citizens passed a limited-run sales tax to support the restoration to better showcase the WWI-related objects and documents the LMA had been collecting since 1920. In 2004, the Museum and Memorial was designated by Congress as the nation's official World War I Museum, and construction started on a new 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art museum and the Edward Jones Research Center underneath the Liberty Memorial.The Liberty Memorial was designated a National Historic Landmark on Sept. 20, 2006, recognizing the monument as a nationally significant historic property. 

JUST ONE MORE STOP

 

Final stop on our travel itinerary was a home football game at K-State. Susan and Brent joined us.

The late start time made for a beautiful sky to begin the evening.

There were fireworks after beating KU, 29-27. Unfortunately, the late start meant a middle-of-the-night return home. A victory always makes the drive a little more pleasant.