Very Thankful this Thanksgiving

It's been a busy November for Bruce and me! We'll start off with the adventures we had when our good buddy from Nashville came to visit, Dallas! We had such a great weekend hanging out. We toured some KC landmarks, including the Rosedale Memorial Arch. Coincidentally, it was on Veteran's Day and this arch is for all the veterans in the Rosedale area.

We also went to Columbia to watch Mizzou beat Texas! I had never been to a game there before so that was lots of fun! It was cold that day though!

We also went to the Chiefs game and to little J's birthday party. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Last week, we celebrated B's birthday with a girls' night out at the Cheescake Factory. I had to get my favorite meal there, the Smokehouse BBQ Burger! Yum!

I happened to travel by the Sprint headquarters in Leawood, Kansas. It's kinda crazy, it's like a college campus. Several brick buildings laid out in this massive complex. I knew there would be a fountain!

No. 87- Sprint campus, Leawood, KS

This week my family drove up to KC to spend Thanksgiving here with me! We had such a good time. We watched movies, played games, ate at Houlihan's, toured around the city and on Thansksgiving, after our dinner we went to the 82nd Annual Plaza Lighting Ceremony! A True Kansas City Tradition!!

Dad, Danielle and Mom getting ready for the lights!

Mom, me and Dad!

 We each took a different spot to look at and at 6:50 pm on Thanksgiving tonight, a crowd of over 10,000 people gathered at the plaza for the light switch to commence the Christmas season!

Here's my spot before....

 And After!!

There were lots of fireworks too!!

 I LOVE the plaza lights at Christmas time! And it's so wonderful to be just two blocks away. It really gets you in the Christmas spirit!

Before the family started their drive back, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory (again for me, ha!). I documented their beautiful fountain out front:

No. 88- Cheesecake Factory, 47th Avenue, Country Club Plaza

 I again got my favorite meal. Hey, at least I decided on getting salad this time! I'm trying!

Then tonight I enjoyed some delicious BBQ and Blues music at BB's Lawnside BBQ at on 85th St. Such a cool place!

Me, Rachelle and Jessica

So, it's been a good couple of weeks even though I got pretty sick last weekend. I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful family. We are simple people and we come drama free. It's nice to know that it doesn't matter what we're doing or where we are, we always have a good time with each other. I know I am very fortunate to have such a supportive family!!

Hope everyone out there had a good Thanksgiving and took a moment to not only reflect on their own blessings, but gave thanks to the One who gives them to us.

Til next time...Laura

Hallmark- the Gucci of Greeting Cards

Last week, I had a very fun Kansas City afternoon with JJ. First, we went to check out the visitor's center at Hallmark cards. It really made me want to never buy anything but Hallmark but unfortunately it's usually the most expensive option for cards and wrapping paper, etc. But it is such an important part of KC! I've mentioned before that every time I see a list of contributors the Hall family is always mentioned.

The visitor's center is great because it's free! It's right in the Crown Center area where the Hallmark corporate offices are, as well. Here are some highlights:

Hallmark began in 1910 when at age 18, J.C. Hall moved to Kansas City from Nebraska with two shoeboxes of postcards. The company made the first ever greeting cards, invented wrapping paper, and now owns a television network and Crayola. The company celebrated their 100th year anniversary last year!!

Timeline of logos with the current one at the bottom.

Picture of J. C. Hall

Some of the first cards.

 In 1951, there was a severe flood in Kansas City. Some of Hallmark's warehouses were damaged. The city had to work very hard to clean it up. Hall was so impressed with the attitude of the city in the clean-up that he had Norman Rockwell commissioned to paint this picture, "The Spirit of Kansas City."

One of the many Emmy's that the Hallmark Channel has won.

This was really cool. It's a bow machine! It made a cute little pink bow and I got to keep it.
They also had a person working in the center. He was an engraver but you could stop and ask him questions if you wanted to.

Here's the pink bow I made!

I really like that Hallmark is still a family run business. J.C.'s son and now his grandsons are running the company. I'm sure they've had to change up a lot of their business since people don't mail as many cards as they used to. But Hallmark is so vital to KC. They practically took over a huge section of midtown and converted it into Crown Center, shops and restaurants and hotels. Imagine without Hallmark what that area would be, who knows!

I also really like how they employ a large number of artists and it seems like they get to be very creative and enjoy their work.

JJ then took me to another KC landmark, Bob Jones shoes. It's on Main St. I liked their mural on their building.

Finally, the week ended with another fun event! I got the pleasure of eating at Capitol Grille on the plaza. It was so good and fancy! We tried their signature drink, the stoli doli. (ok, I have no idea how to spell that, but it was good!)

We also got treated to the calamari appetizer. It was actually pretty good but really spicy!

Delicious desserts! The coconut cream was to die for!

This was pretty funny. I worked at the soccer stadium last Saturday and got a call. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the caller id!! Escobar!!

Too bad it wasn't Alcides!

Til next time...Laura

Two Important Fountains!!

There were two very large and impressive fountains that I finally took the time to document. They are both very close to where I live. The first fountain is on Broadway, north of the plaza and it is a Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Fountain. Here are several pictures:

No. 85

Names of all the KC area Vietnam Veterans

The next fountain is at Broadway and 31st and it is the Firefighter's Memorial Fountain. Very impressive!

No. 86- Firefighter's Fountain on Broadway

Statue of a Firefighter and the names of all the KC firefights who have died sine 1889 in the line of duty.

So this weekend was Halloween and I dressed up as...can you guess???

Pregnant Beyonce!!

Last night, which was officially Halloween, I worked at my new job as an usher at the Chiefs stadium for Monday Night Football. It was a lot of fun, my section had no issues and I got to watch the game. The Chiefs won in overtime! I really enjoyed meeting my fellow workers, everyone was really nice. Not a bad way to watch the games since I get paid!

Most importantly, my newly autographed Sean LaChapelle jersey made its debut at Arrowhead! Since I had to work, JJ had the honor and privilege to wear the jersey to the game. I think it was the good luck charm for the Chiefs' victory!

JJ looks awesome in the Sean LaChapelle jersey! Priceless!

JJ and I went to 810 Zone last week to watch one of the world series games. I had never been before but I really liked it. The food was good. We split chicken tenders and I added them to my mac & cheese. Delicious! The best part of the whole night, however, was seeing Chiefs players Dexter McCluster and Brandon Flowers!

SIDEBAR: as many of you probably know, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series this week. There were lots of people around here that were cheering for them. I was not one of them and here's why. Kansas City has a baseball team, the Royals. The Royals are not known for being very good. In fact, they have not made the playoffs since they won the World Series in 1985. However, I still go to the games and have a great time everytime. The Cardinals have been, historically, a much better team, there's no question. But, just because the Cardinals have been better, people in KC and western Missouri have jumped ship and cheered for them. Now, if you think about it, if every dollar that a KC or western Missourian have spent on going to a Cardinals game or buying a piece of Cardinals merchandise would have been spent on the Royals, that's probably enough money to get a better player or two for the Royals. I just don't care for people cheering for the next closest "better" team. There is a thing called loyalty and something to be said for sticking with your hometown team for better or worse. End of SIDEBAR.

Finally, I have to give a book review for the book I just finished reading. Ken Follet's "Fall of Giants." It's an epic story (almost 1,000 pages long!) of several families just before and during World War I.

I give this book an A+++!!! I LOVED it!!! It combined my two favorite things: history and soap opera drama! The story includes families from America, England, Germany and Russia and at first I thought it would difficult to keep up with everyone but the way Follet writes, it wasn't difficult at all. It's fast paced. It goes through the time prior to WWI and the mindsets of the people in these countries and really puts into good perspective why WWI happened. It's really quite mind-boggling because it's like tension got so high between all these countries that it just exploded and they all started declaring war on each other- for no good reason! Well, I guess the reason was PRIDE!

The book combined real-life characters like Churchill and Woodrow Wilson and Lenin so you get the timeline of actual events but the main storylines are of the lives of fictional characters. Anyways, I recommend it highly if you like historical fiction and you want to commit some time to reading it. It's the first book in a trilogy of the 20th century so I can't wait for the next installment!!

Til next time...Laura