Buchanans/Andersons in Fort Worth ~ some longer than others...

On Friday, the 19th, Julie and Janie (Dave's sister and mom) came in town. It was SUCH a treat and I know it meant the world to Dave to see them so close to Christmas ~ especially since this is the first time he would be away over the holidays.

We had a great time!! Lots of shopping and eating! We started off at Southlake Town Square after they landed. Mom came with us and we had a yummy dinner at Mi Cocina and then walked around checking out everything. We of course got a Starbucks and everyone was excited about their new 'short' size! (Thank you Jenn for telling me about those). If you haven't seen them, they are perfect for just a mini coffee morning or night...8 oz compared to the tall which has 12 oz. The cups are too cute!

Here is Julie and Dave...pregnant shot. ;-) Sweet Julie is due February 18th with Carter...so not far! In fact, this was the last weekend she was supposed to travel! We are SO excited for him to get here! She is such a cute pregnant woman as you can tell. She has only gained weight in her tummy and hardly any of that! I hope I am that lucky when the time comes!

So the Town Square must be where the high school kids like to hang out because we saw lots of them making out! It was kind of awkward to walk by...so what did we do? No! Not make out ourselves, but rather pretend for a funny photo op!

Here is a more appropriate, Dave and Kristen style pic. ;-)

The next day we got up early and headed to DSW (a Buchanan favorite!). We were very lucky with what we found there. We found everything from driving shoes (for the boys) to snake skin flats to black shoes in every style. We left very happy! Thank you so much Janie!!

Then, we met everyone including Mom and Marianne for lunch at the Lunch Box. It is one of our favorite spots! They have the best chicken salad EVER ~ even Janie, who doesn't care for chicken salad loves it. We had a great long lunch where we solved all of the world's problems as usual. ;-)

We continued to shop until we could barely walk anymore! Dave bailed early to catch the KU game. We found all sorts of goodies including Christmas gifts for each other. ;-) Again, thank you so much Janie for treating us to jewelry, shoes, etc! It was a wonderful day which included a little downtime at McKinley's for cookies and catching up (always my favorite times).

We met back up with the boys (being Dave, Dan and Aaron) for dinner at Ocean Rock. It was delicious and fun for the guys to catch up with Janie and Julie (which they have so much fun doing). They value Janie and Julie's opinions immensely on everything from houses to clothes to women. Then we got more coffee and drove around to view Christmas lights. Dave and I both LOVE looking at Christmas lights. You all know - there are some that are awesome, some that are great and some that make you just wonder. We cracked up looking at lights! A great cap to the evening.

On Sunday, we went to Church and lunch with Mom, Terry and Marianne. It was fun to UCC all decorated for Christmas. I hadn't been back since our wedding, so it brought back fond memories for all of us. ;-) Then, surprise appearance by Van and Brett! (Dave's dad and brother). Brett is moving down here and so they decided to bring a load. It was so funny because they showed up and then after 30-45 minutes of catching up, they said, alright, back on the road...and they left for Wichita! It was definitely too short of a visit, but again, special for David to see more family before Christmas.

Janie and Julie took off that night on a late flight back to Wichita. It was sad to see them all go! Mom kept trying to talk all of them into staying and having Jerry and Grayson drive down. Maybe some year we can work that out. But for now, we SO appreciated the visit! The holidays are so special and make us all long for family. It was a blessing to have those desires fulfilled and we look forward to the next visit!! Thank you all for coming down!