This year we did something different for Christmas. 2 of my sisters and my husband took our parents to Las Vegas. (Check out our self-portrait taken in the mirror tiles at the Bellagio gardens.) We stayed at the Excalibur, Mom and Dad's favorite casino. Unfortunately neither the gambling or the weather was great for Vegas, but we still had a good time. Even though it was colder than anticipated, it was still great to get outside and walk and walk and have interesting scenary along the way. We checked out the flowers at the Bellagio, the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and also went through the 2 new casinos, Encore and Palazzo. Once the plane was de-iced in Vegas, we were on our way back to Iowa, where the frozen cars were waiting for us.
We celebrated the holidays with the Dykstra side of the family in early December. Everyone who was able to meet at Rose and Don Harms was there with great food and great conversation. We even had a visit from Santa. Several of the kids built a wonderful snowman. It was a great day and fun was had by all.
This is niece Melissa's youngest boy, Sawyer. He was making quite the bridge for the train going around the Christmas tree. I'm sure this pose made his mommy proud :-) Melissa was our flower girl -- boy, talk about feeling old!
