Christmas in October

Since we won’t be with our children for Christmas in December this year, we are celebrating the holidays early. We haven’t been together as a family since last December, so these times are very precious to me.

Eric arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska late Friday afternoon. Eric has not been to Lincoln, so we went over to Korey and Cathryn’s apartment so he could see where they live. Then we went to Red Lobster for a delicious meal of endless shrimp. After dinner we went back to the apartment and watched some playoff baseball.

Saturday was a full day. We picked up Korey and Cathryn and headed to Martin’s Apple Orchard. It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a good time picking lots of apples. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

These four mean the world to me!!

Love my kids!

Eric is the tallest, so he gave Cathryn a boost to get some of those prize apples near the top.

Our 2015 family Christmas picture.

After the orchard, we had lunch at Runza. You’ve probably never heard of this restaurant. They are a chain mainly in the Omaha/Lincoln areas of Nebraska. A runza is a pastry dough pocket stuffed with a ground beef and cabbage filling. There are several different varieties to choose from.

My mother makes a dish she calls galushken, and the runza filling reminded Korey of her dish, so we had to try it. The recipe came from German Russians who immigrated to this area. They were quite tasty.

Once our tummies were full, we headed to the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, NE.  We’ve talked about going to this museum on previous trips to Lincoln. Since Eric is a big space buff, we decided this was the perfect time to check it out.

The museum has a beautiful main atrium building with two large hangers attached. We saw lots of aircraft, both inside and out.

Below is a SR-71 Strategic Reconnaissance plane. It could fly over 2,000 mph at heights over 85,000 feet. Wow! It holds the speed record from New York to London in 1 hour 55 minutes. It is constructed mainly of titanium and has gold engine parts to help retard the 1,100 degree F skin temperature of sustained supersonic flight. This plane was mounted at this site, and then the atrium was built around it.

One of the hangers.

This small plane was named The Goblin. It was one of two built in 1948 for the parasite fighter program. The Goblin was supposed to attach by the large hook to a parent bomber plane. It would be deployed from the bomber bay when needed. It worked fine when it was released from the parent plane. The problem came when trying to hook it back to the main plane. Wind turbulence caused lots of problems, and the program was shelved in 1949. Sometimes good ideas just don’t work out.

This B-29 Bomber was the type of plane the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan were released from.

After the terrorist attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001, President Bush was flown to Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska to a bunker for safety. This is the desk he led the country from in the hours after the attacks.

Artist Greg Laakso created this sculpture as a memorial to the 1,452 lives lost in the North Tower. The neckties are hung from two 28 foot tall steel frames.

We spent about three hours at the museum. If you are interested in airplanes, I’m sure you would enjoy a visit. The admission was $12 for adults.

 

Our last stop for the day was a tour of Carol Joy Holling Camp where Korey is a program director. Eric and Korey both attended Pine Lake Camp in Wisconsin as children for many years, so we thought Eric would enjoy seeing the camp where Korey works. Its an awesome facility with three different ropes courses, conference and retreat centers, horse stables, a pool, a pond, and several areas where kids attend summer camp in either cabins or tents.

We went back to Korey and Cathryn’s apartment for supper. I had made lasagna the day before, so we heated it up and enjoyed our Christmas dinner together. After dinner it was time for some presents and then a game of Small World.

I made this quilted wall hanging for Korey and Cathryn. It has tiny lights that have several settings so it can twinkle, fade in and out, etc. I think they liked it.

Eric left Sunday morning, but before he did Korey joined us at the RV for breakfast casserole. Cathryn had to work on Sunday. We watched football at the apartment, and had dinner when Cathryn got home from work.

Today Korey is working a half day, so we are going golfing this afternoon. Cathryn has to work again. It is supposed to be 83 degrees, but rather windy. We can’t resist a round of golf though on such a warm mid-October day. Dinner will be at Granite City, one of Kevin’s favorite places, and then maybe another game before our visit comes to an end.

We’re leaving tomorrow morning and making our way towards Denver.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!