I'd had BBQ and a burger in the past, so this time I went with a pork tenderloin. This was my favorite dish so far. The tenderloin & one side are reasonable at $10.50. There is a credit card surcharge, but it is on 1.50%, which is less than what the restaurant is charged by the processing company. I'm not usually a fan of battered French fries, but these lightly battered ones were good as well.

I had previously checked on some of the Eudora displays and all the remaining ones are up this year as well.

In Lawrence, all of the displays are back this year, except the Martin family's Parkside Christmas, After 17 years, they have discontinued their synchronized light and music program this year.

Downtown, I stopped at Mass Street Soda, which has been open 11 years. They advertise that they have 1,000 varieties of craft soda from all over the world. I was disappointed that they had neither the Diet Vernors Ginger Ale or Diet Frostie Root Beer that I wanted, but settled for a regular Frostie float.

Santa Fe Steam Locomotive 1073 in Watkins Park in Lawrence was looking nice in the snow.

In the evening, we drove to the Cedar Creek neighborhood in far northwest Olathe, to check on a couple of Christmas displays from previous years. 

The synchronized light and music program at Shadow Glen Golf Club is bigger this year. but the neighborhood display at 108th Street is much bigger. In 2025 it has grown to fill the yards of 23 different houses and rivals commercial drive through displays. A couple of white tail deer were wandering through the displays.

Pork Tenderloin & fries

Mass Street Soda

Santa Fe Steam Locomotive 1073

You order at a counter and your food is brought to your table when it is ready. You serve your own Coke fountain drinks.

We had a pork tenderloin sandwich with French fries, grilled chicken quesadilla, and pulled pork sandwich with slaw. All were good with the tenderloin being my favorite.

But desserts are the star of the show at Aunt Netters. Even without having it heated or with ice cream, the Dutch apple pie was great. Cherry pie and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to go were also good. 

I followed up on some Christmas displays which were ot up yet in Topeka, Kansas when I checked before Thanksgiving and was pleased to find that the Staffordshire Road Christmas Display is back. At one time, three homes in a row formed major Christmas Light Displays in the 3000 block of Staffordshire Road but since 2019, it has been mostly one, with part of one of the display stretching into each of the next yards. This year it is smaller still, all in one yard, but is still quite impressive.

In the evening, I continued to check on Christmas Displays in Lenexa and Overland Park.

Dutch Apple Pie

Midway through the tour, I had lunch at Harp Barbecue on 135th Street in Overland Park, Kansas. I last dined there shortly after it moved from Raytown, Missouri, about a year ago. The restaurant had only one other customer when I arrived, a little after noon, but did get busier later on. You order at the counter, serve yourself fountain drinks (they have COke products, but do not have Diet Coke), and they bring the food to the table.

Wanting dishes I hadn't had before, I ordered a sausage sandwich with tallow French fries and a quarter pound of pork belly (special this day).

The sausage needed a sauce, but I didn't care for their sauce and saved mst of it to have at home with sauce of my own. As I was about to leave, a couple of tables near me were brought their food and offered a second, hot sauce, which hadn't been offered to me.

The pork belly was good, but I think I would have enjoyed it even more without the "sticky," which was a sweet sauce with sesame seeds.

The crinkle fries were OK.

Sausage sandwich, fries & sticky pork belly

They are now in a much smaller place (6 tables inside) and the buffet is back but only Friday evening and lunch & supper on Saturday & Sunday. The $20 dinner buffet included many of the dishes I loved before and some of them seem even better than I remember, particularly the Tandoori Chicken, Fafil and Nan. The Tandoori Chicken is not on the menu, so it looks like I will be waiting for the weekends when it is on the buffet.

I hope their old clientele finds them and they start filling up. That may mean there is no place to sit, but the buffet can also be ordered to go.

On the way home we checked on some Lenexa Christmas Displays and discovered one from the past on 84th Street. It is the Knackstedt Family Christmas Display, just east of Pflumn Road. It hasn't been up when I have checked some years, but is back and really beautiful! The display began with figures modeled on the Mitford Snowmen Collection and has been added to over the years.
 

Buffet

Lenexa Xmas Display

The first one we visited was called "Christmas Beals" and might have been enough to make our tour, but less than half of it was lighted. There were four houses in the contest which will be added to the tour and one which we drove past that wasn't in the contest that is being added.

Not wanting to stand in line that long, plan B was to revisit Quickies Burger & Fries in the Armourdale neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. I dined there a little over a year ago and had a great pork tenderloin, onion rings and root beer float. It is a small carry out only restaurant, with four outdoor tables on the far side of the parking lot. 

This time I ordered the Old School Cheeseburger (American cheese, bacon, grilled onion, lettuce, pickles, mustard, and ketchup), fries and a chocolate malt. The young man at the register checked to make sure that they had malt, before taking my order, but came out later to apologize that they were out of chocolate. The strawberry malt I substituted was great and a quarter gone but the time my order was ready.

I don't usually get bacon on my burgers, but this flavors combined wonderfully. They didn't ask how the burger should be cooked and it was well done, which is more cooked than I would choose, but it was still great. The fries were crispy on the outside and meaty on the inside. It was really a great meal!

After lunch I revisited one of the Christmas displays we saw a night in Shawnee, Kansas last week, to see how it looks in daylight.
 
 

Old School Cheeseburger

Inside, the look has changed a lot, starting with the 1946 Funk airplane (manufactured in Coffeyville, Kansas) suspended above the lobby. The area of the museum that seemed most interesting was the Bleeding Kansas exhibit, which includes the stories of many of the enslaved people.

My favorite part of the former museum is gone, the 1950s diner made by the Valentine Industries. That area was used to tell how Kansas has been the home or original location of many restaurant chains from White Castle to the Harvey House chain to Applebee's.

The 1880 AT&SF steam locomotive is unmoved and doesn't appear to have been worked on.

Before leaving, we also stopped by the Kansas State Archives to photograph some exhibits and check on a Lenexa history book which Linda wrote a few years ago.

We drove west to Maple Hill, to have lunch at Flaming Grill Restaurant And Bar, which opened this spring and I thoroughly enjoyed in July. Today we had county fried steak with gravy, French fries. a steak fajita taco and bottomless chips with queso spinach dip & fire roasted salsa.

The steak was large and the black peppery gravy nicely complimented the crispy coating. To my delight, the food was generally more spicy than we expected, particularly the seasoned fries and the queso.

The chichken fried steak came with the choice of chili, salad or soup. I had the chili the last time and went with New England clam chowed today. Ot was pretty good. Could have used a little more clam.

The service was very good.

Back in Topeka, we stopped at Mount Calvary Cemetery, which is just west of Gage Park. We photographed the graves of two widely different Kansans. Otto "The Claw" Schnellbacher from Sublette, Kansas a player in both the NFL and NBA, while Joan Marie McInroy Finney was the first woman governor of Kansas.

Our final stop was  Hazel Hill Chocolate. The downtown candy shop is 20 years old, but the family has a tradition of candy making in outer cities which goes back 3 generations.

They have a nice selection of hand made candies, plus specialty chocolate bars made from cacao from various countries, which they offer samples of. The day after Christmas, they were out of many items and I was disappointed that they did not have the chocolate covered bacon which I came to try.

In the evening, we were able to accompany our 1 & 4 year old granddaughters to Knights Of Lights Festival in Bonner Springs and had a wonderful time! There were many things for them to enjoy at no additional cost, such as a train ride, cookie decorating, crafts, free hot chocolate, lights maze, and a mock snowball fight.

Better yet, there were free gifts for everyone who stopped to get them. A toy for the little ones and free tickets to the Renaissance Festival next September.

Supper was at Twisters Bar & Grill a couple of miles away. They were busy, but the food came out quickly. The server was a little abrupt, but that was because they were busy. The potato skins were more like potato wedges and otherwise OK. The burger was average, but the fries were better.
  
  

Kansas Museum of History
 
 
 
 
 
 

Flaming Grill Restaurant & Bar
 
 
 
 
 

Governor Finney
 
 
 
 
 
 

Knights Of Lights Festival