Christmas Road Trip 2007

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did. Aaron and I celebrated our own Christmas together. We were going to wait until the Wednesday before we left to go home but Monday rolled around and we didn't have anything to do. I got a little antsy and convinced Aaron that it would be a good idea to open them that night! We had a very enjoyable time and he did a great job this year. Thursday night before we left Aaron went to a Rams game in St. Louis with one of the guys in our youth group. He got back at 3:30 in the morning. 5 hours later we were packed up and headed for New Paris for Christmas Part 1. We surprised my mom and came early. I didn't tell her that I was taking off work on Friday so rather than leaving at 2:45, we showed up at 2:45! I must say she was quite surprised. That night we had a Christmas with my mom's side of the family. I'm so glad we left early because we actually got to spend time with everyone! Saturday morning we picked up my best friend Beth and went to visit our friends Brad and Kelsey Bullock. They had a baby girl(Brenna) a few months ago so of course we needed to go see them.
It was so good to spend time with them again. That afternoon/evening we had Christmas #2 with all my siblings. Again I say, it was so good to catch up with all of them. It's so hard living so far away and missing alot of the get-togethers. They are all very encouraging and supportive of our ministry here however. Sunday was a blessing to go to my home church. I've missed so many family friends. It was also really nice to be able to go to church and not be part of the service. We love our role in the church but it was nice to be on the other side of things again! For lunch my parents took us to Cici's because we don't have one in Vincennes. That was a treat! We then went to visit my great grandma Mabel. The woman continues to amaze me. She's 98 and still going strong. That evening we did nothing but relax with my parents. Christmas Eve morning we had a small Christmas with just my parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister and her family. We had breakfast, opened presents, ate lunch, and squeezed in a game of Settlers. Things have changed so much in all our lives since we were younger but I still look forward to that time with them. My sister's boys are just so adorable and I loved spending time with them! They have changed so much and are getting so big. It's really hard being away from those two!

Please enjoy the slideshow of pictures from Christmas Part 1:


We left that afternoon and drove to Illinois for Christmas Part 2. It was fun spending Christmas Day with them. We had breakfast, opened presents and then played with our presents! That night we went to his grandparents' to have another Christmas with his dad's side. On Wednesday Aaron and I and his sister went shopping and saw the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. It was really good! That night we relaxed and then Aaron's cousin and his fiance came to hang out and of course, we played Settlers. I almost won too! Thursday was full of more laziness and packing. Our car was completely packed! We left after supper. We made it home safely. The week went so fast but we enjoyed it so much. It was nice to be back home too because there was plenty to do waiting for us. I'm looking forward to this next week because I have one more full week of Christmas vacation and I'm definitely going to take advantage of it!

Slideshow for Christmas Part 2: