Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sorry we have been MIA for a little while, but things have been crazy around here!

December came stampeding in with a laundry list of tasks--some wonderful and holiday oriented, others, not so much.  Just a few of the things we've been up to this month:

• Christmas Shopping
• Brii battling bronchitis
• Quickly followed by the Flu for both of us
• Brii's Vidalia Ballet Christmas Concert
• Christmas in Zebulon with my family
• Christmas in Perry with Travis's family
• MOVING!

Things are going well, though, and we are getting settled into our new apartment.  Pics to follow, you know, just as soon as we're finished unpacking :-/

We spent a lovely Christmas with our families, though poor Travis didn't get much time off work this year.  I went up to Zebulon to be with my family as soon as I was well enough from the Flu to drive.  This, of course, meant I was leaving two men to finish packing and move my house, but...I tried not to let it bother me too much. :-) By the way, "Many Thanks!" to Trav's best friend Mike for helping us move (again!).  It was wonderful to spend a few days before Christmas with my family--having a five year old around to be excited about Santa with always makes the season more special.  My sister and I spent far too many nights staying up late and far too many mornigs sleeping in, and it was just what the doctor ordered!  My Mom kicked off our first annual "A Christmas Story" Christmas.  Just like our favorite Christmas movie, we ate Chinese food and opened presents!  We had a ridiculous amount of food for lunch, from lo mein to broccoli garlic to crab rangoons to General Tso's!  Our tradition is now established for Christmas Eve and looks promising to continue in years to come.  It was fun to have something different to eat over the holidays and even more fun to share it with many of our friends and family.

The silly pink Christmas tree at my Mom's! Decorated with candy canes and silver jingle bells!

Travis came up on Christmas Eve, picked up his Beef Lo Mein and presents and set about helping Santa at my Dad's house.  My brother, sister, and I read "Twas The Night Before Christmas" and put out chocolate chip cookies and milk for Santa and nine carrots (eight reindeer plus Rudolph) for the reindeer.  Then we jumped in bed, covered up our heads, and Santa Claus came that night!  Christmas morning was beautiful and so much fun.

The stockings on the mantle and Christmas tree at my Dad's.

Around lunchtime, Travis and I left for Perry to spend the rest of the weekend with his family.  Walking into Grandma and Grandad's is always a treat during the holidays--as soon as you open the door, the smell of Grandma's delicious dinner rolls and hot noodles and mashed potatoes makes your mouth water!  We were so grateful that Travis's sister Emily, her husband Eric, and our two beautiful nieces were able to come from Iowa for Christmas (and Emily's birthday!).  It is amazing how quickly the girls are growing; you could see major differences in Lili just in the three to four weeks since Thanksgiving!  By the way, for a fabulous read, you can follow their family's blog at EricAndEmilysAdventures.blogspot.com.  That afternoon we had our family Christmas and opened gifts from Santa, Travis's parents, and all the siblings.  After dinner, we had Christmas with the rest of the family, which included much laughing, tearing of wrapping paper, and even more cleaning up!  I am so grateful to have such an amazing set of in-laws, and I always enjoy the closeness of their family that my spread-out-all-over-the-country-family doesn't get to enjoy often.  The next day was Emily's first 29th birthday!  As tradition indicates, we ate lasagna and salad for lunch and enjoyed angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert!  Baby Tyson (that's right, the baby, not Brii) had two helpings of cake, but for some reason, still is not wild about lasagna (it's the second food that made me sick during the early weeks of morning sickness and I haven't been able to eat it since :-(   ).  Overall, it was a fantastic Christmas filled with great fellowship, laughter, joy, and love.

Our nieces, Lilian (top) at 3 months, and Gabriela (bottom) at 20 months.

Trav and I came back to Statesboro on Sunday evening, and I got to spend my first night in the new house!  The unpacking is daunting and going slow, but we're getting there!  My goal is to have all of the unpacking finished by the time I go back to work on the 10th.  Eek!  I will post pictures of the new house as soon as it's presentable.  In the meantime, if anyone wants to come down to the Boro and do it all for me...well...that'd be great!