So I would have posted my holiday blog much sooner but I was very upset with Blogger. While traveling from Charlotte to Atlanta, I decided to write a blog and after about 40 minutes of intense writing on my iPhone, I lost it all! Needless to say, I was not pleased. But here we go!
Want to know what I did for the holidays? Traveled, traveled and traveled some more! Being so far away from home during the holidays, especially in my ever-growing family that already does two Christmases in one day, is not easy. But being able to spend this special time with the people I love and care about is what is most important to me and I would gladly do it all over again!
Christmas started in North Carolina with Chris and his family. Chris, Shelby, Magnum, and I made the what was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive to North Carolina the Saturday before Christmas. I say supposed to be 3.5 hours because we managed to turn it in to almost double that. After driving for an hour, Chris realized he forgot his work laptop at home and he had to have it to send off some reports over the weekend to his boss so we had no choice but to turn around. By the time we did all this, traffic had started to pick up and we got stuck in some stop and go mess from a few accidents. So fun!
Sunday, I celebrated Christmas with Chris’s family and we did a small gift exchange since I wouldn’t be there on the actual day. Then we ate an early and very yummy Christmas Eve Eve dinner! Afterwards, we all piled in to the van and made our way to the speedway in Charlotte where the whole place was decorated in Christmas lights. We ice skated, saw Santa’s workshop and Bethlehem, petted lots of goats and looked at tons of Christmas lights!
Monday morning, I had a 9:30am flight back to Atlanta from Charlotte. Terrified that Christmas Eve would be a hectic travel day at the airport, I arrived a little more than two hours before my flight time to battle the long security lines only to find no one there. It literally took me all of 5 minutes to get through security and to my gate. So I found a Starbucks, caffeined-up, and tried to read and write a blog (the blog that somehow disappeared). Once I got to Atlanta, I took MARTA (the train) to my office, where my car was parked, drove home to quickly load my car with gifts and my Florida suitcase, and hit the road! I got to Tallahassee around 4pm and by 5pm, I was ready for bed! But I helped my mom finish her wrapping and baking, and was lucky enough to have two besties stop by and spend some time with me! Its been so long since we’ve all hung out at our parent’s house just like the good ol’ days and we had so much fun just talking and laughing. I am so fortunate to have these lovely ladies in my life!
Shaila’s little boy, Noah, was our official photographer
Christmas morning, Nate, Ashley, Emma, Michael, my mom, and I all exchanged gifts. I got lots of good stuff, the best of which was spending time with this cutie!
I think she’s going to have red hair just like her auntie!
After gifts and breakfast, we hit the road (again for me) for Pensacola where we had Christmas dinner at my grandparents with our extended family on my Mom’s side. This year, instead of exchanging gifts among the adults, we decided to play White Elephant and everyone brought a gift around $30 – one of which was $30 in one dollar bills! We had so much fun playing and I laughed so hard! I ended up with FSU onesie jammies, which my Grandma laughed so hard saying that Chris and I could both fit in them! My Uncle Michael ended up buying them from me and I ended up with $30!
The day after Christmas we had our traditional girls shopping day and my mom, Aunt Debbie, Ashley and I hit all the day after Christmas sales and stocked up on decorations for next year. I actually didn’t buy much this year since the one thing I really needed wanted for the house was more garland and good decorating garland is so hard to come by these days! We actually called it a pretty early day and headed back to my grandparents’ house to spend some time with my Uncle Nathan, Aunt Victoria, and cousins Kate and Luke who had just flown in from California. Then we headed to my Uncle Barry and Aunt Kathy’s house (family on my Dad’s side) to spend some time with them and have them see Emma for the first time. We had a good time, hanging out, and playing with Emma.
The Thursday after Christmas, I was on the move again! This time I was making my way home, back to Atlanta. I didn’t get back in town until the late afternoon and spent the evening unpacking and relaxing with Chris. And then on Friday the unexpected happened – I got the flu! Chris left for work super early Friday morning (about 6:30am) because he had a 7am meeting and as soon as he walked out the door, it hit me and there was literally nothing I could do. I took meds, slept on and off throughout the day, tried drinking fluids and just waited for Chris to come home with Sprite and Gatorade. I tried eating soup and after a couple bites, I had enough and my body couldn’t take it either and it too was soon out of my system. The worst part about having the flu were the aches and pains. I religiously took my meds as soon as I felt them wearing off because I was in so much pain from the achiness. I went to bed pretty early Friday night and woke up Saturday feeling much better! I still wasn’t 100% but it was nothing like Friday. Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t take the sitting around and doing nothing any longer and begged Chris to take me out of the house, just for an hour. And an hour was all I was good for. We ran to Sports Authority and Golf Smith, which are right next door to each other and after an hour, I was done-zo. It took so much out of me to get cleaned up and walk around that I was beat afterwards and went home and went straight to bed! Sunday I was back to normal, just in time to get the house ready for our New Year’s Eve party on Monday.
Chris and I hosted a New Year’s Eve party at our house. We invited friends over, made pizzas, and played Pictionary until the ball dropped. It was a nice and very fun night in and I was happy not to be out and on the road around all the crazies (sorry to all our guests who had to drive!).
All in all, it was a great holiday season and I am so blessed to have so many loving and caring people in my life!
No comments:
Post a Comment