It's Good to be Home

We left home around 8am Thursday morning, December 23rd and didn't get back home until 10pm Saturday night, January 1st.

First we drove to Lexington, KY where we had a wonderful Winter Family Weekend with a lot of incredible people.  We ate together; played games of basketball, volleyball, soccer, and dodge ball; roller skated and played laser tag; had a dance; attended seminars, Bible study, and church services, played lots of Double Hearts; and just generally had a fantastic time.  From the Thursday evening meet & greet to saying goodbye in the lobby on Monday morning, the weekend was altogether too short.

When we left Lexington, we drove about 2-1/2 hours to visit my parents and brother's family and stayed with them until Thursday morning.  It was nice getting to spend some time with them, because they live too far away, and we only get to see them once in a while.  We didn't do a whole lot.  My mom and sister-in-law fed us really well.  We got to see the progress my brother has made on building his house.  We'd seen it on his blog, but it's nice to see it in person.  It was especially nice to spend time with my nieces and nephews - they really do live too far away, and they're growing up too fast!  Somebody make them stop.

Thursday morning we packed up, said goodbye, and headed for Jacksonville, IL to visit Jeffrey's grandma and aunt & uncle.  We spent Thursday night there and all day Friday, mainly just sitting around and talking.  It was really nice!

Saturday morning we packed up, said our goodbyes, and drove to Bloomington for church.  It was awesome to see our friends Mike & Brenda and their son Josh.  After church we went to Olive Garden for dinner, along with a couple of their other friends, and sat and talked and talked - until we thought we better go and free up the table - and we still had 3 hours or so to get home.

The trip home was uneventful.  We got home around 10pm, unloaded the van, and unpacked most of our stuff before going to bed.  We took it easy on Sunday not really doing much, and since then I've been trying to get caught back up, doing laundry, etc. - and fighting a cold.

It was a really nice trip, but it feels really good to be home.  Now, if I can just get back into the swing of things...