Whoa, Santa, Whoa!

We are having a fabulous time on our Christmas vacation, and I have finally found my way through the mess that is my house to my computer, which has been very lonely here since we have been out of town with no internet access. Our festivities started on Christmas Eve with a fun lunch with the Grant family (my mom's side) at The Brickery. It was a circus with all of the babies, and Sarah was her bouncy self, wanting to run all over the place and eat little. We spent the afternoon at my parents' house where Sarah decided not to nap but to run all over with her new doll stroller instead. That girl has some ENERGY! She also opened her Elmo Live that afternoon that my parents gave her. She is so spoiled...I think she really likes the Elmo but she is a little bit unsure about his "liveliness," I think. I love how he falls over and asks for help getting up :-) We took my parents, brother, and sister with us to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then we all went back to their house for a quick dinner. By the time we got home, it was past Sarah's bedtime, and we rushed her to bed so Santa could come.

Santa brought way way way too much, and I will have to have a word with him next year :-) He brought Sarah a kitchen set with some play food, a baby doll with a car seat, and a wagon. She loves the wagon and keeps telling us "car ride." Santa brought daddy some clothes and an I-tunes card, and he brought me a jewelry armoire that I can't wait to fill up! I have been telling Jeremy and Santa for months that I had seriously grown out of my small jewelry box. Among our other favorite gifts from our very generous families are Jeremy's new black coat, my new camera that actually went the whole vacation without the battery running down, and our new clock from a special store in Gatlinburg.

Mid-way through Christmas morning, we left all of our goodies in the floor of the den, loaded up the car, and headed to Greenville to spend Christmas with Jeremy's parents, brother, and sister-in-law. We had such a nice time spending time with them and of course, opening too many presents and eating too much food. We didn't have any drama on our trip, but Joseph and Alecia's transmission went out in Virginia (they live in Ohio), but they managed to drive the car to Greenville anyway. They got to have an extended and expensive stay in Greenville while they pretty much got a new transmission in their car. On the 27th, Jeremy and I took a 2-day trip to Myrtle Beach to celebrate our 5th anniversary. I can't believe we've been married that LONG! Sarah stayed in Greenville with Mimi, PawPaw, Uncle Joseph, and Aunt Alecia, and all of us had a fabulous weekend. We finally got back home to Bethlehem late last night, and we're only beginning to put the house back together. I'll post lots of pictures as soon as I a) find my camera and b) figure out how to upload pictures from it.

Happy New Year!