Holidays in VA - Part I

Happy New Year!! I will post on our New Year's Trip and on my resolutions at some point after I dig out a little bit! We're back in Vermont after spending a wonderful 2 weeks with family and friends in Virginia. We had a great trip, but it was nice to sleep in our own bed again last night :) Despite the fact that I still drive like a granny to avoid seeing the dreaded flashing lights behind me, we somehow made our 13 hour trip home in 12 hours yesterday. I've spent the day dismantling Christmas decorations, unpacking, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and trying to figure out how to edit HTML code on blogger. I think I've got it figured out so that my pictures will appear larger AND so that those of you with a smaller monitor than mine will still be able to see them without scrolling. Let me know if you have any problems :)

We had 2 whole weeks back home, but dividing that time between 2 families, extended family, and friends makes 14 days feel short! I'm just going to jump right into the pictures because I know that's what you'd rather see anyway...

Willow is one lucky girl when we go home because she has unlimited golf course access and off-leash time right across the street (at both our parent's houses)!

Plus she just loves her Mr. Boo. Isn't he handsome?

Aunt Meg isn't so bad either :)

We were with my family Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We have a tradition (the past 3 years) of eating Christmas Eve dinner with Matt's family so we have a chance to see everyone :) It's great. We went casual this year at my house and had soup - lots of chairs to fit around one table! (This pic was taken with my old camera...check out the difference).

After a big breakfast on Christmas morning, we all take turns opening presents and then do stockings together. Everyone gets one....even the nug.

Willow received a new toy she loved but destroyed it in about 5 minutes.

My mom's decorations were pretty :)

I spent A LOT of time with my new toy from Santa :)

We went over to Matt's house Christmas Day to spend time with his family and I played with my camera some more :) I'm still learning - I think I could have edited these a lot better, but I'll get there!

His sister Jenna modeling her new coat...

Some fun with the tripod - we were a little too gray!

It was actually a white Christmas!

Will was all tired out by the end of the day :)

On the 27th I visited my extended family while Matt traveled to Charlotte to see his grandparents...I took LOTS of pictures but will just share a few.

We had a big lunch (yum!) and then the women sat around and scared me out of ever having a baby.

Next the kids opened presents...

While we all stood around and watched...

My aunt Sandra was the only adult to receive a present - a SPANX bra from Meg :)

Note the tree in the background - my Uncle Billy built it for his grandchildren so they could climb on it. He fills it with lots of fun toys.

Then somebody had to clean up all that mess and almost all (except one - he was too busy - see below) of the kids went outside to play in the snow :)

Camera Fun :)

Before we left, we all had the chance to pop some "crackers" and win really cool prizes.

John ate so many of Sandra's mashed potatoes, he had to lie down for a while before driving home :)

OK that's all I can do for now - stay tuned for more holiday fun!

xoxo