CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR'S

So it has been a very long time... officially a month since I have blogged. Time has literally flown by and I have just not been able to keep up with everything. Our Christmas and New Year's holidays were wonderful - we got to spend lots of time with friends and family, we got to try some new things and also got to spend lots of quality time in the car... let me explain more. On Christmas Eve we had planned to fly to Dallas to meet my mom and sister and to spend some time with my Dad's family. Because of some mechanical issues and then a huge snow storm in Texas we ended up sitting in the airport all day Christmas Eve and then our flight was completely canceled at 9:00 pm Christmas Eve night. It was at that point that we made the decision to drive from Birmingham to Dallas through the night just in time to arrive for the Christmas Day festivities at 8:00 am the next morning. This picture of Josh and I in the snow is the one that my mom took of us when we arrived at my Aunt's house Christmas morning after driving through the night - I think we look pretty good considering how long we had been awake!

The actual drive to Dallas was made a lot better since our friend Alison was with us. She lives here in Birmingham but was also trying to get to Dallas for Christmas to visit her family. When our flight was canceled she decided to ride with us and we were so glad to have another driver and another person to help keep us awake!! The three of us got to know each other very well... from the 2:00am singing to the 4:00am game of 20 questions - it was interesting!

Alison and I in the Airport on Christmas Eve

Josh "bored" at the Airport all day

Once we got to Dallas Christmas was wonderful. We got to spend lots of time with my Dad's family. We ate tons of great food and did lots of shopping (spending the Christmas giftcards) in Dallas. Unfortunately my sister was not able to make it to Dallas (we got to see her for a little bit when we went to Florida) but we did get to spend lots of time with my mom which was nice. This picture is of Josh and I with my mom on Christmas Day. Later in the weekend we got to play a new game called "Whirlyball." It was awesome. Apparently it is the game that all of the Texan teenagers (or at least my cousins) play all the time. It is kinda like playing Lacrosse but with bumper cars.You are on teams in bumper cars and you have little mits with one ball and you try to work together to get the ball to your end of the court and hit a target. Here is an action picture with Josh in the front to help explain it better. We had a blast!

"Whirlyball" with all of the cousins

After Christmas weekend we came back to Birmingham for a couple of days so that I could work a little bit and then we loaded up in the car again - this time we had Molly with us - and headed to Jacksonville for New Year's weekend. We arrived in Jacksonville on New Year's Eve and got to spend lots of time with Josh's family. It was so great to see them. We went down to St. Augustine, ate lots of good food and of course our annual "FUN FAMILY CHRISTMAS PHOTOS." The one below was definitely my favorite. If only everyone knew how many times that we had to do re-takes of this one. I definitely feel sorry for the three on the bottom...

Hewiett Family Christmas Photo 2009

During New Year's weekend it was also Josh's Grandma's 70th birthday. Josh's Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Donald had a big party for her with the whole family at her house. It was so good to see everyone. Josh and I were so glad that we got to be there for that.

All of us with Josh's Grandma for her 70th Birthday

That about sums up our Christmas and New Year's vacation trips. Again, I apologize for the delay in posting. I will try to do better next time. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year. I can't believe it is finally 2010!