Merry Christmas!

Our first Christmas seemed to somewhat relate to the Griswold's Christmas Vacation. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Joel, Troy, Taz and I began our journey to Birmingham. Just to give a mental image, our car was packed to the ceiling with just enough space for Joel to see out of the back window, Taz was in his crate and Troy in my lap. After stopping every two hours to let the dogs go to the bathroom and for me to walk around, we finally made it Birmingham a little over ten hours later. Luckily, we made it back home just in time to spend Christmas Eve at Joel's Memaw and Big Daddy's house with all of the Warren's. The night was filled with all the kids opening presents, dinner, our dogs running crazy throughout Memaw's house, reading the Christmas story, and singing Christmas carols by candle light. We spent the night with Joel's parents and needless to say we were both exhausted. After exchanging presents with them and getting the dogs settled we bothed crashed. Thanks to Taz, neither of us were able to get much sleep because we discovered he snores louder than anyone either of us know.
On Christmas Day, we ate lunch and opened presents with my mom's side of the family. After leaving my grandmother's, we went to my parents' to let Troy and Taz play outside with my Aunt and Uncle's dog, Ralph, and my cousin's dog, Wookie. After lots of running and playing ball, the dogs were exhausted and we went inside to exchange presents with my parents and relax for a few minutes while we enjoyed looking at all of our wonderful presents. Before we knew it, it was time to go spend time with Joel's parents, Matt, Leah, their kiddos, Justin, and Cardin. We watched the kids open more presents and then all the couples played Taboo. Leah, Cardin and I blew the guys away!
Our last two days at home were a little more laid back and relaxing. Friday morning, we ate breakfast with my parents. After breakfast Joel, my Dad and the dogs went for a walk in the woods to see if they could see any deer. Once they got back, we all went on an adventure to start the search for the perfect house for once Joel and I move back to Alabama after his enlistment. We saw several houses we liked, but hopefully will be able to come back to visit in the summer and continue searching. Later that night, we met Joel's parents for dinner. Saturday morning, we left my parent's house and had breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Warren. After breakfast, we went back to spend a little more time with my parents, pack our bags and load the car. Once Joel and my Dad had everything packed, everyone including the dogs went back to the Warren's to see everyone before we left to head back to Jacksonville in the middle of the night. Time flew and we all had so much fun while we were home. We are both counting down the days until we move back!