Christmas and New Year's

This was the first time Emily and I celebrated Christmas on our own, and it was a great experience. She was scheduled to work on Christmas Eve and Day, so we did our "Eve" on the 23rd instead. We had our traditional readings from the New Testament, the Animals Christmas storybook and watched "It's a Wonderful Life". Most of all it was just nice to be together celebrating.

Emily was blessed to get the first half of Christmas day off, so we got to celebrate at the right time! I am convinced that Em is the most thoughtful gift-giver ever (not to mention she is an ace at wrapping), and it was exciting to tear into each gift.

For the New Year we drove 16 hours to Illinois (insanity, which I wish I could argue was only temporary) to visit the Streeters. As it turns out the family was well represented: Mom, Dad, Carrie, us, Troy and Rachel with their 4 kids (way to represent, Amelia!!),

and Tiffany with her 3 girls (who live there while Steve is away in Iraq) all made it!

The most fun was just to visit and catch up while the nieces and nephews played, and then we had our own game sessions while the kids were asleep. Everyone proved to be very proficient at Ticket to Ride! On New Year's eve Emily introduced a new tradition which will definitely stick: chocolate fondue. SOOOOO good!!

In order to beat the winter storm weaving its way through the Midwest we did half the trip back to New Haven on the 31st and the rest on New Year's Day (see insanity comment previously). We were again blessed to miss almost all the snow. A fun side note: we coincidentally stopped for gas at the station right next to the hotel where we found out we were expecting. It brought back a whole wave of excitement and anticipation for the best gift we are expecting this year!