Christmas is officially O-V-E-R

After a week and a half of celebrating, Christmas is finally over. And what a Christmas it was!

We kicked off the holidays by driving up to see Mike's family on Christmas Eve Eve. We visited with his grandparents for a bit, opened presents with his parents, his sister and her husband, and ended up drinking a little too much wine. A good time was had by all!

On Christmas Eve we drove a little further and visited more of Mike's extended family, had lunch, opened more presents, then left to make the 4 hour drive back home. We stopped in Bloomington for a bit to visit some college friends, then hit the road again to make it home in time for more Christmas festivites.

Once home, we went over to my parents house, where we exchanged a few presents to each other. We got Dad a super cool green laser pointer, we got Mom a subscription to the Paula Deen magazine and some cutting boards that she has been obsessing about. Sam made out like a bandit and got lots of gifts, because I kept finding fun things to get her. I settled for a little moleskin notebook especially for London (where she will be going next year) and an Office t-shirt, and a funky purse with owls on it.

After that exchange, Mike and I went home and exchanged gifts to each other. He got me new fiestaware (!!!) and some fun bath soaps and stuff. Along with his tv, he got some new boxers, some yummy treats, and a new pillow (something that he's been wanting ever since I stole his good one!).

On Christmas Day, Sam woke us up at 7 am to come over and open presents from Santa. We got a bunch more good stuff... clothes, more fiestaware (!!!), another guitar for guitar hero, a remote controlled helicopter (guess who that was for), my new Coach purse, and a whole lot more. Momma Claus always does such a good job at Christmas!

After the morning's festivities, we went over to my aunt's for the rest of the day. We ate, played games, mocked each other... good times.

We had a few days rest, then were back on the road for my mom's family Christmas. This year it was held near Nashville, TN. We drove down there, ate probably 5 cows worth of BBQ ribs, opened presents, wrastled the little cousins, and spent the night. Another successful Christmas there, too.

Last night we had our last Christmas gathering. Some of our friends came over for a taco night/pajama party/gift exchange/new years party. It was a lot of fun. We spent the night playing darts and guitar hero, eating lots and lots of Mexican food and drinking a little vodka to ring in the new year.

We took our tree down today, so the holidays are officially over for us. It was definitely a marathon Christmas, (Mike and I estimate that we drove about 750 miles total) but it was completely wonderful. All the hustle and bustle made the vacation go by too quickly (tomorrow our last day of freedom booo), but it made for a great holiday season!