Home for the Holidays

Lucky for us, the university is closed the week of Christmas, and Patrick's job is flexible enough he could take the whole week off prior too, since 1) that was the cheapest flight option & 2) we were excited to spend nearly 2 weeks in Michigan!

Our flight got us into Grand Rapids at 11:00pm on December 20, and our connector was in Dallas/Fort Worth. It's a bit more scenic of a route than I've seen by air yet, especially in the evening. The moon shone over a lake behind the lit up city, but it was difficult to capture in a photo, so you'll just have to settle for the moon. :)

We had to leave the next morning for Okemos since Patrick had a doctor's appointment, so we stayed for a couple days, helping decorate his parents' tree, visiting with his family, and hanging out with the Layman/Hensley clan.

We had a pizza party with the Laymans/Hensleys, with gingerbread decorating entertainment to follow. Patrick and I are getting pretty good, and creative too. The gumball corners are stuck with chewed gum to the base. hehe :) We brought this home to my family, but instead of serving as a nice holiday centerpiece, it turned out to be a torture device. My sisters in particular desperately wanted to eat it but I told them they had to wait until after Christmas!

Christmas eve & Christmas morning we were in GR again, visited my best friend and met her youngest baby born in September, and enjoyed a few lovely family meals on the Christmas china. Normally we go to my dad's family party on the 24th, but he had to work the nights of the 24th and 25th, so instead we attended the candlelight church service, which I really enjoyed (had the best Christmas sermon I've heard yet). Our dog Shay had been very, very sick in the month before we arrived, but thankfully she received the right treatment in time for the holidays. She's like a new dog now, and as always, is soooo happy to have the whole family together. :)

Every year we seem to be more spoiled- my parents got us a TV! Heaven knows ours was needing replacing, but we surely didn't expect such a gift. And we seemed to get a million other gifts between the two of our families (we traveled to Okemos again that afternoon), including original artwork by mom, housewares, the ever useful $, games, and a new suitcase which turned out to be very helpful carting stuff home. :)


Unfortunately, Patrick's sister Sally didn't arrive until the 27th, since her flight was pushed back nearly a week from the Heathrow airport weather delays. We changed our plans a bit so we could see her, to a pretty consistent "2 days in GR, 2 days in Okemos, repeat" schedule. Despite a last minute invite, a handful of our GVSU pals were able to meet up with us for a cozy breakfast at Panera on New Years Eve, and we caught up with Patrick's former adviser and his wife over a lunch at Founders.

That night we (along with my mom, Britt, and Aunt Cheri) visited my Grandma at the rehab section of the nursing home (where she is recieving post-surgical physical therapy), had a jewelry-making party (Patrick pardoned himself for a bit to check on the Red Wings game), and played a couple rounds of Scrabble Slam. The visit was short since we needed to pack for our early morning flight.

We stayed up until 2:40 in the morning, but aside of a 10-minute break to watch the ball drop and yell "Happy New Year!", our late night was spent purely on making all our presents fit in our bags without breaking or going over the weight requirement. The alarm clock got us up at 4 in the morning, so this picture (taken at 4:30 just before we left) is of some sleepyheads!

We didn't expect the airport to be as busy as it was so we were very stressed. One of our checked bags hit 50lbs and dropped to 49 a second later, so we were right on verge of having to pull something out/repack. The line to the security gate was long, and I was pulled aside to have my backpack searched by hand after the scan couldn't read an oddly shaped item. When Patrick heard "final boarding" for our flight on the intercom, he ran ahead to the gate and the woman said I had four minutes to get there. I arrived just a couple minutes later- whew!

We dozed part of the flight, got some breakfast tacos & French toast in DFW, and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Sierra Nevada mountains on our way to Fresno. We were originally pleased we'd be back during the afternoon, but it ended up taking all our willpower to stay awake until 8:00pm! Our trip tuckered us out, but it was well worth being home with everybody at Christmas. :)