We're Back!

Whew! We had a fabulous Christmas and New Year, but it's nice to be home. The snow has melted (mostly) and we're enjoying above average temps (low - mid 30s) so life is good in 2006.
It would take way too long to give you the complete description of everything we did over the last two weeks, so instead, here's a list of random things that we saw, did, or thought about:

• 1300 total miles of driving
• 8 separate flights in and out of 5 different airports
• 1 day spent in all 5 airports
• 3 books read (MA), 1 book read (the Prof)
• 10 labs and finals graded (the Prof)
• ~50 Sudoku puzzles completed
• 1 baby blanket finished & given away
• 2 cherry limeades from Sonic
• 2 peppermint mochas and 1 eggnog latte from the Cincinnati Airport Starbucks (Terminal C)
• 19 Missouri family members visited
• 5 (plus 4 kids) Missouri friends visited
• 8 Tennessee family members visited
• 1 lap around the Bristol racetrack
• 4 (ish) trips to Wal-mart
• 2 Christmas parties
• 1 surprise birthday party/New Year's Eve party
• 1 surprise visit from the Shollenbergers
• Infinite amounts of yummy food and desserts
• 1 drive-through Cajun Daiquiri stand spotted (but not visited)
• 1 stay at a Super 8 reminiscent of the one we stayed at in Norfolk in June (i.e. not the nicest)
• 1 trip to the Waffle House
• 1 night playing board games with friends
• 857 times we asked ourselves why we travel so much
• 857 times we realized we do it because we love our family and friends too much to stay away
• 857 also the number of times my dad had to restart our furnace while we were gone

So that's a brief glimpse of our lives over the last couple of weeks. Much thanks to everyone who housed and fed us while we were there. We love you all, and wish we didn't live so far away. *cough* movetoiowa *cough*

We're settling back in and getting reacquainted with the cats. Work starts up again next week in full force, but that's good too. We have one more Christmas this weekend with dad, and then the tree comes down. But that's OK. A new year is always a little sad, since the old one is over, but for me it's also hopeful. Who knows what this year will bring? It's a blank page waiting to be written on, and I'm anxious to discover what the story will be.