Christmas Vacation

We just got home from a whirlwind trip home for Christmas this year.  It was so great to be home and see our families, but I use the term "vacation" loosely as we spent 29+ hours in the car, stayed up later than I've been used to, and lived out of our suitcases for 8 days. Also keep in mind my idea of a "vacation" is laying on a white sand beach with turquoise water and being served fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them! But like I said it was worth it to see our families and some good friends!

We left last Saturday (the 22nd) and had smooth sailing to Cleveland, where we stayed overnight in a pet friendly hotel. The last time Bailey stayed in a hotel with us she did great, but this time she felt the need to "protect" us from every single creak and noise coming from the hall!!  We had to pull her up on the bed and make her lay between us to keep her from jumping up and running to the door every 2 seconds. Although she didn't hesitate to jump up once we got settled.

Sunday we had more smooth sailing from Cleveland to Lewisburg to visit my family.  We got to see my parents new addition to their house, and Bailey LOVED perching on the new seating to stare out the window at the deer, cats, and turkey.  Bailey also met her cousin Haleigh.  Let me tell you a little about Haleigh. She is the most spoiled dog on the planet.  She's fat and yappy, and thinks she's a lap dog even though she easily weighs at least 50 pounds.  She's cute though and she grows on you. Her and Bailey got along okay, as long as there wasn't food involved. Haleigh tried to be a tough dog and growled at her, but Bailey quickly let her know she wasn't going to tolerate that.  The next time Haleigh growled at Bailey, Haleigh quickly retreated under the desk behind my dad.

Christmas Eve we went to church and then went over to my Uncle Dan's for his annual Christmas Eve party, which I love.  It was fun to see everyone, and Matt spent the night serving as a bounce-a-lot for my cousin Andrew and Ciara's 3 adorable munchkins.

Christmas Day we opened a few presents in the morning before Matt left for work, and the rest in the evening when he returned. We also enjoyed free Christmas coffee from Sheetz (LOVE Sheetz!) and an amazing Christmas dinner that mom whipped up.  Bailey has always helped to open her own presents the past few Christmases, but this year she took her skill to a whole new level and opened up everyone's presents for them. (I have a good video, but blogger is being weird so I don't think it actually uploaded).

Wednesday we set out for Philadelphia in the middle of a snowstorm. What should have been a 3.5 hour trip turned into a 5.5 hour + trip which was not fun. Bailey didn't seem to be bothered by any of it. We received a warm welcome at Tom's house and enjoyed spending the evening with his whole family who came over for dinner and gift exchange. It was great to see everyone and I couldn't believe how big some of the kids are!  Bailey LOVED all of the attention and got to open even more presents. She quickly became fast friends with Tom's dad, despite him teasing her with treats (I think as long as she got a treat in the end, she didn't really mind).  Tom helped his nephew John Thomas set up his train set, but Bailey wasn't too sure about the remote control train (or helicopter for that matter).

Thursday and Friday we spent the days catching up with Tom's family and friends.  Bailey loved hanging out at Tom's house, I think mainly she just enjoyed being the only dog again and not having a yappy dog growling at her every time she tried to take a sip of water.  We also met Tom's sister Lisa's dogs, Jake and Tank. Tank is, well, a Tank, that sounds like a chicken when he barks and wasn't allowed to come play with Bailey. Jake and Bailey ran around for a little bit but I don't think Bailey really cared for Jake. They were both SO FAST that I didn't get a single non-blurry picture of them.
Bailey did get to play with Tom's friend Rocky's dog, Tocchet (yes, named after the Flyers player). They had a blast together and went about 5 or so rounds before just walking around and sniffing the yard.

Jake

Tank

Tocchet and Bailey

Friday night we got together with a few of Tom's close friends. It was so good to catch up with everyone, but I feel like the night went by waaaay too fast. Their dogs had a blast mooching off of everyone and showing us their tricks.  They were cute.

Bogey and Rowdy

Saturday we woke up early and started the two day trek home. Ugh. We hit another snowstorm, but thankfully it wasn't as bad as the one we hit driving to Philly from my parents house. It made for some pretty pictures.  I had the brilliant idea to download a license plate game app on my phone, so we played that the whole way home. We got 28 states!! Probably could have had more but the snow made it hard to see. It did make for some pretty pictures though!

Christmas-y Adventures

Gosh, I've been a horrible blogger the past few weeks/months.  Please forgive me.  We finally have some fun things to blog about (with pictures) so here you go!

Last weekend we had our neighbors over for Neighbor Christmas Night.  I somehow didn't snap a single picture during the whole night, which is very unlike me.  This was the first time we all hung out with our 2 new downstairs neighbors.  (Our 2 previous downstairs neighbors both moved out in May).  It was fun to get to know everyone a little better and Bailey sure enjoyed all of the attention (awwww, speaking of, 4 years ago today we adopted Little Miss Bails!!!)

This weekend Tom organized a mini Birmingham reunion in Chicago.  We had been meaning to get together with the Drankas forever, so we set a date to do some Christmas-y things in Chicago like we did two years ago.  A few other people from Tom's program have since ended up in Chicago and we had also been trying to meet up with them for a while.  Then last week Matt sent me a text saying he was going to come to Chicago this weekend (just for fun...because he works for an airline and flies for free....jerk).  ;)  So we had a big group of us, but it was really fun.

We started out at Christkindlemarket and it wasn't terribly crowded thanks to the intermittent drizzling rain.  Luckily it wasn't pouring while we were there. We enjoyed some hot glühwein in our boot mugs and hung out for a little bit before making the trek in the wind and rain to Giordanno's for some Chicago-style deep dish.

Tom, Matt, and I spent Saturday night and watching funny Christmas shows/movies on his iphone hooked up to the tv. And Bailey LOVED that Matt was here because that meant she got to sleep on the couch bed with him. She also got a present from Matt before he left on Sunday. Surprisingly, she still hasn't destroyed the squeaker yet.