Our 1,800 Mile Trip

Ok, I know Christmas is long over. However, we just took our Christmas tree and decorations down yesterday so I guess it's ok for me to post about our Christmas. It did take us about 1,800 miles to complete this entire trip, but every mile was worth it because of the time we got to spend with our family and friends.

Rob was off from school starting in mid-December, but I didn't start my break until December 23rd. We decided to start a new family tradition this year of going to a hotel on the night of the 23rd as part of our Christmas gift to each other and eventually to our whole family when we have kids. If you remember, last year we were forced to go to a hotel on the night of the 23rd because of our frozen and burst water pipe at our old house. This year we took a step up from Gas City and spent the night in downtown Indianapolis on the Circle which was beautiful all decorated for Christmas.

The Circle in downtown Indy all lit up for Christmas

Love him.

On Christmas Eve we came home in the morning and spent the day getting ready for our trip to Pennsylvania on Christmas day. We decided when we got married that if all possible we wanted to be in our own home on Christmas morning and this year it actually worked. Last year because of our burst pipe we went early to Pennsylvania. We had a beautiful service at church on Christmas eve too.

Christmas morning we woke up all excited because we had presents! We were like little kids. We had some gifts from Rob's mom and then a few small things for each other. It didn't take us very long to open our gifts which was fine because we were excited for breakfast next. I'd gotten a recipe for 'red festive stuffed french toast' from my good friend Ashley so we decided that was going to be our Christmas morning breakfast this year. It's basically regular french toast stuffed with cream cheese, sliced almonds and hazelnut syrup with a fresh raspberry sauce on top. Yum! It was delicious and perfectly festive for Christmas. Then we packed up our car and off we went to Pennsylvania!

Here I am waiting anxiously by our Christmas tree!

Our pile of presents

Rob bought me this lovely hat, scarf and gloves set

I bought Rob this IU hoodie which he hasn't taken off since I gave it to him.

Here's something to consider when you drive anywhere long distance on Christmas day -- nothing is open. The only place we could stop for food was at gas stations. I'm glad that people get the day off of course, but nothing being open was something we did not consider before we left. Thankfully we stopped in Ohio and picked up my brother Ben and his new girlfriend Heidi and they came well supplied with snacks for us. Heidi lives just south of Akron, Ohio and Ben was out there for two days visiting her family so it worked out perfectly for us to pick them up as we went across. This was also the first time we met Heidi so that was cool to spend six hours in the car getting to know her. Rob made sure I didn't overwhelm her with questions as I tried to get to know her and I hope I did ok. She's so sweet and seems like a good fit for Ben.

So with the miles ticking away we made it to my parent's house in 11 hours and of course were relieved to arrive safely and finally be all together. My parents were so happy to have all of us there. We spent some time Friday evening playing a new family game called Quelf. It is a game that is similar to Cranium, but we were pretty convinced that the people who wrote the game were on drugs when they wrote this game that's how strange and hilarious it was. It's a lot of acting out things, but there were also these rules people have to follow like holding hands with the person who shares your space on the game board and not being able to use your hands for the whole game. Strange things. We laughed so hard though and everyone was a good sport, especially Heidi who probably felt very awkward at some points, but she still had fun (I think!)

Here Ben and my dad had to turn in circles for some part of Quelf. Ben was also still under the rule that he couldn't use his hands for most of the game

Rob had to do some weird chicken dance or something -- I actually forget what he's doing here but it was funny I can tell you that

Saturday was our big family Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We went to Lancaster and met up with everyone for a big meal, games, talking and time together. We were missing three cousins, but with Heidi and Logan, (my brother Luke's girlfriend) there, we were at 51 people. We are so tremendously blessed to have such a large family that loves each other and gets along so well.

Looking at photo albums from five, 10, 15 and 20 years ago

It would not be our family time without some people playing Settlers

My Aunt Millie (center) has a tradition of every Christmas taking a photo with all her nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews. Here I am with all my first cousins, the girl ones anyways :)

Sunday was our own family Christmas at my parent's with all eight of us. This was the first Christmas that all of us kids have had a "significant other" present so that took a little getting used to, but it was all good. My mom, the gift giver, bought everyone plenty of presents and we had a fun morning sitting around and opening gifts. The rest of the day we were at home playing games and eating a big meal my mom put together. Sunday evening my parents and Luke and Logan and us went up to my cousins cabin in central Pennsylvania. Ben and Heidi left us and headed down to sunny Florida to play in a charity volleyball tournament.

Doing the typical "show off what you got for Christmas" photo

Ben and Heidi and Luke and Logan taking over the couch

Adding more miles to our trip we headed to the cabin (we call it the Kastle) and spent Monday and Tuesday out there with about 25 members of our family. Again, it's a good thing we like each other! We mainly just hang out, play games, hike, talk and eat. It's great and very restful. One family tradition we always do at the Kastle is to pull taffy. This was my grandmother's recipe and thankfully the recipe and the technique to actually pull taffy are two things my mom and her sisters have retained.

Here my little cousin Rio is demonstrating that you have to butter your hands completely before starting to pull taffy

Here is the taffy before it is pulled. It is almost like a liquid carmel and then it cools slightly before you take a big blob of it in your hands and pull it with a partner

Here my cousins are pulling it using a special technique. You know it's done when it turns really white and stretches out.

Ta-da! The finished product. It gets cut and then wrapped in wax paper. It's quite tasty too as apparently the strange person on the right is demonstrating...

We left the Kastle Tuesday night and then spent Wednesday and Thursday at my parent's just hanging out and spending time with them. We were pretty lame for New Year's Eve and went to bed at 11:30! Rob wasn't feeling well and we knew we had a long drive ahead of us on New Year's Day so it made sense to go to bed.

I cried when we left my parent's house because it is always so hard to leave there. Holidays always go so fast and whenever we leave it always feels like we live so far away from them. Actually we do live far away... :(

But my mom is being so great to be intentional about getting us all together and is planning a ski weekend for us in February that we're all looking forward to. I think especially now that my brothers have girlfriends who we still need to get to know and with us all be scattered about family times like Christmas and vacations throughout the year become so much more important. Thankfully Rob and I are in a place where we can take the time to be with family as he gets so many breaks as a student and with my temp job I can take time unpaid when I need to. I figure in the long run of life I will remember the family times much more than a paycheck!

It was a wonderful Christmas and it was good to come home (after I got over my tears) and have one more week before Rob goes back to school tomorrow. We are so thankful for my family and for Rob's (who we got to see the weekend before Christmas and then on New Year's Day we stopped in and spent the night there -- sorry no pictures from those times!) who love us for who we are and support this season of life we're in.

Oh and we were very thankful our car made it the whole 1,800 miles...a little worse for the wear, but a faithful car to us at over 150,000 miles now!