Happy New Year!

What a crazy several days! We found out last week that we had to change our trip home because of Jarrod's work schedule. So, we had 2 days to pack and for me to finish Christmas shopping for the Ohio clan. Fun stuff!

New Years Eve we were still here. We went to Charlotte Tavern with Erin and John and then came home and played a game of Rummy. I love that Jarrod's been playing Rummy so much more with me :) We, of course, went to bed before midnight. But, ironically, we were up cleaning up dog puke (thanks, Shirley!) and I looked at the clock, and it was 12:01. Happy New Year to us!

I didn't sleep much at all that night. I was so excited to be going home to visit family, and we were up a couples with Shirley. So, when the alarm went off at 4am, I think I'd had an hour and a half of sleep. But, that's ok....I was running on adrenaline. We were on the road by 5:15. We hit snow in about Buffalo, and it snowed off and on through Columbus pretty much. Nothing too bad, but parts were a bit scary. But, we made it home and were able to spend Friday night and Saturday celebrating Christmas with family and friends. It was so nice! Of course, the traveling and change in routine was awful for Gavin and he didn't sleep well at all.

Gavin is so spoiled! He got so many awesome gifts, including a Mickey Mouse Playhouse ball pit, golf clubs, Little People toys and trucks, instruments, etc. We were pretty lucky as well. Cute clothes, a new Coach purse, a portable DVD player for Gavin in the car, a new coat for Jarrod, an awesome Flip camera! So, you'll be getting more videos that are better quality for sure. :) We did a nice family dinner at El Rancho Grande on Saturday night with my whole family and Travis and Ashley.

Sunday morning we found out that we had a lot of snow here and were expecting more. I didn't hear anything about this before we left. So, we looked up the weather and weighed our options and decided to leave a day early. That way, we had more flexibility and if it got bad we could stop at a hotel. I was sad to leave, but knew it was the right choice. Soon after leaving, we learned that 90 was closed in PA. Nice... We made it to Cleveland, where we stopped and saw Heidi and Anthony, then Greg, Cor, and Addy, and found out 90 was open again. We left Cleveland around Gavin's bedtime in hopes that he'd sleep the whole way. He did....with a few minor crying periods in between. It took us 2 hours longer from Cleveland than normal. Parts of the drive were down right scary. We couldn't tell if we were on the road or not. I was so nervous. Jarrod's arms and hands hurts from gripping the wheel so hard. I left it up to Jarrod, but kept telling him that we could stop at a hotel anytime he wanted. There were a few times I dozed off, but I tried to stay awake and keep talking to Jarrod. We finally made it home around 2:30am. Safe and sound. But, we learned our lesson - no more trips in the winter. It's not worth the risk. So, we either fly, or we stay here. If we're still in NY next year, we'll be celebrating Christmas in the fall or spring :) Christmas in July, anyone?

Of course Gavin doesn't know how to sleep in, so despite us going to bed around 3am, he was up at 7. We unpacked, cleaned, took down all the Christmas stuff....it was actually a very productive day. And today, we're staying in....we are still getting snow! 6 more inches expected today. Gavin and I will just be snuggling and getting some things done here I guess. Here's my first video to post from my Flip camera. This is the snow outside our apartment this morning. I don't know if you can truly tell what we have, but let me tell you....it's a lot!