What did you do over Winter Break?

Since I wrote last, we've celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and now Valentine's is just around the corner.  So what did you do over winter break?

The family and I have been through quite a lot in the last several months.  So I guess the best place for me to start is by updating you on where we were last, and how we got to today.

First, we secured a Property Manager, and then a renter.  Yes!  (insert icon of someone doing the elbow knee tuck!)

Second, we had the movers come, in various stages, and pack out our house and send stuff everywhere!

Lastly, after making a few excursions to relocate our dogs to family members, and to drop off a lot of luggage at my Mom and Dad's house, well, we went to Disney World! 

 What else is there to do!?  I mean, come on! Really?

After a week of all things Disney we swung back through St. Augustine, on our way to Jacksonville, to pick up "Lil' Blankie," who is my youngest's dearest lovey.  Thankfully, I had my wits about me and realized (upon arrival at Disney) that the last place we had seen "Lil' Blankie" was  at the mall.  We called, and some good samaritan had turned it in to Lost and Found!  The friendly phone operator even sealed it up in a padded envelope and wrote all our info on it so Customer Service knew we were DEFINITELY coming back for it.

After one night's hotel stay in Jacksonville we dropped Matt off at the airport where he was Rhode Island bound for the next month.  The girls and I headed southwest to Chiefland for my youngest sister's wedding.  Yeah, I know, we only plan a lot at one time!  Why not?

So the wedding was great!  The dresses were lovely,

the cake was fab!,

cake by Brittany Herbeck

the bride and groom had a wonderful, marvelous day.

 Oh Yeah!  did I tell you I swallowed a bug?  Yugh!  So here we are, all the pretty people, in wedding party attire, the most painful high heels ever known to man, hair-did, photographer poised, . . .ready to shoot, 1.  .  .  2.  .  .brief funny joke told to make us smile, and , uhhhh! I think I just swallowed a bug!   So with eyes watering and me hacking and cackling like someone with emphysema, I did my best to "smile for the birdie!"  The pics were great and C.Hill Photography did a wonderful job.  Thankfully you can't see the "between takes", and my having emphysema attacks as the bug  was actually crawling back up my throat!!!!!, and my youngest saying no less than 4 times , "I hav'ta go potty!" Did I mention the wedding was at a state park?  Yeah, no potties were around, only palmetto bushes, sand spurs, sticks, and sugar sand, and I was in 5" killer painful heels!

Moving on! 

The ceremony was lovely, and the reception was a lot of fun.  I have enjoyed going to my two sister's weddings because it gave me a chance to talk to all the people that came to mine, that I never got to talk to.

The day after the wedding was nice, spending the time in a more intimate setting having breakfast with all my relatives at Buffalo Bills (as my Daddy-Bob likes to call it), over a large plate of deep-fried bacon.  Yes, that is what I said, deep-fried bacon. Then, I  promptly put the heels of death in the nearest Goodwill pile and headed up the road. (I did feel awkward passing those onto some unknowing soul.)

The next week was Thanksgiving in TN.  Matt cashed in at least 2 yrs worth of frequent flyer miles and surprised us my flying into Knoxville on Thanksgiving day.  It was great that he was able to spend time with his Mom, Dad, brother, and sister, as well as all the nieces and nephews.

After the week of Thanksgiving, we were on the road again.  This time we were headed to Shreveport, LA to visit Brit, Brendon, and Owen.  

Yeah! I totally just used that photo!

We had a blast!  Really! they took us to Natchitoches for a Christmas festival fireworks show!  It was really neat to see the fireworks on the river, matched to a lot of great Christmas music.  I was afraid my girls wouldn't get much Christmas spirit this year, moving overseas before Christmas and all, but everywhere we went there was Christmas lights, music, and decorations.

Brit and I also made a cool t-shirt scarves one afternoon.  (Check out how to make your own at this blog.)  It totally gave me a crafty fix that was desperately needed.

Week 4 (if you've been counting) put the girls and I in north Georgia at Matt's brother and sister-in-law's house.  I enjoyed spending time with them, mostly 'cause my twin nephews are there.  The boys are one year younger than Annika, my oldest.  So both my girls and the boys played themselves silly!  We spent a couple of days making paper Christmas crafts, and making cinnamon-applesauce tree ornaments.  Have you ever made them?  They are sooo simple and they smell yummy!

The end of week 4 found us on a short drive to Atlanta.  The girls and I stayed downtown with my aunt and uncle for the weekend.  They kept us busy!  We spent a whole day at the Georgia Aquarium,

and then day two at the Atlanta Children's Museum.

Both are super great places to go if you ever get the chance!

Monday morning of week 5 brought the girls and I a little further south of the city where I met up with Matt's Mom and Dad at a hotel.  I left the girls with Grammy Lynn, and Scott and I took my car to be dropped off for overseas shipment.  Now, all our worldly goods had finally been shipped off! Then we were back at the hotel to reconvene the masses of luggage, and once more headed north.

Week 5 was so restful.  We were back in Knoxville, with only our suitcases.  OK!  So I had like 6 really large suitcases!  But still, I was packing for November to mid-February, for all seasons.

Dec 19th came and I found myself and the girls embarking on the first of  5 plane rides to Bahrain!  We met up with Matt in Virginia and then travelled the remainder of the overseas flights together.  We all lost a whole day in there somewhere, but once we touched down it was Dec 21, and we were in Manama, Bahrain.  Marhaba!

And that is what I did over my winter vacation!