"Oh there's no place like home for the holidays..."

How true is that song lyric!!! Karl and I felt very fortunate to be able to go home for an entire week during our Christmas breaks (one of the perks of both of us being teachers), and we packed a LOT into our week in Indiana.

1) My cousin Marvin's wedding
We flew into the St. Louis airport on Saturday, December 20, and immediately high-tailed it to New Harmony, IN, where Marvin was getting married at 5:30 p.m. We made it to the hotel with about 40 minutes to spare...just enough time to change clothes and brush our teeth. The wedding was held at the Granary building in New Harmony - absolutely beautiful, and decorated perfectly for a winter wedding. I was sooooo happy for Marvin. I consider him to be one of my closest cousins and to see the happiness in his face and his wife's (Mallory) was heartwarming. No one expected us to make it to the wedding in time so I think they were pretty surprised we were there for the ceremony. Marvin has never been one to bounce from girlfriend to girlfriend, so when he dated someone I always knew it must be serious. Mallory and he seem to be perfect complements to each other and I am so happy to welcome her into our family.

For more photos from the wedding, visit my Snapfish album.

2) Visiting with my best friend Lori
We didn't have much time for it, but we were able to squeeze in a lunch with my best friend from high school, Lori, and her husband, Sean, and her brother, Brett. We had a lot of fun catching up with them and hearing about everything they've been up to since we moved away in July. I wish we had more time to spend with them but hopefully the next time we're home we can get together again!

3) We bought iPhones
We tried to fight it, constantly convincing ourselves (or more like me convincing Karl) "We don't really need them...there's no reason to have email, internet, and games on your phone..." Well, after being around some friends with iPhones we finally gave in and decided to take the plunge. This meant switching our service from Verizon to AT&T, as well as spending an hour and a half inside the AT&T store with a very helpful salesperson named Brandon, but it was all worth it. We love the iPhones (but we're trying not to become addicted to them). The really funny thing is I think I actually like the iPhones more than Karl, which I never would have predicted!

4) Visiting Karl's family
We were able to spend three days in Nashville, IN, with Karl's family. Even though we got in a lot of quality time with them, it still didn't feel like enough! We were able to visit our favorite town in the country, Bloomington, and eat at some of our old favorites like Nick's and Anatolia. On Christmas Eve Karl's brother Erik and his wife Erin arrived from Connecticut, so we tried to squeeze in as much time with them as possible. The whole family went to the Christmas Eve church service at St. Thomas, where we were married, and that was definitely one of my favorite activities of the whole trip. Karl and I knew we missed going to church there, but didn't realize how much until the Christmas Eve service! Here is a picture of the whole family that night:

Left to Right: Karl, me, Kurt, Erin, Erik, Kay, & Jim.

5) Christmas with my family
On Christmas morning we woke up early at the Eagleman residence and drove about two and a half hours down to the Evansville area to spend Christmas with my family. We started at my grandma Nanny's house opening stockings with her, my mom, and my mom's husband Mike. It was very nice to spend some quality time with those three before the craziness of the rest of the day ensued. Next stop was my aunt Joan's, where most of my aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' kids and spouses, were all gathered. It was great to see everyone again (we had seen most of them at the wedding) and have more of a chance to catch up. Around 5:00 we had to leave Joan's house to head to my dad's side of the family. We went to my aunt Janice's house, where it was packed with the same type of crowd as my mom's side - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, kids, etc. I hadn't seen many of these family members since last Christmas, so again it was great to catch up with everyone! We spent the night at my dad's on Christmas and were able to spend most of the day with him on the 26th. Here are a few photos from Christmas:

My mom and Nanny opening stockings on Christmas morning.

Nanny and Sydney (my cousin Josh & his wife Amy's daughter) on Christmas. I love this picture of them together!

My grandpa, Pop, with all of his granddaughters - Holly, Julie, me, Alicia, and Kristen.

Karl holding baby Sophie at my aunt Janice's. She was the sweetest little girl (this is the first time we ever met her).

My dad and me on Christmas.

6. One last get-together at Nanny's
The night before we left Nanny had my aunts and uncles over to her house (along with my mom and Mike of course) and we ordered pizza and had a fun little get-together. It was a nice chance to see everyone one last time before we left. Nanny was in rare form and she was acting hilarious (okay, maybe that's not really rare form for her...she's pretty funny all of the time!) and she, Karl, and I stayed up until after midnight playing cards. We kept trying to take a good picture of her but as soon as she would see the camera she made the most awful face she could. This happened over and over throughout the night, although we were able to sneak in a few good ones, and I'll post those here. :)

A good one of Karl and Nanny.

My aunts, grandma, mom, and me having a nice conversation in the dining room.

The late-night game of rummy. We set the timer on the camera to take this picture. Karl was the big winner, by just five points!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too (and a happy new year!)