Here it goes...

As promised, here is the long post about our Christmas vacation and all the fun that it entailed! We landed in Memphis around midnight on December 16th after a long day of travelling with a sleepy baby. Arden did fairly well on both of our flights, however, for a short period, we were definitely "those people" with the crying baby! Mom, Dad, Em, and Steve-o were all there at the airport to pick us up! The next several days were a blur, but we spent a lot of time just hanging around the house with the fam and got to see a few friends in there as well. On Monday, the 21st, we had the "Meet Arden" party (in place of the Duggan Open House) where all of our friends and my parent's friends were invited to come hang out and meet Arden. It was so good to see so many people that we hadn't seen in so long and to get to catch up and show Arden off to everyone. He did so well being passed around to tons of strangers and was able to stay up for almost the whole party. On the 23rd, we had Christmas with Mimi, Leah, and Chaney (my aunt and cousin and her husband) which was also fun. Leah and Chaney hadn't yet met Arden so it was fun to get to introduce him to them. On Christmas Eve, we had my dad's sister, Sarah, and her 7 boys and husband, Keith, over for dinner and presents. It was definitely a full house with all of the boys, but it was fun to see them love on Arden as well. Christmas morning was as exciting as ever at my parent's house with opening presents and having a yummy Christmas lunch. That night we went to see Sherlock Holmes with the Coes. Much to my disappointment it was not a movie about a little detective in a plaid hat, smoking a pipe, with a dog named Watson, wearing the same hat, as his side kick. Someone please tell me where I got this vision of Sherlock Holmes as a kid....Anyway, it wasn't really my type of movie, but it was still fun to be with everyone. After the movie, Lindsey (Coe) and Josh Hughes (who are expecting their first son in May!) came over and hung out and played Trivial Pursuit with us all. It was really good to catch up with friends who really know me and who I can just be myself around and am completely comfortable with! The day after Christmas, we headed to Jackson to see William's parents. We stayed there for 4 nights and had a good time visiting with them as well as several friends in MS. On the 30th we headed back to Memphis for Mom's birthday where we met her, Anna, and Mimi for lunch and then went to the Brook's Museum for an exhibit that she had been wanting to see. That night, Dad cooked dinner for us all and it was quite tasty! New Year's Eve was pretty mellow. We hung out with one of William's friends from college, Nathan, and his wife, Kaddie, for lunch. That afternoon, Michelle, William's sister, flew in so that she could go with us to William's grandmother's house the next day. We went out to dinner with my parents and then just spent a relaxing evening at home trying to stay up until we watched the ball drop at midnight. The next day we went to the Mississippi Delta to see Mammaw (William's grandmother). We stayed there for two nights and enjoyed visiting her, but I tell you what...the delta is not for me! It's so desolate I get claustrophobic if I stay there too long. We headed back to Memphis on the 3rd, dropped Michelle off at the airport, and had one more evening at home with the fam before we flew out at 7:30 the next morning. We made it back home around 1pm and were pooped, but we had a great time and are looking forward to our next trip home (whenever that may be!)

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PS I wrote this post about a week ago and have been trying since then to get pictures to go along with it, but that is taking forever, so here's the post and pictures will come soon!