This Christmas marked the first time since 2010
that Mark and I were able to spend the holidays with our families! And we loved
every minute of it!
We arrived in Mt. Vernon early morning on Friday,
December 21st after what can only be described as a hellish day and
a half of travel (this is before we got to the “loving every minute of it stage”). Flying such a long distance is a little rough
to begin with (especially on a terrible flyer like myself) but when you add
that with very turbulent flights, it’s even worse! But
the absolute worst part of the travel, by far, was arriving in Chicago knowing we are
only an hour layover and a 1.5 hour flight away from home and being told our
flight was cancelled until the next day, possibly even longer, due to the
weather. Well, we’d come too far to be
stopped there so we rented an obnoxiously overpriced rental car and decided to finish
the last leg ourselves! The drive started off fine enough with just a light snow beginning to fall as we left Chicago but I’d be lying if
I said there weren’t a couple times during the drive that I thought we should
have possibly waited for that flight, seeing (when it wasn't a total whiteout) multiple
overturned 18-wheelers and cars off the road will make anyone second guess themselves. But, we made
it home safe and sound thanks to Mark’s safe driving!
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| The Vogel's house after the big snow storm |
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| The Nurrenbern house after big snow storm |
Once in MV, we had a fun filled week of Christmas
celebrations, time with family, catching up with old friends, and enjoying the beautiful
aftermath of the initially annoying snow storm.
A few highlights from the week include: donating 20 inches of hair to
Locks of Love, seeing my 5-year-old niece tear into Christmas presents, Mark
catching an iceman game with his family (complete with Todd and a Stanley cup
photo-op), watching the playoffs with Mark's family, celebrating my parents birthdays, and cooking for my family
for the first time (for Christmas dinner, no less)!
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| After much needed cut (left), before cut (right) |
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| Brinkster opening presents on Christmas morning |
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| Playoffs at the Vogel's - and Todd was able to come home! |
After a fun filled week in Indiana, we headed off for a long weekend in Houston to check on our house and celebrate New Year’s with
our friends. Friday night we went to a
Houston Aeros hockey game with a large group which made for a fun time! The
rest of the weekend was spent catching up with friends over shopping and
football (can you guess who did what?). Before
making our way to visit Mark’s family in Alabama, our time in Houston was capped off
with an awesome NYE party at a friend’s house!
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| Some of the boys at the Aeros game :) |
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| Kaitlyn and I watching the Michigan State game |
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| Mark and his boys ready for some football! |
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| Bekah and I ready to head off for a day of shopping |
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| NYE 2012 |
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| HAPPY NEW YEARS! |
In Alabama we were able to visit with Mark’s
maternal grandmother, aunt, cousins, and step-grandmother which included a visit
to Mark's Grandpa’s farm (a first time for me!) – lots of great memories (just wish I had taken some pictures!)!
After our visit in AL, we came back to Indiana for
another 5 days. Even made it back just
in time to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in MV, where it all started :) I’d
say that saying yes to being Mark’s girlfriend has worked out pretty well! When January 8th rolled around, it
was (as always) hard to say goodbye but it was made easier this time knowing
that we’d be back so soon as we are coming back to The States in May 2013 for our friend's wedding!
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| Celebrating 10 years as a couple - the good news is, it doesn't feel like its been that long! |
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| Brinkley doesn't want Uncle Mark to go (Aunt Niki turns into chopped liver when Uncle Mark is around) |
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