Our Barker Bunch: Holiday Catch Up

Happy New Year everyone! I’m sorry I have been such a bad blogger these past couple of weeks! The hubs and I spent Christmas and New Years out in the Midwest. We visited his family in Indiana, and also visited one of my friends in Chicago. We didn’t bring a laptop with us, so I didn’t really have many/any opportunities to post. I know you all have been dying to know what’s going on in my life ;-) Well, worry no more! I’m back with updates. Prepare for a long post!

We left for the airport early Thursday morning the 22^nd. HUGE thanks to Jamie over at thislittlehomeofmine for being so kind and taking us to the airport! The flights on our way out were pretty bumpy and I nearly got sick on the second flight. But we got into Chicago safely. John’s parents picked us up from the airport and we headed to John’s sister’s house. So we got there and settled in and got to visit with his parents, sister, her husband and their two kiddos. We had a great time visiting with them and doing things with the kids. We went to one of those indoor bounce house places, went and saw Santa, and went out to lunch.

The Whybrew family with Santa

Christmas Eve we went to 2 different church services where Nathan (SIL’s husband) is a pastor. The first service was the “family” service so we went for the kids. The next service we went to because SIL, her hubby Nathan, and FIL were all playing their instruments for the choir. Then we went back to the house and waited for Nathan to get back from the 11pm service. Mean while I made my family’s tradition of Grasshoppers (1 part crème de mint, 1 part crème de cacao, and 1 part milk), as well as prepared my other family tradition of bubble coffee cake for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning we got up and went to church (since Christmas was on a Sunday) and then came back, ate, put the kids down for a nap while the adults opened presents, and then let the kids open presents after they woke up. It actually worked out really nicely. The little ones got to be the center of attention while opening their presents which was perfect J There were some great presents to go around. My most exciting present was the sewing machine I got from my hubby! I haven’t gotten to see it yet, since he only brought the foot pedal and the user manual with him (obviously you can’t really travel with a sewing machine!) But the pictures look awesome!! You can see it here.

The day after Christmas we travelled back to John’s parents house (about an hour and a half drive). And 7 family members from FIL’s side of the family came in from Virginia to join us. We spent a fun few days with that crew (even though hubby was sick most of the time L still is actually). They left on Thursday to go visit more family, and on Friday was the big family Christmas for MIL’s side of the family. So there was about 30 people over on Friday afternoon. Full house! But a good time was had by all and it was nice to see everyone.

Saturday morning John and I trucked back up to Chicago to spend NYE with a couple of my friends. New Years day my friend and I got to go into downtown Chicago and shop a bit on Michigan Ave. It was a pretty magical site. The street was lined with lights, there was a bit of a snow flurry falling, and people were bustling around all wrapped up in coats and hats and scarves and gloves.

And now we are finally back home, and back to work. John is still getting over his cold and we are trying to get back into a normal routine. Phew! If you read this whole thing and got this far…kudos to you! If you skipped to the bottom…I don’t blame you J Happy New Year!

Here are some pics from our trip: