christmas week

after a couple of long days of driving, we made it to iowa! the drive really wasn't that bad.  we took our time, stopped in random places we wanted to stop, and made it home in good time + the weather cooperated, which made the drive much more relaxing than what it could have been.  honestly, it was pretty fun to drive together and watch the scenery change as we moved across the states.  i love seeing the silos and old farmhouses start to pop up as you get closer to iowa.

for the first time, we are staying for longer than a week, which has made it a much more relaxing trip so far.  today, we literally sat around and did nothing all day long and didn't feel guilty about it for a second.  probably the best part about being home for me is getting to be apart of all the normal things i miss when i'm away.  one of my favorite parts of our vacation so far lasted for about 10 minutes when i watched hunter and couple of his friends saxophone carol down main street in ames. {the fact that they ended up on the local prime time news for it has nothing do with it, i swear!} i love getting to see and be apart of my younger brother and sister - and all of my cousins' - lives as they grow up, and the little things like getting to see my little brother go saxophone caroling makes me feel less far away from my iowa home.  the only thing that would make this trip better is if shea & chris were here to hang out too - come on guys, there's still a couple days for you to get here before christmas!

other highlights have included: sunday dinner, building the annual xmas village, eating eating eating of course {notice the picture of tanner's gigantuan iowan sized dinner courtesy of hickory park}, cafe diem with my mom and elizabeth, gossip girl gossip girl gossip girl {will chuck bass live or die???}, playing an intense game of scattergories, cat stories with dad, taking horribly ugly pics with madison & hunter on photobooth, making christmas cookies at gran & papa's {and seeing their new house}, and FINALLY finishing my christmas shopping for the year after several trips to target.

only two more days until christmas!! got to love this time of year.