We had some relaxing time at my mom’s. My wife and I got to visit Kyle and his fiancée Amanda (in whose wedding I’ll be in April). We played them and Kyle’s dad and Brenda in Trivial Pursuit (the brand new version) and stomped them! Heh. We also went to the Nutcracker at the Fox Theatre with my mom, brother, and aunt for my mom’s birthday. Afterwards we went to the Varsity and hung out with Phil. Then Christmas Eve morning hit – I woke up with a stomach virus. The rest of that day and Christmas were a painful blur, but by Christmas evening I was feeling much better. My wife, my mom, and even my aunt (who’s a registered nurse) took care of me during my sickness. They rock! At this Christmas, I got to hang out with family and got some good presents as well: Dante’s Divine Comedy from my brother and a nice Ecuadorian wallet from my mom to name just two. We postponed our travel day until the day after Christmas because of me being sick, but headed down the morning of the 26th the Heather’s parents house in Lawrenceville.

Our second stop started a day late, so we missed hanging out with Heather’s extended family for Christmas dinner, but got to see her parents and brothers for a few days. They postponed opening gifts a day for us. I got some laptop upgrades from her parents and a surprise gift from my wife and her parents: an amazingly awesome mountain bike! My father-in-law and wife went with me to a local park to test it out and we did 4.5 miles of crazy mountain trails. Good times. I also built the computer I helped my mother-in-law order for my brother-in-law Adam. Its fun to build computers – especially when someone else pays for it! Sunday morning we went to church at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth to listen to Dr. James Merritt preach, but were pleasantly surprised when his son Jonathan was announced to be preaching that day. Jonathan had just graduated from the school I go to, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. After hanging at my In-law’s for a few days, we headed down to Cumming to spend some time with my dad.

We arrived at my dad’s house the evening of the 29th. The next day, we met up with Kyle and Amanda again – this time to get measured for my tux. That evening, we headed to a party at the apartment of Matt and Taryn Temples. The next day, we opened presents with my dad, Connie, and brothers. I got a 22″ monitor and laser pointer to annoy animals with. Yay! We’ll be heading back to NC this Friday after hanging out with just a few more people here in GA. Overall, I must say this has been a great Christmas trip.