Christmas in Arizona

We found out I think 2 weeks before Christmas that Tim would be getting time off. We were really excited, but worried because plane tickets are really expensive. Thankfully Tim’s brother Mike paid for our trip home. He is a pretty awesome brother. We flew out on Friday the 20^th from Philadelphia and got to Phoenix around 7:30pm, exhausted and hungry but glad to be home. Tim’s brother Will and his wife Anja were letting us stay with them through the holiday. That night I got to see Anja’s kids for the first time in a year and they have gotten so much older! Especially Jude, who was just an infant the last time I saw him. That kid is so smart. I got to hold Liddy for the first time and feel in love with her. I also got to hang out with Opal and Evie. Mom, Hannah and Steven hung out with us a bit on Thursday night.

Saturday we woke up excited to see everybody, Anja being the awesome person she is texted everybody to get together at the park because Arizona has nice temperatures this time of year. After the park we got to hang out with people at Iris and Tim’s house.

Sunday we went to church with the family and then headed over to Mike and Christie’s house. After that we went over to Aunt Karen’s house. Nobody was home when we got there, but we went in anyway. There was a goat in her living room. So Aunt Karen has goats and they can get through the doggy door, well the two females can, but the boy goat’s horns keep him from getting through. Sunday night we were at Mom’s house. Where we got to hang out with everybody. It was nice all of us being together again.

Monday night was our Jarman sibling progressive dinner and gift exchange and the cousin gift exchange. It was a lot of fun. I had Tecia and Hannah had me. Tim had Mike and Mike had Tim. Pictures of all of our awesome gifts are below.

Christmas Day was fun! Tim and I got to watch Opal, Eve, Jude and Liddy open their Christmas gifts. It was a lot of fun. Christmas is exciting for me, but being with kids who still believe in Santa makes it extra exciting! After that Tim and I went to Mom’s for Christmas breakfast. The last Christmas we had there was in 2011 and we loved her Christmas breakfast so I am happy that we got to do it again. Hannah and I played catch with Uncle Dan, who basically took pleasure in throwing a ball at me and Hannah. J Everybody should have an Uncle Dan. PS Mom has a turkey that Tim held for me so that I could pet it. I have this weird fear of birds-except for ducks, I love ducks. We got to Skype with Mary that morning for a couple of hours at Mike and Christies house. It was great talking to her. I believe there were some technical problems getting Skype to work, but in the end it did. After that it was back to Mom’s to give her the gift from the siblings and Dad his gift from the siblings. For Mom we pitched in a bought her a couch and for Dad we got him a set of art books. Christmas Day was great!

Thursday was our last day in Az. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:05, but we wanted to get to the airport by 12:30. Sorry if we didn’t communicate the time we were leaving better. The reason we wanted to get there so early was because of how long it took us to board the first time. We got to the Philadelphia airport two hours early and by the time we got through check-in and security we didn’t have that much time. We just wanted to make sure we were not rushing or late or worse miss our flight. However our worries turned out to be for nothing because we found out that our flight was going to be delayed about an hour and forty-five minutes! Bummer. However we did make it to Philadelphia around 11pm ish and we got back home around 12:15am. Glad to be home with the exception that our heat was out so our house was at 41 degrees-thankfully it got fixed the next day.

A shout out to Anja and Will for letting us stay with them. Mom for picking us up and dropping us off. Everybody for being so nice and letting us come and go to their houses. Mike and Christie for paying for the trip. Mike and Will for letting us use their trucks. Varinia and Steve for taking such good care of our dogs. There are probably more people that I need to thank and forgot to add. Sorry in advance if I did, it was not on purpose. Know that we had a great time, we loved seeing everybody and we miss you all. Another long blog post. This time the pictures are of gifts that we got. Enjoy!

Hannah's gift to me. I love them!! PS I'm wearing them now. Also I may have worn them to bed once...or twice

Mom's gift to me and Tim. We love Amazon!!! We already used it!

Mike's gift to Tim (which is also a gift to me)-really a kind and thoughtful present. Thanks again!

Will showed me a wand that he had made for Opal-I thought it was cool. He surprised me at the sibling gift exchange with this bad boy!!! Not gonna lie played with it for like an hour. I love this thing!!! He is so talented.

A surprise gift from Grandma! A checker board that turns into....

a tic tac toe board. This is so neat. We love it and are so thankful!

Thanksgiving in Kentucky

The sunset-at this point we are almost to my hometown.

  

As much as we wanted to answer the question “Are you guys coming home this year?” we had to give the vague, “We don’t know.” to both mine and Tim’s families. Tim put in a request in August, I believe, and I put my name down at the end of August to be off for the holidays. Tim is still considered new and we were not sure if he would be allowed off for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. I was stressed. I wasn't sure what the best choice was. If we only got one holiday off which family to visit? I worried because I didn't want either side to feel slighted or hurt that we chose to go to one family instead of the other. In the end we found out the week before Thanksgiving that Tim would be able to go on vacation. The decision of where to go became a financial one. We couldn't afford two plane tickets that close to the holidays and driving to Ky in our gas saving Prius wouldn't be that expensive. So we chose Thanksgiving with my family and hoped to be able to spend Christmas with Tim’s.

I am so grateful that we got to go home. My grandmother loves Tim, I honestly think she would chose him over me! That’s sort of a joke, but kind of not. She thinks that he is smart and a good person. We spent several hours in the mornings with her and then a couple of hours in either the afternoon or at night depending on what else we were doing. We got to see my brother, his wife, their two kids and his grandmother (plus some other people from his side of the family, but I can’t think of their names or how they are related to him).

I was really excited to see Justin and Taylor, I haven’t seen them in about four years, my niece, Emerson, was just a baby and now she is 6! I had never met my niece Adeline, who is a doll, she is 1! We spent some time with them and my other older brother William and his wife Lisa stopped by for a little bit-they were getting ready to go to Lexington to watch the UK basketball game and we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we would have liked with them. We were also able to go out to dinner and see Christmas lights with them. Justin and Tim got along great and I am really happy they got to meet! I am also glad that I got to see my favorite Taylor, my sister-in-law. She is more like a sister and I adore her. I have known her since I was 16 (I think). She is a great person. I am lucky to know her.

Leaving was hard, as always I never know when I will be able to go back home. I never know if it is the last time I will be able to see my grandmother. It was hard. After driving for about 14 ½ hours we made it safely home. It to longer to get home than to get there because: Dwight threw up while in the front seat (picture dog puke on Tim, in my purse and the car), it was snowing in West Virginia and traffic in Maryland. But luckily we had a safe and relatively uneventful drive.

There was plenty more that we did. We saw friends and had other interesting experiences, but this post is long enough. If you read all of it-you’re a trooper. If you just skimmed it there are some cute photos for you to take a peek at! Coming soon-Christmas in Az blog.

Me with Tim and Emerson.

Tim and I in a sleigh.

Emerson posing for the camera.

Emerson and her sister Adeline.

Me, Emerson, Justin, Adeline and Tim

My sister-in-law told my brother not to do the peace sign-so I helped him out.

Tim with my grandmother.