Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! As most of you know, Joe and I were able to come home for Christmas! We found out just two weeks before, so we decided to keep it a surprise! We flew into Chicago on Sunday the 21st and landed around noon with tempuratures of only 3 degrees and falling...by the time we got our luggage, picked up the rental car, and made it to Grand Rapids, it was 7:30pm!! The drive along the lake shore in near white out conditions made for a very long day, but Joe got us there safely and it was well worth it!! Mom and Dad V were gracious enough to open up their basement to us on such short notice ;)
After three straight days of snow, it was safe to say that we would be having a white Christmas!! YAY!! My mom and I were even able to go skiing on Christmas Eve so that was cool...it's been a couple years since I've been able to do that. Now Joe wants to take me downhill skiing in the mountains, so we'll see...
As you can see from our pictures, Tayden took up most of our camera space and there were plenty more that I didn't post! :) She is getting bigger and cuter by the day!! We spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side and Joe's dad's side and then Christmas day with our mom's sides and we woke up Christmas morning at my parents house for the first time in a couple years, so that was really nice. This really was a great trip home...we spent a lot of time with our families and it was nice to find some time to relax.
We flew back to CA on Saturday and were suppose to land around 11pm, but there were some delays on the plane, delays with our luggage, and delays getting to our car, so by the time we got back to our house after stopping to buy some milk for breakfast, it was 3AM and we were exhausted after being up for almost 24hrs! At this point, it would have been nice to just crawl into bed, but just as I was thinking this, the gallon of milk slipped out of Joe's hand and EXPLODED all over the kitchen floor, over the rugs, and under the fridge! Needless to say, it was after 4:00 before we got to bed! And now today is New Years Eve and our vacation is almost over! We hope you all have a very Happy New Year!!