A well needed Christmas vacation

So for the past couple of weeks I took off work to be with Nikki and my chitlins to go visit my parents in Columbia, IL and Nikki's parents in Branson, MO.  We first stopped off in Branson to break up the eight hour drive to my parents.  We stayed there a couple of days to visit, and then we spent around five days with my mom and dad.  We had a good time.  We took Savannah and Porter to the Science Museum in St. Louis, which was the first time that they had been there.  Savannah loved it, but then again she is our little sponge as she soaks up the knowledge.  She especially loves astrology and science.  On Christmas Eve Eve, Jamie, Angie, Madeleine, and Caroline arrived to Maga and Pop's.  Savannah and Madeleine were like two peas in a pod.  They only see each other maybe once or twice a year, and they are best friends.  Porter tried to get into the mix, and sometimes he was successful.  Caroline is the cutest little girl, especially when you hear her little voice saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy.... daddy, daddy, daddy" as fast as she can.  Christmas Eve, we received a white Christmas as it snowed around four inches in the St. Louis area.  Amanda, Mike, and my dad went out and built a snowman with nearly all of the snow in my parents' front yard.  It was the best looking snowman I had ever witnessed except for perhaps the bud light that was fit snuggly into his chest.  I think he drank to much that night considering the fact that Christmas morning he was leaning over to the side quite a bit.  Mom made an awesome Christmas Eve feast, and later in the evening we went down to the breezeway to hang stockings over the fireplace and to listen to my dad read the grandchildren "Twas the Night before Christmas", just as my Grandpa once had done when I was little.  Christmas was a lot of fun as the little ones awoke to see all that Santa had left them.  While we gathered around to open the bigger gifts, Savannah and Madeleine played St. Nick while they divvied out the presents.  After we finished with all the hoopla of Christmas morning, everyone sort of lounged around with a Christmas morning hangover, at least until the afternoon, when Jamie took the girls outside to go sledding in my parents backyard.  It looked like so much fun that Porter and I had to join them as well.  Savannah had a blast.  Porter liked the sledding also, but he was more interested in making snowballs.  It was the first time for both of them to go snow sledding, and I am so grateful that they did it with my brother and me.  It reminded me of the past when Jamie, Amanda, and I would get the sleds together and ride down our backyard and into the woods for hours at a time.  Then we would go inside to a warm fire and hot chocolate.  As Christmas drew to a close, we loaded up the mini-van and finished our Christmas sojourn to Branson.  We got in late and went to sleep soon thereafter so as to be able to go to Church the next day and to celebrate Christmas now with Nikki's side of the family.  The remaining time we had with Nikki's family was also fun.  Nikki's dad had the time off from work, which he hadn't had in a long time.  While in Branson, we went to the Butterfly Palace, found my new favorite restaurant, and went to a fun Branson show.  Towards the beginning of December I found out that my favorite restaurant, Acapulco's, had closed down for good.  It was a little taqueria that had my favorite food in the world, tacos al pastor.  Well, I was heart broken... that is until, we discovered a place called La Iguana which had even better tacos al pastor than Acapulco's had.  We also went to a show called Pierce Arrow that had a very funny comedian and some decent Christian Country music.  The best part of the show, however, was watching Porter get his groove on in the middle of the aisle with his little sweatshirt hood on.  He reminded me of a midget gangsta hip-hop dancer.  Over all we had a great time at Nikki's parents.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with Nikki's dad.  I consider him one of my best friends rather than a father-in-law.  The only bad part of the vacation is that we didn't get as much time to spend with Merrill and my siblings.  I'm so grateful to my family and Nikki's family.  Perhaps one day the Lord will bless us to be able to live closer to them so that we can see them more often, but until then I will cherish every moment I get to spend with them.