Post-Holiday Roundup

Jen and I have finally settled back into our schedules after the holidays, so I figure I'll let y'all know how it all went.

We started off by spending several fantastic days with the in-laws in Mexico, Missouri. Jen's siblings came the weekend before Christmas since we had promised the actual holiday to my family. Lucky for us, we had a white "Christmas"! Snow rolled in the night before our big celebration so when we woke up in the morning the fields were covered in a beautiful icy blanket. While, as most of you know, I generally prefer not to receive gifts, I have to say that Jen's family always does an exceptional job of finding things for me that I will really enjoy. This year, in addition to a generous donation to Heifer International, I received several books that I've been planning to get for a long time. In the meantime, Jenifer also got lots of fun stuff -- incuding her new Nintendo DS. She already has roughly three times the number of games for it than I have for my PS3...

On Christmas Eve we lit out for Knoxville to celebrate the holiday with my family. We got to share Christmas morning at my little sister's house with her, my parents, and my niece Abbie. It was a real simple affair and we all had a really nice, relaxed morning. That evening we went over to my grandparents' house for a big dinner with the extended family. It's kind of funny, because before my parents moved back to Knoxville, every time I went I got to spend lots of time with my granparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Since my parents moved, however, it's just kind of natural to spend most of my time at their house, meaning that I see everyone else less frequently even though I'm in town more often. That said, I really cherish getting to hang out with them all.

Most of the rest of the time in Knoxville was devoted to a special legal project for my dad, but all of my sisters, nephews, and nieces came up for our big nuclear family celebration on the Friday after Christmas. Let me tell you... I love all the young'uns in the family, but when you get together seven kids all under seven years of age, only one word describes it: CHAOS. Man, there were kids everywhere, usually hollering or crying. Jen and I have decided that we'll wait a few more years to have babies of our own.

Now, Jen and I had agreed that our big Christmas present to each other this year would be a trip to a bowl game. Since Missouri was ranked higher and was playing in the Cotton Bowl, which is conveniently located close to one of my best men, we opted to head there rather than down to Florida for the Outback Bowl. We lit out for Dallas the day after the big family celebration, but I ended up knocked out by a 24-hour bug and we had to overnight in Little Rock. Once I recovered and we arrived in Dallas, the party was on! Chris and Tracy were wonderful hosts, and we had a lovely New Year's Eve with them... until Jenifer came down with an illness similar to the one I had. Unfortunately, she hadn't recovered by New Year's morning, so we had to abandon our plans to attend the game. But it was an adventure! And we did have a very good time, whenever we weren't feeling physically ill.

So that catches you up on the current happenings in the Roland household. Hope everyone is doing well!