The DeSmet Family Worldwide: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the DeSmet's!

Ella 10, Julia 13, Valerie 30 something, Kelly 42

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The DeSmet family!

I hope that everyone had a great holiday with their loved ones. We had an excellent time back in Illinois with family. It was a bit too short for my liking but c'est la vie! It would have been longer if didn't take 50 hours of travel to get there. All flights and connections were smooth until we hit Chicago. Now, we could have driven 2 1/2 hours the rest of the way from there, but we knew we were bringing a whole pile of luggage and weren't sure what driving conditions would be like so we waited out the flight. After several delays we finally boarded at 11:15 PM to fly to the Quad Cities. I should have known it was too good to be true but when a 20 minute flight turned into 45 minutes I knew something was amiss. They had to turn us back to Chicago because of ice on the runway. When the pilot came on and announced this the language in that plane was definitely not PG. So....we headed back to Chicago and after spending awhile at the United Airlines desk we were put up in a hotel to catch 3 1/2 hours of sleep and return to the airport to try it all again. We made it to Moline, IL at 1:30PM on Sunday afternoon and despite all the chaos traveling, being up for 2 days straight without significant sleep, wearing the same nasty clothes that whole time, desperately needing a toothbrush and not getting our luggage until a day later......we were ecstatic! We were home!

We enjoyed spending time with my parents, and my sister and brother and their families. The kids love being with their cousins! We got to shop, sled, have Gator rides, go ice skating, watch my nephew Cole play 8th grade basketball, have a ping pong tournament, see my sister's new home, eat a lot of great food and just really get to be together. We also got to see Kelly's grandma and great aunt on Christmas (which is always a hoot), and meet some of our friends out for drinks and catching up. It was a week chuck full of activity, and we were running on pure adrenaline, but we didn't want to miss one thing.

When we returned to the Jing we laid low for a few days to recoop and then celebrated New Year Eve with some of our good friends here. The joke was if any of us could actually make it till midnight. We all had terrible jet lag, but we all made it.........except for Julia. She was asleep on the couch by 10:00.

We are now back in the swing of things and the hustle and bustle of daily life. We have some new years resolutions to shoot for including some fun travel, a marathon in May, trying to be healthier (ya know the same crap you say every year) but one thing is for sure......don't take things for granted. EVER! When we spend time with family it means something, when we spend time with our friends here we enjoy every minute of it. Life changes fast and you never want to look back and say, "I wish I would have". Get out there and live life. Put the electronics and iPhone down and experience things. You cannot have a meaningful conversation with someone when you are focused on your phone or computer. This is my biggest new years resolution! There are amazing things happening around all the time. I just have to pick my head up and take a look. Now, if I can just get my kids on board! LOL

xoxoxoxo

Love to you all!

Here are some pics from the trip home. I didn't take my camera along so this is the best we could do!