Christmas at Grandma's (in Virginia)

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and what a morning it was. The kids were in our room before 7:00 AM. We read the Christmas story in bed and then went down stairs to open presents. The kids were very excited! A little too excited for us especially since Stephenie was not feeling well. She had a severe sore throat! Since we were going to leave for Virginia around lunch, we decided that Stephenie should go to an urgent care to find out what was wrong.

The doctor said that her throat was severely swollen and that she had an infection. The doctor put her on an antibiotic for the infection and a steroid to bring down here throat swelling.

After she got back from the doctor, we had a brunch and then got ready to leave! We finally got out of town around 12:45 - after a brief trip down the road only to realize that we had forgotten our coats!

We made good time! There was very little traffic on the road. Most people were already where they were going to go and the Christmas Eve parties hadn't started yet. We only saw two highway patrol officers the entire trip. We made the trip in almost record time. We didn't stop at all except to go to the bathroom at the Virginia welcome center. We also let the kids play a little bit before getting back in the van to finish the trip.

I have uploaded some pictures to my photo album. Click on the link that is listed on the right of the page.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Lights

Last weekend I finally got our outdoor decorations ups. It took awhile to "figure out" what I was doing since 1) I took out all of our bushes since last year and 2) we took down all the railing off of the front porch. Well, as you can see, icicle wrap the entire length of the front porch. I also put icicle lights around the eve of the side stoop and storage room. I then wrapped each of the porch poles. Stephenie had wanted topary Christmas trees that were lit to put by the front door. You can see from the picture that we got a couple. We purchased them at AC Moore, which is a store similar to Michael's.

Silas absolutely loves Christmas lights and Christmas trees. He gets very excited when he sees them all lit up! 'Tis the season to be jolly!

Christmas, 2006 in Iowa

We just arrived home from our "every 3 years in Iowa" Christmas. With 4 children, we decided to fly instead of drive. All the children did a wonderful job on the flights. (Having a DVD player definetely helped.)

It was great to see my family. Brenda, my youngest/older sister, suprised us by driving up with her husband and youngest son so that they could go eat with us at Zeno's Pizza. Brenda had originally told us that she wouldn't be able to make it this year, which disappointed all of us. It was quite a suprise when they walked into the house.

There are three things that I always accomplish when I visit home. Eat at Zeno's Pizza and Maid-Rite and devour some AE Party Dip. I accomlished all three! Zeno's serves the best pizza in the world! Maid-Rite makes only one thing - a loose meat hamburger sandwich with mustard, onions and pickles. You order it this way, "I'll take a wet one with everything." (I know that a loose meat hamburger sandwich doesn't sound that great but you just have to try one. Check them out at www.maidrite.com) AE Party Dip is what you eat chips with.

Silas, due to the change in weather and humidity, developed quite a bit of drainage and a cough. It hasn't gone to his chest. We're praying that it will clear up now that we are at home.

While at home, I saw a friend of mine that I had grown up with and that I hadn't seen for almost 20 years. His name is Richard Keller. My dad has an old Ford Escort sitting by the barn that has a "For Sale" sign on it. Richard just happened to be driving by and stopped to look at it. When he got out of his car, I said, "You're Richard Keller!" He replied, "And your Joseph Campbell." We spent a few minutes catching up on 20 years. I had Stephenie take our picture and then Richard was on his way. It may be another 20 years before we see each other again.

It's amazing that although I am 34 years old I still feel as though I am in high school. 20 years only seems to have been a few days.

I will be posting our Christmas photos on our family website at www.familyofcampbells.com. Check them out.