Christmas Vacation

We just got home last night after spending 10 days on Christmas Vacation.  It was wonderful, but busy.  We spent most of the time in Pensacola with my family but took a quick over-night road trip up to Atlanta on Christmas day to see BA's side of the family.  I got to spend lots of time with my sister and my parents, and we ate so much delicious Pensacola local food.  I love all the local restaurants in Pensacola and I miss how easy it is to do things there.  We also went out to the beach 2 times.  Just beautiful, as usual.  We spent Christmas eve with my mom at church and then at her house eating our traditional snow crab legs dinner and opening presents.  Then on Christmas day my dad made homemade pancakes at his house and we opened presents with him.  Having divorced parents has never been fun around the holidays, and it's such a drag to have to bounce back and forth between the two houses, but after so many years of doing it, I guess I'm used to it by now.  Around noon on Christmas day, BA and I had to start driving up to Atlanta to see his parents.  On our way up to Atlanta, it started to snow and by the time we got to the hotel where we were staying the night, it was a white Christmas!  It made me really excited about moving back to Atlanta after law school and having seasons again.  In Atlanta we met up with BA's parents and had dinner at the hotel with them, then exchanged presents.  The next day we drove over to BA's mother's side of the family for a Christmas brunch which was so yummy.  After brunch we drove over to BA's father's side of the family for more Christmas food and a gift exchange.  Then we hit the road at about 5:30 p.m. and drove the 6 hour drive back to Pensacola.  We spent the next 3 days soaking in more of Pensacola's fabulous food and family time.

Needless to say, we are exhausted.  Flying 2000 miles to Pensacola, driving 12 hours to Atlanta, and bouncing back and forth between parents has worn us completely out.  I can't imagine spending a Christmas without family but right now the effort and expense we have to go to in order to see family is exhausting.  But that's why we are moving back to the east coast.  We have to remind ourselves that in less than 1.5 years, we'll be within driving distance of both families and that will make life infinitely easier.