Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandma and Grandpa's House we go...

My very first Christmas was all I hoped for...minus the cake Mom and Dad tell me we'll have in the future to celebrate Jesus' Birthday (no, I'm not bitter) -- Let me set the stage (and please sing in the tune of 12 days of Christmas..) --- On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me....18 hours of driving, 12 degrees outside, 11 meals a day, 10 kisses per hour, 9 new toys with music, 8 new outfits for stylin', 7 grown adults, 6 in the morning wake up calls....FIVE - DOGGIE -DOGS....4 times watching Christmas Vacation, 3 states of traveling, 2 grand kids for spoilin', and ONE HAPPY BOY!!! Well, after the blizzard of '09 and all 18 inches of goodness busted its way through Richmond, which by the way was nothing short of incredible...

Me, Mom, Dad, Daisy, 6 suitcases, 1 cooler, 2 brown paper bags, gifts for the giving, my pack n' play, Daisy's bed, and all the small necessities that come along with having a handsome devil like me were piled into Dad's Christmas gift to mom (thank you, Lord for providing a car with more room so Daisy and I didn't have to share a car seat) and we headed to Arkansas via Nashville. The original plan was to spend the day in Nashville as a family - the modified reality was to spend the night..literally just the night. We got a late start, Daisy whined to the tune of Come All ye Faithful the ENTIRE trip to Nashville, mom had a killer sore throat, I wanted entertainment and Daisy's singing didn't quite cut-it and I'm pretty sure Dad spent the entire trip to Nashville just praying for peace and quiet. We made it though safe and sound and the two folks we did interact with during our stay there (the bell boys) were just as southernly gentleman as we expected. My guess is they were up and coming country music stars...so I got their autograph. We (and by we I mean I) woke up early and was sure to make sure mom and dad knew that, we got our continental breakfast and before we knew it we were on the road again. The second half of the trip was much more relaxed. Daisy must have realized we had been driving too long to be going to her boyfriend's house so she just slept and I played and napped until we finally arrived.

Oh and arrive we did. It's been glory I tell ya..absolutely glory. Dad's cousin Thomas was here when we arrived and dad's brother, his girlfriend (& her two dogs), and my cousin Caity arrived on Wednesday afternoon and if you're doing the math with me that makes...seven adults, two kids, and yes...5 dogs. Nothing better than organized chaos and a chorus of woof woof, yap yap, and a few bow wow wows. I met my grandpa for the first time and that's been wonderful (although sometimes when I'm sitting and playing he sits in his chair and reaches out to me motioning me to come over to him...reminding me and all the others in the room of my lack of ability for mobility) -- along with the many kisses and hugs from my Grandma... playing with my cousin Caity...showing all my food and playing hide and go seek with my Uncle Thomas...and learning new signs from my uncle Aaron and his girlfriend Rayni...

Oh and people - I'm not sure what you woke up to this morning but right after mom and dad told me of the birthday party we were going to today for Jesus, apparently grandma and grandpa heard it wrong and thought it was MY birthday because gifts were EVERYWHERE. I could barely get the tape off one gift and two more were being tossed my direction!!! They were actually sweet enough to get presents for EVERYONE so here's Caity and I doing our thing...

I can't say enough how much fun I have had. I'm glad this trip isn't nearly over yet because there are MANY more family members to meet, food to be eaten, hugs to be received, and dare I say...presents to open??? How come Jesus' birthday gets to last so long??? Alls I know is you won't hear complaints from me!!!