Long time, No see.

This saying reminds me of my dad. When we were little, he would use old sayings like this to puzzle us. Then as we grew older he would use them to embarrass us. And eventually we grew old enough that they make us laugh, and I even find myself using some of them in my classroom!

We had a GREAT Christmas break! After Thanksgiving, we were in Charlottesville for about 3 weeks. Temp was finishing up his first semester of school and I was trying finish up at Regents, finish Christmas shopping, and trying to keep our holiday calendar straight! We made a quick trip to the SEC Championship game. I think we were back within 30 hours of leaving!

We left Cville and headed for Florence the weekend before Christmas. The Thursday morning we left was the first snowfall of the year!

Temp went hunting and I went to Birmingham for the weekend and we met back in Florence on the Sunday before Christmas. We spent that week in Florence, and drove to Montgomery on Christmas Eve for the annual Millsap Christmas Eve Party. We spent Christmas Day in Montgomery and enjoyed just visiting with family.

Then we drove back to Charlottesville on the 26th, repacked on the 27th, and flew out at 6:00am to Jamaica on the 28th! We joined the Millsaps in the Atlanta airport and were in Jamaica by lunchtime! We had the best time in Jamaica. Temp and I agreed that it was nice to do nothing for a change.  We sat on the beach with a book and listened to the repetitive island tunes of this 3-man band.

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve and were asleep not long after midnight (if not before).  Here are some pictures!

Allen even got to partake in the champagne (He had sparkling grape juice) on New Year's Eve!

While we were in Jamaica, we did the zip line course. It was a first for many of us! I enjoyed all of it until the vertical drop! That was a little scary, but it was the only way down!

It was hard returning to cold Charlottesville after spending a few days in the wonderful, temperate weather Jamaica had to offer. I had to be back at work on the 4th, and Temp flew straight from Jamaica to Denver. He spent the week in Fort Collins, Colorado doing a Kaizen event. From what I can understand, it's just a week long job trek where the students try to improve a specific problem in the company. He had a blast  and kept mentioning that I would like it there. I asked if he was trying to tell me he wants to move there! I guess we'll see what happens.

On January 7th, I flew to Phoenix and Temp came from Denver. We met the Millsaps there for a weekend filled with orange and blue. Let me stop here and state my disclaimer: I went to Alabama, or as Temp's grandmother, Sallie, calls it "The University." (I just love that!) I am an Alabama fan. I will always be an Alabama fan. But I'm not a tacky Alabama fan. I resisted the urge to take my houndstooth coat or scarf. I tried to let the Auburn fans revel their 15 minutes of fame. I even kept my mouth shut when Henson showed up in this:

Although I'll admit, later I "stole" this shirt from Henson as a joke. He didn't seem to care. Bubble busted.

We had a great weekend. We shopped, rode ATVs in Sedona, and dined at some great restaurants.

I even got to see my friend Kathryn!

Then it came time for the big game. Words cannot explain how much excitement I was seeing from all of these Auburn fans.

I just feel like I need to say that I didn't go to the game. I sent the crew off in their orange and blue and I went shopping!

Here is a picture from Temple's camera. Judging by their big smiles, I'm guessing this was taken after the game!

Since then we've been back in Charlottesville getting back into the swing of things. We've kept ourselves busy with Supper Club, date nights, dinner with friends, and trying to stay warm! (It was 9 degrees one morning when I left for school!)

I'll leave you with another picture from Temple. This is the most amazing sunset.  I wish we could've seen one like this while we were there!