Luckily even with all of the snow that we were getting in Brussels, the day of our flight was not too bad. Days before and after, airports had been closed, flights had been canceled, so we felt very lucky that we were able to get out of Brussels with only a minor 2 hour delay.
My dad picked us up from JFK and brought us back to my parents house in CT where we finally got to see OUR DOG! Ginger was thrilled to see us, but I think we were just as excited to see her! We've missed her so much, but she has been under great care! She's the got the best dog-grandparents in the world, they are spoiling her rotten!
Lisa and Chris arrived the next day on Christmas Eve. We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (lobster newburg - yum!) and went to church together. We also decided to open presents that evening as Jay and I were going to spend Christmas day with his family in NH. The next morning we had Christmas Brunch with my Uncle Tom, Aunt Sharon and my cousins Kristen and Lauren and my Uncle Joe. Then Jay and I left to make the trek up to NH.
It was great spending time with Jay's family - Jay's sister made an awesome Christmas dinner and it was fun to spend some QT with everyone! That night we made it back to Boston as we were going to spend a couple days there and I was going to try to see the doc before I headed back to Brussels. Winter weather wanted nothing to do with plan. The next day it had already started to snow and they were calling for a foot of snow later that day. Luckily my doc appt was canceled so we checked out early and headed back home to CT just in time for us to miss the snow!
The rest of the week we hung out in CT with the fam. One night I met up with my JMU buddies and they were awesome and surprised me with a bday cake - and a Dora the Explorer balloon!
I also got to see the newest Fanning addition on my trip home. Olivia is such a cutie and Justin is going to be such a great big brother!
New Years Eve was absolutely incredible. Jay and my family had planned a surprise belated 30th birthday celebration at Mohegan Sun and my friends joined me to celebrate! They had organized a pre-party at the hotel, limo over to the casino, gambling fun and then we had our own VIP table at a great bar at the Casino. It was a night to remember ... and luckily I do, a great partying time was had by all! The next day we hung out with the VA peeps and gambled some more - luckily I think I broke even, no big winnings this year - YET!
The next day was my Mom's birthday - her big gift was a ride to the airport to drive Jay and us back to JFK.
Its hard to imagine that now we are in the second half of our time here in Belgium. We have so many exciting trips planned from January through March and some great visits planned too! 2011 is going to be an even more amazing year, I can't wait!
