The Great Christmas Road Trip of 2008

One of our favorite perks of working at a University is that thing slow down a little around the holidays. Chad, Gus (the cat) and I took a two week road trip to visit our families in Oklahoma and Tennessee. It turns out that Gus is an excellent passenger (thank goodness!).

We decided to drive the whole way this year. Last year, we drove to Nashville and few from Nashville to Tulsa. I wasn't very impressed with the ticket prices, so we just decided to drive this year. One of the best parts about driving is that we had the opportunity to see a lot of extra people. We stopped on the way to Chad's parents in Tennessee to see friends Jason, Katie and Lowry. On the way to Oklahoma, we stopped in south Missouri to see David and Kristin. And, on the way back to Tennessee, we stopped to see Ian, Erika, Caedman and Ethan in Arkansas.

We spent Christmas day with my family again this year. It was so nice to spend some time with the relatives.

And, the weekend after Christmas, we got to help my aunt ring in her 60th birthday and my sister celebrate her 25th! Here is a picture of Chad, my parents and I at the party.

With two full weeks off, we had plenty of time to spend with both families. We spent the New Year's celebrating Christmas with Chad's family in Tennessee. And, we were able to spend some time with some of his high school friends and their families on New Year's Eve.

Although we know it won't always be this easy to accommodate every one's schedules and our travel requirements, we really enjoyed our trip this year.