This year we drove to Danville for Christmas and New Years. We decided to drive instead of fly for two reasons. The first was to save money and the second was we wanted to bring Gizmo. Aunt Paulette had told us that all she wanted for Christmas was a picture of Gizmo. We figured we could do better than that and let her see the real thing. We told Mark's family were were going to fly in on Christmas Eve. Instead we left Bentonville at 6pm on the 21st and drove through the night so we could get to VA by lunch on the 22nd. I think it ended up being a great surprise! 
The rest of the trip was spent relaxing and enjoying our Christmas presents. Mark liked playing with his new Nerf gun, billy club, knife, and Xbox game. I spent my free time playing with my new SLR camera. I spent one afternoon just driving around the area, looking for different types of settings to photograph. I am not a natural by any means, but I enjoy it and this camera lets me do things that I couldn't do with my old camera.
My sister-in-law let me play around with portrait photography. I am not near as good as my other sister-in-law Karissa, who does it for a living. But it was a fun experience and I wouldn't mind doing it again!
The New Years Eve tradition in the Smallwood/Elzey/Dean family is to go over to Mom's (Grandma Dean) house for food and games. The party started at 7 with lots of good treats and a game of charades. The theme was youth movies, TV shows, books, and songs. All I have to say about that is: I ROCKED IT! The party ended at 9 so the wise women in our group could go to bed. David (father-in-law), Jenny & Matt (Mark's sister), and Mark & I stayed up to watch the Dick Clark New Year show. We kissed our spouses (except poor David, who had no wife handy) when the ball dropped and then all of us shuffled off to bed.
Now we are back in the swing of things and getting ready to take charge of everything that got dropped when we moved. Dr. Oz says proclaiming your resolutions is the first step to being successful, so here ya go. We're hoping this year will hold pleasant surprises and positive outcomes as we start up infertility treatments again, work on getting more healthy, and being better about family scripture study.
Good luck to everyone else making their own resolutions. My new favorite motivational quote can be applied to any habit you are trying to start or change. "Success is the sum of small efforts, made day in and day out. -Robert J. Collier "
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Jill and Mark arranged for the shelter manager to meet them near the shelter and pick up Gizmo. Then, she put him in one of the dog runs and told me to come look because we had just received a dog that looked just like Gizmo. It took a minute for me to process everything. This was one of the best Christmas surprises ever, and I loved seeing my Gizzy-Goo. (It was nice seeing Mark and Jill, too.)
Oh, and by the way, I DIDN'T GET A PICTURE OF GIZMO!!
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