Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mason and I have been enjoying each and every moment of our break these past two weeks. We're both very thankful that we had this time off together since it's been so easy living in our own little worlds even though we're under the same roof. Pilot training consumes all of Mason's day, and week nights, although he's very helpful to help out with things around the house. Teaching and lesson planning is on-going and with all the household chores time spent with Mason has been cut down, so this break was a great reminder of how much we love being married and are thankful for all we have. With that being said, Santa was very generous this year.

To carry on a Wideburg tradition, I got Mason pickle ornaments to put on our tree. Some of his highlighted presents were his new motorcycle gloves and cover. After many months of persuasive conversations (which could have been seen as nagging) Mason got me a set of awesome rocking chairs that can also be used outdoors. So I'm really excited to sit outside and enjoy my new chairs. Christmas day we mostly just relaxed, enjoyed our new presents, hit the gym, and spent time together. I think I baked dozens of cookies and treats.

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On the 26th, my family arrived. My dad, mom, and sister flew into Dallas from Chicago and enjoyed some time away from the snow. Mason and I liked being able to show off our house and lives here in Wichita Falls. We took them around to see my school, and we spent a day looking at Mason's training facilities and all the different planes around base. We all got a chance to go into the simulators that Mason uses at training and my mom and I got to experience turbulence, and we pulled 8Gs. That was sweet! You could really only see the gages moving, but it was still cool. My parents got to stay at a room on base and Jill stayed at our house. She fit in well with our late night schedule. Mason even took her for a 2am motorcycle ride. My parents got us a new video camera which was our new toy to play with! We've had lots of fun making goofy videos. No kids yet, so Rembrandt gets a lot of attention.

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After a few days in Wichita Falls, we all headed to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico for my cousin Joel's wedding. My parents went back to Dallas and flew into Albuquerque, but Mason and I took made the 11 hour drive. Texas was pretty boring, and flat but once we crossed into New Mexico the scenery was much better. Although in taking some less common roads we came across fewer towns and we nervous about running out of gas, at one point. Never the less, any town we came to that was more than two shacks, we filled up our tank, and bellies. We drove through Roswell, which was a funny little town all hyped about "alien landings" there. We headed down to Las Cruces en route, and were stopped by the border patrol (not realizing we were only about 100 miles from Mexico.) It was pretty lame though because they only asked us if were US citizens and if we were from Illinois (since we have those plates.) We laughed as we went through saying that it wasn't a very thorough check. We also stopped at Holloman AFB, and the white sands missile range on the way. We were hoping to see some F117, but didn't manage to see any. Truth or Consequences is a small town but nice scenery. We left and arrived Friday night, and hung out with my parents some more back at our hotel. The town is known for their hot springs but we just enjoyed the hot tub and pool where we stayed.

The wedding was Saturday, and we took Jill touring in the morning looking to climb some mountains, but only found some hills to venture up. The wedding was outdoors (in perfect weather) at a cute spa/hotel. The bride and groom were beautiful, and the wedding was perfect. They had self directed it and my cousin (the groom's sister) did the ceremony. It was great. The bride's family did most of the cooking for the event since there were about 50-75 people at the reception. The food was great Mexican food, and a brisket that had been cooked 15 feet under ground. Between the wedding and reception our family went around Elephant Butte lake and dam, and did some exploring. It was a beautiful day.

We left Sunday around 11:30, and headed back to the north. We hit Albuquerque and stopped off at Kirtland AFB. We weren't too impressed, but they mostly do Pararescue jumper training. The drive back was a little faster, and it was a great day for driving. I think we were getting a little punchy when I couldn't stop laughing for about 30 miles after an amusing round of the alphabet game. There weren't many towns or cities, so when we saw highway signs it was cut throat to see who would get the letters for the game; Mason had been searching for the letter "Q" for the longest time, and we came past a sign that was humorous, and Mason was reading it and pointed out "squawkers" at the bottom, which didn't have much relevance to the sign, but then after it was past, I said you know there was a Q in squawkers...it was one of those "you had to be there moments" but it had us laughing all the way to the next reststop.

Anywhoos, we've been enjoying our time home. Loved the family visit, and are now back to studying and getting ready to go back on Thursday. New Year's Eve wasn't too exciting but we watched some movies and enjoyed homemade ribs. It was sort of funny, but on tv here, they kept playing New York's midnight each hour, so we didn't get to see any other city celebrate, but we enjoyed ringing in the New Year together. Today we lounged around and will probably hit the gym tomorrow, and get ready for Thursday, when we go back to work.

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