Minnesota Barlows: Christmas Vacation!

This Christmas was our first Christmas living flying distance away from our families, but I'm happy to say that we were somehow able to spend 10 glorious days back home! It was a fun, busy, wonderful Christmas 2013. We were able to spend a lot of quality time with our families, and reconnect with many old friends!

We flew in to Minneapolis on the 20th, and drove down to Stewartville to spend the first half of the vacation with the King Family. On the first day home, we were able to see the Yuans before they left for their own getaway to Oregon, and Jon met up with some residency friends for a late movie. And we even managed to have dinner with my parents and sister and her fiancee. On Saturday, we had an early Christmas brunch with my immediate family, and visited with my Grandpa Don and Judy. Sunday, we were lucky enough to get to attend our friend, Bennett's, first birthday party. Not only did we get a lot of quality time with the Camps, but we also got to see many of our Rochester friends who were also at his birthday party! After that, we headed out to the farm for our Sunday night tradition of visiting with my grandma, Aunt Debbie, and anyone else who decides to join us. We felt like we didn't get quite enough time with Erica and Chris on Sunday, so we grabbed lunch with them at an old favorite, Mac's, on Monday. Jon, my orthopedic loving husband, also attended a shoulder lab at Mayo with his friend, Mark, and I visited with Molly in Stewie for a little bit! Tuesday was Christmas Eve, and we weren't quite done shopping, so we hit up the mall in the morning. Jon had coffee with his friend Luke. Then we headed out to the farm for our big King Family Christmas Eve tradition! It was wonderful to see all of my King relative who I haven't seen in a long time! We also squeezed in hair cuts for me, Jon, and Kylie! Oh, and we watched Huey for much of the vacation, which was wonderful, though he's developed a naughty habit of running away!

Christmas morning, after opening our stockings from Santa in Stewie, we packed up the car and headed up to Hudson for the second half of our Christmas vacation. Upon arrival, we immediately had a delicious meal, and enjoyed some down time while the kids napped. Once they woke up, we opened gifts and ate another yummy meal! Thursday was pretty low key with a lot of hanging out for the adults, and playing for the kids. They went sledding, played with play doh, built forts, and enjoyed their new toys. That evening we hired two babysitters so that the adults could go out to eat. We went to the Lake Elmo Inn where the food was amazing, and the company was better! It was really fun, and something we haven't done in a few years! Friday was another low key day filled with laughter, food, and playing! Friday night, we met up with the Engstroms. Jon and John have been friends since high school. They lived together all through college. Now they have kids that are almost the same age! It was fun to see them and watch our kids (especially the girls) play together. Saturday was our last full day, so we spent some time packing up and shipping packages back to Philly. This is the hardest part about celebrating the holidays away from our house...Having to carry extra suitcases/ship boxes back and forth...But it was well worth it! On Saturday night, we enjoyed one more fantastic meal of Kriss' famous swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. Sunday we were up and at 'em early so that we could fly back to Philly! All went well on the plane, mostly because Brooks was under the weather and slept the entire way back!

It was a wonderful getaway, and we were sad to leave! It's amazing how fast the time went! We can't wait to visit again!