Happy New Year! We hope you’ve all had a Merry Christmas. We here in the Simmons household have had just that, and are still enjoying Christmas vacation in Virginia.The trek started on Saturday Dec, 19th with a 3 hour drive north to my folks house in Northeast Missouri. Upon arrival we enjoyed hugs and kisses, especially our three girls. Mammaw and Pappaw Simmons tend to ignore me these days and shove me aside for their granddaughters…not sure how I feel about that yet. We celebrated Christmas with my folks and had a great time catching up with relatives and friends whom we haven’t seen for awhile. Then on Dec 27th we were on the road again headed South towards Murphreesburo, TN where Melodies oldest brother Tim and his family live. After we endured a grueling 5+ hour drive to St. Louis through wintery conditions which is normally a 2 1/2 hour we made fairly good time and arrived 12 hours after leaving at Tim’s. We stayed there for 2 nights to break up the trip and then left for Virginia. We stopped for one night at Melody’s twin sister Beth’s house and then finally arrived in Norfolk the next day. All in all we trekked 1400+ miles to see everyone and the trip is only half done. We will head back on Tuesday the 12th and head to Chattanooga, TN to see some of Mel’s old college buddies who she hasn’t seen for several years. The trip has been lots of fun and we can’t wait to see more friends in Chattanooga, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we’ll all be glad to be back in Roach, MO for classes to begin on the 18th. Routine is the key when you have 3 daughters under age of 5. I can’t believe they’ve done as well as they have, we are truly blessed with wonderful kids. And to all of you who we were able to catch up with on our journey, thank you for spending part of your holiday season with us. Melody and I are very encouraged by the prayers and well wishing that were sent our way. And to those of you who were a little too far off the beaten path for us to visit this time, we hope you don’t take it personal and keep in touch through facebook, email, snail mail or even a phone call. We miss everyone and can’t wait for this summer when we will be back on the road visiting friends and family again.