Well, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and good holiday season. We certainly did. For awhile, I was wondering if Mother Nature was going to screw up our plans. Melanie’s family had a little tougher time getting to Indiana than originally planned. Flights where cancelled into and out of Denver due to that major blizzard. They were to fly out on Thursday to Indy, but with the airport was closed, so they had to make alternative plans. They all piled into a car on Friday morning and headed our way. Thankfully, I-70 re-opened and they had an uneventful drive. Unfortunately, it was a little longer trip than they where expecting. They finally arrived in Indy at 5 a.m. Saturday morning Dec. 23.

I took off Friday afternoon and headed back to Iowa to pick up my grandparents. I don’t know if I am out of practice or what, but it sure was a long six-hour drive back there. I stopped and visited my other grandpa and then headed to Ottumwa. I drove around looking at things to see how they had changed since I moved away. I stayed the night at my grandparents’ house and then we headed back to Indy at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. We arrived in Indy Saturday afternoon and shortly after that my brother-in-law, sister and nephew got here. My parents arrived shortly afterwards. We all went to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.

Christmas Eve we made dinner at home and sat around watching football and playing with the new puppies, Rottie and Peanut. Surely, you all remember them. They did great with all of the people in the house. There were 11 adults, two kids and three dogs here for Christmas.

We got up Christmas morning and opened presents like the typical family. We had to take a break to eat breakfast and then opened some more presents after everyone had rested a little. Later in the afternoon I fired up the turkey fryer and cooked a turkey for everyone. The mothers did most of the cooking. We watched more football and had a great Christmas day.

I got several cool gifts for Christmas. My sister got me a “super M&M” dispenser and my grandma made me a really cool drag racing quilt. Check out the photo! She makes quilts all year and she made this one for me. Mel and I agreed the puppies were our Christmas presents to each other, so we just got each other a few small gifts. I made Melanie a photo album of the ESPY and Sportswomen of the Year awards shows she was involved in this year. She had a great season and I wanted her to have something to remember all of those special moments with. Since my dad was so instrumental in my racing career, I got him two winner’s jackets and Wally’s from the two races that I won this season. That was enough for him, that’s all he wanted. Everyone got the usual clothes and gift cards. That just means Mel and I get to do some more shopping which is one of our favorite things to do anyway.

Gage, my nephew, and the puppies did really well Christmas. Gage got so many things he had to open presents three times on Christmas. With a name like Gage and being born into a racing family we had to get him off to the right start. He got a lot of racing or car gifts. Melanie and I got him a dragster shirt like the one I got at the Lucky store earlier this year. We had to have our picture together sporting our new shirts.

Everyone headed out Tuesday morning. My parents took my grandparents back to Iowa and visited there for a few days. Melanie’s family headed back to Denver and just in time too. They got hit with more snow later in the week, so I am glad they had a safe drive out here and back home. My sister and family stayed another day and headed home on Wednesday. It was surprisingly quiet around here the rest of the week.

I spent part of Friday at the shop starting to decal our new body and getting a head start on it before testing in a few weeks. The guys have off until the Jan. 2, so it was quiet with no interruptions. It just wasn’t flowing though and I didn’t get very far before becoming frustrated with it. Every time you get a new body, decals won’t fit where they used to and you have to come up with new layouts which can be difficult. It will come around and we will be ready to head to testing soon. I’m ready to go now. Just a couple of weeks away and we will be at it! I have to go to Orlando for UST next weekend and then only one more weekend at home before we go to Las Vegas.

Melanie and I are celebrating our third wedding anniversary today. I like having it on New Year’s Eve. That way, I will never get in trouble for forgetting it. She is letting me watch football all day and then we are going to dinner tonight with friends. Yes, I got her flowers and a card so things are good. I hope you all had a good New Years.

Talk to you later in the week.