Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are having a great new year! This year has been incredible for us - we have almost lived in London for a year now. The next update will be our "Year in Review", so be sure to keep an eye out for it! Well, we were fortunate enough to be able to spend lots of time in the US for the holidays - this was one of the best Christmases we've ever had!

Things started off a little shaky - first, one of my pieces of luggage didn't make it (I'm used to this by now - I'm just glad it was a bag of stuff I didn't need right away). And second, I didn't get to spend too much time with my family during our first week because of some fires going on at work that had to be put out. This didn't leave as much time as I had hoped to spend with family and friends, especially since I still had lots of Christmas shopping to do.

Since we weren't in the US for Jill's birthday, she got to celebrate it once again (lucky)! We went to her mom's house and she opened even more presents. Then we all went out to eat at Copper Grill (our favorite restaurant in Birmingham, maybe in the world!) Christie and Jacob hosted another "Dirty Santa" party this year - thanks for the food, it was delicious! Mr. Wonderful showed up again this year - and Jacob was the lucky one to be on the receiving end this time. For those of you who don't know Mr. Wonderful, he's a doll that Jacob gave as a dirty Santa gift last year - you press his hand and he says all this crazy stuff that women like to hear like, "I think I'm lost honey, I'll stop and ask for directions at the next gas station". Anyway, Billy got it last year, kept it all year long and wrapped it up this year - and now Mr. Wonderful is back with his rightful owner - Jacob. Jill also received a "re-gift" - a bobble-head bride and groom - you can put your picture in their faces - this was also a gift from the Glawson family last year - but just so you all know, it's not in Jill's hands anymore. I have a feeling there will be some new rules in place for next year... We had lots of fun - it was great to see everyone

We got to see a couple of the newest arrivals during our trip - Campbell (daughter of Wade and Ferra Cox) and Evan (son of Shawn and Krista McCain). They are so cute - we are glad we finally got to see them - and you! The weekend before Christmas, we went to Mobile to visit Jill's dad and relatives. He set up a nice spread - we had chili (which was excellent by the way), wings, chicken fingers, cornbread, and everything in between. It was great to spend time with him and it was so good to see all of her relatives - we all had a blast! Thanks again Gary for helping me out with my car!

On Christmas Eve, we continued our tradition of going to Jackie's house to open Christmas gifts. Mike made some really good martinis, and we all really enjoyed spending the evening together! Everyone must have been good this year because we all got some really nice gifts! Thanks everybody! After that, we went to my parents' house (more tradition going on here) to eat dinner and spend time with all of my family.

We had a full house at the Beards - Mom, Dad, Ashley, John, Reilly, Kelsey, Shae, Billy, and Landon. Once again, it was great to be able to spend time with family! We didn't get much sleep that night - once the kids went to bed, Santa asked us to help him put together all of the toys - we all pitched in and tackled the challenge, but not until the clock struck 2am - I wish the kids had left Santa some cookies this year!

Christmas Day was great! It was really nice to see the kids get all excited over their gifts - I think Kelsey wins the "most excitement" prize - she screamed and hollered every time she opened a present. Reilly was extremely happy to get a Playstation 2. Landon got a tent with a tunnel and a chair that looks like a lion - he liked to bring the chair into the tent and take a load off. Everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of great gifts. Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas so special!

After we opened our gifts and had brunch, Jill and I headed over to her mom's house for our annual Christmas lunch - more excellent food! Jill and I were well fed during the holidays - I guess we'll have to add "working out" to our New Year's resolution list along with everyone else. We ate, opened stockings, then took a nap - right on the floor - it had been a long day! I went back over to my parents' house after I woke up, and "B" (this is what Landon calls Little Billy now) came over. While the kids played, the adults played too - we ended up making videos with the kids' new toys - they had gotten a stage, microphone, and sound-maker. This is all we needed - skits were made of me, Jill, Ashley, John, Shae, and Billy - while the skit was being made of someone, they could not be in the room at the time - we were rolling when we finally watched the video! Hopefully I'll be able to get a copy of it.

We spent the rest of our time visiting with family, playing games, eating American food, and seeing our cat and dog (Bimmer and Levi). Jill did her usual share of shopping with her mom! She also taught dance to some of her old students, and she judged the Steeldogs tryouts. Not too much has changed over there except for the kids - Reilly has grown the most - he's already gotten all of his teeth back in. Kelsey said her favorite thing in the world is the Hollywood House of Terror ride in Orlando (which Jill is scared of). Landon is putting several words together and telling you "no" whenever he wants. "B" is the boss of all of them (he's the oldest!). They are all fun to hang around - you never know what kids may do or say - they never stop making us laugh!

Whenever we get a chance to go home, we always load up on stuff from Wal-Mart - they don't have anything like it over here, and even if they did, it would cost twice as much. Jill usually loads up on popcorn, tea, spaghetti, and macaroni as well. As you can imagine, all of this plus our new Christmas gifts made our luggage very heavy. They are serious about the 70 pound limit - if it's over 70 pounds, it doesn't get on the plane - PERIOD! So before we head to the airport, we weigh our luggage just to be sure - you guessed it - we're both too heavy! I was only about four pounds over, but Jill was close to 10 over! We take a few things out and re-arrange and get our bags to 70 pounds on the nose - hope our scale is accurate!

We get to the airport and check in - my bag splits open. If you read our first update, you'll recall that my bag split open when we first arrived in London - but I still had one functioning zipper - this is the one that broke this time. They said they could not just wrap it with tape since it was so heavy - this is like 30 minutes before our flight, so I don't have time to go and buy more luggage. I'm not sure how, but somehow the one that broke last January worked this time! I was very fortunate this day - my bag held up - it may be time to put her in retirement after this trip though.

As you can imagine, we've built up lots of sky miles this year. One benefit we have is priority seating (if available). Luck was on our side this day - we got to sit in Business Class! I would say we'll never go back to coach, but it's just too expensive for overseas flights. They do treat you right - champagne, better dinners, and the seats - NICE - not only are they much more comfortable and have tons more leg room, they recline big time! It's nothing short of a lazy boy! This is the first flight we've had where we were actually comfortable the whole time - you can imagine how quickly you can get uncomfortable being cramped up in coach on an 8-hour flight! This is also the first flight where we've had some decent sleep! We just hope there are more Business Class seats available on our future flights!

So we were back in London for New Year's. We went out to eat at Navajo Joe's - best steak I've had out here. After dinner, we went and watched the big fireworks show out at the London Eye - I've never been in a crowd that big in my entire life - it was crazy! The fireworks were amazing though - it was on TV - did you see us? We got home (and still had jetlag), so we stayed up and watched the New Year roll into the US - we watched the ball drop on TV in NYC at 5am. Jetlag is a pain (or exhaustion) - we slept until 5pm the next day - went to bed and woke up while it was dark outside.

A few miscellaneous items before we go - I made it to the Fantasy Football playoffs (glad I had Larry Johnson when Priest got hurt). On the way to pick up Jill for Mobile, I decided to change my QB at the last minute - and it cost me the game. And here's the real pain - if I would have won the playoff game, I would have gone on to win the Super Bowl by one point - oh well, that's the way it goes - congratulations to Smitty for winning the Super Bowl! We made a couple of big purchases this week - maybe I should use the word crucial instead of big - we bought a fry daddy and crockpot - eating out here is great, but we're just tired of the grocery store food - this should expand our options for food! We'll let you know if we burn anything up!

This year brings higher transportation fares in London (tubes, buses, trains, etc.) - we're not looking forward to this - I'm not sure how much of an increase it is, but we'll find out soon enough. Ever heard of Boxing Day? I may have mentioned it in the past - this is a UK holiday on the day after Christmas - We're still not sure of the story behind it, but it may have something to do with real "boxes" from Christmas presents. I'll have to look this up. Finally, I've been able to play some poker lately - just for fun though - we've been teaching Justin and Rachael how to play - Jill is picking it up well - I was the first one out of a Hold 'Em tournament last night.

The weather isn't too bad yet - it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit when we landed on the 30th, and it's gotten a little colder since then. The days are shorter - it gets dark around 4:30 or so. Thanks again to everyone for such a wonderful Christmas - it was awesome to be home during the holidays! We enjoyed seeing everyone that we got to see - if we didn't get to see you this time, hopefully we'll be able to hook up next time. We've updated our pictures (Family, Friends, Us, and London). Don't forget to read the update next time too - the "Year in Review" should be a good one! We're looking forward to hearing about Jill's mom's trip to Canada and her dad's cruise - safe travels! We love and miss you all! Take care and God bless!