The Holidays

Once we received news that Harry is ours, life started moving about a hundred miles per minute. So here is a little update on us.

Christmas was a little hard without the baby, but we had to keep focused. Being with family is a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas, but Christmas isn't about family. It is about Christ. If I am focused on not having Harry with me for Christmas, I have missed the point. People in general are sad around the holidays, because they have taken their focus off Christ and have put it on themselves. Grandpa may have made the Christmas celebration a little more fun, but he doesn't make Christmas. And if he is in heaven now, he is having a much better Christmas than any of us. Okay, enough of that soapbox. :)

Tim had off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and we were planning to spend the week with his parents in Florida. The weather reports were less than promising and the prospect of two 18+ hours drives in 6 days was daunting. We opted to stay home and work on the baby's room and general home organization. Full nesting mode!

Two days, and 14 big black garbage bags later, the nursery was painted and most of what we wanted to accomplish was done. We decided we didn't want to miss out on the opportunity for one last baby-free trip. So packed the car and headed to Michigan to visit our very dear friends Henry and Renee and our 4 beautiful "nephews" and "nieces". We had a fantastic time in Michigan, although, sadly, we saw not one snowflake!

The trip was a blessing to me in so many ways. First of all, I got two 10 hours car rides with my dh... nothing to do but spend time together. Very exciting when you are very in love! One of our favorite past-times is to pick apart issues and look at them from every angle. Though we usually agree, we always pick opposing sides and have a good hearty debate. We almost always come out of it with a better understanding of the opposing side and a stronger ability to articulate our own viewpoint. Iron sharpens iron. So we listened to teaching tapes and parenting tapes and really dug into some meaty issues. We also made a New Year's resolution to pray together daily.

Once we got there, it was so wonderful. Henry and Nae are the kind of friends that we don't have to be anything for, they are family. Our times with them are always restful, relaxing and hilarious. And their children are truly a delight! Honestly, the kind of kids we hope we can raise.

Also, on this trip we got to spend time with our friend Sandy and her kiddos. Even though Sandy and her husband, Joe live close to us, we rarely get time to spend together. They had spent Christmas in Minnesota with her family. Joe flew home to get to work, and she and the kids stopped in Michigan for a day on their drive back. It was so fun to just hang out in the kitchen and have girl time!

We got home late on Monday. Tuesday, Tim headed back to work, and I ran errands and prepped for Harry's arrival. We found out the US Embassy will be closed most of this week due to the death of President Ford, which pushes his homecoming back about one week. I have been fighting getting sick for about 5 days and it finally got the better of me yesterday. So I have had plenty of time to catch up on all my favorite blogs.

So there is our holiday in a nutshell! (must be a big nut...maybe a coconut!)