Christmas

For Christmas this year Dan and I were in Indiana, my first time away from my parents on Christmas. This Christmas Eve also marked my return to America. Strange how fast a year can move by and how much can happen in that time. It was odd thinking back on my excitement as I flew home on Christmas Eve and how relieved I was to be back last year. I had been dealing with secondary trauma from the work I was doing in Cambodia and needed the break.

This year I was prepared for a bitter sweet Christmas Eve and that is how it ended up. Not because of anything that we did or how we spent out time but inside I was struggling. Dan very thoughtfully suggested we eat Thai food for lunch and at the restaurant I sat and cried missing Cambodia and feeling guilty for leaving (I am still dealing with secondary trauma).  For Christmas Eve we opened our stockings and had dinner with Dan's parents and sister Emily, went to their church's service, and than returned to their house to watch It's a Wonderful Life (one of my gifts to Dan).

On Christmas day I surprised Dan with a box of Fruit Loops (one of his families traditions) and then we opened gifts. We had fun and even bought each other the same gift...the first game we ever played together. We laughed about it and had to get a picture.

Dan's Collection and newest addition

The Chimney Sweep (and new T-shirt on Dan)

Our games :)

Dr. Mario and Tetris for my Supernintendo!!!

our shirts from Kenneth and Karie

After opening gifts we went over to his parents, there we opened more gifts with the family. After gifts we watched Christmas movies, ate lunch, and played games. I won the round of Phase 10 and Ticket to Ride, which we taught Dan's dad and Emily. It was fun spending time together and munching on sweets. After games we headed home and called Dan's other sister Karie and my family. It was a really great Christmas and I felt very blessed and loved.

Walk Way of Lights

A few days before Christmas I surprised Dan by taking him down to Marion for dinner to eat at our favorite Mexican place. He had not been there in months and I arranged for a group of our friends to be there as well. Most of the group we had seen at our Christmas party but one couple hadn't been able to come. It was fun chatting and eating the delicious food.

After we finished up we drove to the park to do Marion's Walk Way of Lights. It is amazing and very well done. I knew Dan would not have heard of them and I love going through. Here are some of the pictures we got from the car.

Train Engine

Paddle Boat and Sea Creature on the River

Entrance

Gingerbread house

Ants stealing a Candy Cane, Santa in the back

We had a great time driving through, though you can also walk it if you want. They also had the 12 days of Christmas, all the main Colleges and Universities in Indiana, and some of the lights have a sequence of outlines to make it look like something is moving. Those are harder to take pictures of  :)

The Christmas Spirit

I was excited to received a gift in the mail. My friend Aletheia has currently been making some art and I wanted to buy one of her pieces...for Christmas she sent me her art. And not just any art but a piece that she made with me in mind. It warmed my heart in so many ways to have the joy of feeling known and loved by one of my dearest friends. Her blog has more of her artwork (her link is on the right side of this page).

 I haven't decided yet where I am going to put it. I also was feeling festive on Friday and made some homemade peanut butter granola. The last time I made it was a couple years ago before I moved to Cambodia. It turned out really well and unlike typical granola this comes out soft and delightful.

Before

After

Christmas Party

Dan and I decided to have a small Christmas Party this year at our new house. We had fun getting everything ready and our house has been decorated for Christmas for weeks. So I sent out e-mails and found out who would be coming and started putting together the menu. I made my mom's meatball recipe, homemade popcorn, chips and salsa, candy, cake, and oranges. Some of our friends volunteered to bring cookies.

eat up!

The meatballs

 Once everyone arrived I put on some Christmas records that I found. I had just moved my record player and records down from my parents house. It was fun listening to the music but made me very thankful for CD's, the records only had 1-3 songs on each side which I would than have to flip.

 We spent the evening listening to music and chatting in our living room. It was fun seeing our friends from Marion and getting to spend time with them that wasn't stressed or wedding related. Hopefully next year we can do this again!

New Santa Plug in our Kitchen

New things

My dad did a great job on our stable for our new Nativity Scene. We LOVE it!

I also had to share my new mug, it just shares such an amazing bit of truth...

Can I get an Amen! :)

Family Christmas and Michigan Reception

Last weekend Dan and I headed to Michigan. On Saturday morning we celebrated Christmas with my parents and my sister and her family.



My parents

Dan's turn

My turn

Antlers we gave the kids as part of their gift

 After grabbing a quick lunch we headed to the church for our Michigan reception. We brought up our wedding pictures to use as a slide show while people had cake. We set our guest book out again to get signed and even had a bouquet of flowers similar to my bouquet. The turn out was really good and fun to see people and get to celebrate with them as well.

cake and flowers

pumpkins candies

 An added bonus was getting to wear my dress again! I also had a nice orange tie for Dan that I gave him from Cambodia.

 My Grandparents couldn't come to the wedding in Indiana so it was nice they could make it to our reception. My Grandpa just turned 95 and my Grandma will be 94 in January!

Me and my Grandmother

All of us together

 Dan and I opened up our gifts and cards back at my parents house that night. It was fun opening them up with my parents and chatting about how everything went. We estimated that about 150-200 people came. After the reception we also had my mom's family Christmas, which meant more food and playing games. It was a lot of fun but I was feeling exhausted.

On Sunday after eating lunch and packing up the car we headed home. We did stop at a Big Boy to grab some food and realized that it was the same Big Boy we had stopped at the first time we had traveled up to Michigan to move my furniture to Indiana. Which was also the beginning of us being gone every weekend...since that September trip we have not had one weekend when we were home the entire weekend, not traveling, or having people over.

It is safe to say that the next few weeks we will be spending our time at home, unpacking, hanging pictures, and sleeping in!

Chicago

Since college a group of us girls get together every first weekend in December to go shopping in Chicago. I missed it last year with living out of the country but this year I was excited to go. One of the girls moved to Chicago after graduating and always opens her home to those of us coming in for the weekend.

 We have battled wind and snow biting at us as we walk the streets to shop and wait for our Chicago style pizza. But this year as we left Jen's house dodging rain we were pleased to find it in the 50's in the city and little to no wind. We didn't even have rain...it drizzled a little for maybe the first hour and than nothing for the rest of the day.

 We took some time to go to the Lego store and see their displays set up. We would have gone into the store but it was packed with people and we didn't feel like fighting the crowd.

 We decided to eat some place new this year, partly because of the long wait and because I can't really eat cheese any more. We also found the German village they set up to see good food and German Christmas things. I bought some of the yummy roasted nuts for Dan and I. We than finished up our shopping and headed back to Jen's.

Dan had spent the day with friends who also live in Chicago and met back up with us when we got back to the house for dinner. We went to church in the morning, which I always enjoy. We than grabbed some lunch before heading home. On the way home we met up with one of my friends from Cambodia who is home on furlow. We ate Mexican as it was what we both craved while living there and talked about how last year on this weekend we ran a 1/2 marathon. It was great seeing her and getting to spend time together. She will go back to Cambodia in January.

Sunsets

With my current job I have a long drive to work...which is helping me catch up on reading through books on tape. And because I work with kids and do sand trays with them I take pictures of their work to keep in their file...which means I have my camera with me all the time. This also means that as I am driving I was able to take some quick pictures of the amazing sunset I saw last week.

I was also able to get this last shot outside my office before diving home this week. I love how amazing the sunsets are in Indiana. I missed them a lot in Cambodia last year.

Decorating for Christmas

Dan and I had fun setting up our Christmas tree and decorating our house. We also got to discover what decorations we have and figure out what else we might want to get for the future. Here are some pictures of our house.

Tree ready to be decorated

Boxes ready to be opened....let the decorating begin!

 Once we got all our decorations out we began setting things up, putting lights, and ornaments on the tree. This is also when we both realized that we have quite a collection of ornaments between us. We even have three trees set up in our house! A live tree in our living room and than we each had a fake tree we set up next to our fire place. I wasn't able to get pictures of those trees yet.

Our Angel

The tree

Our First Christmas Ornament :)

 I love our tree :) I love the memories that come with placing each ornament on our tree. I love our angel sitting on top glowing different colors. I love the smell of the tree and how all the presents under the tree and the snow outside is making my excitement for Christmas build.

Dan's Nutcracker collection

A few Christmas things for our end table

Our new Nativity...with stable being made by my dad

The top of our Pie Safe

Our stockings on the mantel :)

We had fun setting everything up...which took us a couple days. Dan had a nasty cold for a few days so getting everything done in one night wasn't possible. Plus by the end of the day we both have been pretty tired. I realized that we both have been gone or busy on weekends since September! We are looking forward to the end of this month and the next couple months because we have nothing planned...and we are planning on keeping it that way.