It's the most chaotic time of the year...

Neither of us has been able to post in several days, so I thought I would write a quick update today. This is the first weekend in three weeks that we will be home and I am thankful for that. After San Diego and Thanksgiving, we spent the weekend seeing Jack's grandmother who was in the hospital out-of-town. If you follow Jack's prayer blog, you know all about that. Bless her heart, she and her family need prayers right now...but that's another story.

Last weekend we went out-of-town to celebrate Jack's mom's 60th birthday. Her twin brother and his family joined us too. We participated in some holiday events while we were there including looking at giant Christmas trees and decorating gingerbread houses and cookies.

The gingerbread cookie thing was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Jack's cousin-in-law did the most creative one which is the "gingerbird" complete with a beak and yellow claws. My sister-in-law's was pretty good too. She is a nurse so she made a ginger patient with a neck-brace and cane. Good times.

December seems to be going unusually fast for me this year. I adore Christmas and everything that goes with it. Taking down my tree in early January is depressing to me. As I have been grading final exam papers, I've been listening to the all-Christmas radio and trying to get in the spirit of the season. This year, though, everything is so different and busy that I haven't been as excited as usual. I made myself put up our tree. I only have a few gifts bought. We haven't decorated the outside of our home at all. Bah-humbug. Hopefully after some much-needed rest and a few days off I can bring myself to enjoy this Christmas. If not, maybe I'll just make my gingerbread man walk around quoting lines from Shrek.