Home Sweet Home

It has been 21 days since I last made time for and remembered to blog. Guess that's no surprise considering all that's happened since last I wrote:
12/16-Pat graduated
12/16-We moved
12/16-18-Pat's nephew, AJ, and his expectant wife and 2 boys spent moving weekend with us helping expedite the  resettlement
12/18-19-Immediately followed by my mom coming for a quick overnight to deliver the Christmas tree and the first load of our possessions from "storage" (one of mom's spare bedrooms)
12/24-25-My parents both coming for a special, unplanned overnight Christmas Eve
12/25-Christmas!!
-And, now, almost new years!

God is so gracious and we couldn't be happier with our new home. We're completely moved in and unpacked, shy 2 or 3 boxes. We managed to get the tree up and fully decorated just 2 days after moving and had a perfect way to display our stockings on the mantle of our fireplace. Now, after such a short, understated, partially appreciated season of Advent in our family, the decorations are coming down and the new year is upon us. We are glad to be settling in in Durham and foresee this being our home for many years, but we certainly feel our eagerness to move compromised our ability to appreciate Advent the way we should. We are well motivated to fully create the space needed next year to appreciate the season like never before and hope our children are ready to be fully vested in the experience as well.

So the holidays have come and are almost gone, we have established our family's footprint in Durham and are eager to begin opening our home to our friends through dinners and, if I can talk Pat into it, an open house (but I doubt it!).

So here's to a very Happy New Year to all our friends and family. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as did we.