Wow, I can't believe it is 2013 already. It seems like Joshua's August birthday was not that long ago and now here we are into the new year already. Our family certainly was blessed to have had a Holiday season full of family and fun. For Thanksgiving we drove up to Reno to spend the weekend at Tim's brothers' house and with Tim's family. Everyone contributed to the meal and there was more than enough Thanksgiving goodness to go around. Joshua had a fun time playing with his cousins and we enjoyed the company of being with family for the holiday.
Tim got a much needed week off from work for Christmas and we were all blessed to be able to spend so much time with Tim's parents who were visiting from Minnesota. Joshua loved every minute of playing with his Opa and Tutu that he doesn't get to see very often. While we had quite a bit of rain the first few days of their stay, it cleared up and warmed up for a beautiful visit. Christmas Eve, our family started a few new traditions. We had a birthday party for Jesus including cupcakes, the "happy birthday" song and a reading of the Christmas account from the Bible. Joshua also got to open his special new Christmas PJs from Daddy before we went to church for a Christmas Eve service. Christmas morning we had a tasty breakfast cooked in the crockpot during the night and opened gifts. We were blessed by all the thoughtful gifts we recieved and thankful that Joshua received a good balance of toys, books and clothes.
The following week we had big ambitions for New Years Eve of playing games and eating food at my parents' house until we needed to bring Joshua home, but it was not to be so. I had been feeling sick and poor Joshua was just worn out from too much fun with his grandparents, so we decided to make it a very early night. But all was well in the morning when we learned that my younger brother had proposed to his girlfriend that night! It is exciting news, to be sure, but not surprising was we had all been expecting it to happen soon.
So now that we are stuffed of turkey from Thanksgiving, blessed with many gifts from Christmas, rested from New Years and getting back into a routine after having a bit of vacation and visiting with family, so begins the process of losing the holiday weight and pressing ahead to what the year 2013 will hold. We pray God's blessing on the year ahead for you and a heart of gratitude for the year past.
