WE HAVE A TRAVEL DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  WE HAVE A DATE! WE HAVE A DATE! WE HAVE A DATE!

Can you tell I'm a little excited? :)  We had a wonderful Christmas here with my family in TN!  We woke up Christmas Eve to an AWESOME Christmas present of our travel date to Ukr*ine!!!! Because of the timing, we have a full 5 weeks notice.  This is a huge relief because a lot of times people get less than 2 weeks notice.  I know in the end God has the plans under control, but He has blessed us in allowing me extra time so I'm not quite so stressed about it!  There are still lots of details about travel and everything to work through.  Yesterday, cousin N got to help us tell V (on the phone) when we will be there!  Even though we had been telling him we would be coming after Christmas, he was still pretty excited about having exact date (as were we) :) 

It was a fast, busy day with all the cousins and family.  The kids are so blessed with many people who love to spoil them on Christmas with lots of fun toys! The day started with Mom in the hall banging pots and pans together loudly! ------ When Dad was a kid, he and his 4 siblings apparently got up at the crack of dawn every year and woke my grandparents up playing with their toys.  After they were mostly grown, my grandfather came home from 3rd shift one Christmas morning.  Since they were still sleeping, he grabbed pots and pans and started banging them together running through the house to wake them up.  When I was a kid, my Dad told us the story, and, of course, we wanted to start a tradition.  Thus, we have been waking up on Christmas Day to someone banging pots and pans for almost 30 years now :)--------  A was really excited that he got his MP3 player. He has been wanting one since he saw V's (that he got for his birthday here this summer).  B got her "Stomp**z houseshoes!"  We had a yummy breakfast cooked by Aunt M! Then, we headed next door to Nana PJ and Papa G's.  Santa visited over there, and the kids all LOVED that!  It was a great afternoon spending time with family, watching kids play, eating great food, and catching up with each other. 

I LOVE this picture.  It's my grandparents with their 11 great grandchildren (okay, so one is photoshopped because she got there right after three of the others left).  In about 3 months, the 11 kids will be 14 through adoption.  My cousin J and his wife N are adopting twin girls from L*tvia, and we are adopting V!  That will even it up at 7 boys and 7 girls!



After a great day next door to Mom's, we headed to my Aunt A's house to visit my Dad's family.  Almost everyone was there, and we had a good visit. B and C were REALLY tired, though, and slept practically the whole time we were there!  We had a very blessed Christmas and hope you did as well!
We are REALLY thankful for Brian's parents!  Apparently our pipes froze yesterday (guess I shouldn't have turned the heat down so low when we left :( ) They spent almost 4 hours at our house getting them unfrozen.  I feel awful that they spent their Christmas doing that, but at the same time we are so blessed that they were willing and able to do it for us.  Today we're just enjoying a low-key day at Mom's house playing with Christmas toys and games!  Maybe we'll venture out later to see about sales on comfy snowboots for C and me.  (I got Brian some for Christmas.)  Looks like we'll need them soon!

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  Luke 2: 10-12