Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone is enjoying their day of celebration! Philip and I have had an amazing few weeks and we are so blessed with family, friends and everything else that is in our lives right now.

Catching up from last time...

We celebrated Philip's birthday November 5. He had the day off of work, so when I got home, we went out to dinner with some friends and then had some pie and ice cream. It was quiet, but we've realized that as we get older, it's just another day. I tried to make it extra special for him, but like he says, if he can drink beer, relax and go out to eat, it's a good day!

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. Philip had to work, so since a lot of his co-workers are in the same situation (being 20-somethings with no family around the area), we had a potluck at the airport. There were 8 of us that celebrated that night at the airport, and we dined on Gumbo, different salads, sweet potato balls, pies and ice cream. It was a night that we could all be thankful for so much. I had to leave the party a little early, as I am one of those insane Black Friday shoppers. Yes, I was up at 3am and met up with another co-worker of mine and her friends. Crazy, I know. But, it's all for the love of tradition and sales!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Philip and I flew to the midwest to celebrate 'Thanksmas' with our families. We spent a day with the Tiedeman's in George before driving to St. Cloud to meet up with my parents and my brother. It was a quiet four days, but it was just what we needed. I got in the Christmas season early and donated 9 inches of my hair to Beautiful Lengths (it's like Locks of Love). After our celebration with the Chmielewki's, we drove back to Iowa to celebrate with Philip's family. All I can say is it is much different celebrating with 5 adults (as we did with the Chmielewski's) to celebrating with 10 adults and 3 little boys (with the Tiedeman's). It was so much fun to see how excited the little boys got! Santa even made his way to the house early (we saw his tracks in the snow)! The trip went by entirely too quickly, but Phil and I continue to realize how blessed we are. We are so lucky to have such amazing families and we are anxious for the day that we move closer to them.

Unfortunately, our trip back to Midland was not all that wonderful. In a nut shell, we were excited to see about an inch or two of snow in Iowa, but we missed 'winter' in Midland.

However, our flight back was supposed to fly in during their 'winter storm.' We were able to fly into Houston, but once we arrived, we were notified that our flight was cancelled and we would have to stay the night. The next morning, we boarded our plane, waited 45 minutes on the runway and flew for about 30 minutes before the pilot stated we were turning around due to bad weather in Midland. Once we landed, Philip and I were informed that there were no flight to Midland until the next day. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so we went on a limb and booked a flight to Lubbock (2 hours from Midland). Keep in mind, we had no idea how we were getting from Lubbock to Midland! After calling all 8 car rental places in Lubbock, we thought we were going to have a $300 taxi fare back to Midland. Thankfully, two of our dear friends, the Thorton's (bless their hearts) came to pick us up. All in all, we were supposed to be back in Midland on Monday at 7pm and we got back on Tuesday at 10pm. I am so glad that Philip works at the airport and not me because I am not wanting to see an airport for quite some time :)

This year has been so full of blessing, memories and just so much more. Enjoy your celebrations and as Tiny Tim says, 'God bless us, everyone!'