half of vacation already over....

Over half of my week off has already come and gone. It has been an amazing few days. Saturday we got to have a family "get together"  to see family we don't see very often but also to celebrate my grandmother's 77th birthday. My Memaw is by far one of the best people I've ever known and has taught me so much about life. Sunday we went to our old church, saw some old friends, ate lunch with the Burgins (who we LOVE) and spent some time with the Andrew's as well. It was so nice to see old friends and get to "catch up". We love living in Temple but sometimes you miss your old friends. Monday Jonathan, myself, his mom and his niece went to the Gaylord ICE exhibit which was stunning. It's incredible what they can make out of ice. This year the theme was Charlie Brown Christmas. The ice sculptures were beautiful and we had fun. Tuesday we drove to Marshall, TX to see the Christmas lights. I enjoyed being able to show Jonathan around my college town and talk about the fun times I had there. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! It is seriously my favorite time of year and seeing Christmas lights makes me so happy. On our way home on Wednesday we stopped in Tyler to eat lunch with a friend of mine from medical school. Our lunch took over 4 hours because we were talking so much. I think the waiters were getting annoyed, oh well, we left a good tip. I miss my friends from medical school so much. Medical school is so hard and your friends from school really understood what it was like and I think that makes the bond so much stronger. We really hoped to be able to get together this year like we did last year but it's not going to happen. Good thing our friend Emily is getting married in December of 2011, we'll all be there for that! Wednesday night we ate dinner with some old friends in Arlington and today we hung out with my nieces, went to lunch with my mom and my mother-in-law, went to dinner with family and are now hanging out. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and it will be busy but full of family and fun.

We should be licensed for foster care now. We submitted our foster care agreement paperwork today which was the last piece they needed. We can't wait to have a child/children!

I'm not ready to go back to work on Sunday and return to working nights but at least I have a few more days off to spend with family. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!

~until~