Back to Normal

Well, the week of families, Christmas, chaos, and fun is over. As many of you know, this was our 1st Christmas as a married couple. It was an amazing 1st Christmas, but also makes you realize the responsibility of being married and sharing families with one another. Peter's family is one that we see often throughout the year so it is not a rarity. My family, on the other hand, is different because we only see them 1-2 times a year on holidays. This year we were able to see them for Thanksgiving and they came down for Christmas! Two holidays of seeing my family is something I have not done since freshman year in college. We really enjoyed being able to see both of our families and having some time of rest and relaxation.

As some of you know and the rest of you have been asking...we bought a new house! We actually bought it about 3 weeks ago, but had not told our parents until yesterday. We had it all planned out that Peter's parents would come up to go to church and have lunch with us yesterday since my family was in town. We took them by the house after lunch and completely surprised them! They were so thrilled for us and of course, my mom wanted to start decorating right away. The house is absolutely beautiful and it could not have worked out any better for us. It definitely was cool to see God's hand through every detail of looking and purchasing our 1st home. Peter and I are so excited to be able to get going and making the house our own. We close on the 29th of January and will be able to move in that day. We are in the process of purchasing a washer and dryer and a few other things that we do not have in our apartment now, but have the luxury of having in this home. The thing I love the most about it is that it is brand new. No one has lived in it to mess it up or have something go wrong with it. The other fun thing is that we can have a grill and have pets!! Stupid Lynchburg apartment rules say we cannot have grills...I know, I know there are many of you reading this in Lynchburg with a grill, but you do not have our landlord:) She would kick us out of there in a second. Peter's dad actually surprised him with a brand new grill yesterday so we are excited. I will post pictures later on this week. We have to go in and measure for our new blinds, curtains, etc. A month from today and we will be homeowners!! Thank you to all of you that knew and had prayed about this with us, it meant more than you know.

My parents left this morning around 7am to go back to Michigan. I was so happy to have them here and be able to spend some real quality time with all of them. On the other hand, Peter and I are excited to spend time together and get back in a 'normal' routine. I am back at work for the rest of the week and then we start a new year. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. So many exciting things have taken place, but that is for later on this week for my New Years post. Have a great week everyone!