Holiday Fun

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! Unfortunately I was unable to find my camera cord, so while I have lots of good pictures of my time at home, I don’t have any to put up. I will try to put some up later

I’m just going to do a brief day-by-day rundown of each day’s activities. I had so much fun with my family and we made a lot of memories. I really enjoyed watching Nathan interact with my family as they don’t know each other well because of the distance.
Most evenings we did Advent, watched Christmas movies and other movies, and endlessly cooked and did dishes

12/17—Thurs—As you know we went to the Dr. to find out we were having a boy, then we packed and left for OH around 10 in the evening.

12/18—Fri—Drive, arrive in OH around 6 and see baby stuff mom bought

12/19—Sat—I shopped with mom all morning—Once upon a child, Mall, Target, Walmart, Chipotles!, the Boys did their own thing, then in the evening the boys went to the movies and to the mall, and Mom and I went to The Greene for the live Nativity. I met Mom and Dad’s pastor, and we bought a Chai Latte and shared it while we walked around.

12/20—Sun—Visit Mom and Dad’s church, then go to the Air Force museum. Nathan and I went on the tour of the presidential and experimental aircraft. Erika and her fiancé Nate, and a few of his siblings joined us there. Erika was with us from this point on.

12/21—Mon—Got family photos taken at Walmart (and they did a great job!), went to get schwarmas but the shop was closed :(, so we had lunch at Long John Silvers instead. Then we went Christmas shopping at Valley Thrift store. The four of us kids shopped, and we got $5 to spend on each person in the family. And you would not believe the amount of gifts we all bought for our money! It was really fun—a new take on something we did when we were kids in Africa. On the way back home we had a family outing to the Pitt Stop tire store, then spent the evening gift wrapping, packing for the tripto NY, movie watching, and baking stuff that couldn't be done in oven in NY. (We only had camp stoves in the NY house, since Mom had brought her nice stove to OH)

12/22—Tues—Drive to NY, us kids took Mom and Dad out to lunch at Bahama Breeze for their 25th anniversary, and we decorated the NY house for Christmas.

12/23—Weds—Went to Ellicottville to go to Doug (PTL!) and get back and hips adjusted. He actually did adjustments on Mom and Dad and Nathan and I. Then we all went down to this cute little coffee shop just the four of us. Nathan and I walked around and window shopped while Mom and Dad went to their realtors office. Later that afternoon my cousin Ethan came over and brought Guitar Hero (which apparently my mom loves to play!) and we all took turns for several hours. While we were having fun, Dad was down in the cold basement replacing mom’s brakes. That night was our Baby Shower/Party at the church, which was really fun. Grandma and Grandpa Holtz bought the cake, which was super cute, and we got to see a lot of relatives, friends, and church family. Baby got some really nice presents too! After the party the Coulters came over to the house and we got to visit with them for a while longer.

12/24—Thurs—Chrismas Eve—Played guitar hero all morning while Miah and Dad were working at Grandad’s house. Mom and I had to go to Uncle Den’s to borrow a cheese grater but we stopped at Brooks and sneaked a sub sandwich. Nathan , Erika, Mom and I spent the afternoon making the Christmas Eve foods and we had over the Stovers and the Rineharts. Aunt Bonnie, Derek, and Brian stopped by for a few minutes to say hello, but didn’t stay long.

12/25—Fri—Christmas—Family day. Grandad came over for a brief visit and everyone mostly just played games and watched Christmas movies.

12/26—Sat—Packed up and cleaned up house(it’s still able to be shown), drive NY-OH, stop to meet the Gould family (the family of Erika’s fiancé), and see our old family dog Cadet, who now lives with the Goulds. When we got back to Mom and Dad’s we unpacked the cars, and then Nathan and I packed up our stuff to leave the next morning.

12/27—Sun—Drive OH-TX. Cry on and off for most of the day while I’m driving. I hated leaving. More on this one later.

12/28—Mon—Back in Texas. Sleep in, unpack, weep some more, go see Alvin and Chipmunks Squeakwell as a matinee.

12/29—Tues—Back to work

12/31—Thurs—New Years Eve—Off work early. Ordered pizza and Melissa, Thomas, Nathan and I sat around and watched TV. I fell asleep (big surprise!), but they watched all the festivities.

Then on Saturday Melissa and Thomas left—they moved down to the coast of Texas. I am happy for them since it gives them a lot of new opportunities, but for me I am sad because Melissa is my best (and basically only) friend and I will miss her big bunches. With her gone, I’m back to just having Nathan. And don’t get me wrong, he’s my best friend and I love him to death, but the reality is that he is gone way more than half of the time and that leaves me kind of lonely sometimes.

Christmas was amazing and such a happy time. I am so glad that we got to go and that God provided the means and kept us safe. I really needed that trip. The New Year has started out a little bit sad, but I do have Piglet’s birth to look forward to this year, and my mom (and hopefully Dad) coming down to visit after he is born.