Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Narasimha and I had a very busy last week or so - here is some of what we did for Christmas.

Weekend of December 21-23: Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. This was at my Mom and Dad's house in central Iowa. In attendance were my Grandpa and Grandma, my 10 aunts and uncles, 16 cousins, and my Dad, Mom, and my three siblings. I was very thankful because that was the weekend Narasimha got home from Canada, so he got to join us. I was also varying degrees of miserable for most of the weekend with a sinus infection that I still actually have after a whole week on antibiotics - yuck!

Christmas Eve: Narasimha had to work in the morning, so when he got home in the afternoon we relaxed for a while, and then I made chili for dinner. We ate dinner, and then drove around M-town for over an hour and looked at Christmas lights. We found some pretty good displays. We got home and opened our gifts for each other, and then watched part of a movie to wind down.

Christmas Day: We got up early and headed to Dad and Mom's house for Christmas there with my immediate family. In the morning we opened gifts as a family, and for lunch went to our neighbor's house for our traditional Christmas dinner. When we got done eating, we napped most of the afternoon on the floor of my childhood bedroom (we slept on the floor so the dogs could sleep with us). Then, back to the neighbor's house for dinner and annual neighborhood party, followed by a little ice skating on the lake my parents live on. We returned to our house by that night, because Narasimha had to work on Wednesday.

We were supposed to have a Christmas for my Dad's side of the family this weekend, but my grandma wasn't feeling well, so my parents went to Wisconsin to visit her and my aunt and uncle and family, while Narasimha and I stuck around and tried to finish some projects at home.

I very much enjoyed everything we did, and everyone we got to see, during the last week or so. I received nice and thoughtful gifts, and I think my shopping and was mostly successful this year. I also enjoyed, as always, the time spent thinking about Jesus and all Christmas means for the promises I have from God.

We hope you had a great time with family and friends during this holiday season, and hope you had a chance to reflect on "The Reason for the season" in some way as you celebrated this year.