Hope

It's always sad when Christmas comes to an end. We enjoyed a nice Christmas this year. I felt really relaxed, mainly because of the early preparation.
Christmas Eve Rob had to be at work at 3AM to plow.We were planning to "pretend" that Christmas Eve was Christmas morning since Emily was with us and wouldn't be for the real Christmas morning (we alternate each year), but with Rob working we had to patiently wait for him to return home to open our presents. CJ and Alyssa came and spent the morning with us and as always that was a fun time. I love having kids in the house.

Christmas Eve night we went to Rob's parents and celebrated there. Christmas morning, we made breakfast and brought it to my parents. Then, Rob and I went to a movie! I have never ever been anywhere but with family on Christmas...but, we decided to take a little break from the action. I cannot believe how many people go to the movies on Christmas Day! We saw "Did You Hear About the Morgans." It was cute. Not amazing, but definitely cute. Then, Rob went to get Emily and we spent the rest of the evening at my parents.

Yesterday and today have been chillax. I am loving it. I promised not to make our time off overly busy. I want to feel as renewed as possible going into the New Year. Tomorrow, is my mom (and Alyssa's) birthday. I am going to spend the day with mom...doing what we love to do...hitting up our favorite store ever(Marshalls), a few quaint little shops, and then we'll top that off with Chili's for lunch. Yum! I can taste the chips and salsa just thinking about it. I'm making her (and my) favorite cake from scratch...no boxes this year, baby! Red Velvet Cake from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook. Then, it's back to work (reality) on Tuesday.

I don't know about you, but doesn't the year 2010 sound absolutely exciting!!! I can feel that this is going to be a gigantic year for us. I am remaining hopeful. This morning during our Sunday coffee drive (my favorite part of every week), I told Rob that the seasons are such a great analogy for life itself. Winter is hard, but there is also beauty in it (like the fact that I am looking at the snow fall out the window as I type this)...you just have to look for the beauty. But, the thing that makes winter the absolute best is the thought of summer. The hopefulness and the expectancy that summer will eventually come. If you get through the winter, you can get to the summer. And, that pretty much sums up how I feel about my life right now. If I can get through the winter (the struggle/the pain) by finding beauty in the winter (the struggle) as well as remember that summer (goodness) will eventually come...then, all can be well. And, you're definitely going to want to find the beauty in your winters because in case you haven't noticed...the winters are always much longer than the summers! Interesting, don't you think.