Well, hello. Welcome back to my blog. With the whirlwind it's been surrounding the holidays, I completely forgot about this thing. Hence, no post in a rather long time. But, alas, I have returned! And with quite a load of information up my sleeve (or hiding behind these fingers, whichever applies..)
These past few weeks have been so much fun. I love Christmas and everything that goes with it.. decorations, family time, laziness, food, and just the feeling of joy that surrounds this time of year. There's just something about December that makes you feel content and warm. Maybe it's all the hot chocolate and blankets, or maybe it's the feeling of love that seems to abound from everyone simply because it's Christmastime, but I love it. And what I love even MORE is that next year, Chuck and I will be celebrating as husband and wife. There is a long list of things that I can't wait for as newlyweds, and celebrating the holidays together is definitely one of them.
So, like I said, the past few weeks have been so much fun. A group of us went camping (yes, it was 25 degrees...) and it was miserable to say the absolute least. A piece of advice? Don't go camping when you wake up that morning with a fever and feel like death. Hiking through the woods and sleeping without heat when it's below freezing won't make you feel any better. In fact, it will make you feel worse. Ok, enough of the pity party. Here are some pictures of us being miserable having a party in the woods.
Christmas has been different around the Graves household the past several years. We've gone from the traditional Christmas as kids to spending the day a little differently. Three years ago, Amy was off in a far away land on Christmas day (ha) and last year we spent Christmas day on a plane flying home from Disney World. This Christmas, though, all three of us girls jumped into my big bed at home on Christmas Eve and slept like we did when we were little. It was nice to wake up on Christmas morning like we did as kids (minus the hiding behind the hall door so we couldn't see what Santa brought) and celebrating together as a family.
Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone has had such a good holiday season. I spent Christmas night working my first holiday as an RN. Amy was blessed by being put on call (she was supposed to work Christmas Eve) so I was thankful that she didn't have to go in and we could all spend the time together as a family. We went to the Candlelight Service at church with both our family and Greg's family, split and went our separate ways, and then Chuck joined us at our house for the remainder of the night. I love having the family all together, especially when Chuck can be there. Then, on Christmas day, us 4 girls spent the morning at the house opening gifts and then joined the Abbey clan for an afternoon of food and hanging out. After that, I headed to work (dressed in my red and green, of course) and spread some holiday cheer to my patients. I much preferred to work Christmas night rather than Christmas Eve, so I didn't mind it so much. I did think about everyone who worked day shift that day who couldn't spend that time with their families. It put into perspective the sacrifice so many people make and how sad it is to not spend the holidays with family, like all of those in the military, emergency personnel (like firefighters, policeman), healthcare workers, and others. I definitely won't take spending time with family on a holiday for granted now that I know what it's like to have to sacrifice that time.
I am just filled with such good spirits lately, and I hope you are too. I don't know if it's the lingering holiday cheer, or the fact that in 9 days I'll be in Disney World, or both! But I've worked the past two nights, it's 11am after a night of work and I haven't gone to sleep yet, and I'm still just so happy right now. Maybe it's delirium, I don't know. But what I do know is that I'm thankful for a blessed life and the wonderful people in it.
Now, here's a look at what my eyes will see in a little over a week... eeeeeek! :)
Happy Holidays and love you all!
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