Christmas in Missouri was wonderful. It went by more quickly than I expected, but it was so, so good to be home. I'm going to fly home in March so that I have more time to visit and play cards. This trip was so busy! There were four days and three Christmases, which made for a lot of big family events. It was great to see everyone, but I feel like I got to wave and smile and then I was gone.

Because the holidays wore me out, I've given myself a break and have done absolutely nothing for two whole days. It's been glorious. I plan to continue this pattern until we leave for Arizona at the end of the week, though I may have to make exceptions for laundry and cooking.

The picture above is our whole family - not often are we all gathered in one place. It's hard to believe there will be two new little faces in our picture next year!

Finals are done and I'm headed for Missouri...

I took this picture on Thursday, just as the snow was beginning to fall.  We had another big storm last night that left a chilly layer of snow and ice on everything.  They're just now clearing off the roads and I don't even want to think about how much work it will be to dig out our car tomorrow.  The weather has been a great excuse to stay warm and snuggled in on the couch, watching the sleet and snow from the windows.  I thought it would be a great excuse to get down to business with my textbooks but it just didn't work out that way.  Kevin's officially on vacation and has two weeks off!   We celebrated by making dinner together and watching While You Were Sleeping (which I still think is a Christmas movie even though he disagrees).  He also took me on a long walk to try to get some exercise before the storm hit.  He had me hustling so fast because he was cold that by the time we got back to the apartment I had already taken off most of my cold weather gear.  He still insists he couldn't feel any extremeties by the time we got back.  He is definitely an Arizona boy.

Nothing much to report here.  I have one more week of school - finals week.  I only have three finals, so it really shouldn't be too bad.  I am struggling with motivation to study because I feel like this semester has been about twelve years too long and I'm rapidly running out of energy.  What energy I have had, I've been devoting to productive but un-school related activities such as finishing up crafts for Christmas.  The idea for making Christmas gifts seemed like such a good one (and I still stand by it) but I didn't realize how much work it was going to be!  I'm almost there, though, just a couple of things to finish up.  

And that's about it.  That and counting down the days until we're in Missouri...     

Drinking hot tea, listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing "Baby, it's Cold Outside," and watching big flakes of snow fall prettily out my window.  It turned out to be a pretty good day.

It's officially winter here.  Not only is it shockingly cold, but this morning we had our first snow.  Yesterday to celebrate the official beginning of December, I put up our little Christmas tree and stockings.  In about an hour, I'm leaving to parktake in further winter festivities.  A local park is having a crafting celebration where you can make your own wreaths and dip your own candles.  A few of us from the nursing school are going and though it will be very cold, I think it's worth getting bundled up for.