Let me begin by apologizing for the void of new blog posts during the past two months. Holidays, events and travel happily consumed November and December, and my attention was directed towards finishing 2013 well and strong!
These past few months have been a tremendous blessing. We've been provided for and blessed by family and friends in humbling ways. Never in my life have I seen His love and kindness through the church body and family more plainly. Whether it be unannounced checks arriving in our mailbox or plane tickets paid for, we feel loved and taken care of by the people God has chosen to put in our life. Thank you for being a constant source of sustenance and encouragement.
My prayer and hope is to someday bless young couples in our life who are living the "Seminary Life" for Jesus. Experiencing this humbling season excites me for what our future holds!
November was a month full of steady thankfulness and loving community. With December feeling as if it was still in the distance, we learned how to be thankful for the place we were in and find beauty in our every day lives. We missed our family dearly and were sad to not be home, yet didn't feel all alone in this feeling. Most of our community stayed in Massachusetts, and celebrated the holiday with our Bell Hall community on campus.
Our Thanksgiving feast consisted of foods from all over the culinary spectrum: Fried Alabama turkeys, Californian stuffing, Georgian mashed potatoes, Coloradoan cranberry sauce, Japanese sushi, Korean kimchi, and a Texan pecan pie (to name a few). It was quite a memorable plate of food! True to Thanksgiving food form, it all somehow tasted delicious together...
The beauty of living with many different cultures is experiencing life (and holidays) together. These are sweet memories we'll never forget and are thankful for.
These incredible women have been a God-send!
Our Thanksgiving Family (minus a few)
December seemed like a blur of Christmas cheer and plane schedules! Mine and Jimmy's families blessed us with tickets home for Christmas. We were definitely ready to be home for the holidays. We couldn't have been more excited to be on Texas soil!
To start the month off, Boston experienced its first snowfall! At one point, snow seemed to be over two feet tall! Y'all, that's a lot of snow. We learned how to maneuver our cars in the icy, snowy conditions, and Jimmy became a shoveling stud by the end of our first encounter with the White Devil! Snow is all fun and games until you try to drive or walk to work in the morning...
Jimmy, the ice scraping stud
However, snow DOES promise the adventure of SLEDDING! Our sweet neighbors, the Mays, invited us to sled with them and we had an absolute blast! Did I mention they're fellow Texans?
Me and "Coco" about to sled down the hill!
It just kept fallin'...
Our Christmas break was kicked off by landing in Dallas on December 22 and seeing our wonderful lifegroup. It was refreshing catching up with sweet friends who continue to pray for us. It was a time of fellowship, storytelling and the celebration of new babies! We also got to meet our sweet niece, Arabella! I was in baby heaven...
Me and Arabella - the best niece of all!
Can you tell I didn't want to let her go? :)
We had a breakfast feast at the Griggs the next morning! I also got to see sweet friends and coworkers from St. Jude the next day, as well as have Christmas with my family at my Uncle James & Aunt Laura's house in McKinney! I treasure seeing my grandparents, cousins and entire family all together. It's always a riot when we get together. It made me realize how much I miss going to my aunt and uncle's place - they are two incredibly kind, gracious people. Jimmy and I feel so blessed by them!
Christmas Eve was a special time to see everyone at Christ Fellowship during the Christmas Eve service. It was an interesting feeling walking back into church - it felt like no time had gone by! Had Massachusetts been a dream? It was a funny feeling getting back into the Texan swing of things...
Christmas Eve night we drove to China Spring to surprise my family by coming in a day early! Our family loves fun traditions, and Christmas morning is a really special time for us to be together. None of the McMeans kids live in Texas anymore, so it's rare to have us in the same room!
We celebrated Christmas lunch with the Millers at Grammy and Granddad's house. This year marks the last Christmas at the house on Willow Lane. The Millers have lived in this house for more than 20 years - it was special to get to be there!
Posin' in the backyard at Grammy and Granddad's
These two people bless us beyond measure!
The remainder of our Christmas break was primarily spent in China Spring seeing family and relaxing at home. There's nothing sweeter than snuggling up by the fire pit singing songs to Jesus with my family! What a blessing it is to share our faith in Jesus Christ together. I often take this for granted, but am learning to appreciate the beauty of God's faithfulness in my family's lives.
Eventually, we drove back up to Dallas to drop my siblings off at the airport and spend some time with Monica, Andrew and Eleanor McKinney before flying out on Sunday morning back to Boston! Can you say WHIRLWIND trip to Texas!? It was a joy seeing everyone - but we could have spent a few more weeks and still not seen enough people!
Bruce and Tamara came up to Boston the following day, and we loved exploring the city with them! We got to see the Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, the North End, Harvard and Harvard Square! Showing off our fun city is something we love to do - especially to our family!
Outside Quincy Market
Unfortunately...this is about the time I got the SWINE FLU! Jimmy was able to spend good quality time with Bruce and Tamara will I recovered.
On January 2, the four of us bundled up and drove northwest for Vermont for the Miller Ski Vacation Extravaganza (coined "Ski-Market Ver-Montgomery...inside joke). The ENTIRE Miller fam was able to fly/drive to Vermont and stay in a wonderful condo right by the mountain. To say there weren't any hiccups during the trip would be an oversight, yet it was sweet to spend time together.(This deserves an entirely separate blog post)
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| Uncle David and Arabella concentrating on playing dominos |
Arabella fell asleep on Uncle Jimmy - she looooves Uncle Jimmy!
Mount Snow in Vermont was a beautiful ski resort, and we loved skiing together! I was still recovering from being very sick, but I still had a blast. Jimmy was able to ski all three days (even in -27 degree temperatures)! I had forgotten how much I love to ski!
"Mountain Selfie"
The past two months have been so eventfull with family, friends and travel, but we're glad to be getting back into our routine. Needless to say, we are already missing our Texan family! The spring semester ahead promises warmer temperatures, new adventures and continued blessings from Him.
Taken during our first Sunday back from break. We've missed our sweet church!
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Please let us know how we can be praying for YOU!
We love you all.
In Him,
The Millers
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