Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that...

Well, we are back from the Mississippi. We were able to see Jed's family and my family and a lot of friends. The highlights were:
*Jed's bro, Daniel, and his new wife, Brooke, came in from Korea and we spent a week with them
*Christmas decorations all over Mom Hale's house (beautiful!)
*talking to Gabriel (our nephew) on the phone and hearing him ask me repeatedly if I was awake.
*running into random people at the gym
*shopping a bit
*Jed gave me a beautiful diamond bracelet
*the Advent wreath w/the Hale family, I LOVE this tradition that makes us remember what we are celebrating.
*my family!
*the day at the Hale's w/my whole family
*dinners w/my grandparents
*We had a great New Years Eve w/old friends
*New Years Day I spend 7 hours throwing up (stomach bug)
*Christmas cards from everyone!

We had a great time but I was ready to be back. I am thankful for a life I like here in Lynch-Vegas :) Last night we were able to go visit with friends all night (technically the girls visited while the guys watched the championship). I have 2 weeks before school starts and have so much to do...so here I sit, writing instead. I made some new years goals and already broke a lot of them. One of them was that I was gonna buck up and have an amazing "quiet time" w/my Father every day. Day 9 and that's not going so well. Maybe I should change it and let it be "to acknowledge that I'm never gonna be good enough, even for myself, and dive into the glory of Christ daily". The first part is easy, the second half, that's a different story. I have a hard time trusting that the God of the universe, who knows and loves and rejoices over my soul, could really control things better than I can. This is pitiful. Thank God for his grace. He's already won this battle and one day I will physically see it....what a God! He is really drawing me to himself.