Time with friends

A positive blog after the sad one from Friday...

Last night we had the chance to spend time with Nate and Liz. We had a blast at indoor putt putt! After putt putt and the giggles there, we found a Johnny Malloy's and had pizza and drinks. It was so great to hang out with them and have that time to catch up. I hope to have more time like this with friends in the near future. As much as I love being a lazy bum, I am really looking forward to being social on New Year's Eve. At first I wasn't sure that I wanted to host a party. I thought it would just be great to have a quiet night at home alone. As time went on, and we thought there were no other parties planned, we realized that we NEEDED to have a party so that everyone could have a chance to get together. Now that everyone is getting more busy with life, marriages, babies, work, etc., we thought it was important to give everyone the opportunity to come spend time with friends. I have begun to really call my friends part of my family, and it makes me feel very blessed to be surrounded with such great people. I hope everyone has a chance to come over for New Years and play board games, card games, and the Wii to ring in the new year with friends and family.

I am also looking forward to Christmas with friends and family. I am very excited for our Christmas Eve service again this year. I love our candlelight service. It is like nothing I have experienced at other churches. Sure, other churches have candlelight services, but ours feels...so much different. It is hard to explain, but I guess its why I finally feel at home in this church and how special and authentic things feel there. After service on Christmas Eve, we will go back to my mom's house and open a present. I have loved this tradition ever since I was little. I hope my brother is around for service and to open a gift. It may not mean much to him now, but I hope he sees that it means a lot to the rest of the family. It might even be a tradition he will want to carry on with his own family. I know I will. :-) I am also looking forward to Christmas Eve because my step-sisters will be in town. I must be honest and say that it is still weird to me that I have step-sisters. They live out of state, so we don't see each other very often, but it will be nice for the whole family to be together for the holidays. I know it means a lot to my mom and Chuck that we will all be together. Maybe I can finally get a family game of Nerts going (card game)!

Hopefully my next post will have pictures in it. I have some pictures from our time with Nate and Liz as well as some from our new house all decorated for the holidays.