Christmas With Family

Classic Langner Portrait

Cute Nices & Nephlets

The Wonderful Hubby (who actually sat for the camera! Thank you, Hubby!)

We hit both families for Christmas. With a little unique wrangling that landed us in the airport on Christmas day, we set up Christmas for my parents at their new home in Forest, Virginia, and brought Pete's mom a happy Christmas surprise in Vernon, Connecticut.

All in all, it was a crazy first married Christmas, but we did enjoy the time we spent with our families. OUR Christmas cards won't be going out until June, however, so please don't be offended that you haven't received anything from us as yet. Those of you who sent us gifts, thank you so much! We really appreciated it!

In other random news, we get a five-day weekend for New Year's. *grin* Anything could happen...

Here's hoping you enjoyed your holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Well, folks, we're dropping out for our Christmas weekend--not as early as we wanted to, but what can we say?

Here's to a White Christmas!

Out of the bosom of the Air.
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.

Approaching a Year

Just thought it'd be fun to compile some favorite pictures from this year. Enjoy!

Fun on a Silver Morning

It frosted beautifully last night, and we woke this morning to a rose-gold sunrise through the ice etchings on our windowpanes. In a rare event, we arrived at work a few minutes *early* and had time for a few random items.

Today's "Pearls Before Swine" strip: what happens when you get too little sleep (or when you're just plain not paying attention...)

Ever have to put your cat in a carrier before? Check out this morning's uncaged "Get Fuzzy" strip.

Oh, and if you're thinking about dying in Biritiba Miram, Brazil, don't. You might find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

Today's verse of the day, taken out of context with the after-effects of my rather bad day yesterday, was also one of those randomly humorous items that tickled our funny bones:

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth everyday alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
~Romans 14:5

I am fully persuaded that today is better than yesterday.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly, Pete's coffee run was only to *pay* for yesterday's coffee, but on his trip, he "met Cindy Cha who was eating a veggie sausage and drinking de-fac -- de-caf. Told her I'd circulate a prayer petition in legal for our dear sister who was joining a vegan cult. I also said her hemp coat looked lovely. I'm afraid she laughed so hard she was nigh on tears."

There are times when I think it's just better not to inquire...

Spontaneous Weekends

This weekend, Pete and I got to experience the joy of the spontaneous.

We didn't start out with any plans for our weekend. Just the usual, "Yay, we don't have to work," and a plan to finish moving my office around before the Free Indeed Concert on Friday evening.

Then I found out that Free Indeed didn't have any decorations. And that my desk wasn't going to be ready to be moved in until Monday. And that no alumni moment had materialized for Free Indeed.

We went to work. As soon as we established that I would not be able to finish cleaning my office, we left to pick up some decorations and door prizes for the concert and the alumni moment. As we were decorating, my cell phone rang. It was theKate, calling to tell us that she and her best friend were going to be coming up to stay the night so they could go Christmas shopping--with their own spontaneous ideas.

"Sure, not a problem! You know you're welcome!"

After the concert, I was talking with Gabe's dad, who mentioned that he would see me on Sunday. Surprised, but not altogether in the dark, I realized that Pete must have told Gabe we would come up with him to see some highlights from Handel's Messiah with his family. While my brain was still wrapping itself around that plan, we were invited to stay for pizza with Free Indeed, which we did. We then topped off the evening with a spur-of-the-moment trip to Magnolia's for dessert and a date.

The next day, I was planning to meet my friend Heidi to talk about weddings (she's engaged now, btw--see my post about my wedding...). On the way home, I called to ask Pete if we could just go out and pick up our Christmas tree that afternoon--so we did, and we took Gabe with us too! We had bought and then returned a tree stand, thinking we wanted to get a fake tree instead of a real tree, so we needed to get another tree stand for our tree, which turned out in the end to be real.

Then we decided at the last minute before returning home from picking up our tree stand to meet up with Kate and Kristi at the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Leesburg. Then Kate and Kristi spontaneously stayed another night to help us decorate the tree. While we were decorating, it began to snow.

The next morning, we went to church in Pennsylvania and spent the day with Gabe, his family and our friend Katie. The community performance of the Messiah was worth the trip. It was held in a huge old Methodist church in Carlisle, complete with even more snow.

Sometimes, I suspect we just need spontaneous weekends, to remind us how fun living can be. Ask us about our new memories sometime!