Christmas

Lindsey drove all the way down to see us this past weekend so we could have Christmas with the girls. It's something we've done every year since we've been at Southern. We've done everything ranging from a huge pile of presents opened in the middle of January to painting ornaments at Clay & Stitches. This year, we each got a collective group gift. We rented Love Actually and Christmas With the Kranks and drank Mexican hot chocolate. It was great!

We got Tara lots of things to help keep her cool (moisture-holding bandana thing), warm (long underwear), and bug-free (another bandana thing) while she's trekking around New Zealand next year working with ADRA's Adventure Plus Team.

We got Jaclyn two sets of the Corelle dishes she wanted. She knew we were getting them for her, but since I got them in NC where the sales tax is lower than here, I decided to get two. She said it's scary to think those are the dishes she will probably have for the next 20 years!

They got me some really nice scrapbooking shape cutters from Creative Memories. Mary Jane's sister in Montana sells the stuff, so they got it from her. Hopefully I will go get some of these pictures printed and make a scrapbook page of Christmas. They got me some stickers too so I can finally finish the pages about my broken nose and about our ornithology trip to Dauphin Island from last school year. Those can be my goals for Christmas break.

Lindsey's newfound love of the outdoors inspired us to get her a gift certificate to her new favorite store, REI. She was very excited. Now she can get a nice sleeping pad for her very nice sleeping bag.