Winter Break
This past winter break was the most awesome I had ever had.
Me, Paul, and Melissa drove up to Arkansas together, making a detour to see Kristen (one of my best friends and matron of honor) and her husband. She's been insisting on meeting the fiance for quite a while now :P. We stayed at their house for the night and got to stay up late talking and catching up.
We got to Arkansas the next day, shortly before Paul's family arrived from Indiana. Our parents got to have a reunion (they knew each other back in college) and it was fun to hear them get reacquainted and share old college memories. They stayed in AR for a few days before heading back up to Indiana with Melissa. Paul got to preach at my congregation on Sunday evening. He had preached there before, to fill in for my dad, so my dad got to hear him preach for the first time.
Paul stayed at my house for the next 5 days. We got iced/snowed in for a couple of days with my family and got to go "skating" on our own personal ice rink on our driveway. We had planned to go up to Illinois for Paul to meet with a church up there who is considering taking him on as a full-time preacher; however, due to the intensity of the weather and ice up there, they decided it'd be better for us not to travel since they might cancel services anyway. So instead, we headed to Indiana to surprise Paul's family, since the weather and road conditions were good for their area. We stayed with them for about 4 days. We got a lot of good food, got to watch several movies and play a whole lot of card and board games. I also got to experience -15 wind chill for the first time in my life. I was pretty excited to finally experience real northern cold, even if they only had a snow shower and some ice while I was there :P. We celebrated Christmas with them early by opening presents and having a huge Christmas lunch on New Year's Eve, before leaving to get back to AR that night.
We got to spend an awesome Christmas day with my family filled with food, presents, raking leaves, and singing hymns together before bed. Then Paul left the next morning to get back to Florida. I spent the last few days home working on putting together our wedding registry and cleaning out/decluttering my room, among other things. My family also hosted a New Year's Eve party for people from church and the party didn't end until 1am! Then the very next morning I got on a plane to come back to Tampa!
Highlights summary if you don't have time to read the above:
Getting to know Paul's family better and start feeling like part of the family :)
Spending 2 out of 3 weeks of the break with Paul
Getting to spend time with Kristen
Getting to see snow/ice covering the ground in AR
First -15 windchill experience
Playing more card and board games in 3 weeks time than in my entire life combined
Getting to celebrate Christmas 2x with both of our families
Great devotions every night with Paul and my family
New Year's Eve party at our house with people from church
Getting ready for our wedding and marriage!
And realizing just how much God has richly blessed me!
Me, Paul, and Melissa drove up to Arkansas together, making a detour to see Kristen (one of my best friends and matron of honor) and her husband. She's been insisting on meeting the fiance for quite a while now :P. We stayed at their house for the night and got to stay up late talking and catching up.
We got to Arkansas the next day, shortly before Paul's family arrived from Indiana. Our parents got to have a reunion (they knew each other back in college) and it was fun to hear them get reacquainted and share old college memories. They stayed in AR for a few days before heading back up to Indiana with Melissa. Paul got to preach at my congregation on Sunday evening. He had preached there before, to fill in for my dad, so my dad got to hear him preach for the first time.
Paul stayed at my house for the next 5 days. We got iced/snowed in for a couple of days with my family and got to go "skating" on our own personal ice rink on our driveway. We had planned to go up to Illinois for Paul to meet with a church up there who is considering taking him on as a full-time preacher; however, due to the intensity of the weather and ice up there, they decided it'd be better for us not to travel since they might cancel services anyway. So instead, we headed to Indiana to surprise Paul's family, since the weather and road conditions were good for their area. We stayed with them for about 4 days. We got a lot of good food, got to watch several movies and play a whole lot of card and board games. I also got to experience -15 wind chill for the first time in my life. I was pretty excited to finally experience real northern cold, even if they only had a snow shower and some ice while I was there :P. We celebrated Christmas with them early by opening presents and having a huge Christmas lunch on New Year's Eve, before leaving to get back to AR that night.
We got to spend an awesome Christmas day with my family filled with food, presents, raking leaves, and singing hymns together before bed. Then Paul left the next morning to get back to Florida. I spent the last few days home working on putting together our wedding registry and cleaning out/decluttering my room, among other things. My family also hosted a New Year's Eve party for people from church and the party didn't end until 1am! Then the very next morning I got on a plane to come back to Tampa!
Highlights summary if you don't have time to read the above:
Getting to know Paul's family better and start feeling like part of the family :)
Spending 2 out of 3 weeks of the break with Paul
Getting to spend time with Kristen
Getting to see snow/ice covering the ground in AR
First -15 windchill experience
Playing more card and board games in 3 weeks time than in my entire life combined
Getting to celebrate Christmas 2x with both of our families
Great devotions every night with Paul and my family
New Year's Eve party at our house with people from church
Getting ready for our wedding and marriage!
And realizing just how much God has richly blessed me!