Merry Christmas from Omaha!
We are winding down our holiday to visit Brian’s family in The Big O (just try to say that without snickering…). We flew down on Monday – yes, we flew on Christmas Eve…brave of us, I know. We had no issues with our flights – for once – and arrived around 3 o’clock local time. Of course, we were up at 4 in the morning which meant that Anne was utterly exhausted. We then had to wrap our gifts in a flurry for opening gifts on Xmas Eve as my BIL had to work on Xmas Day. So we wrapped everything (you can’t wrap gifts when you are flying internationally) downstairs in record time and then galloped upstairs to rip into a few presents.
I missed our usual Christmas Eve candlelight service. I’ve noticed not a lot of USA churches do this but we always do it. We didn’t do church at all over Christmas which bugs me but what are you going to do?
We had a quiet Christmas Day with a late meal of ham etc. We opened gifts and just hung out.
Last night, Brian and I had a “date night” which was quite nice. We went to a restaurant that we’ve missed since leaving the USA called P.F. Chang’s. It’s kind of an Asian bistro. We closed the place down, just holding hands, talking and eating fabulous food. Just hit the spot – both the debriefing and the food! We had a “shopping day” today as there were a few stores I simply had to visit while in the States like Target and Bath & Body Works. We also got our Christmas gift for each other – a new digital camera. Quite happy with it and it’s so much cheaper here. It is amazing how much more selection and how much cheaper everything is in the States even though our dollar is worth more. Go figure.
Unfortunately, Anne is not feeling well (she has a fever) so I am home alone right now. I nursed her to sleep and everyone else is at my SILs house, playing cards. I am thankful for the alone time to be honest. I need some quiet time on trips like this.
We head home tomorrow. Unfortunately, we have all late flights, so we won’t be home until after midnight pacific time (which is 2 AM Central Time…where we’ve been for the past week!). Not looking forward to that at all but I am looking forward to being home.
I’m still not doing “great”. I am getting through the festivities but my heart is still very heavy. I feel rather empty and tired, vascillating between faith and despair. I long for our wee girl that we lost as well as the son we lost in 2005. We have decided to name them so are working through that now as well. It’s hard sometimes to “fake it” but it’s necessary.
