Weekend in Bemidji (back in December)

Happy to report that we traveled to Bemidji for an early Christmas celebration and brought our germs.  Merry Christmas, Dad.  Hope you are enjoying the flu.  (If you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.)

We came home and have basically spent our time like many people in the midwest blowing noses, taking temperatures, putting heating pads in the microwave, keeping puke buckets nearby, administering doses of Advil and other cold and flu drugs.  Scott, Jacob, and Nathan have been physically battling...as for myself...physically I feel great (emotionally, I'm trying to stay positive and remain peaceful despite the fact I can't stop Nathan's "wegs" from hurting).

It goes without saying...not really the picture perfect Christmas I had envisioned.  You know, the one where we are all in our PJ's after attending the Christmas Eve service, drinking hot cocoa and opening presents.  Reading excerpts of the Christmas story before bed.

In reality though, the Christmas Eve service (which I attended solo) was quite amazing.  And a simple (but not always easy) reminder that you can have the gift of peace...despite your circumstances.  As long as you accept and unwrap your gift.  And when I get over myself and my pity party, I sit back in the comfort of my cozy basement in front the of yule log on TV and listen to my 3 year old snore gently as he gets some rest.  I am reminded that when I let go of MY expectations and MY desire to control events, schedules, and outcomes and just rely and trust completely and wholly that God's got this...I find peace.  No matter what comes my way.  For at least 20 minutes anyway until Nathan whimpers and cries that he hurts all over.  Then I have to remember that gift of peace.

Our plans are to head to Okoboji tomorrow for the Sinclair Christmas celebration.  Hoping Nathan turns a corner soon!

Here's to a peace filled Christmas season and 2015!

Surf and turf dinner -  half of the table

The other half

Ice skating with Gracie!

Intense game of Blokus

Winter recap

Although winter is not technically over, I'm already focusing on the arrival of spring.  I know, I know it is only the beginning of February.  It's about this time that I start thinking about the upcoming longer days, warmer temps, and arrival of green grass.  With more frequent use of Instagram, what seems like very little down time (we're doing some exciting things around here!), and the inability to sit comfortably for any length of time (I desire complete healing!), my blog posts seems to be fewer and far between.  Never fear, I'm jumping back in.  I had good intentions...I had written a draft during the week of Christmas and never published it.

Our Christmas / birthday season was lovely and it already seems like quite awhile ago.  We spent the before Christmas weekend in Bemidji, the during Christmas week at home (mostly in our jimmies), and the after Christmas weekend in Okoboji for the annual Sinclair gathering.  We followed the Christmas festivities with the Sinclair birthday week (ice cream sundae bar for Jacob, Black Sheep Pizza for Nikki, and classy sweatpants for Scott).  Whew.

As we look forward to February, Jacob is representing PHCA as an alternate in the spelling bee, we've got a Valentine's date planned (fun fact: we were engaged on Valentine's day 14 years ago), and Nathan is going to be registered officially for pre-school this fall.  Aside from that, we'll get some winter like activities in before the arrival of that green grass in March.  (A girl can dream, right?)

Have a great weekend friends!  Thanks for checking in.