Gramma Julie's Coming to Town

She may not be Santa, but I'm sure she'll brighten our Christmas. My hubby's 90-year-old mom will be joining us for Christmas this year. We're going to drive up to Oklahoma to pick her up on Wednesday.

My Dad lives across town, but his wife had back surgery last Tuesday. They aren't quite up for company or car travel, so we won't be seeing them until after New Year's Day. My brother & his family are coming up on January 3rd. We'll get together at that time.

This will be the first time in a few years that we have had "the big meal" at our house! It will be a nice change!

This also may be the last Christmas that we're all in the same country for a while. My daughter & fiancé are planning to go to Germany shortly after they are married this summer. He will be teaching English in German schools for the school year. After she marries, my older son is planning to enlist in the Air Force, so he could be anywhere!

I enjoyed a quiet day today: sleeping late, reading and getting chores done at a leisurely pace. It was nice. Tomorrow I'm going to redeem a 2-year-old gift certificate for a massage. I'm hoping it will help with my back issues.

My back has been much better. I went to yoga on Saturday, and I suffered no ill effects it! We might go again tomorrow night.

We're getting ourselves a Christmas present, with a little help from our kids. It's a nice digital camera. I broke ours the day our youngest was baptized. We'd been having trouble with it, so we weren't too disappointed. The camera probably won't arrive until after Christmas, but that's O.K.

Ready for Christmas Break!

Or, Winter Break, to be politically correct.

It's been a busy time lately, as you can see from my lack of posts. The students have been challenging lately. We had a school rep come & demonstrate how things were to go -- which was much more regimented than I usually do things. Consequently, they have been challenging my authority since then.

I've also had an ongoing battle of wills with my younger son. We're going to try to crack down on him to get him to meet his responsibilities.

I noticed my back hurting after a yoga session two weeks ago. I went to another session two days later, and now my back is worse. My doc gave me some exercises and OK'd yoga, if I go cautiously and skip the parts that hurt.

Just before Thanksgiving, I got my hair cut! I donated the ponytail to Locks of Love. They make wigs for children cancer patients who cannot afford them. The new profile pic is the straightened look. I'll get a pic on later of the curly look. I broke my camera, and Julie has misplaced hers.

The profile pic was taken from a picture of last Sunday's worship team (which explains the shiny things by my head!) With our new worship pastor coming soon, this may have been our last time to lead worship together. We've really enjoyed bonding as a team. When you have a great group of musicians to work with, you just naturally fall into your parts. Thanks to the whole team for allowing me to be a part of such talented servant leadership!