Separation Anxiety

Our family has been having to cope with a long distance relationship for the past couple of weeks. Rebecca and the kids have been in Washington with the Littles (we visited the Swifts when Joshua was there too), while Joshua has been traveling around the country for internship interviews. It has been hard to be apart for so long. Prior to this experience we have never really been apart since our marriage (there was one night when Rebecca was away at young women's camp, but that was it). So it has been a big adjustment. Luckily we have been able to talk and see each other using our new webcam, which has really been a blessing. Unfortunately, we still have a little more than a week.

Here are some pictures from Joshua's end of the webcam

PS. Pictures of family from the Washington trip will be added when we get the camera problem worked out.

Christmas Celebrations

We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we reenacted the Christmas story as a Family. Julia played the role of Mary, Joshua played the role of the donkey, Rebecca played the role of everything else, and Ethan was the audience. After Julia rode the donkey around the house for a while, we all stopped and had a Christmas Eve dinner of fish, dates (we actually did prunes and apricots), pita bread, and juice. We were trying to imagine what Mary and Joseph may have eaten at the time. It ended up being a very reverent and spiritual way to celebrate our Christmas Eve, and a tradition that we plan to continue in the future.

On Christmas morning we opened presents early and enjoyed that time together. Julia and Ethan were definitely spoiled by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even parents who just thought that they would enjoy every single toy in the store. Julia did most of the unwrapping while Ethan again played the role of the audience. They both had a blast! Thank you everyone for your generosity.

After that we had two older single ladies from our ward to come over and share a Christmas brunch with us. The brunch included ham, rolls, fruit, a potato dish, cranberry coffeecake, a quiche, and hot-chocolate. Joshua also wanted a frog-eye-salad, but we decided it was too much already. We ended up cooking way too much anyway and most of the meal ended up in our freezer.

Then we went over to Joshua's aunt and uncle's house in Tulsa. Joshua's grandparents were also there and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. And to Joshua's surprise they had made a frog-eye-salad. We had brought over a popcorn cake; which was one of his grandma's traditions. We all had a wonderful weekend together (they let us stay over-night next door in their cottage). Julia enjoyed playing with Penny (Kristen and Kent's new dog) and having Mark run around with her in the yard, Ethan enjoyed being held by everyone, and we enjoyed a little bit of a break.

In thinking about this past year we have truly been blessed. We have a wonderful family and extended family to share our love with and we couldn't be happier.

PS. Our camera is in Washington and our cord to plug it into the computer is in Oklahoma, so pictures of our Christmas break will follow in a subsequent post.