Happy Holidays

I am here posting again while my baby tries to take a nap next door. She is closer today than normal.

No pictures or video today but some recap of our first Christmas with Ruth. We left on December 17th to go to Arkansas and made it in one day with Ruth. She was actually a great traveler both ways. We spent time in Arkansas until the 22nd. Every sister got to come home so Ruth was with the entire family except for two of her cousins who were with their dad. It was fun to watch Ruth inspect each family member. She has been army crawling for over two months now but started crawling on her hands and knees while we were in Arkansas. She had started pulling up a month or so ago (I can't believe I did not write all this stuff down immediately when it happened. I always thought I would) and now pulls up on everything and everybody. We have had a few falls but nothing major. She is into EVERYTHING!!! Nothing is safe anymore and I have to watch her constantly.

Also while in Arkansas we got to have lunch with a college friend/tri delta roommate of mine, Kara Balentine Ford. Her husband brought her son from daycare and we got to see what an 18 month old acts like. I will tell you that Eston seemed pretty nonchalant (spelling?) about everything shrugging his shoulders when asked what he thought of Ruth and when asked what Santa was bringing him for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we got to go to our first ever Christmas Eve service. Since Brian and I grew up in small towns with churches that don't have this service and this is the first year I have not been at my parents' for Christmas, this was quite a treat for us. Ruth and I met Brian at a Target (of course) since he had to work that day and we drove to church together. Ruth was taken to the nursery and Brian and I sat in a packed service. I loved the candlelighting: it was very powerful to see how one light was the light that lit all the candles. We can be that light. Maybe the title of this post should have been "The Light of the World is Jesus." That is a great hymn. For those of you that don't sing hymns but sing rock songs at church, you have no idea what you are missing.

At the Christmas Eve service we saw the Scott family (Laura Liz, Will, Emily - all ballet students of mine either past or present- and their parents, Kathy and Rick). Rick was ushering so that was a neat surprise for us. Then we ran into the kids at a stoplight. I had LL turn her radio to the same station I was listening to and we sang to each other out our windows. I love this family. The are the ones who invited me to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in the first place.

Well, I have gone on long enough and Ruth is not making any noise so this means my time to take a shower is now.

(By the way, Brian enjoyed the Holiday Inn movie. Awesome. Next up is to try to get him to watch Mrs. Miniver with me.)