Christmas in Houston

Well it's Christmas Eve here in Houston. We all wish we were in Scottdale, PA, but we are making the best of spending Christmas away from "home". Right now the ham is in the oven and I just put the hashbrown potato casserole in. We'll eat about 5 because I need to be at the church by 6:15 for the 7 p.m. Contemporary Service and then the choir will sing for the 9 p.m. Traditional service. I was also asked to sing Sunday for service, so I'll be singing Mary Sweet Mary, a Selah song I was going to sing at Calvin United Presby should we have made it back. At least my $5 plus to buy the sheet music online wasn't wasted! :)

I spent the better part of last night wrapping presents since Jeff told me he doesn't want to be up all night Christmas Eve wrapping. Last night we went to a party at my music and worship director's house. Bob leads the Praise Team and Julie his wife directs the children's choir and sings in the choir and with praise team. It as a nice evening with lots of food and socializing. Eli really took to Julie's Grandma who is in town with her husband from Waynesburg, PA! Julie is also Maia's music teacher at her school.

Last Saturday we went to my high school friend Melynda Kaisher Dunn's home in Houston for a Holiday Open House. I saw her at the DHS 20th reunion this summer. She and her husband Steve have a 4-year old daughter Camille and are expecting their second daughter Molly Jane around the time of Evan's birthday at the end of February. They have a lovely home, had a Santa who makes the rounds with his wife as Mrs. Claus for charity and had a professional photographer there as well! I drank mimosas and ate pimento cheese sandwiches - strange combo I know, but yummy!

Tomorrow I'll be cooking a small turkey breast, stuffing, potatoes, veggie and rolls for Christmas lunch. I kind of switched things around since I just bought the turkey breast today and it needs to thaw! I did a little bit of last minute shopping today and the stores surprisingly weren't too bad! It's very strange to go out on Dec. 24 and Maia had on capri pants a short sleeve t-shirt and flip flops!

Work is going well. I went to my company Christmas party yesterday afternoon,and was glad because not only did I win a bag of Starbucks Christmas coffee and a giftcard, it was nice to get to know some of the people from the main office. With me being freelance, I pretty much just see one of my advertising reps on a regular basis and I email Carlee the Assistant Editor daily. I turned in the edited stories for the Spring issue a few weeks ago and was tying things up for the issue which will be on stands in mid-Feb. I believe it goes to print at the end of January.

It's hard to believe it will be 2009 soon. I've started to look into driving schools and classes here since Evan will be turning 15. I plan on him having some good road time when we drive back to Scottdale after school is out for the year in June. It's been a busy year for us. Moving to Houston, weathering Hurricane Ike, finding a job I like, getting the kids adjusted and involved, being active in the church...we'll see what next year has to offer!

Until then - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We miss you all!