Someone asked me about our blog the other day to which I replied, “WHAT blog?” so I’ll take a few minutes and give a quick recap on our Christmas season. (I’m wondering how I found time to update it so “frequently” before.)   We made a gingerbread house, slept under the Christmas tree, Syd and I had our late night shopping excursion, I had way too many other late nights out shopping, played at Chick Fil A with our friends, went to an ornament exchange & ended up with a sparkly reindeer, & waited up for Rodd at nights because he was working on a major end- of- the- year project at NTM. 

It’s tradition to celebrate with Rodd’s family on the 23rd and we always have such a great time.  I like it that it’s a day early because it spreads the celebrating and family time out and we’re not trying to fit so much in to 2 days.  His mom always puts on a beautiful brunch (among other things) for us and it’s just a very relaxing day.  We love it!  

 This is what happens to Carson when Rodd and Rusty are around.  At one point he had 4 or 5 of these darts on his forehead and he kept the same look on his face the whole time.   

On Christmas Eve we went to Sea World (which was SO fun) for a few hours!  That was our family gift this year and the kids loved it.  We can’t wait to go throughout the year. Christmas morning we opened our stockings and then went out to Gi Gi’s (Great Grandma’s) house where we spent the day with her. Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Can hardly believe it is almost 2010.  Hope you are looking forward to the new year as much as we are .  

Okay…so for starters…we are HOME! We are in the middle of unpacking, which is taking forever but it really doesn’t matter because we’re just happy to be in our own house.  We ran some errands yesterday and could not stop talking about how much we LOVE Florida–and especially the beautiful weather!!  

Several of you have asked about my time with my sister so I will tell you about how I surprised her in Pennsylvania–as they arrived home on furlough from PNG.  It had been almost 4 years since we had seen each other and she had never even met Logan or Carson…so we were so overdue and so excited!!  I won’t go into too many details–but it was the FUNNEST surprise ever! (I never want to do something like that again because it was so stressful pulling it off but it was so worth it!!)  

 She knew we were leaving WI right around the time they got back to the USA but I told her we had to get back to FL because Rodd HAD to finish off something at work before the end of the year.  (True–but he was still willing to do this!)  So after convincing her (I wasn’t totally sure she was buying it–but I was pretty sure she had no clue) there was no way we could take the extra week to drive to PA we came up with a plan with Lane and the rest of his family and drove across to PA. We got there a day before them, so spent time making a sign. 

 Lane’s family picked them up at the airport in Harrisburg (2 hrs away) and Rodd, the kids and I were waiting at their home–hiding in the dark in the laundry room in the basement. 

 Wendy was texting me along the way with their ETA.   We were all dying that somehow it would get ruined, she would expect something, or that Lane’s little 3-year-old niece might say something on their way home. So…around 8:30 at night, after getting a tour of the house they will be staying in for the year–they end up downstairs. As her back was turned I walked up behind her and when she saw me she just started screaming and crying! 

So fun and emotional and such a surprise! 

The kids played in the snow, Rodd and I sat on their bed at 4:00 in the morning talking because they were on major jet lag, played games with the kids, Rodd and Lane watched the kids while Kar & I went shopping, & we all enjoyed lots of their favorite foods that they don’t have in PNG. 

Syd was a little shy at first, but it didn’t take long to warm up.

We thought it would only snow a bit, so we went out when it first started snowing. By the end of the day everything was covered!! The kids were SO excited! 

I keep meaning to put pictures on here of my family in Thailand. My sister and her family are on their way home from PNG for furlough.  They stopped through Thailand so they could get some medical work done and of course to see my parents!  It has been so fun getting to skype them…and I cannot wait to have them back in the USA for a while.  Lane and Rodd know how important it is that Karrie and I see each other while they are here so I know they will do their best to make it happen for us!

Our last few days in WI were a whirlwind.  It’s hard to believe we’re gone. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Faith and her sister and their families. It was only the second day that we were all officially feeling good after being down for 3 weeks so it was so nice to be out of the house…enjoying a day with friends. 

I love how hard Faith and Kate were laughing here during our game of Taboo.

 Packing up was crazy!  It seems like no matter how much you plan ahead, there is always so much to do at the last minute.  Our sweet friend Jill took the kids for us all day so Rodd, life saver friend Renee, and I were able to go to town on cleaning and it was great!! 

We just finished up 2 days in Chicago with Heidi and now we are officially on our way home and getting so excited. 

I absolutely can’t wait to get home and put up our christmas tree & a few decorations.  I am trying to prepare myself mentally for what all I need to do when we get home.   Rodd has a lot to do get done at work before the end of the year, so I am not expecting him to be home much! Either way it will be sweeet to be home!

Sydney turned 5 this week! Wow! It felt like so many candles when I was putting them on her cake.

I am so thankful to be Sydney’s mom and have learned so much from her.  Before I had kids I thought I had an idea of  how this parenting thing worked. (It looks so much easier when you don’t have your own kids.) I thought everything was so black & white…and oh my word was I wrong!  I am seeing how different each child is  and that I have to meet Sydney where SHE is at, taking into consideration her unique personality, learning style, temperament(s)..and all the things that make her who GOD has created her to be and not what any parenting book says she should be doing or behaving like!! 

This past week I read a great book about the importance of loving your children unconditionally and how to practically apply that.  It totally reinforced our need and desire to parent our kids graciously and loving them unconditionally!!!!

For budget purposes, (& marriage saving purposes) we’ve decided that each year one kid will get a bigger birthday PARTY.  Since Logan had a bigger party this year, it worked out good that we were out of town for Syd’s and we were able to keep it simple.

Sydney’s present this year was going to Build a Bear as a family. She got an adorable pink sparkly unicorn and Logan got a horse. For months though she has talked about having a rock star party.  So after dinner that same day, Faith and kids came over for a small “rock star” party with cake and ice cream. Faith surprised us with cute sparkley clothes, jewelry, makeup & some fun music for the kids to dance to… after she dolled Sydney up like a rock star. 

 ”Cyndi Lauper” and her friends doing air guitar relay races

I don’t like surprises (kept from me,) so it made my day when Logan walked in the house with Rodd and Sydney the other day and before his shoes were off he said, “Mom,  Dad did not buy you earrings and he didn’t buy you a bracelet with flowers on it.”   Sydney added…”Logan, Mom’s not supposed to know we went to Forever 21 with Daddy & got the bracelet she was looking at the other day.”   And now I can’t wait til Christmas!

We have been sicker than sick in the Harris house.  We have seriously never had a longer bout of sickness in our family! All 5 at once!! (And to think that this is minimal compared to what others experience on a daily basis!!!)  I am praaaaying that we wake up in the morning with everyone feeling  amazingly better!  Carson & I are at our worst but the other 3 are on the mend and S & L are especially doing better! Thank you LORD!!!  In a few days I will post about Sydney’s birthday & a few other things. We are on the 2 week countdown to heading back to FL!  Lots to do before we leave, so please pray for good health for everyone!!

I went to the store the other day and bought whatever looked like it would help our family get better.  I’ve been making all kinds of concoctions for the kids to drink.

Not so good on its own but add a little honey and they will drink it.

Because the missions conference started on Halloween, I told the kids we’d have our own little dress up party when everything was over.  So tonight was the long awaited day.  We had a birthday party for Rodd’s mom which included dressing up, candy corn, & mini-caramel apples.  Syd and Logan were sooo excited!  We were not going to spend $$ on costumes, but 90% off everything Halloween at Walmart made it do-able.  After a sum total of $4.00, Sharpay, Optimus Prime, & zany zebra were all set.

Our actual dinner ended up being the most haphazard- crazy- kids getting out of their chairs every 2 seconds- 5 potty breaks each- spilled drinks-you name it… night.  BUT, still a fun memory.  And by the way, Rodd loooved my pigtails.

Thanks for praying for us this week. Harvestfest is almost over. 3 services at church tomorrow and then we really are officially done with missions conference.  Oh my goodness…It has been a looong week! I know I am exhausted when I go to bed without washing my face and changing into my PJs  –and I think I did that three times this week. I literally fell into bed–one night with my jacket on.  

But it was a great week.  So great that Rodd and I know that our 3 months out here were a gift to us…if only for the 3 mornings of meetings we had with a great, wise couple that shared with our group.   We spent all week with the same group of missionaries and so we made some new special friends. Yesterday morning we ladies had an amazing brunch together.

Rodd’s mom stayed with us a few nights and helped keep things on the home front under control–  keeping up with piles of laundry and straightening up the house.  I’m thrilled I won’t have to play catch up all week on this kind of stuff.  This is great because we feel like we have so much to mull over and then also so many people to see in the next 3 weeks. Sydney is still hoping for snow before we leave.

Two days  from today is the beginning of Harvestfest  which is Elmbrook’s big 9- day missions conference. We are mostly looking forward to it.  I say mostly because when you are participating in something like this, you can never sit back and enjoy it to the fullest but are always making sure you’re in the right place at the right time.   Apart from that, I know it is going to be a fantastic, challenging week.  The focus is on children at risk,  and I know we are going to be blown away with the horrible things that are happening all over the world and in our own cities here in America!!   Our schedule is literally packed from 8 am to 9 pm every night!  Thankfully there is great childcare provided for all of it which is a huge blessing.  If you think of it, we’d appreciate your prayers for extra strength this week. The kids aren’t feeling 100% so we’re praying they get better instead of worse.