A new year...

So, is anyone surprised that it has taken me this long to update my blog? :)

The holidays are always such a crazy time, and this year was no exception! With finishing classes, Ben's BUSY work schedule and Hunter in school as well our family was non-stop this Christmas season. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday, we certainly did! This time was the first time, in six years of marriage, that we have been at our own home on Christmas morning. I'm sure all of our military friends can relate. Holidays usually mean packing up EVERYTHING, heading to the airport (or a super long car ride), running around from place to place to visit everyone in the family all while trying to adjust to a different time zone... it's chaos! We always love visiting family and have a wonderful time, but this year it was amazing to just have a relaxing Christmas morning in our house, in our time zone and in front of our own tree :) It even meant that we could get Hunter a BIG present since we didn't have to transport presents between our house and our family!

This past year has taught us so much about how to adapt and plug in. Being so far from family has really forced us to create our own "family" here in Washington. We have been soooooooo blessed by the amazing people that God has brought into our lives here! We were able to spend Thanksgiving with some wonderful friends, Christmas with our incredible neighbors, and had three invitations for New Years eve! God has truly been teaching us what it means to live in community with those around us and we are enjoying every second of it! Don't get me wrong, we miss our families and love spending time with them, but we can't dwell on the fact that we don't get to see them as often as we might like. Instead, we have to enjoy the "family" that God has made for us here and visit with our real family whenever we can :)

This past year we also had our first family vacation. Yet another crazy thing about living away from family...you never have a vacation! Any time that Ben takes off of work is spent travelling to either one of our families and while it's always fun, it was wonderful to actually have a vacation to somewhere new! I have resolved that this is going to have to be much more of a priority for our family! Well, maybe after this job is over for Ben :) He has been doing an amazing job as the commander of the 66th MP CO, but it is quite demanding. Most days he leaves the house by 5:30 am and doesn't get back home before 7 pm. And that doesn't include the phone calls that he receives at any hour of the night and on weekends, as well as the paperwork that he usually brings home! He is certainly working hard, but keeping up wonderfully!

We have certainly had a wonderful 2010 and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011! Please join us on our journey :)