Christmas 2011...Part 1

It's hard to even know where to start on this post. I probably should have blogged each day of this vacation. Nonetheless, I will attempt to paint the picture of all that has taken place over this Christmas vacation (it may just come in several postings!)...

For starters, let me just get it out there, we did NOT receive a Christmas Miracle like we had been praying for. While I wish I had some profound understanding of that, I don't, and at times, this past week, the disappointment of a Christmas Miracle not fulfilled has been hard to swallow. At the same time, I know that God is in control. I also know that his plans are perfect, and that we are growing in this wait process. I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart I want HIS plan to prevail in HIS time, and I wouldn't trade that for the world. That being said, spending time with my family this Christmas break was exactly what my soul needed during this difficult wait time. I have been encouraged, learned some great life lessons in parenting, been loved on by nieces, laughed until I have cried, and have just been reminded of how blessed we are to have the family we have. So, without further ado, here are some "highlights" from this weekend...

Hamden Street in Baltimore: Oh man, I am not even sure I am going to be able to describe this one. So, my Dad loves this place in Baltimore City called "Hamden Street." It's this set of about 12 row houses in the middle of the city that decorate like there is no tomorrow. They go all out, and everyone comes to see them. We had been once before, but really wanted to take my nieces, so we loaded up in two cars. My sister Heather, brother-in-law Carty, and Nate and I were in our SUV, and my Mom, Dad, 3 nieces (ages 8 months, 2.5 years, and 5 years), sister Kristen, and brother-in-law John, were in my parents mini-van (I am not sure how we worked that one out!). We were leading with our GPS, when all of sudden it blanked out and recalulated a different route. My Dad called us on our cell, asking why we were going the way we were and our response was, "We are following the GPS."

Well, that started a conversation with my Carty and Heather in our car about how they had gotten lost in Baltimore a month earlier and were in the worst of the worst of the city. They said it was so bad they should have gotten escorted out! As they are telling us this story, we are getting further and further into a part of the city that looks just like they are describing! That's when chaos breaks out in our car. Carty says..."Hey, isn't that the building we saw! Oh on...this isn't good." Nate begins to roll down his window to "ask for directions" as the 3 of us bite his head off yelling, "Don't roll down the window here!" We get to a stop light and the GPS tells us we need to take a right. Well, a right hand turn takes us into NOT a great place. I begin yelling, "Don't take the right, don't take the right." To which my brother in law says, "What do you want us to do? Sit at this light all night?" We take the right (what else are we supposed to do?), drive fast up the street and what to our dismay is laying on the ground? A weave...yup...a weave. We all bust out laughing until we couldn't laugh anymore and all agreed, Mom was probably freaking out in her car.

Well, that was the understatement of the year. When we finally arrived at Hamden Street, my mom looked like she had seen a ghost and had a heart attack all in one night, my niece had to pee (which the only option for that was a dark alley that had barbed wired lined on either side, and the rest of us were still laughing. The lights did wind up being awesome that night, and the only other "mishap" was a rat about the size of a small squirrel decided to run right across Nate's foot! In the end, my mom claimed she wanted to take the highway back home and she was didn't want to see any more "gangsters and rodents" for the night. I think we pretty much laughed the whole way home, and I knew that being home was going to be the best thing for our hearts.