After a very exciting couple of days of travel (including a missed bus, a delayed flight, a missed layover, a debacle with finalizing tickets, and then a cancelled flight) Stephen and I were very happy to finally arrive at his parents' house Sunday night! :) I was amazed to see Stephen handle what could have been a very stressful situation with so much ease. I truly married a saint! (I was also extremely grateful for the generosity of my older brother Joseph who luckily lived close enough to where we were stranded that he was willing to pick us up and drop us off at the airport a couple of times, as well as let us stay at his house really last minute!)

Though that put this week off to a shaky start, tonight, while decorating the Christmas tree with Manheim Steamroller blasting in the background - it finally started to feel like Christmas! The Christmas spirit really came to life after a little Christmas Devotional, some Christmas songs around the piano, a family quintent of "Oh, Christmas Tree" on recorders, rounded off with the 4th annual "Sleigh Ride" Christmas tradition.

(The Christmas Eve before Stephen left on his mission, we decided to Skype with our families - his parents delighted us with their amazing piano duet of Sleigh Ride, and then my family "treated" them with a rendition of "The First Noel" on our chimes. :) Stephen made me promise that I would skype his parents on Christmas eve while he was on his mission "until I was engaged." I kept my promise ;))