Together Again

Friday was a big day! First of all, my brother James came home from his two-year mission to Paraguay! We were so excited to see him - we went with my mom and dad and picked him up from the airport. We were all supposed to wear Santa hats and shake jingle bells when we saw him, but that plan was a little bit foiled since he was taking longer than we thought he would, so I went off to see what was going on at baggage claim (just to see if the bags were out from his flight yet). In the meantime, of course, the minute I walk away is the minute he comes around the corner. Mom ran to get me to tell me he was here, and by the time we got back to him, he'd already hugged Dad and all his buddies who came to see him at the airport! James was tired after a 20 hour trip and seemed a little dazed to be back in his "previous life," but we had a lot of fun visiting and catching up. I look forward to hearing more about his mission experiences over the next few weeks (and especially in his homecoming talk next Sunday). Not to be outdone by James's triumphant homecoming, my sister Michelle had her baby on Friday, as well! ;) Elizabeth Joy (they plan to call her Libby) was born at 12:03 p.m. and weighed in at 8 lbs., 7 oz. She has dark hair and is adorable and sweet. I went and saw them at the hospital yesterday. Michelle looks really good and seems to be doing great. My sister Julie and her family also got into town late Friday night, and they came over yesterday, and the cousins (Adam, Audrey and Jacob) had a great time playing together for a couple of hours. Friday was seriously the day of arrivals - Jared's sister Mareena and her family and his brother Paul also got into town on Friday. We're excited to see them at a party GG (Jared's grandmother) is hosting tonight.

On a different note, I'm wondering if maybe my kids are watching a bit too much television lately. I was cleaning the bathrooms yesterday, using my Clorox toilet wand (love it, by the way). Audrey comes in and says, "You have the wand!? Wow, that cleans better than ever before!" Later she tells me: "I saw that on wand on the television. Do you have the little case it goes in, too?" This morning, Audrey declares: "Tonight, I'm going to spring from my bed to see what was the matter." She's getting really excited about Christmas. She kept asking when it was going to be Christmas, so last week, we made a paper chain. She gets really into taking one link off each day, especially because we wrote on each link a fun activity we would do that day. It's been really fun, and we've finally gotten our gingerbread house decorated, we slept under the Christmas tree, watched a Christmas movie, have most of our shopping and baking done, and have gone to see Christmas lights. I kind of doubt we would have done all that without the proclamation from The Chain (and subsequent "reminders" from Audrey), so that's been lots of fun AND productive at the same time. Best of all, I don't hear "How long until Christmas?" anymore - Audrey can just go count the links if she's wondering!