Christmas and New Years!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you (I know I am a little late)! This Christmas was wonderful! My mom was able to visit for a few days before Christmas. We had a great time with Nathan's family and some of my good friends. We spent a few days shopping and the others we spent with family and friends. She got in on Thursday so we decided to do a little shopping and then joined Nathan for dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant called Terinova's. On Friday we went to a little cafe in Madison with Nathan's mom that I had never been to before. It is actually an old jail that was turned into this quaint cafe. Us girls really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. On Saturday we had Nathan's whole family over for Mexican food at our house. Natalie volunteered to make the large meal. We had a blast laughing and joking with everyone. On Sunday my mom was able to join us for our special Christmas Eve service at church. I think it was a little bit different than our traditional Lutheran Church service, but she really seemed to enjoy it. Overall, it was a nice relaxing visit for her and she has told me that she really enjoyed getting to meet everyone from Huntsville.

I had a fabulous Christmas day with Nathan and his family. They are all very special to me and I was very fortunate to spend such a special day with them all. We even had a late night visit with Nathan's granny who is now 92 and house-bound. It was so much fun surprising her with a visit and sitting and listening to her tell stories. It truly was a great end to a wonderful day! While I missed my family who were all back in Nebraska with their family and in-laws, I truly felt at home here in Huntsville and couldn't ask for a better Christmas.

We spent New Years at our good friends Allen and Emily's house with a bunch of our friends from church. It was a fun and relaxing New Years filled with funny games and lots of good food!

The University has been closed for the past 2 weeks so I have been living it up! But all good things must come to an end;). Monday was my first day as a full-time researcher at A&M. That's right....I now work from 8am-5pm (or later). Plus, classes start tomorrow. I am officially a busy bee! So, if next time I speak with you I seem a bit rushed or borderline stressed, just remind me that hard work always pays off. I may need to hear that once in awhile:).