Whew! A minute to breathe again!

Hey, guys! I hope everyone had an AWESOME Christmas! Ours was lovely, going back to the day after my last post.

On the day of the 22nd Morgan, Daisy, and I got to spend some unexpected time with mine and Nick's niece K. Her mom is the sister who lives in Texas, but K was in the state to spend Christmas with her dad, so we were thrilled to get to see her. On the 23rd we did Christmas at my parents' house. Everybody really loved the homemade gifts I got them. Nick and I both got some clothes, and I got a pair of boots. We also got a gift card to Red Lobster from my brother and his wife. The girls got both clothes and toys, and it was just a sweet time together as a family. The 24th we went to have Christmas with Nick's extended family and there was a neat video montage of pictures from Christmases past. I got a set of stuff from Bath and Body Works, and Nick got a gift card to Olive Garden. That night when we were wrapping gifts I was trying to remove the glass from a picture frame to clean it and the glass cracked. Unfortunately the frame was the biggest gift we had for Nick's dad and stepmom, so he ended up giving them the Olive Garden gift card to replace it.

Christmas morning we opened gifts at home first, and the girls had a blast. Afterwards we went to Nick's dad and stepmom's house for breakfast and gifts. My favorite gift there was a beautiful Stella & Dot necklace from Nick's sister in Texas. It has 3 charms, a silver circle with "mom" stamped in it and two gold circles with the girls' initials. I totally didn't expect to have something over there to open from them because they had already sent us the biggest gift we got from anyone - a nice big check that allowed us to pay the house payment and buy a few things. This was such a blessing, and truly an answer to prayer, because I didn't know how we were going to pay the house payment.

Saturday we went running around for a bit and did a little after Christmas shopping. We bought this coffee maker as a gift to each other, and it is FABULOUS! It was a little pricey for a coffee maker (okay a lot pricey, but we got it 20% off), but we love, love, LOVE it!

But the best, best, BEST thing I got for Christmas wasn't a physical gift. Okay, first of all some sad news. On my meme the other day I said that I hadn't been to any funerals in 2010. Thursday I got word that yet another former co-worker had unexpectedly passed away, but this one was a man I very much liked and respected. In fact, he was my direct supervisor for a number of years, and I always had a soft spot for him. His funeral service was tonight, and I made arrangements to attend with my friend D. Now I've mentioned D on here before. She's been coming to church with us quite a bit lately, and she's really been under conviction, but she had never broken down and become a Christian. The deaths at work lately have really hit her hard, and the funeral tonight even harder. Jim, the man who passed away, was a very strong Christian, and one of my former coworkers shared this story about him: Last week she and Jim were talking about the woman who had passed away earlier that week. They had just come from her funeral, and the coworker sharing the story said that it was weird to think that you just never knew how much time you have left. "That's why you have to be ready," Jim replied. Within just a few days he was gone himself.

After the funeral tonight I asked D if she wanted to grab a bite to eat. She agreed and we went and had dinner. I had been in prayer for her all evening (well for days really, but especially in light of the funeral tonight). Dinner was lighthearted for the most part, but toward the end it turned toward spiritual matters, and I could tell that she had been trying to work her way around to this conversation. We spent a long time talking, eventually moving out to my car where we talked some more. She broke down in tears and asked me to please show her what she needed to do to become a Christian, and I had the amazing privilege of leading her to the Lord! I have to say that this was none of my doing whatsoever - I rambled and cried and went off on rabbit trails and was generally just a terrible evangelist, but God used me in spite of my shortcomings, and I'm absolutely thrilled! This has been such an amazing answer to prayer, and I know that Jim is in heaven rejoicing that such a blessing came from his passing!

So that's been my crazy wonderful week - how has yours been?