Hesitant, Hopeful

I'm back in Texas. I got home from California late last night. One day later than expected, but I'll get to that. I had a nice visit and I miss my family already, but I'm happy to be able to hug Matt and cuddle my babies again. The boys went absolutely crazy when I got in, kissing and jumping on me. That's exactly the sort of welcome home I needed, even if I would have liked to be able to jump on and kiss Matt, too. Unfortunately, he was at work, so I had to settle (ha!) for the sweet furry cuddles of my furbabies.

My trip was really nice. Though my mom was supposed to have surgery, she was sick so her surgery was delayed until January 2. With that, this turned out to just be a visit, which is fine, too. It's always nice to spend a week with my parents and little sister. We mostly just hung out, had thanksgiving dinner together, trimmed two Christmas trees and put out all the decorations, went to see Christmas lights, and went to the tree lighting ceremony in Hesperia. Other than the anxiety of flying, it was a nice trip. The only thing missing was Matt (and having food with Jodi and Shannon).

So, rather than being wordy about the whole thing, I thought I might share some of the pictures I took during my trip...

The Second day I was there we had a thanksgiving dinner together. A turkey (yum!) and all the trimmings. Then we ate turkey, in it's various incarnations (bbq sandwiches, turkey tacos, etc), all week long.

After that we decorated the christmas tree and had a little selfie fun...

A few days after that, we went to the tree lighting at the Civic Plaza Park in Hesperia.

I really like these lighted fixtures on the posts...

And, while I was there, an ice storm hit Stephenville and left everything frozen over. Several inches of solid ice formed over everything, schools closed for days (and were still closed as of the day I came home), and right now as I type this there's still a thick sheet of ice over our entire front yard.

This is out where Matt works, he sent me this picture while I was in CA. He had a tough time getting home. This is the storm that delayed my flight for one day. DFW was covered in ice, which made conditions too poor for flight.

But, as you can see, eventually the airport reopened and I took an afternoon/evening flight home. The views were beautiful. I love flying into darkness and I especially love how cities look from the air when it's dark, like thousands of golden sparkles. It's the best part of flying.

Today, I put up my Christmas tree and spent some time with my husband. It's pretty cold here still, but it's pretty and, in Matt's words, it "feels like Christmas."

All in all, the last week has been pretty nice. And, when I got home I found out Matt got a promotion that he's been working toward and that he's most likely made all A's this semester (carrying nine graduate hours while working a full time job). I'm so, so proud of him. You can't imagine how just how proud--there's just not words to describe how I feel.

And with that, bed. I'm exhausted and still trying to adjust to the time change. The older I get, the harder it is for me. I swear, I'm like a 70 year old sometimes! Good night!

PS. Clearly, I took the lazy route and embedded these pics from Instagram. If you want to see more pics, you can click the name link at the top of all the pictures. I am super, super lazy tonight. :P