Well, it's been a while. The holidays have come and gone and so has a semester. I just want to give a little update.

This past semester has been full of new stuff for Eric and me. The largest of all new-ness has been trying to find a new church family to be a part of. We really miss all that were so close to us in Oxford, which has made this more difficult. We know they want us to find a family here, but it is hard to let ourselves. We want to have a new family here, but we've done just about all we can to NOT allow ourselves to be a part of one. This means a lot of skipped church. We finally started going to a community group (smaller groups from Sojourn Church) last month and that is helping. The setting of these groups is much like Veritas, minus dinner and communion and adding a lot of little kiddies. They are busting at the seams and are going to "multiply," because they can't bring themselves to say "divide," into two community groups next week. The term "birthing a new group" was mentioned as was common at Veritas, and all those people who have kids gave a big "ick!" Yet another culture shock for us. It's wonderful and different.

As far as the holidays go, the trip to the in-laws was especially good... contrary to what has been in the past. Tensions are loosening, and we're getting to know each other for who we are. I think celebrating Christmas was what really made me realize that we are getting closer. This is going to sound really self-centered, but the gifts Eric's parents gave me were really thoughtful and fit my personality. I don't think that's ever happened before as a trend. It was amazing! And I didn't even give too many hints. It was really weird, but cool.

As a whole, it's been a great Christmas break. I don't technically go back to class until the 29th, but I'm going to try to be school-type-productive from now on.