Happy New Year!

Right now, I’m sitting on the couch while Josh blows things up in Modern Warfare. Seems like now is as good a time as any to reflect on 2011.

First I think of the teeny tiny thing of getting ENGAGED. Whoa, how’d that happen? I remember at the beginning of last year praying that if it were at all possible to get married before we had planned that God would make it happen. Then promptly dismissing what I felt was such a silly, immature prayer.  Or I remember how back in March I strongly suspected that Josh was going to propose and talked to women at work and begging them to tell me that I just needed to get over it. I even emailed Randy (our esteemed worship leader) for advice because he was the only unbiased man I knew that could possibly shed some light on the situation. Kinda funny now.

I discovered that ladies ministry doesn’t have to be old ladies drinking tea and knitting doilies. I think I have to add to this that I learned how sneaky Lora Ebeling can be…she sucked me in to women’s ministry and I am very grateful that she didn’t let my whining get in the way of experiencing something awesome. Josh joined the staff at Discovery, and while sometimes it seems like just another thing to worry about doing, most of the time it has been a tremendous blessing to be more connected with our church family.

Josh took his first plane ride ever to watch my sister get MARRIED — in a hurricane at that (check out the post here). I learned that Josh has a tremendous sense of adventure, can become friends with anyone, and can protect and look out for people.

Who knows what 2012 will bring?

It’s (almost) Christmas!

This will be Josh and I’s first Christmas together. Last year we each went home to our separate Christmases, as dating couples are wont to do. Next year we will be having Christmas in our own house, as married couples are wont to do — which leaves this year: that somewhat awkward game of figuring out how to handle two different families, with two different sets of traditions.

Perhaps you wouldn’t think this would be so strange — especially considering neither of our families are akin to the Griswolds (or this post would be far more interesting).  But take giving gifts for instance, do Josh and I each give his mom a gift? Am I supposed to give a gift yet? Do we go in together on something? Or do we just sign both our names to the tag? What about getting gifts from the “other” side of the family? Is everyone on my side expected to get Josh something? Am I going to be receiving gifts from family members on his side and therefore feel obligated to reciprocate?

Gifts aside (because we could always pull an Ebeling Christmas and say we’re not giving gifts at all this year…read about it here) there is the sad fact that Christmas is really only 1 day.  Two if you can stretch it into Christmas Eve. So here’s the next conundrum — who do we spend Christmas morning with? Luckily for us, Josh’s family has a fairly strong Christmas Eve tradition and so we will spend it with them and be back in Greenville in time for my family’s big Christmas dinner and opening presents.  As nice as this arrangement is, we both still have to give up some things. For me, this means no open-face shrimp sandwiches on Christmas Eve and Josh will be giving up their tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas Day.

Boo times a million! Do you see these things?

The last thing I face is trying to figure out what things we want to make our own. Perhaps the way we do an Advent wreath with our small group will be it. Who knows? By the time we figure it out, we’ll have kids and everyone knows how they mess things up 🙂