Holidays

The holidays are a time to spend with family and reflect back... My parents, grandmother, brother, his gf, and all said persons pups joined us for Thanksgiving with the Hubby's family.  It was a tight squeeze in our house... but the dogs were great! :-)  It was wonderful to have the family around and have my mom here to help me put up our Christmas Tree... only the 2nd one for the Hubby & me.  But 5 days with 3 extra adults and 4 extra dogs in one's house can be a little trying.  We were very happy to have our house back after the holiday.

The following week we had our entire P3C3 crew over for a Pizza Festa... we cleaned and cleaned... we prep'd & prep'd... and they descended on our abode.  I was tossing dough and adding toppings, the hubby was grilling two at a time... and the peeps... mangiavano mangiavano... but apparently not enough because we had pizza coming out of our ears for a week. We ended up throwing most away... along with quite a bit of veggies and cheese... but a great time was had by all and we'll make it our annual Christmas party from here on... I mean, who doesn't like pizza?

The following night we participated in the Annual Greenville Poinsett Christmas Parade where we decorated our bikes with lights and rode in the parade to promote the P3C3 mission. It was wonderful to see the streets of downtown lined 10 deep in many spots with adults and children... screaming out... "Merry Christmas!".  I'll definitely do it again next year... and dress up more than my bike!

The following weekend, we had a company Christmas Party and more guests visit us from out of town for a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party benefiting Camp Opportunity.  It was great fun... but once again, we cleaned and cleaned to have guests stay over... and then we slept and slept at the end of the weekend.

This past weekend, the weekend before Christmas... we gloriously had nothing to do... so we stayed in, watched movies, went riding, grabbed dinner with friends, and had a Christmas party with my cycling teammates (okay... so maybe we had some things to do)... and now... it's the work week and we're completely unmotivated and ready to head to Florida for Christmas.

But in all this, we have something else that makes us look back and think.  I have an opportunity for some great wandering... to the other side of the world.  And if we go... it will be with the hubby and puppy, leaving all our friends and family here in the states... not knowing when we might return.  We would miss watching our nieces and nephews grow up... miss spending time with our parents and grandparents as they get older.  Miss our friends here, but for the opportunity of a lifetime.

The career move would be great, this is what we went to school for... however is it worth starting over? Leaving family and friends... not being a few hours away from family who may become ill? Will we start a family over there and our family miss out on it? So many questions, and some will be answered today.  The biggest one I can think of... will I enter my parents house in Florida filled with brothers, sisters, parents, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews... and for Christmas tell them we're moving to the other side of the world?

I can't worry about this for now... I must pray for guidance... and ride my bike!  It's amazing how clearly some of my thoughts can come on the bike... and how I can talk to God as I struggle up a mountain!