Many thanks to all and sundry for their kind and enthusiastic welcome of baby number 7. It's encouraging to know that even if our friends and family think we're nuts, they're kind enough to keep it to themselves. :)
As for our Christmas vacation, it was heavy on the "social" and light on the "rest". Driving through the night from KY to NJ was long - 15 hours with constant rain - but the kids were so good through the whole thing. They didn't sleep as much as we thought they would, but there was very little complaining, and the dreaded question "How many minutes until we're there?" didn't come up very much. It was great seeing family, being cooked for, and generally being spoiled for Christmas. Our trip down to MD for a weekend was a special joy, complete with more spoiling, visiting with excellent people and visiting our church family. Being in church was such a bittersweet time, as for the first time I realized just how much I miss "my people".
We headed back to NJ for a few more days and spent some time with my brother, sister, and assorted families. So much fun - I've got some great family. :) I'm not sure if the highlight was winning the soup cook-off with my corn chowder (redeeming myself from last year with a dismal loss in the chili cook-off), or playing trivia games while my brother does a frighteningly good job reading the questions in an effeminate voice - both were good moments!
We were supposed to head up to Boston to visit a church there, see some friends, and give Toby an opportunity to preach before we headed back to KY, but alas, it was not to be. There were some concerns about a winter storm getting in the way, and the airline called to cancel our first flight. We were able to reschedule for the next flight, but that was cancelled, too, with the added problem of all flights into Boston were being cancelled until Saturday night. That was going to be a little too tight and a little too difficult, so we decided to drive back a day early and travel during daylight hours - so much better! We are looking forward to scheduling another visit up/over to Boston another time, though - I've got some sightseeing to do!
We're now back into the thick of things - Toby's back to class, kids back to schoolwork, I'm back to...everything I do. I'm feeling fairly good, overall - not 100%, but almost woken up, so to speak. I'm looking forward to getting my brain and energy back - I've got stuff to do!
