Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Sooooo…. It has been awhile since the last blog. We are very sorry for the delay. Part of the reason for the delay has been a fun filled holiday visit and lots of studying beforehand. Here is a quick recap of the rest of the fall prior to the holiday.






1. We ended up making the championship for flag football. We didn’t stand a chance of making it past the first round of the play-offs because we were playing the #1 team who is known to be well… lets say intense. Prior to the game even starting the captain of the other team informed the ref that they would need a different field to play on for the playoff game that was better groomed. By the grace of God we kicked their butts. Everyone loves the underdogs so the crowd went wild at the upset. Unfortunately the success story of the little team that could, lost steam in the championship round. We happily accepted our second place status.


2. Thanksgiving was awesome! It was a fun filled week of lots of food and a visit from John O’Neill and Steph Fry. John is at graduate school in Washington, D.C. and Steph flew out from California to stay with us for a few days. We also invited friends from the seminary. The meal turned out terrific but it was the company that made the holiday complete.


3. Chris finished his first semester at Princeton. WOOT! WOOT!

4. As a reward for surviving the first four months of the East Coast, we flew home. We spent a wonderful 10 days in sunny California (and by sunny we mean, pouring rain) visiting both Northern and Southern California family and friends (and dropped by our church - Good Shepherd Lutheran Church). We stuffed our faces with delicious Mexican food, In-N-Out, Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Islands Restaurant, and Fiori's Butcher’s Shoppe.










The warmth did not last long because we came back to a very wintry wonderland that continues getting whiter. Since we arrived back in New Jersey we have had 2 snowstorms and about a little over a foot of snow (but it seems like a lot more). We are now experiencing what it means to have to scrape ice off our car and dig pathways in snow. Waking up and seeing the thermostat on the car at 12 degrees is definitely an adjustment. One day I (Carly) decided to walk to the shopping center and found there was no clear pathway so I made one in my boots. Talk about taking the road less traveled. We have also experienced our first snow day (class cancellation for Chris), which was fun. A forced slowing down of life had been such a blessing! Although it is cold we still take our daily walks and are enjoying the change of scenery.