Trip home to NJ, then Michigan, and finally Indiana...

My Aunt Judy & Uncle Lenny holding hands :-)

So after our day in NY which I recently wrote about, we headed to my sister, Denise's, house in New Jersey. All of my family was gathered there to spend some time together. I have 4 sisters (Denise, April, Cindy, & Tracey), 2 brothers (Bobby & Jimmy - my older brother, Bobby, went to be with the Lord on July 2, 1995), and a cousin named Artie, who is just like a brother to me. My Aunt Judy and Uncle Lenny were there, too. Aunt Judy is my mom's sister and has always been there for us. She always did all kinds of special things with us. And on Christmas Eve every year, we would go to Aunt Judy's to celebrate Christmas. Loads of memories were made when we all got together. This year is no different. All of our family will gather around at their home, including all of Artie's siblings. I hear there will be a grab bag where everyone picks a number and chooses a gift. They will not necessarily go home with the first gift they choose. You know the game... it'll be fun!

Since we have moved to England, and previous to that Michigan, we haven't had the opportunity to spend as much time with my family as we would like to. With that said, God has a purpose and a plan for our lives which gives us peace about the places He has taken us.

Denise had asked me what I wanted to eat that night and the request had to be "Italian" sandwiches. One thing Shawn and I both miss is the great food you get back east. Ham, salami, and fresh mozzarella on Italian bread is often asked for when we go home. Jimmy, my younger brother, who is a chef, prepared the different side dishes and served up a good spread. We talked, laughed, told stories, took lots of pictures and just had a wonderful time. John aka "Boo" was there and also Denise and Jimmy's neighbor to join us for the evening.

Moving away has really taught us that relationships with family and great friends is vital. God made us for relationship & has given each of us a desire for them. When you can't always have that time together, you have to cherish the little time you do have. And that's exactly what we did.

Here are some great pictures that we took.

Josie, Artie's daughter, on the left with Braaten

Grant, Marqus (Cindy's son), & Cooper

Allie (April's daughter) & Monique (Cindy's daughter)

Tracey with her two children, Sarah and Christopher

All of my siblings (front row from left to right): Me, Artie, Denise, April, Jimmy, and Tracey. Cindy is in the front row.

All of our children in one place! :-)

Denise and I before everyone got there.

Our next stop after Denise & Jimmy's home was over to Annette's. She and I have been friends since we were in the 4th grade. She invited us to stay over because the next morning 3 other dear friends (Mayra, Natasha, & Celia) would join us to spend half the day with us. Then it was off to the airport that afternoon.

My next post will be about our visit at Annette's, so stay tuned... and thanks for sharing the joy in all of our recent journeys.

Happy Friday!

Hello Dear Friends,

Just wanted to say a quick hello. I'm thinking of you and wishing you a great, blessed weekend. I'll write more probably tomorrow. I also just had to move that silly picture of my husband as well.

I'm running out to have coffee with a friend this afternoon. Perhaps it should be crumpets and tea, though. :0) 

Blessings, 

Carol

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY....seriously!

OK, so this is my husband. He put this swim

hat on. I grabbed the camera and he had the nerve

to say, "Put it on your blog".

So I did.

Start Spreadin' The News

  

There's something really fabulous about New York City. Maybe it's because my roots are so close to there. As I mentioned in my last post, I lived just across the river from there in a small town called Hoboken. Yep, Frank Sinatra was born there, the first game of baseball was played there, and it's also the home of the largest slice of pizza you can acquire at a place called Benny Tudino's. 

When I was in college studying to be a chiropractor, I worked in NY and would take the PATH train everyday to get there. My sister, April, worked with me, but she had a tough time waking up on time most mornings to join me on the train ride. She loved to sleep. I think maybe she stayed up too late the night before watching old movies or something. But back then, I'm sure I took New York for granted. Since I have been away from it for so long, we just had to take the trip to show the kids what it's all about. They really enjoyed it. 

Have you ever done that? You live near great places and think to yourself, I'll get there sometime. Since moving to England, Shawn and I have both had the realization that we need to see our own country for all that its worth. America is amazing and it seems that day to day, week to week, and even year to year, we go about living in our own little world never seeing all the beautiful places that we can. With that said, I sure hope we travel like we talk about when we get back home. 

This was cool for the kids to see. It was displayed on the Macy's building. 

There's Shawn (above) leading our family down the streets of NY and the kids standing in front of one of Macy's windows.

You just have to go in one of those souvenir shops for a t-shirt or something. And here's Shawn and I in front of the other Statue of Liberty; another great place to visit. The real one, of course. 

The incredible Empire State Building. April and I passed that everyday in our journey to work. We tended to stop in a coffe shop for a toasted roll with butter and coffee to go with it. Yum.

In my next post, I'll tell you about my extended family. We had a great visit that evening after we went to New York. 

We had so many great adventures during our trip, including meeting one of my dear bloggy friends, Pam. I have a great picture to post and I can't wait to tell you all about it. 

God is so good, all the time and I love sharing how he blesses us.

From Jet Lag to Jingle Bells

We seem to  have been catapulted right into Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. Almost 2 weeks ago, we hopped on a plane that took us to Paris that was ultimately on its way to Newark Airport in New Jersey. We had to fly further away to get to our destination. In the end, it took just a little longer to do it this way. Our travel company chose the cheapest way to go I guess. Anyways, all that to say, we had a fabulous time on our trip. I'll have to write about it in multiple posts.

Our first stop was to Barb and Skip's home for dinner after we arrived. They are dear friends of ours that came into our lives soon after the twins arrived. Boy did we need help, and God surely provided. So anyway, after we got there and had delicious homemade Italian spaghetti, meatballs and sausage, our children were yawning with major heavy eyelids. After a short couple of hours, it was time to head to the hotel. 

Our main purpose for this trip was to see friends and family during Thanksgiving week.

The next day we were off to the Big Apple. I never get tired of going there. It really is a beautiful, bustling city that everyone should have the chance to visit. I guess that's my humble opinion being a city girl myself. I grew up right across the Hudson River with the ability to see the NY skyline anytime I wanted.  While we were there, we saw the Empire State Building, went into Macy's which is HUGE, and walked around window shopping. The Macy's windows were fabulous. I'll have a separate post of my New York pictures.

Since we stayed a short 2 days in NJ, that evening was spent with my family at my sister, Denise's, house. My four sisters, brother, and cousin, Artie, that I call  my brother, were all there plus my Aunt Judy and Uncle Lenny. All of our children were with us as well. There were some friends there, too. We had great Italian sandwiches with homemade mozzarella and roasted peppers on them. Of course there was salami, ham, and all kinds of other stuff to add to them. It's fairly obvious that my favorite food is Italian. 

I'll continue writing about our trip next time, but I had to show a picture of our loaded van once we returned to the UK. Vehicles are typically smaller and don't have as much storage space.  

Doesn't it look like the van was practically touching the ground? You have to shop in the U.S. and bring as much back with you because things are much more expensive here. And with Christmas just about here, we also bought presents.

Here's Cooper playing his Leapster at the airport. We had a 7 hour layover in Atlanta from Fort Wayne. Eow! We also had snow in Indiana which delayed the flight some. No worries, though, when you have 7 hours between flights, right?

The day after we returned, we put the tree up along with all the other pretties we like to look at. Braaten, who is 10, decorated the mantle. She loves being creative.

The morning after we put the tree up, the kids were putting countless ornaments up.

Mellie likes the new ornament I received from my girlfriend. It spells out the word hope.

The kids were enjoying rediscovering each ornament from the past.

Here they are: Grant, Austin, Braaten, Cooper, and Melanie. It was a job well done.

While I was home, I mailed as many Christmas cards out as I could since it's almost triple the cost to mail them from here. I know I sound cheap, but hey, you do what you gotta do. :-)

It's onto baking loads of Christmas cookies to share with neighbors and friends, get togethers with friends, plays and programs, and wrapping lots of gifts!

The jetlag hasn't been so bad this time around either.