Christmas Eve without my family:(

Today has been a pretty relaxing day for us.  Tori and I woke up and went to the store to stock up on food, as we were told things will be shut down for a few days...remember, no quick trips to Walmart here.  It was crazy and there were tons of people everywhere we went, at market yesterday too.  Belizeans definitely wait til the last minute!!!  One blessing is that all the Christmas trees and decorations were marked 1/2 off tonight, so we got a bigger tree and ornaments for next year.  That was fun.

I relaxed all day, watching movies, tidying the house, preparing for tonight the food we are taking.  It was a nice day.   A nice mellow day.  Lee and the kids went for a walk and brought me back a Chollis, which is ice cream, coffee and cinnamon...MMMM.

But there was this thing in the back of my throat all day.  This is the first Christmas....for MANY, MANY years...that we are not with family.  The last one would have been when I was pregnant with Josh, when we lived in Ohio.  We are one of those families that just has a great family around us that supports and loves us.  So there is a true loss not to be with them this year.  My parents were just here, so that definitely helps a lot.  And we will skype/call them tomorrow.  That helps too.  But we will miss all the fun of just hanging out and laughing and seeing them open gifts from us, etc.  We will miss the fun of stockings at my in-laws house...that was always really fun for me.  So I stuffed my kids stockings FULL to overflowing to try to capture that feeling a little.

A little while ago, we opened gifts with the kids.  It was fun.  They are thankful.  We are going to eat dinner at midnight tonight, so they have plenty of time to play with their new stuff before getting ready to go.

But I must admit, I still miss our family...

So I hold on to next summer when we will see everyone again.

And choose to know that I am blessed with the people in my life here in Belize, starting with the family we are spending dinner with tonight...and the congregation that we will worship with in the morning.  And it just makes me appreciate our family a little bit more.