Blond Girl Update 22.00

Yes folks, I came to Minnesota 22 weeks ago today - and it is time for another Blond Girl update.

The most important news comes first: I am going home for Christmas! I will be heading home on December 20th or 21st and I cannot wait. Talk about counting the days! When I get home, I will be very busy with decorating, shopping and cooking for Christmas. One thing I’ve learned here is how to make a killer cinnamon challah bread pudding with brandy butter. I’ll be making it for our family’s Christmas Eve celebration and I hope everyone likes it. As for decorating, that will definitely be first on my list because our Sweet Girl has asked to hold off Christmas decorating until I come home. The other day we were talking on the phone and she related this story: “Mom, we were driving and I saw the most beautiful Christmas lights! The house was all lit up and it was so pretty, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it until we drove past the house and then I looked at it in the mirror until I couldn’t see it anymore. It was so beautiful and I can’t wait until we decorate!” I explained that she and daddy would be decorating before I came home. “No!” she objected, “I want us to decorate as a family. This is the first year I’ve decorated and I want to put the ornaments on the tree and I want Daddy to hold me up so I can put the angel on top of the tree.” Now I ask you, how can you deny a request like that? I sure can’t. When I get home, I'll drop my bags on the floor, hug the two of them like crazy and start digging the angel out of the Christmas boxes!

Now on to news about going home to work: As it stands, the jury is out on two possibilities. Either I will be coming back to Minneapolis on December 26th for a 3-4 more weeks or I will go home for Christmas and be able to stay at home and start working virtual then. It all hinges on questions of technology. My training is complete; at this point it’s all project management and working out the details. Our goal is for me to go home and stay home, but nothing is known or settled yet - so much so that I haven't been able to make travel plans yet, since I don't know if I am taking my car home or flying home and leaving the car here for my final stint here in Minneapolis.

In other BG news... Well, I don't think there really is any other BG news! Other than a mild snowstorm (6-8 inches) last Saturday and another 5 inches on Monday, nothing of note has occurred. I work, eat, sleep, repeat. In other words, I'm marking time until December 20. I am trying to schedule as many fun things with Minneapolis friends as possible and to get some Christmas shopping done before I go home.

I wish I had more exciting news to share, but I don't. You might think this is silly, but what I do have is a prayer request, if you are one who prays. As I said earlier, I want to go home. Sweet Girl is learning to knit and has joined a knitting club - and I've never even seen the needles in her hands. Champs has a new job and I'm not there to kiss him goodbye or cook dinner for him when he comes home. When I came here, we thought it would be for 16-18 weeks. I am now heading toward 22 weeks and looking at the possibility of a total of 24 weeks if I go home permanently on December 20, and a total of 28 to 29 weeks if I can't go home until mid-January. This much time away is just hard on our family. I'm not saying this to whine, but just to ask that you remember our family in prayer and ask for favor and a downright miracle with the technology that needs to fall into place.


Some comments from this post:
colleen said...
Time spent with family is always precious. It's going to be COLD up there, I bet. Where Michele lives is even colder.

kenju said...
I think it is very sweet that your girl wants to wait on the decorating until you get there - but it puts additional pressure on you. That pudding sounds wonderful. I will indeed pray for you guys!

Smiler said...
Sounds like you're all going through some challenging times. Which will make the holidays spent together that much more precious. Your cinnamon challah bread pudding sounds out of this world. Yum! Thanks for you thoughtful comments on my blog. Come back anytime!