I'll be seeing you

Sorry things have been so quiet in the blog lately; I can guarantee you it's not because we haven't been busy! Early Thursday morning we're leaving for a trip to the United States, and we're very excited. We'll spend a couple of days in Chicago and the rest of our time with family in Wisconsin.

Along with the excitement comes a lot of preparation. Dan and I have both been finalizing things at work. We've finished our Christmas gift orders and getting the teachers' presents. I've headed to school for various concerts, a dinosaur presentation (Lauren), an Iroquois presentation (Erin), and to drop off bags of stuff for toy and food drives.

Today I baked nine dozen cookies to give to our guards, the gardener, teachers, friends, and of course a few for the family. Then I realized it was Tuesday and I still had to make the pizza dough. (Yep, Pizza Tuesday is alive and well!)

Tonight the girls tried on dresses in hopes they'd have something to wear to church in Wisconsin (they do—yippee!) and they begrudgingly tried on a few shirts and jeans too. We discovered that Erin has grown by leaps and bounds since last spring and that we'll be buying her some long-sleeved shirts in Chicago.

Unfortunately I'm also doing loads of laundry tonight. We had no water in the house yesterday and not enough water today to wash. I couldn't tell you why the water problems—sometimes these things just happen here in Costa Rica and the best thing to do it accept it and move on, I've learned. I'm grateful to have water tonight and that I'll only have to fold clothes tomorrow.

Tomorrow...yep, tomorrow I'll finish packing, and the taxi will come to pick us up at sunrise on Thursday. I'm ready for a mental break, and a trip to my childhood home is just what I have in mind.

I'd like to promise a blog or two from our vacation, but I can't say for sure that I'll be sitting down at the computer to journal our time in the United States. I can say that I'll be thinking of all our friends and family that live far from us, and we wish you all a blessed Christmas and a happy, healthy new year. Maybe I'll pop in sooner than later. Until next time—Feliz Navidad!