Christmas Crazies

Whew, ok, Christmas is over. We had a great time seeing lots of friends and family, though that meant doing a lot of driving. Here's a brief summary of our whereabouts and who we saw:

• (12/14-12/16) Madison - Mom & dad (Haas), Aunt Kathryn, Chris, Athena, Uncle Phil, Aunt Mary Lou
• (12/17-12/21) Hubertus - Ma & pa (Mulder), Craig, Maria, Angie, Raquel, Renee, Daniel, Matt G.
  
• (12/23-12/25) Madison -> Abbotsford -> Mosinee - Haas & Juedes families
• (12/25-12/26) Hubertus - Ma & pa (Mulder)
• (12/26-12/27) Madison - Colin & Liz, mom & dad (Haas)

We're back now and back to work. Chantal is finishing up at the Humane Society before the new year. Chantal starts again at Parkland on the 8th of January, and I begin TA (teaching assistant) training on the 9th. I will start classes on the 16th.

We're still shoveling out. Not from underneath any snow (of course), but from underneath an absolute pile of gifts. We are horribly spoiled and feel very blessed.

We have a lot of pictures, so we're going to go chronologically. The first picture (left) is of Chantal and I with mom and dad at the Capitol in front of the Christmas tree. We ate yummy Nepalese cuisine and listened to live Christmas music at Hilldale mall. The previous night we got to spend some time with Aunt Kathryn, Chris, Athena, Uncle Phil and Aunt Mary Lou. It was a great evening.

Next, we headed over to Hubertus to welcome home the Mulder clan, back from their sunny vacation. We were just a little bit (ok, a lot) jealous, since we couldn't go due to school. They had a great time, and we're very happy that they got that time.

We had just about the best possible time imaginable with Craig. To briefly recap our activities, we bowled, shot the pistols, did some rock climbing, played darts, played Company of Heroes, played Lego Star Wars II, watched movies, ate at Arby's, talked, frequented many second-hand bookstores, ate at Olive Garden and Outback, and above all enjoyed each others' company.

The picture above shows us at the rock climbing gym. The picture to the left is of Craig and Maria at Outback. Craig was a favorite of the owner, and he offered to sell the potato soup by the gallon to Craig if he was ever interested.

We went to Outback to celebrate Maria's promotion at work and Craig and Maria's official engagement. (They just like Outback too.) They had just picked out Maria's ring. Chantal remarks, "It's very pretty and sparkly." (Jason says, "Word to the wise, at Outback 'Porterhouse' = T-bone." Sigh...)

The time went by much too fast, and he's back in Iraq now. We made him a blog with ma and pa, if you want to keep updated on what's going on in "Squack's World." Again, please keep Craig in your prayers.

We got to see Renee and Daniel, and Angie and Raquel. Dylan had to work, and so he couldn't be there. Renee and Daniel were visiting from Florida, where they now live and work. Angie and Dylan are going to finish up their next semester and then move on to a linguistic school in Missouri, also with New Tribes. They have a blog as well. The pictures below are from when we got together.

The Girls, look at cutie Raquel!

Check back again soon, as we'll continue our Christmas saga then...