Merry Christmas, Eyes Forward

It's the eve after a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed our traditional at-home Christmas Eve with a nice variety of snack food (healthy and not) and Christmas movies - this year we watched our pick of favorites: Christmas Vacation, Elf, and our traditional end-of-the-night movie, It's a Wonderful Life. (We started this at-home tradition while living in Florida and realized that it greatly reduced the stress level of Christmas, compared to the running around to both families and then laying kids down and THEN finishing Christmas preparations that needed to happen before Christmas Day! So we decided that this tradition is a necessity, even upon our return to Ohio.)

Christmas morning came fast, and it was a great beginning to Christmas day with all seven of us home, and each of us fully aware of the gift that our togetherness actually is. Our kids enjoyed this Christmas with giving as much as they enjoyed receiving, which is a wonderful thing to see in your children. The day followed with a visit to my parents' house for gift giving, coffee, snacks, and catching up; Shelby's brother's house for festivities and dinner with that side of the family, and a tired trek home to recover from the day. This morning we wrapped up our festivities with a McD breakfast with Grandma to exchange gifts and enjoy some time with her outside of the typical holiday bustle. A much needed nap followed, then some minor straightening up and cleaning up to take the edge off and give a little breathing room. Of course, amongst all of this was lots of filler activities, included snacking, Cartoon Network, and virtually non-stop Wii. It was a good Christmas. It was a GREAT Christmas!

I am in a particularly positive mood this holiday, and looking forward to the year and years ahead. Shelby took the initiative (I know - weird, right?) to contact a real estate agent couple, who helped us find a very helpful lender agent. Collectively, they have confirmed that we are on the right track in getting a house, and have given us pointers to set us up for getting a house (credit wise). So it looks like our goal to get a house by March-June is totally realistic! And with news of Shelby's impending promotion in the Dayton program, we have decided to search in this area, closer to the Indiana border. So hold your breath, ladies and gentlemen...we have direction. Of course things can change as they always can, but this is the road we're preparing for, and this is the focus that we've been looking for since the beginning of this year. Could limbo be broken (knock on wood!)? I'm so proud of Shelby's successes and her talents in making all of this happen :)

I need to focus my attention on getting my career started, which is both exciting and scary. I am SO ready. I feel a little behind the game since many of my classmates have classrooms of their own now, but that was our choice and I need to adjust my starting line accordingly. I hope to find something in the education field - I know that teaching jobs are scarce, so I'm ok with an educator job outside of the classroom, but I'd rather not have to resort to a job outside of my degree. We will see... I will focus on Preble, Darke, and Montgomery counties first, on both education and other job sites. Wish me luck! We'll do what we need to do, and things will work out how they should. Everything happens for a reason, right?

So here's to the new year, a new life, and the beginning of new challenges and successes! Bring on 2011!