Once again, I must apologize for the absence of new posts recently. I always have good intentions, however, those intentions don't always make their way from my head to the computer screen. Things here in Ireland have been moving at quite a fast pace. Although Ireland does not celebrate Thanksgiving, Bob and I had our own "Thanksgiving Day" celebration, despite being away from our families. It was very strange spending the day alone when we knew that back home our entire family was at my parents enjoying lots of food and fun. We tried our best to keep it as "normal" as possible, but it just wasn't the same. We had turkey, pumpkin pie, the whole works, we even spent the evening watching American Football, but we went to bed that night feeling quite homesick.
We are now preparing for the Christmas holidays, which will be quite a different situation. Two of our daughters will be coming to Ireland to spend Christmas with us this year. Needless to say, we are very excited to get them here. Unfortunately, our oldest daughter will not be able to join us. Please keep Trisha in your prayers, as this will be very difficult for her to have all of us over here and her back in the states. She will spend the day with her husband, my parents and my brother and his wife. They will also be spending time with her husbands family. Although she will have family there, it will still be quite a change for her. We will definitely be setting up some "Skype" webcam time, that should help a little.
The Church here is going well. We are currently running right around 19 each Sunday. We had a Christmas Dinner after church today, the people seemed to enjoy the time of fellowship. The Lord has really blessed us with a great group of people.
As you can see from the attached picture, the Christmas decorations are all up and ready for the girls arrival. I love Christmas. . .I love everything about it! I know this year will be quite different for our family, but I trust that God will ease the ache of being apart and give each of us a wonderful holiday.
To each of you, I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Enjoy your time with family and friends and be sure to give hugs and kisses in abundance :o)
