Christmas Festivities and Travels: Part 2
Continuing our Christmas festivities and travels…
We look so forward to catching up with family and friends while back in Michigan.
We were able to see many friends and as always, we could pick up right where we left off. I wish I would’ve taken pictures of all of our get-togethers! Everything from playing games to talking and talking the night away.
Here we are hanging out at a friends house, snuggling with their pooch (miss that dude).
One thing we have missed are all the lights and decorations in St. Joseph during the Christmas season.
On Tuesday night, we had the Sterk Christmas party!
The kids excited to see what’s inside
Malachi reading up on his new Adventures in Odyssey cds (adorable)
Dan’s little buddy
Catching up with more friends (we went to Belize with the Killians back in January)
On Christmas day, we spent the day with my mom’s side and then with family at night. Thursday we headed back to St. Joseph and hung out with Dan’s family! We made a few trips back and forth between my hometown and Dan’s, but after making a 10-11 drive out, it doesn’t really have an impact on us. That drive is nothing!
Many ask if it is hard to go back home to Minnesota. Honestly, our life is in Minnesota and we have “family” out here too. So we missed “home” a tad when we were in Michigan. Really, what a blessing it is to be able to say that!
On our drive home, we heard that there was a blizzard warning back in Minnesota! When we left St. Joseph, it was 46 degrees (positive temps). As we left Minneapolis, the weather turned ugly and was sleeting the rest of the way home (about an hour and half). Unfortunately, something in the rear of our vehicle went out as well – either the wheel bearing or struts (not sure yet). To say the least, it was a rough ride home. We had to pull over to scrape our windshield because the ice was building up on it. I was praying and praying the whole way home, that we would just MAKE it home! Thankfully we decided to leave Michigan early enough, where we beat some of the storm, so we made it back to our home at about 8:30pm on Saturday.
It is hard to take a picture of the wind, but it was SO WINDY when we got home! The temperature dropped from 37 degrees in Minneapolis to 12 in Prinsburg (2 hour difference).
We woke up Sunday morning to a -39 degree windchill! There was talk that it would be between -40 and -65. To think that we left Michigan near 50! It is taking a bit of an adjustment to get used to the Minnesota temps, but it sure is an adventure!
We are so thankful for the good weather we had (for the most part) driving back and forth! We are so thankful to have the opportunity to GO home for Christmas! We are so thankful to be where we are in life. No, it’s not always easy living away from “home,” but there is SO much peace knowing we are where God wants us to be. That has made this Christmas season so much easier than last. We still think about what Christmas would look like with our two little Hooties, but time has been a wonderful healer. We couldn’t be more thankful for the support we have been given!
Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and that you were able to take time to reflect on what Christmas means to you!
