We are back!

Okay, so it has been a few months- I apologize! It just seems to have gotten busier and busier since the holidays, if you can believe that. Life in the Abel household is exciting. We took quite a bit of time off during Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year.

We had a great time in North Carolina. We headed to the mountains for Turkey day. We had a wonderful, relaxing time with good friends. Our dinner was out of this world, everything turned out just right and on time. We were so organized I think we surprised ourselves. We hoped to see snow while we were there and some of us did! Lauren, Ezekiel and the kids and I stayed an extra day to close down the house for Lauren's parents and the night we stayed it snowed all night, so when we woke, we were stuck! We had already got rid of all our food, kept snacks of course for the ride home, but other than that we cleaned house! Well then we found out we couldn't go anywhere. So Lauren got bundled up and went on a hike to raid a family friend's cabinets. She came back with canned salmon, frozen corn, refried beans and a single serving of pizza. Needless to say- we got creative with meal time! We had many funny stories throughout our day, but the best was seeing the kids faces when I said we can go play int he snow. We had a snowball fight and even tried our hand at a snowman. We were able to leave a day later and literally had to dig our way out of the driveway- I haven't had to do that in YEARS. Good times!

Christmas was wonderful. We love celebrating our Lord, Jesus Christ! It was nice and relaxing. Dan's dad and step mom made it down to celebrate with us. It is hard because we miss family so, but it is really important to Dan and I to be home on Christmas morning with the kids. We implemented new traditions, brought back some new ones. The kids love making Christmas Operation Gift Boxes to be sent out to boys and girls all over the world, so they have a gift to open and have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. We were also given the opportunity to contribute in helping a local family have an awesome Christmas. We love getting into our PJ's and hopping in the car to go look at Christmas lights. There are few neighborhoods known to tour. Our neighborhood has a contest each year along with putting luminaries out Christmas Eve. It is really beautiful. Doing these things as a family really makes our holidays special. So, if you asked our kids what was the big gift this year, it would be the Wii. We have had a blast having family game nights.

Now that the New Year is here we have gotten back to reality- school, and work. Business is slow for Dan right now, but he is hanging tough. School for kids, and I, is back in full swing. We are studying the Solar System right now and Poetry. Poetry is a bit difficult to get through- so I have had my challenge to make it interesting, so we are finding our way:) Learning about the planets and watching the moon every other night and documenting the phases has been so fun. Our character study is Orderliness. God has a specific order to all things! It is amazing the wonderful creation He has given us. ( We will be learning shortly about rock classification, bugs and plants. We will be working on our very large garden which right now only has carrots growing).

It is also amazing the opportunities we have had to serve lately. Dan and I had taken a break from serving, we have felt now it was time to get involved in some cool things happening in our church. This is probably why it seems we are more busy now, but we both are loving our new journey. We look forward to what God has in store for us.