What a month!!!

Well, we have just returned back to reality and routine (and internet!) after a month of fun!  As most of you know, we are now in training at New Tribes Bible Institute (training for tribal missions) and we are on a college schedule.  It is still so strange to think we are in college, at almost 30 years old!  Oh well:)  Anyway, a college schedule means a really long Christmas break!  We were so glad to be able to spend the whole month of our break back home with our families and friends!  It was an incredible month of Christmas celebrations and also so many other times hanging out with people that we don't see very often. 

Nathan decided to work about 3-4 days per week, doing different construction-type work for people.  He enjoyed that, but it was an adjustment for both of us.  When we were houseparents, we worked together and we were together all the time with our kids.  Here at NTBI, it is that way as well.  So on our break when Nathan was working, it was the first time that I have been at home with all the kids by myself!  So here's to all you moms out there who do it all the time...it was tiring!  We are busy here at school with homework, etc, but this was just a different kind of busy that I wasn't used to.  It was a good experience, though:)

One reason our month was great was because we had a great place to stay!  Nathan's dad, who is a general contractor and has built different apartments and villas around town, graciously and generously furnished a villa for us to stay in during our years of training!  It is so nice...he even closed off the big garage door, put carpet in the garage and ran heat in there for some extra space.  It was just perfect for us.  So dad, thank you!  We loved staying at the villa (or the "vanilla" as Halle likes to call it) and we can't wait for summer!

Okay, it really isn't like me make a post with just writing!  But one more note is...we had very limited internet access during our whole Christmas break which made blogging very very difficult!!  So as a result...I feel like I have sooooo much I want to blog about!  My plan is so have a blogging marathon during this next week or so.  So that will either make some of you happy (like our parents:) ) or it might bore some of you...but anyway, that's the plan!  I want to recap this past month and to do that in one post would be the longest post I have ever made, and I would not want to put you through that:)

Here is one picture, because it just isn't my style to post without any pictures!  I love these kiddos:)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  And I am excited to be back into a routine...ready to start my Sophomore semester.  We are getting ready to start Prophets, which I am very pumped for.  We have a great teacher, and to be honest, the prophets are something I have never gotten into.  Mainly because I don't understand them!  So I am very ready to learn about them!  We will start classes on Wednesday. 

Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!!