Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We hope you had a great start to 2006. We both loved how New Year's landed on a Sunday this year, so the first thing we started the year out with was church. It's always nice to keep things in perspective.

On Friday we were blessed to have Nick's mom, Julie, come down for the holiday weekend. Her husband, Bill, and his son went skiing in the Swiss alps over the holiday week so it gave us a great opportunity to "steal" her down to Joplin and hang out with her. We tried our best to make a gourmet meal for her at home on Friday evening... note to self, George Foreman grills aren't the greatest at grilling juicy steaks! We still made the best of the meal and had fun making it together.

Since Nick had to work most all of Saturday, it gave Julie and I prime opportunity to have some "girl time". We hit the town around 10:30- first stopping at Target and then Kohls. Between both stores, we took a pitstop at Starbucks to say "hi" to Nick, who happened to be getting a break as we came in. Good timing! We had a quick bite to eat together and then Julie and I went on to more shopping. Nick and I had a mutual concensus that we wouldn't buy each other gifts over Christmas, but I found myself wanting to fudge on that rule as Christmas approached. Nick decided we could overthrow our own rule after all, and buy for each other over New Years. I was so happy about that. I found him a pair of really nice GBX leather shoes at Kohls and surprised him with them when he got off of work. Later that weekend, I received two presents from him, too- Cinderella on DVD and the new Bethany Dillon CD. Saturday afternoon proved to be one of the most beautiful afternoons that we've ever had here. Julie and I completed our girl time by strolling down to a secluded walking trail that's not too far off from our home. We ended up walking a good mile or two without even realizing it. I had a wonderful time talking with her during that time, getting to know her background and hearing about how she grew up. We both laughed and discussed "our favorite guy", too. I realized how blessed I am to have such a sweet mother-in-law. It was a real blessing getting to spend some quality one-on-one time with her.

That evening we got all dressed up to go out to eat. Nick had placed dinner reservations at Arde's Villa, supposedly the nicest restaurant in Joplin. It was so beautiful and we had such a wonderful time. The location was beautiful... just outside of town in a wooded area. The restaurant had fire places and candles, amazing decorations, pretty china, and the atmostphere was complete with a live jazz combo playing softly in a corner. That evening we watched It's a Wonderful Life and ate puppy chow. We had meant to also play board games and watch the ball drop on the TV, but could only get so much done in one evening! Sunday proved to be even a more gorgeous day than Saturday... over 75 degrees, a slight breeze, and hardly a cloud in the sky. After church, Nick and Julie watched the Chiefs game (Nick was ecstatic that they won). I got cabin fever and had to take a jog outside... it was so beautiful out! Our time with Julie was finished after a picnic in a local park.

After she headed back home, Nick and I went to a Conservation Dept. walking trail down on the outskirts of town. We had such a great time. We walked until it was dark and then headed home. It was a great way to end our New Years weekend.

We hope you had a great New Years and that you would be blessed throughout this New Year with new opportunities, challenges overcome, and dreams come true. Take care!